Appreciating the English Language

  

Language has these, and more.

The following story, about the famous English poet, Lord Byron, was told by one of my university professors:

When Lord Byron was a young child and in school, he was told to write an essay on the `Wedding at Cana'.  Before I continue with Lord Byron's childhood exploit with his writing skills, let me enlighten those unfamiliar with this Biblical reference.  Jesus was once invited to a wedding at Cana, but midway through the wedding reception, the wine ran out.  He then instructed that jars be filled with water.  When the guests were served from these jars, it was found that the water had turned to wine and the guests complimented the host on serving the finest wine toward the end of the feast.  Now, let's get back to our story about the young Lord Byron.  While the other children in his class feverishly wrote their essays, our young Lord Bryon was gazing out of the window, seemingly lost in a dream.  Just as the teacher told the class they had five minutes to finish their essays, Lord Bryon wrote the following one-liner:

The water saw its Lord and blushed.

That one-liner is what I call, `art'! The whole story of `The Wedding at Cana' is captured in that one-liner.

In that one-liner, you will find that water is personified and takes on the characteristics of a bride.  The active verb, `blushed', provides a beautiful imagery of not only the changing properties of the water, but it also hints at the inner feelings of a bride.  The reference to `Lord' is an allusion to how a groom was perceived in a bygone era.  Yes, all it took was a one-liner to capture the essence of the changing of the water to wine and link it beautifully to an event set during a wedding.

Now, would you like to discover more of the `art' in the language? Enrol in our course, Literary Analysis for Beginners I, and learn to appreciate the `art' in the English Language!

Though the course is targeted at students who will be learning English Literature for the first time, anyone can enrol in the course as this will be useful for those who would like to, not only learn the English Language, but also gain an appreciation of its artistic usage from the masters of the language.

Adult Communication Skills - Pronunciation

 What I learnt from the letter `X'

Hmm, you may well wonder, what has adult communication skills, in general, and pronunciation, in particular, got to do with the letter `X'?  One would have heard of something being X-rated, and come across too few words beginning with `x' and the impossibly sounding x-words with a hint of the snake's hiss in it!

I was having a particularly challenging moment!  The adult student in front of me stared hard at me, probably trying to get a hint from the way I moved my mouth.  I laboured on and stressed, "Ex' but she continued to vocalise it as "Es".  I needed a breather, a time-out period, to think how I could lead her to differentiate between `ex' and `es'.  It didn't help even when I continually tried telling her it was an `x' and not `s' after the `e'. 

I had taught language acquisition courses in the university and read through quite a bit of literature on the `critical age theory' when I embarked on my research in designing and testing the effectiveness of the Literature-Driven English Curriculum.  So, could this be an instant of the `critical age theory' proving itself correct in that this adult learner of the English Language simply could not vocalise the `x' because it is not a sound she is familiar with in her native language?  As such, she has reached a stage where unfamiliar sounds may be difficult for her to vocalise since she is already set in her ways.  Her repertoire of sounds becomes limited to what she has learnt in her native language, and hence, non-native sounds that require different modes of working one's speech apparatus become difficult to imitate.

What I have learnt in my experience is that theories are well and good to increase our understanding of the status-quo, of the state of affairs as it exists in the present moment.  However, as an educator, I have to go beyond being a linguist and discover a way to reach the student, whatever the `critical age theory' may say.

A few more attempts were made to spit out the correct `ex' in preference to the `es'.  Then, lo and behold, the `Eureka' moment descended on both of us.  We looked excitedly at each other as I scribbled on the whiteboard, `eks'.  "You are missing out the `k'!" I was almost in a rapture as she finally pronounced `ex' and thereafter, `expert' correctly. 

Indeed, our lean and mean, `x' stealthily hid three letters in it!

If you think, learning a language is boring, think again!  It is a puzzle to be solved, and that puzzle also holds the key to unlocking man's ingenuity in creating languages and systems to propagate these languages.

Come join us for our first online Adult Communication Skills course in which you will learn pronunciations of words in common usage, learn sentence structure and create sentences with appropriate structures.

Making sense through grammar

Grammar is a system and we make sense using a known system to discover the meanings in written and spoken words. This system may develop over time or it may be created but it is one that is acknowledged by those using that particular language.

So, as in any other language, evolved or created, English too has its system of grammatical rules, conventions of usage and mechanics.

Now,  we are going to see how simple grammatical rules, mechanics and English Language usage were ignored when e.e. cummings wrote his poem, anyone lived in a pretty how town. Let's consider the first stanza of the poem.

	Unusual Use of Grammar and Mechanics
1)   anyone lived in a pretty how town	No capitalisation at the beginning; odd insertion of `how' that is usually used when asking a question
2)   (with up so floating many bells down)	The parenthesis indicates that this is an explanation, not quite a part of the main sentence. So, what would the implications of that be? Notice that the syntax, the way in which parts of the sentence are constructed.
3)   spring summer autumn winter	There are no commas to separate the seasons and no linking words to indicate a link with the beginning of the main sentence (1).
4)   he sang his didn't he danced his did	Again, linking words are not used to connect (4) with (3) and there is no punctuation to separate the ideas. Use of the possessive pronoun `his' with no explicit mention of what or who belongs to the `he'.

How would Cummings' unusual use of grammatical rules and neglect of the common usage and mechanics of the language provide us with clues that will help us to make sense of the poem?

To get at the clues, we need to have a knowledge of the grammar, mechanics and usage as is commonly followed in the English Language.

Try to work out the solutions on your own before you check the possible answers when you go into: Making Sense through Knowing Grammar, Remember, language is subjective and there could be other possible responses.

Also remember to check out our available Online Courses for students in Upper Primary and Lower Secondary or Grades 5 to 8.

Learn Grammar for Enhanced Understanding

Not convinced that you have to learn grammar in order to better understand what you hear or read?

Consider the following extract from a poem by e. e. cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did.

Women and men (both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed (but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

Most students, I have come across, would look at me in bewilderment, almost as though I had somehow conspired with e. e. cummings to create a poem that no living person, except the poet himself, would be able to understand!

However, once you point out a few grammatical concepts, they begin to `see the light'! After all, grammar is a system and all systems have logical components.

I am going to leave you here for the moment to consider how a poet, who seemingly threw the concept of grammar to the winds, needs you and me to have a good grasp of grammar to understand his poem!

Look out for my next post to see if you were able to see where I am coming from. Meanwhile, Happy Reading and Happy Thinking!