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Crazy Like the Fox

‘Language’ Category

  1. Language and The Handmaid’s Tale

    11/09/2023 by axonite

    “My words when they speak me”
    Official health warning: This diatribe is liable to become a stream of consciousness.

    Margaret Atwood often talks of “the slipperiness of language” as she acknowledges the part that Orwell’s 1984 played in the creation of The Handmaid’s Tale. Just as irony is at the very heart of every dystopia (both imagined and real), so it is with the language prevalent in such societies. In 1984, we have the ministries of “Love” and “Truth,” whereas in The Handmaid’s Tale we have “angels” and “Serena Joy.” Sadly, neither novel is entirely fictional – everything has happened (and is still happening) somewhere in the world. The choice of words can create meanings that manipulate people (Shakespeare wrote an entire play about equivocation – a key element in advertising and political speeches). Beyond this, The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis posits the notion that the words that we speak can shape entire societies (but more about this topic when we get to works in translation).

    “Standard English is defined by that group in society wherein power is most obviously invested” – Noam Chomsky

    Language can be a source of power for those who control it. Latinate language (using long, important sounding, words and sentences) can create a sense of authority – as we see in Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. Have a go at the The Buzz Phrase Generator to get a sense of this. The danger when you come to write your essays and speak in your orals is that you too could fall into such nebulous nonsense. NEVER be tempted to write “through the use of his/her diction” or some other meaningless rot! When I grade IB exam papers, it is not unusual to see entire cohorts who use such vacuous expressions! Your job is to prove to the examiner that you are writing about this specific text and no other. Memorised guff like, “the writer uses irony, figurative language and juxtaposition” will make your examiner very sad. It will not affect your grade – but it is a waste of time. Instead, convince your reader that you are writing about this specific text and nothing else. Always express your terms as VERBS where possible, in concise what/how/why sentences (e.g. “juxtaposes x with y to say z” rather than “uses juxtaposition”). Where no verb form exists (e.g. metaphor), slip the term in almost ‘casually,’ like a name dropper (“…and through the peculiar metaphor of an onion to describe her heart, Plath seems to imply…”).

    The Language of Politics – Stephen Fry

    Jessica Lynch

    The Languages of Pao

    A Modest Proposal

    Spectacle and Media Propaganda in the War on Iraq

    How language shapes the way we think


  2. Translations by Brian Friel

    18/03/2020 by axonite

     

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    “Thou art translated”  – A Midsummer Night’s Dream (III. i. 112-13)

     

    While Shakespeare’s play is clearly not about interlingual translation in any overt sense, there nevertheless is a respect in which it reflects the issue of what is involved in the translation from one language and cultural tradition to another, and most particularly the fact that such an activity inevitably entails a displacement and transformation as well as a potential deformation of its object.
    Oxford Journals: Essays in Criticism

     

    Because the Qur’an stresses its Arabic nature, Muslim scholars believe that any translation cannot be more than an approximate interpretation, intended only as a tool for the study and understanding of the original Arabic text.
    Just Islam

     

    Do we mean what we say?

    Language is an approximation of meaning, but as meanings change, so the language must too. However, for many people, particularly those from marginalised groups, language is an important expression of identity. To deprive a people of their own language and to impose another is a form of cultural imperialism. French was the legal language in England for 200 years, but while English survived, it emerged different, transformed – a reflection of new realities. However, some languages vanish without trace.

     

     IMG_6019Honesty in advertising?

     

    Why do we learn?

    In Friel’s play Translations, the initially innocent-seeming translations of place names are gradually revealed to have more sinister implications – but he does not stop there. As many critics note, this is not a two-dimensional play. No matter what the rights and wrongs of displacing a language, many will wish to learn the oppressors’ tongue (Hence the Latin and Norman French roots of words that survive even today in English) for practical reasons. The language of poetry or of love may be replaced by the language of commerce – and this issue strikes deep, going far beyond words to values. Do we learn to edify alone or to fit ourselves with skills for the world? And if we only learn to acquire skills, are we then missing some essential part of our humanity? Those who study purely for edification become irrelevant, whereas those who study purely for skills become philistines.

     

     IMG_7591Poor old Pete

     

    It’s a kind of magic!

    My words when they speak me

     

    Do we speak the words or do the words speak us? This is a question that has puzzled the brightest of minds (and which we will encounter again in other plays in this unit). Some claim that the concepts embedded within a language (and even the sounds of the words) shape our thoughts. Words have power over us, we are told. In its extreme form, we see in the Bible that Peter’s words condemn him – he denies three times that he knew Jesus (Matthew 26:72), then later must undo this curse that he has brought upon himself by saying three times that he loves Jesus (John 21:14).

     

    IMGP0673

    Productions

    Rose theatre, Kingston

    Crucible, Sheffield

    Syracuse University

     

    Dying Languages

    Intl Business Times

    The Independent

    BBC

     

    Language

    Structuralism and Semiotics


  3. Dangling Modifiers

    04/04/2014 by axonite

    IMG_0124

     

     

    A modifier is usually an adjective, but can be any word that helps to shape (‘modify’) our opinion of the subject of a sentence. Since a modifier has to impart more information about something, by definition that means the something it is modifying or limiting has to exist. That means, of course, that you can’t just say The happy. If you did, people would immediately ask you: “the happy what?” That missing what is the thing being modified.

    It seems pretty obvious and intuitive when written in a simple sentence, and it seems hard to imagine a situation in which a modifier would be left dangling. However, modifiers don’t always have to be simple words or phrases like happy, and sentences aren’t always simple.

    Phrases can also act as modifiers, providing additional information about something else in the sentence. When this occurs, and when sentences become more complex, dangling modifiers can sometimes exist and get lost in the complexity of the language.

    http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-dangling-modifiers.html

     

    Here is a classic example:

     

    scooter


  4. Kill the Apostrofly!

    04/02/2014 by axonite

     

    aposter3

     

    Misplaced apostrophes are often referred to as “greengrocer’s English.” Often someone has misunderstood why we use apostrophes, but has frequently seen them near the letter ‘s.’ This has resulted in signs saying such things as…

     

    Potatoe’s and tomatoe’s
    DVD’s and CD’s
    1970’s

     

    In 2002, journalist Ian Mayes noted that

     

    “The apostrophe, it sometimes seems, is like an insect – an apostrofly – over the dining table, alighting where it will.”

     

    Here are some examples that I found:

     

    IMG_8896

     

    IMG_8897

     

    IMG_8929

     

    IMG_6259

     

    This is my kind of activism! Have a listen to this piece about a Grammar Vigilante! The ‘Apostrophiser’

     

    P.S. Commas are also important, as someone recently reminded me:

     

    “Juliet marries Romeo and Tybalt…”

    (Juliet marries Romeo, and Tybalt dies)

     

    aposter3


  5. Common Errors

    16/08/2013 by axonite

    Vagueness (e.g. they)
     
    The word ‘effective’ (A light bulb and a gun are both effective, but produce very different effects)
     
    Use of the Passive Voice
     
    Informal Register (Slang, abbreviations and expressions such as ‘kind of,’ ‘lots of’ and ‘a bit’)
     
    Use of the Past Tense and mixed tenses (Commentary work must be in Present Perfect only)
     
    Misuse of speech marks
     
    Non-standard English (e.g. ‘both don’t,’ ‘he have,’ ‘themself’ and ‘gives out’)
     
    Superfluous Words (e.g. ‘In the TV programme I watched, it showed…’)
     
    Weak Diction (e.g. ‘shows’ ‘gives’)
     
    Confused Words (violent/violence, instant/instance, fear/afraid, society/the society, different/various)
     
    Phrasal Verbs (Just like = similarly, on the other hand = conversely, break apart = fragments)


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