Posts Tagged ‘Language’
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Language and The Handmaid’s Tale
11/09/2023 by axonite
“My words when they speak me”
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).
Category Advertising, Exams | Tags: advertising,Language,Politics | No Comments
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Translations by Brian Friel
18/03/2020 by axonite
“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 CriticismBecause 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 IslamDo 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.
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.
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).
Productions
Rose theatre, Kingston
Crucible, Sheffield
Syracuse University
Dying Languages
Intl Business Times
The Independent
BBC
Language
Structuralism and Semiotics
Category Drama | Tags: drama,IB,Language | No Comments
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Dangling Modifiers
04/04/2014 by axonite
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:
Category Uncategorised | Tags: Grammar,humour,Language | No Comments
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Kill the Apostrofly!
04/02/2014 by axonite
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’sIn 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:
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)
Category IGCSE | Tags: Grammar,humour,KS3,Language,punctuation | No Comments
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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)Category IGCSE | Tags: Grammar,IB,KS3,Language | No Comments