Word of the Day

Confabulate

I came across this fabulous word while reading Jane Eyre today. Confabulate means to engage in conversation and comes from Latin: "con"="together" and "fabulari"="fable."

So, engaging in conversation is making fables together.

X

To speak algebraically, Mr. M. is execrable, but Mr. C. is (x+1)-ecrable.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Speaking of Words

Rootless Words List

We speak of people as "ruthless," but we don't speak of them as "ruthful" or as having "ruth." (Well, no one I know does this other than my brother Tony!) We also call people "inept," but do we call anyone "ept?"

It seems root words like "ruth" and "ept" must have been around first and that then suffixes and prefixes were attached, and we've kept the lengthened words but not the original roots.

Maybe I'm wrong. Feel free to correct me if I am, but if you can't or until someone does, will you help us add to our of "rootless words" by leaving others you know of in the comments section. (David gets credit for this idea.)

1) RUTHless
2) inEPT

We would have included "unwieldy" but looked it up and "wieldy" is a word. I guess it's just not used as much as the other. Perhaps "wieldy" is on its way to being a lost root.

By Any Other Name

A new primary school (oops) has opened in Sheffield, England.

The reason I put "oops" in that sentence is that they are not going to use the term "school," because it is too negative. Parents, for instance, have negative associations with the word "school." Instead it will be called "a place of learning."

The Plain English Campaign has called this "ridiculous." THEY, at least, don't mince words.

Among other things the head teacher expressed, ""There are no whistles or bells or locked doors. We wanted to de-institutionalise the place and bring the school closer to real life."

Well, I'm glad there are no locked doors, but the rest sounds frighteningly like some things that were tried in the US in the 1970's such as open classrooms where students got to choose whether to go to lecture or to a section of the course that was taking a test or to sit in on a different section of the class that was having a movie that day and so on. The goal, of course, should be to make people feel happy and empowered, right? After all, won't students be more motivated to learn if they have more choice and more control - makes sense, right?

Um . . . no . . . it was an unprecedented disaster.

(Side-note: A local high school recently seemed like the Winchester Mystery House when they discovered a classroom that no one knew about and that had no doors and windows. You see, this school had started as one of these open school with no walls between classrooms. Once it was realized the open plan was a fiasco, walls were put in, thus creating closed classrooms - one of which obviously became a little TOO closed - and a return to normal "school"ing. I'm guessing those who did the remodel were graduates of the open plan . . . but . . . I digress . . .)

It seems the paramount concern in society these days in so many areas of life is that we don't want anyone traumatized by "negative associations." I just hope our world survives these days of political correctness, warm-fuzzies, and false self-esteem (if my children come home with one more trophy, medal or certificate I'll scream!), and I hope that IF we do survive there will remain at least a modicum of intelligence and knowledge in the human race.

A school by any other name had better still be a school.

Immortality 1

Archimedes will be remembered when Aeschylus is forgotten, because languages die and mathematical ideas do not. "Immortality" may be a silly word, but probably a mathematician has the best chance of whatever it may mean.

G. H. Hardy (1877-1947)

Dyslexics of the World: Celebrate!

Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs. Jsut kdindg. Msot popele can raed tihs wtih no porlebm. Gvien the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a reesarcehr at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?!

So why do we spend so much time teaching spelling?

Touch Me Challenge

While at the hotel mentioned in my last post I had sort of a dissonant experience. I opened the hotel guide to see what was available, and next to such things as room service was "touch 6120." It actually took me a while to process what that meant. It seemed a little - I don't know - ostentatious? I wouldn't have given a second thought to seeing "dial 6120," but as I thought about it, I realized nobody DIALS a phone anymore. The phone in my room, afterall, was a touchtone phone. I guess we don't "dial somebody up" anymore, we "touch them up" (?).At lunch that day a colleague mentioned that she wasn't sure what to put on her syllabus in terms of format for papers. She has always put that they must be "typed." What does that mean? Many young people have never seen a typewriter, which is where that word comes from. What should she say? "All papers must be 'computer-processed'." "All papers must be 'keyboarded'." What new word will better fit the technology?In talking with other teachers recently, it came up that we assume students know what "clockwise" and "counter-clockwise" mean, but some of our students have only ever had digital clocks. The older generation takes those words for granted and can easily relate and understand. Will we soon have a generation that cannot follow those directions, or will those words meaningfully remain in the vocabulary yet totally disconnected from their origin?This does happen. We have a tradition of a groom carrying his bride over the "threshold." WHY is it called a "threshold?" It has a meaningful origin but has become totally disconnected from that origin.

CHALLENGE:

1) Do you know what a threshold is in this context, and do you know why it is called a threshold?

2) Can you think of any other words like "type," "dial," and "clockwise" that may remain in the vocabulary but will soon be divorced from their origin and their genuine meaning?

Origin

I went way back and asked the old
Ones deep in the graves, the youngest dead,
How language began, and who had the cred-
it of it, gods, men, devils, elves?
And this is the answer I was told:
"We got together one day," they said
"And talked it over among ourselves."

- Howard Nemerov (1920-1991)

Zebra, I Feel Your Pain!

This is what it's like trying to have a conversation at my house!! If a modifier is misplaced or dangling, there is a humor feeding frenzy on the part of the males in this house, and the conversation is over.

Questionable

Either the students in this school are phenomenal geniuses at physics or the person in charge of putting statements on this sign is phenomenally inept with punctuation.

- image taken from "Say What?!: Curious Signs I Have Known"

We Say Potato, They Say . . .

My brother-in-law Tony inspired this with his "Funny Chinese Signs" posts on his blog here, here, here, here, here and here. Check them out. They're REALLY funny! (Now that I've opened my Christmas gifts I have another inspiration as well, Bill Bryson's book The Mother Tongue, which I highly recommend!)

My post has a different flavor to it than Tony's, and while perhaps they say "po-tay-toe" to our "po-tah-toe" I certainly don't want to call the whole thing off. Although my trip to England was 4 years ago, every bit of it is still very clearly in mind. In fact, I'm eager to get back to England just as soon as possible!

Rather than being mere "exits" their places of departure are "WAY OUT!" which just seems so much more exciting!

The following photo, of course, gives a whole new meaning to that childhood ditty, "Skip, skip, skip to the loo!" We American children had no idea what we were singing! I think it's quite honorable that such pride it taken in the upkeep of loos in London. This photo was taken in a loo in the Tower of London - apparently they have the best. I must say, however, that I am SO glad they updated from the garderobe I saw in another part of the tower!

The next picture was taken at lovely, lovely Stratford-on-Avon. The term "Bouyancy Aid" just seems to have so much more pizzazz than our "Life Jacket." Knowing what I do about who the Ferryman is, I'm not so sure I want to contact him!! I think that would kind of make whether I was wearing a bouyancy aid OR a life-jacket rather a moot point.

Doesn't anybody ever go down? In England these devices are called "lifts." In the US they are called "elevators;" both of which denote rising. (I'm a little concerned about the picture here, so I took the stairs!)

I couldn't help but be curious how many POUNDS a quarter-pounder cost at a London McDonalds!

Waiting is no fun no matter what, but at least it seems a bit more sophisticated to be in a queue than merely to be delayed.

I doubled over with laughter when I saw this sign, but now I notice we are beginning to call them this in the US too. I'd only ever heard of speed "bumps" before - humps?! Hmm . . .

What do you prefer in what follows:

"Engaged" vs. "Occupied"??

"Nappy" vs. "Diaper"??

"Speed Cameras" vs. "Radar"??

"Diversion" vs. "Detour"??
(Personally I'd rather experience a "diversion" than be detoured!)

"Give Way" vs. "Yield"??

My only question is, "Where are the ZEBRAS?!"

FBI, CIA, KGB, GPB(?!)

After the The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks came to my attention recently, I found myself stumbling into a huge blogging subculture of grammar policing. It was sort of like coming across FBI or CIA agents at work.

WARNING! If you misuse your apostrophies, use a lowercase L in a sign that otherwise includes all uppercase letters, destroy words by misuse or overuse, or otherwise thrash the convetions of grammar, this is your warning. LOOKOUT! The Grammar Police Bloggers (GPB) will certainly catch you! They are everywhere!

Here are some of their "reports."

Apostrophe Abuse
Apostrophism
lowercase L
Why a Tittle?
Literally, A Web Log
Banterist

ClEARlY this is a major problem, "as" witnes'sed by the fact that i "LiTERAllY" find these blog's updated FREQUETlY.

Grammar "Police" Humor

I was going to blog at length about how everything teaching and study related in my life all came crashing in on the same week and how I'm sitting here blogging as I try to prioritize where to begin today (things along the lines of: "Do I first study for my own midterm or grade the one I just gave my students?"), but then I decided I (and probably you as well) could much better benefit from a LAUGH.

Does other peoples' improper use of grammar drive you crazy?

Are you a member of the grammar police?

Whether you are "grammatically correct" or not, you'll probably find The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks funny. Click on the title to be redirected to some grammatical humor.

Have a "good" day (and I "really" mean that)!

The Final Word

I LOVE words. I put a lot of words up here for all the world to see. I have long phone conversations with friends. I write VERY long emails, as anyone who corresponds with me can tell you! Sometimes I have important things to share; sometimes - OK, let's be honest - a LOT of the time I'm using my words to complain or just hear myself talk. I heard a song today that really resonated with me - my love for words - and my realization that I very often use too many words for things that don't deserve so many. The most important thing that was ever said was just one Word.

You and me we use so very many clumsy words.
The noise of what we often say is not worth being heard.
When the Father’s Wisdom wanted to communicate His love,
He spoke it in one final perfect Word.

He spoke the Incarnation and then so was born the Son.
His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.
Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine.

And so the Light became alive
And manna became Man.
Eternity stepped into time
So we could understand.

Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine.

(Michael Card, 1988)

From John 1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Which is More Foreign?

The fall semester has begun, and I'm back to my teaching and grad studies. The title of my interdisciplinary program is "Mathematics, Language, and Cognitive Studies." I'm finding that the emphasis is on the second word more than I had imagined it would be!

Last year I shared in a couple of posts the foreign langauge that Real Analysis was. Here is an example.

This semester I'm taking a course entitled The Philosphy of Language. We have begun by doing readings from Heidegger's Being and Time. Here is an example:

The statement that Da-sein, existing, is its there means: World is "there"; its Da-sein is being-in. Being-in is "there" as that for the sake of which Da-sein is. Existing being-in-the-world as such is disclosed in the for-the-sake of which, and we called this disclosedness understanding. In understanding the for-the-sake-of-which, the significance grounded therin is also disclosed. The disclosure of understanding, as that of the for-the-sake-of-which and of significance, is equiprimordially concernd with complete being-in-the-world. Significance is that for which world as such is disclosed.

Hmm . . . this is going to be interesting.

Although it is written in English, I find it far more foreign than the mathematical symbols above! What do you think?

The professor stated this work is far more understandable in the original German - um, somehow that was not a comfort to me!

Fawnix Werks!

I'm not sure if the teachers at this school do a lot of texting or if they are proponents of simplified spelling . . .

. . . but I'm hoping that a teacher will not give credit to a student who spells "night" the way it is spelled in front of the school. On the other hand it seems hypocritical for a teacher at this school NOT to do so.

I guess I don't have to worry about it since my kids don't attend this school, but the sign (or should I write "sine") certainly caught my attention as I was driving past!

Quote for Thought (3)

"That the world is my world appears in the fact that the boundaries of language (the only language I understand) indicate the boundaries of my world."

(Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889-1951)

Voices

"Poems should attempt to speak the unspoken, and so allow others to speak."

Ann Lauterbach


"Poems do not endure as objects but as presences. When you read anything worth remembering, you liberate a human voice; you release into the world again a companion spirit. Perpetual resurrection – I read poems to hear that voice. And I write to speak to those I have heard."

Louise Glück b. 1943

Language: music and passion

". . . I see my father. I am seeing him at this moment; and I hear his voice saying words that I understood not, but yet I felt . . .

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn.

John Keats 1795-1821

I thought I knew all about words, all about language (when one is a child, one feels that one knows many things), but those words came as a revelation to me. Of course, I did not understand them. How could I understand those lines about birds' -- about animals' -- being somehow eternal, timeless, because they live in the present? We are mortal because we live in the past and in the future -- because we remember a time when we did not exist, and foresee a time when we shall be dead. Those verses came to me through their music. I had thought of language as being a way of saying thing, of uttering complaints, of saying that one was glad, or sad, and so on. Yet when I heard those lines (and I have been hearing them, in a sense, ever since), I knew the language could also be a music and a passion. And thus was poetry revealed to me."

from Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), This Craft of Verse