So we (my Language Universals class) had a lot of fun picking apart what a verb is and isn't in many languages, namely Russian, Mandarin, English, Thai, and some Spanish. Then we went into some massive detail on English auxiliary verbs like the long string of four in the sentence "The solo should have been being sung by Sam." <Giggle> I love English; it's so delightfully messy. At any rate, we ended up talking about contractions (not the pregnant "I'm violently shoving a watermelon through a straw" kind, the n't kind) like how you can say "Sam isn't singing" or "Sam's not singing" depending on what you choose to contract first. In some n't contractions, the "not" has become so much a part of the auxiliary verb that it has changed the word forever like "shall not" is "shan't" and the vowel changes in "do not" from /u/ to /o/ in "don't." You know, shit like that. You learn this stuff in grade school, sort of. I mean, you don't go through the deep, deep linguistics brouhaha like we do in our department, but you at least are forced to learn what the various English contractions are and how they are used like "doesn't," "shouldn't," and "ain't" (which is a perfectly normal word; go fuck a tree if you think it ain't). You have to learn the weird ones like "shan't" because it's not necessarily intuitive, and the same goes for "will not." Oddly enough, however, while grading the essay part of the midterm exam I gave to my Univ 101 students, I came across a student who wrote in clear, cursive letters: "willn't." Needless to say, I marked it, laughed, groaned, wanted to scribble grammar lessons all over the page, and then just set it aside trying to decide how to work it into a post. Today's Language Universals class provided me just such an opportunity which I couldn't pass up. I won't pester you with linguistics mind-numbingness anymore today, so go on your merry "I speak English without thinking and without knowing how dreadfully hard it really is" way.
Posted: March 8, 2005 at eleven in the morning or so.
www.writingingreen.com
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It's not just the way you talk, but the way you write that gives me the urge to say, "BREATH!!"
Really?:
I know that I'm rather long-winded when I'm talking and I likewise know that I'm far too fond of long sentences with lots of clauses and modifiers, but I had little to no idea that anyone else would ever notice my prediliction for such extended verbalizations be them written or spoken. Interesting.
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if(erin){while((speaking || writing) && dave.listening){dave->mind="weep";}}hehe:
I love me some run on sentences!