Today, we're discussing PRONOUNS. I'm not going to get into the politics of gender-neutral pronouns; it's late-ish, and I still have to do some reading and wash some underpants. I don't have time to do that topic justice, is what I'm saying.
The pronouns I'm talking about is the pronouns of Second-Person Pronouns in the Renaissance (Shakespeare's time) - specifically, "thee" and "you." Both were used, but in different contexts.
"Thee" was the more derogatory of the two. It was used from superiors to inferiors, as well as when you were insulting someone. That's why Shakespearean insults are so frequently seen as "thou vile wretch" or something like that - the speaker is implying, through pronouns, that the listener is inferior in status to the speaker. Interestingly, "thou" was also used intimately.
"You" is the more polite term. It's used from an inferior to a superior, or a child to a parent. Sometimes nobles would use it in derision to their inferiors to mock and embarrass them. If someone doesn't know someone else's status, they would normally address their partner as "you" until they could get a better gauge of it.
How was this used?
Well, firstly, it's really cool to tell character shifts. In Desdemona's final scene of Othello, she and Othello address each other as "you" for the first portion of the interaction. Othello's decision to actually kill Desdemona can be cited to the line where he starts calling her "thee" and not "you" - an interesting point of derision, yes? Even though Desdemona and Othello are supposed to be life partners and all, I think Shakespeare has them address each other as "you" - and has Desdemona continue to address Othello as such - to highlight two things. Firstly, the pronouns point out that there's something definitely wrong in their relationship - if they were truly intimate life partners, they would be calling each other "thee" (the intimate one) all the time. But they're not. That leads me to the second point - that they're calling each other "you" to highlight Othello's decision shift. He could have come into the situation thinking he could maybe not do this, but he decides to go through with it when he changes his address.
In Romeo and Juliet, for example, Romeo uses "thou" to Juliet in their first meeting, because he's fallen INSTANTLY IN LOVE WITH HER, but she doesn't use the same for him until the balcony scene. In that scene, she uses "thou" as both an intimate term and also one instance of "WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON MY PROPERTY?? THIS IS MY SECRET DIARY MONOLOGUE TIME!" Of course, the first term is more frequently used in that monologue, because this is a thirteen-year-old girl doing Secret Diary Monologue Time; speaking as a former thirteen-year-old girl, the Secret Diary Time was frequently filled with things that went along the lines of "OMG, this is the most EPIC/ WORST/ BEST/ MOST GORGEOUS thing EVERRRRRRR." (There were a lot of superlatives, is what I'm trying to say, and Juliet is probably thinking they're going to be together forever and always. She gets married to a dude at 13 after knowing him for fewer than 100 hours, for crying out loud. If that doesn't say "I think we're going to be together forever," then you need to re-evaluate your concept of a healthy relationship.)
Sooooooo yeah. That's what I've been learning.
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Monday, July 7, 2014
My Theories on Phrases
Ever heard the phrase "A picture's worth 1,000 words?" I have a theory regarding the phrase's origin.
My theory is that "a picture is worth 1,000 words" comes from Middle English manuscripts. These are the ones with fancy calligraphy, a fancy-looking letter to start a section of a work, and, frequently, a little drawing to the side of the text (this is called an "illumination"). Each of these things - the calligraphy, the letter, and the illumination - were done separately. Each person commanded a different fee - the calligrapher was paid the least, the letter-drawer was paid a bit more, and the illuminator was paid still more. Because of this, the calligrapher did his work first (and it was almost always a man who did this); the theory went that if the calligrapher knocked over the inkpot, then the mess would only affect the cheap work and not the really nice work, too.
My theory is that the illuminator was paid the same amount for the one illustration as the calligrapher was paid per thousand words. This is, in fact, a theory, and could be completely wrong.
TO RESEARCH!
According to dictionary.com, unfortunately, I am completely wrong. According to the definition given on the website,
Ah, well. I hope this post was, at least, a bit informative.
My theory is that "a picture is worth 1,000 words" comes from Middle English manuscripts. These are the ones with fancy calligraphy, a fancy-looking letter to start a section of a work, and, frequently, a little drawing to the side of the text (this is called an "illumination"). Each of these things - the calligraphy, the letter, and the illumination - were done separately. Each person commanded a different fee - the calligrapher was paid the least, the letter-drawer was paid a bit more, and the illuminator was paid still more. Because of this, the calligrapher did his work first (and it was almost always a man who did this); the theory went that if the calligrapher knocked over the inkpot, then the mess would only affect the cheap work and not the really nice work, too.
My theory is that the illuminator was paid the same amount for the one illustration as the calligrapher was paid per thousand words. This is, in fact, a theory, and could be completely wrong.
TO RESEARCH!
According to dictionary.com, unfortunately, I am completely wrong. According to the definition given on the website,
"This saying was invented by an advertising executive, Fred R. Barnard. To promote his agency's ads he too out an ad in Printer's Ink in 1921 with the headline "One Look Is Worth a Thousand Words" and attributed it to an ancient Japanese philosopher."
Ah, well. I hope this post was, at least, a bit informative.
Monday, June 30, 2014
On Linguistics
I'm pretty sure I'm one of the nerdier people on campus, especially when it comes to language. How many other people taught themselves a bit of Sindarin when they were in high school? How many people even know what Sindarin is?
(Spoiler alert: it's a language created by J.R.R. Tolkien for Middle Earth. Like, an actual synthetic language with specific phonemes and noun and verb endings and irregular verbs).
I have decided, therefore, that I should go into language of some sort. I don't know how. I don't know what. I don't know why. (That's a lie. The 'why' is that it's fascinating!) This could be just the euphoria that comes with a six-week course in something you're interested in, or it could be actually something lasting, but I'm pretty sure this is SUPER DUPER COOL.
(Spoiler alert: it's a language created by J.R.R. Tolkien for Middle Earth. Like, an actual synthetic language with specific phonemes and noun and verb endings and irregular verbs).
I have decided, therefore, that I should go into language of some sort. I don't know how. I don't know what. I don't know why. (That's a lie. The 'why' is that it's fascinating!) This could be just the euphoria that comes with a six-week course in something you're interested in, or it could be actually something lasting, but I'm pretty sure this is SUPER DUPER COOL.
Monday, June 9, 2014
ENGLISH IS WEIRD
Okay, AN UPDATE: Mondays suck. (That's not the update. We all know that Mondays suck.) That being said, I'm switching the Monday and Wednesday schedule proposed in Friday's post.
The new proposed schedule is Monday's Rant, Wednesday's Books, and Friday's Books And Sometimes Other Things. This is partially because I may need to reread TFIOS to review it properly, and also because, as you can see from the title, ENGLISH IS STRANGE.
This is inspired by my homework, as so often is the case. We're still early on (this is only the second day of class, technically). We're doing phonetics for basic practice, because Old English is not the same as modern English, so we need to read the phonetic alphabet. Don't know what this is? Go find a dictionary. Look up a word. Any word. Look just past the bold THIS IS A WORD text; there are probably some grey letters, a few dots, apostrophe-like things where there shouldn't be, maybe an upside down 'e' or something that looks like a theta or a an 'a' and an 'e' smooshed together. That's what we're doing.
In doing this, I have realized just how weird English is. There are two ways to write 'th,' for example: that and thin. 'Y' is counted as a consonant, and it's written like a 'j' in the phonetic alphabet. The written language has 'g' when you're supposed to phonetically write 'j,' except it's not a 'j,' because if you transcribe 'j' someone will say the word with a 'y.'
AND THIS IS SO COOL. I just don't understand why we do these things. WHY is 'y' transcribed as a 'j?' More importantly, WHY does English have two ways to say some consonants?
Check back in six weeks to see if I find out.
The new proposed schedule is Monday's Rant, Wednesday's Books, and Friday's Books And Sometimes Other Things. This is partially because I may need to reread TFIOS to review it properly, and also because, as you can see from the title, ENGLISH IS STRANGE.
This is inspired by my homework, as so often is the case. We're still early on (this is only the second day of class, technically). We're doing phonetics for basic practice, because Old English is not the same as modern English, so we need to read the phonetic alphabet. Don't know what this is? Go find a dictionary. Look up a word. Any word. Look just past the bold THIS IS A WORD text; there are probably some grey letters, a few dots, apostrophe-like things where there shouldn't be, maybe an upside down 'e' or something that looks like a theta or a an 'a' and an 'e' smooshed together. That's what we're doing.
In doing this, I have realized just how weird English is. There are two ways to write 'th,' for example: that and thin. 'Y' is counted as a consonant, and it's written like a 'j' in the phonetic alphabet. The written language has 'g' when you're supposed to phonetically write 'j,' except it's not a 'j,' because if you transcribe 'j' someone will say the word with a 'y.'
AND THIS IS SO COOL. I just don't understand why we do these things. WHY is 'y' transcribed as a 'j?' More importantly, WHY does English have two ways to say some consonants?
Check back in six weeks to see if I find out.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Going Back
This month, I want to work on typing up and editing my NaNo2011 novel (the one I wrote during November of my senior year; it is, in my opinion, one of the better novels I have written. It is also the only one that has an ending that is connected to the rest of the story. NaNo2012 has an end, but I have a scene or two to add before that). It is going to be rather interesting, I have to admit. I have not seen most of this novel in quite a long time - the middle bits tend to get ignored in the grand scheme of typing when there are a lot of false-starts. Since this novel is in roughly the 100,000-115,000 word range, this is going to take a long time, and I hope I can get through it.
I think there are three important things I will need to focus on when I start editing:
1. Work out characters' back-stories more, especially the principal characters. It is probably going to take a while, but if I know their stories better, I will be able to work out whether they would actually do or say something, or whether I was just putting a certain statement in to be punny or tack onto my word count (it's been known to happen).
2. Work on general plot arc/ subplot arc. General plot arc comes first, then the subplots. I made a list the other day: there are five plots in this novel (one main and four subplots). I need to work out which should stay and which should go (or perhaps should just fade, but not leave entirely). From there, I need to...
3. ... Work on scene selection. I think this is going to be the hardest part of the entire thing, which is why I'm going to be doing it last (it's also last because I can't really do it well if I don't have 1 and 2 sorted out properly). This step is where I add and subtract scenes to make sure it's actually going to work in the general plot. I predict that my word count will shrink rapidly if I work on this step for a long time, and go thoroughly through step 2 (though step 1 might add a few scenes).
At this point, I need to stop thinking in terms of word count and start thinking in terms of MAKE THIS A BETTER NOVEL. I am no longer in NaNoWriMo: I'm in WiCaEdMo (Wild Card Editing Month), in which word count and word quality are not the same thing (they never were, but the NaNo mindset tends to force you to ignore that).
Also, this is not an April Fool's Joke.
I think there are three important things I will need to focus on when I start editing:
1. Work out characters' back-stories more, especially the principal characters. It is probably going to take a while, but if I know their stories better, I will be able to work out whether they would actually do or say something, or whether I was just putting a certain statement in to be punny or tack onto my word count (it's been known to happen).
2. Work on general plot arc/ subplot arc. General plot arc comes first, then the subplots. I made a list the other day: there are five plots in this novel (one main and four subplots). I need to work out which should stay and which should go (or perhaps should just fade, but not leave entirely). From there, I need to...
3. ... Work on scene selection. I think this is going to be the hardest part of the entire thing, which is why I'm going to be doing it last (it's also last because I can't really do it well if I don't have 1 and 2 sorted out properly). This step is where I add and subtract scenes to make sure it's actually going to work in the general plot. I predict that my word count will shrink rapidly if I work on this step for a long time, and go thoroughly through step 2 (though step 1 might add a few scenes).
At this point, I need to stop thinking in terms of word count and start thinking in terms of MAKE THIS A BETTER NOVEL. I am no longer in NaNoWriMo: I'm in WiCaEdMo (Wild Card Editing Month), in which word count and word quality are not the same thing (they never were, but the NaNo mindset tends to force you to ignore that).
Also, this is not an April Fool's Joke.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
another week of writing
I'm halfway through the second week of J-term now, and, for the record, J-term has come with a few surprises, not all of them bad.
Good things:
1. I have way more free time than I do during the normal semester. If I don't want to go to the gym in the morning, I don't have to wake up until 9:30 or 10:00. After maybe 1:45 or 2:00, when I'm done with class and lunch, I have almost nothing to do except homework until 6:00, which is our normal dinner time.
2. The spare time has led me to actually get to the gym, which is always nice (except when I get scared of judgement from the actual athletes). Also, I actually have time to write for my class, which is nice, but I also tend to procrastinate on my own writing because of podcasts and yarn. Nevertheless, J-term has been fun so far because of all the time I can actually use now.
3. Since I actually have time to do homework during the day and I don't have to wake up early, the evenings can be spent doing things other than sleeping (sleeping does get involved). These new activities include Apples to Apples, Capture the Flag, Marco Polo (played on the football field and not in the pool), and Hide and Seek. All of these activities have commenced at around 10:00 PM and proceeded until midnight or later, which is fine, because I can still get sleep.
4. The course itself is really interesting - though it is a workshop class, the feedback really helps with what I'm writing.
Bad things:
1. Though the class is fun and I like that I get to write, sometimes the peer editing aspect can get kind of irritating. Don't get me wrong: I do like to read and comment on other people's writing, as well as receive feedback on my own. However, quite a few people in my class seem to be unaware that Spelling and Grammar check is correct on many occasions (there are times when it is incorrect, but when one is in college, one should be able to tell the difference). Sometimes I have to edit my classmates' grammar and spelling as I read their work because it can get rather distracting.
2. Sometimes having all of the extra time can get kind of boring. Though it's easy to find ways to pass the time, afternoons can get long, tedious, and unproductive.
In all, though, I'm glad I took the J-term class that I chose: at the very least, it shows me how not to write a script.
Good things:
1. I have way more free time than I do during the normal semester. If I don't want to go to the gym in the morning, I don't have to wake up until 9:30 or 10:00. After maybe 1:45 or 2:00, when I'm done with class and lunch, I have almost nothing to do except homework until 6:00, which is our normal dinner time.
2. The spare time has led me to actually get to the gym, which is always nice (except when I get scared of judgement from the actual athletes). Also, I actually have time to write for my class, which is nice, but I also tend to procrastinate on my own writing because of podcasts and yarn. Nevertheless, J-term has been fun so far because of all the time I can actually use now.
3. Since I actually have time to do homework during the day and I don't have to wake up early, the evenings can be spent doing things other than sleeping (sleeping does get involved). These new activities include Apples to Apples, Capture the Flag, Marco Polo (played on the football field and not in the pool), and Hide and Seek. All of these activities have commenced at around 10:00 PM and proceeded until midnight or later, which is fine, because I can still get sleep.
4. The course itself is really interesting - though it is a workshop class, the feedback really helps with what I'm writing.
Bad things:
1. Though the class is fun and I like that I get to write, sometimes the peer editing aspect can get kind of irritating. Don't get me wrong: I do like to read and comment on other people's writing, as well as receive feedback on my own. However, quite a few people in my class seem to be unaware that Spelling and Grammar check is correct on many occasions (there are times when it is incorrect, but when one is in college, one should be able to tell the difference). Sometimes I have to edit my classmates' grammar and spelling as I read their work because it can get rather distracting.
2. Sometimes having all of the extra time can get kind of boring. Though it's easy to find ways to pass the time, afternoons can get long, tedious, and unproductive.
In all, though, I'm glad I took the J-term class that I chose: at the very least, it shows me how not to write a script.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Writing Style
I have been mentioning this topic for a while, so it is time I do a post on it.
Obviously, writing style is important. A distinction should be made, however, between writing style and grammatical correctness: Like a Tide Laundry Detergent commercial mentioned, "Style is an option; clean is not."
Similarly, WRITING STYLE is something that differs depending on who you read, because everyone's voice is different; even if Barnes and Noble classifies an author under specific genres or styles, the Vampire Kisses series is not written in the same style as the Twilight series, though they are both vampire romance novels.
However, GRAMMATICAL CORRECTNESS is ALWAYS MANDATORY, unless you are writing a fan-fiction that you intend to be a bad thing on the Internet. Grammatical correctness needs to be a requirement for any published novel or story, regardless of whether or not it was self-published. Small things that are easily overlooked are excusable if they are few and far between; constant misuse of words and/ or misspellings SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED. Do not rely entirely on your computer's Spell Check, because it can be faulty - sometimes it will tell you to switch around a word or two that may affect the meaning.
I would like to point out that the phrase "I'm just a bad speller" is never an excuse. If you ask your friends to read and edit your writing (make sure your friend is an English major or at least has some interest in literary quality), you can easily catch any errors. Additionally, though you should BE AWARE of Spell Check, that does not mean it is your enemy. Though it can be annoying at times and sometimes it can be wrong, it is frequently correct, and you should note when it is telling you something.
Writing style in and of itself is something that can be interesting to study. Though it is not entirely the same thing as a writer's voice, the two are very similar. The writer's voice is how you hear the narration as you read it; the writer's style is how the author writes it. Style can be genre-specific (but not always), whereas voice is always subjective.
Really the only way to improve your voice and figure out what sort of style you want to use (even if it's one of your own invention) is to practice. So go forth and write! :)
Obviously, writing style is important. A distinction should be made, however, between writing style and grammatical correctness: Like a Tide Laundry Detergent commercial mentioned, "Style is an option; clean is not."
Similarly, WRITING STYLE is something that differs depending on who you read, because everyone's voice is different; even if Barnes and Noble classifies an author under specific genres or styles, the Vampire Kisses series is not written in the same style as the Twilight series, though they are both vampire romance novels.
However, GRAMMATICAL CORRECTNESS is ALWAYS MANDATORY, unless you are writing a fan-fiction that you intend to be a bad thing on the Internet. Grammatical correctness needs to be a requirement for any published novel or story, regardless of whether or not it was self-published. Small things that are easily overlooked are excusable if they are few and far between; constant misuse of words and/ or misspellings SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED. Do not rely entirely on your computer's Spell Check, because it can be faulty - sometimes it will tell you to switch around a word or two that may affect the meaning.
I would like to point out that the phrase "I'm just a bad speller" is never an excuse. If you ask your friends to read and edit your writing (make sure your friend is an English major or at least has some interest in literary quality), you can easily catch any errors. Additionally, though you should BE AWARE of Spell Check, that does not mean it is your enemy. Though it can be annoying at times and sometimes it can be wrong, it is frequently correct, and you should note when it is telling you something.
Writing style in and of itself is something that can be interesting to study. Though it is not entirely the same thing as a writer's voice, the two are very similar. The writer's voice is how you hear the narration as you read it; the writer's style is how the author writes it. Style can be genre-specific (but not always), whereas voice is always subjective.
Really the only way to improve your voice and figure out what sort of style you want to use (even if it's one of your own invention) is to practice. So go forth and write! :)
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
languages
Languages are fun. Though it can be really difficult to learn sometimes (aka all the time), Ancient Greek is kind of cool. I just finished my first bit of translation. It took forever, since I've never actually translated anything before, but still.
Though the paragraph they were having us translate was kind of boring. It was about a farmer. The farmer worked hard. Then the farmer was like, "O Zeus, I work hard, but I don't have a lot of food." And then he worked and then he rejoiced because he was free and everything was beautiful and he loved life. The end.
In all, though, I'm ready to do more.
Tomorrow.
alpha
beta
gamma
delta
epsilon
zeta
eta
theta
iota
kappa
lambda
mu
nu
xi
omicron
pi
rho
sigma
tau
umicron
phi
chi
psi
omega
Yes, I DID just recite the entire Greek alphabet, in case you were wondering. I needed the practice because I have a quiz on it on Friday. I need to keep up to date on this stuff, you know.
Anyhow, languages are important in writing, especially if you have a multinational fantasy novel on your hands. You could go the Tolkien route and set up two complete languages, right down to grammar, syntax, genitive verb tenses, and a complete vocabulary, AND set up a few others but less complex, but most people don't opt for this route. This is why people can write their dissertations on Tolkien languages and not any other fictional languages (seriously, my Elvish grammar book is, I think, the author's final Ph.D. thing for linguistics or something).
Anyway, the point is, keep language in mind. It's an important part of a culture, and you can have your characters cuss in whatever words they want. Just remember consistency - you can't have your character say Argana and have it mean 'poop' one time, and then have ganega mean 'poop' the next time. (that also means that argana and ganega should also always have their own assigned meanings, too, and not mean 'poop' one time and 'procreate' another time).
And that's where I leave you, because sleep is something I have been lacking. Farewell!
Though the paragraph they were having us translate was kind of boring. It was about a farmer. The farmer worked hard. Then the farmer was like, "O Zeus, I work hard, but I don't have a lot of food." And then he worked and then he rejoiced because he was free and everything was beautiful and he loved life. The end.
In all, though, I'm ready to do more.
Tomorrow.
alpha
beta
gamma
delta
epsilon
zeta
eta
theta
iota
kappa
lambda
mu
nu
xi
omicron
pi
rho
sigma
tau
umicron
phi
chi
psi
omega
Yes, I DID just recite the entire Greek alphabet, in case you were wondering. I needed the practice because I have a quiz on it on Friday. I need to keep up to date on this stuff, you know.
Anyhow, languages are important in writing, especially if you have a multinational fantasy novel on your hands. You could go the Tolkien route and set up two complete languages, right down to grammar, syntax, genitive verb tenses, and a complete vocabulary, AND set up a few others but less complex, but most people don't opt for this route. This is why people can write their dissertations on Tolkien languages and not any other fictional languages (seriously, my Elvish grammar book is, I think, the author's final Ph.D. thing for linguistics or something).
Anyway, the point is, keep language in mind. It's an important part of a culture, and you can have your characters cuss in whatever words they want. Just remember consistency - you can't have your character say Argana and have it mean 'poop' one time, and then have ganega mean 'poop' the next time. (that also means that argana and ganega should also always have their own assigned meanings, too, and not mean 'poop' one time and 'procreate' another time).
And that's where I leave you, because sleep is something I have been lacking. Farewell!
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