Here a comma, there a comma, everywhere a comma comma...and some contractions

So I've noticed that apparently I like to title my posts as questions? While pondering this cute little quirk of mine I started to contemplate the almighty concept of grammar. *shudder*

Now admittedly, despite my obvious love of all things linguistic, grammar has not always been my strong suit. I may have mastered the semicolon; it's proper use is hardly well understood amongst the common English speaker. However, many rules and conventions of grammar I find completely baffling.

Take the comma, for example. I've heard of two different schools of thought on the comma. The first defines very specific rules for the how and when commas should be used (in lists, to offset parenthetical statements, etc.). The other, which I sometimes dabble a little too heavily in, says that if you would pause in speaking or reading the sentence, insert a comma. I believe this is highly discouraged amongst most grammarians. And widely used by the general public. (Tangent: ahh...the good ol' prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar debate).

You may have noticed I tend to write as though I'm speaking. I will confess, I don't think my vocabulary is quite as grandiloquent in person (at least most of the time). But then, I don't usually have access to an online dictionary and thesaurus when I'm speaking. And I definitely don't use nearly as many contractions in writing as I do in speech.

I mean really - sometimes when I think about what I've said, it wouldn't even look like English if I transcribed it(if I could figure out HOW to transcribe it...). At least not GOOD English...

Seriously - if you saw someone write the following "sentence", don't tell me you wouldn't judge them:

'M'a go the store, y'wan' some milk?

Now, I realize this sentence would sound just as odd/awkward if it were to be spelled out completely in perfect English:

I am going to go to the store, do you want me to get some milk?

I love this stuff! I just get a little thrill every time I realize how smart our little brains really are and how much work they do for us without us really noticing it. When you think about it, it's pretty amazing that we can hear:

'M'a go the store, y'wan' some milk?

and our brain interprets for us:

I am going to go to the store, do you want me to get some milk?

And it does it all in the blink of any eye. In the amount of time it takes you to read that first "sentence," your brain has already decoded it, come up with the appropriate answer and probably delivered it.

We learn all these grammar rules and requirements in school so that we can speak correctly and be understood. And then we hear some contracted, truncated, totally grammatically incorrect statement, and we have no problem understanding and responding to it. Incredible!

Irony?

So, if you haven't picked up on it by now, I have always been fascinated by language. Even as a child I used to babble in my own made up language (my mom is convinced it was Italian - but upon reflection I think it may have been closer to Portuguese).

The fascination started early (dictionary!), but really as a child there weren't that many outlets for my infatuation to grow. Once I was in school, I definitely enjoyed English class, but we never really focused on the language itself (although I always did well on my vocab tests) but rather on literature with an occasional grammar lesson thrown in.

In high school the new option to explore my growing passion for language was to take a foreign language. Now, any rational, reasonable, sensible person living in California knows that if you're going to learn a foreign language, the only one that really makes sense is Spanish. And if you really don't want to take Spanish, then the next most logical would be French. What did I choose? German.

I think there were about 3 or 4 different teachers for Spanish, and 3 for French. But there was only 1 class taught by 1 teacher for German. We started freshman year with 30 people in our class. And by senior year there were about 20 of us left. We spent 4 years bonding with each other and our beloved "Lehrerin." We were each given a German name to use in class. I was "Maria" for 4 long years (that would be 4 long years of my teacher belting out the opening strings of Maria from West Side Story every time she called on me in class). It was wunderbar!

By sophomore year I was so enthusiastic about German, that I decided to take French at the same time. And freshman year of college I finally added Italian to my repertoire.

Of course, in college I discovered there were actually courses in this amazing subject called Linguistics - where all you did all day was study language! It was incredible! You could take a class in any part of language you were interested in - the details of grammar, meaning, the structure of the sound or even the impact of language on society.

And now, several years later - I have my degree in Linguistics, which, even though I'm not currently doing anything with it in my career, I do not regret one bit. I still live in California. And I still don't speak Spanish.

But I did get a job working for a German company. Go figure!

Gr8 Db8?

While browsing a well-known social networking site that I'm most definitely not addicted to, (Facebook) I came across a "status update" from a friend in Germany that sent my mind reeling and inspired a little google.com exploration into the "linguistics of texting".

Incidently, I discovered if you type "gr8 linguistics" into google you will get approximately 259,000 hits (as of September 1st, 2009). All of the first 1-10 hits (and I suspect a good portion of the next 100 although I didn't bother to check) were various references to "The Gr8 Db8" by David Crystal. It seems to be a discourse rejecting the notion that the abbreviated language of texting is having a negative impact on the English language and that it in fact is a natural part of language. How did I not know about this book? It is definitely going on my reading list! Perhaps I will take it with me on my forthcoming, month-long trip to lands abroad.

Which brings me back the inspiration for my little google expedition. I have frequently seen(and participated in) the use of abbreviated texting language, for example:

LOL
BRB
cya l8r

Today was my first exposure to the texting lingo of another language. My German friend chose to end his status with "guten N8"

Okay - so this doesn't really make sense unless you understand German. Much like "l8r" really wouldn't make any sense to anyone who wasn't pretty familiar with English.

Here's my brief explanation:
the German word for "night" is "Nacht"
the number 8 is pronounced "acht" in German.

Thus we get "N8" for N-acht or night. How cool is that?

I'm not sure why this is so surprising to me. Am I so arrogant as to think that only American's would come up with these clever little abbreviated ways of communicating on our tiny little phones? I'd like to think I'm more open- and fair-minded than that.

Either way, I am now quite intrigued by the topic and think I will have to do a little more investigating into the international world of txting. ;-)

Optometric? (a discourse on emphasis)

While driving around the other day I passed a building advertising "optometric" services. Optometric? I am very familiar with the the terms "optometrist" and "optometry" (being one of those people who daily sticks little pieces of plastic in her eyes in order to be able to see like a normal person). I know that "optometrist" is pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable (tom).

But how in the world does one pronounce "optometric"??? OP-to-met-ric? op-TO-met-ric? op-to-MET-ric? op-to-met-RIC? Seriously! None of these sounds right. Just try it; they all sound odd and awkward.

While this sparked a brief two minute conversation with my friend which was quickly forgotten, my mind kept whirling. It's been a while since I pondered the topic of emphasis. I love to play with the emphasis in words. And don't get me started on how cool it is that in the English language you can sometimes change a word from a noun to a verb just by changing which syllable is emphasized.

For example:

I RE-cord a re-CORD.

So cool!

And these are the things I ponder as I wander through life...

Oh - and according to dictionary.com it's OP-to-MET-ric (primary emphasis on the OP, secondary on the MET).

She's flying high!

As part of my studies I once took a course in Metaphor and Metonymy. I found the subject matter interesting and engaging, the professor...not so much. Thank goodness for the cute guy that sat next to me during each lecture. There is no way I could have stayed awake without him (Thanks Andre!).

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. For those not familiar with metaphor, and especially metonymy, let me provide some insight(definitions provided by www.dictionary.com):

met-a-phor

-noun

1. a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.”

2. something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol.

A metaphor is basically the substitution of one term or idea for another, seemingly unrelated, term or idea which in fact shares some similar characteristic. It's closely related to a similie ("he's as handy as a pocket on a shirt") but more forceful as it is a complete substitution rather than a comparison.

me-ton-y-my

-noun

A figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related, or of which it is a part, as “scepter” for “sovereignty” or “the bottle” for “strong drink” or count heads (or noses)” for “count people”

Similar to a metaphor, metonymy is also a substitution, but the two things should be related. In some cases the term or idea must be part of what it is substituting - in other words substituting a part for the whole(synecdoche).

As part of this course we studied how different cultures categorize things (you would need to know how things are categorized and structures within a culture/language in order to fully comprehend metonymy in that language).

Did you know there are actually cultures/languages that have only 3 categories for colors? Black, white, and red. What we English-speakers have a myriad of designations for (mauve, beige, ultramarine, etc.) some cultures only define by 3 labels.

Conversely, while English speakers have very few words to describe "snow", other languages have up to 40 words describing different varieties of snow. I find these things fascinating...

I think the peak(and pique) of my interest during this class came as we studied the subliminal thought processes in some of our most common metaphors. For example, if we look at some of our frequently used metaphors we seem to have a pre-disposed concept that emotions can be categorized in two ways: "up" = "good/happy" and "down" = "bad/sad"

"things are looking up"
"high spirits"
"cheer up"
"his spirits rose"
"he's on cloud nine"
"his spirits soared"
"walking on air"
"head in the clouds"
"riding high"
"lift his spirits"
"boost his spirits"

"He's feeling down"
"low spirits"
"down in the dumps"
"his spirits fell"
"his heart sank"
"depths of despair"
"he's depressed"
"he's really low"

Who knew? Take a look at what you're really saying sometime - you might be surprised.

References from Lakeoff, Kovecses, Yu

The Big, Red Book

Webster's dictionary.

A big(and I do mean BIG), red book. More suitable for use as a step stool or booster seat to a small child than as its intended purpose. Or so you would think.

Not to me. I could(and did) sit for hours with Webster's on my lap reading about all the strange and interesting words in the English language. I blame my mother.

Now what some people would term "encouraging educational exploration" or "providing the child with the tools to learn" my mother refers to as "what you do when you don't know the answer to the question your child asks". No pride or self-deception here. She plainly didn't know how to answer some of my questions, so instead of making up some vague answer or deflecting my questions, she sat down with me and the big, red book and we found the answer together. Never mind that along the way we found a lot of other answers to questions we didn't ask. Or that minutes (and occasionally a full hour) would fly by in which many more productive things should have gotten done.

The unintended consequences? Hours wasted, dinners gone cold, a ridiculous vocabulary, an excellent verbal score on the SAT, a BA in Linguistics, and the inability to quickly look something up in the dictionary.