Being Thankful For Proper Use

Today after class was done I was asked to look over a friends' paper. I said "of course!". It made me just become thankful after all was said and done for being taught the right ways to spell certain things. Starting out reading it, I was sure that it couldn't be that bad. After reading it I began to think oh no.. here comes the marks. My biggest pet peeve, ever since I was taught this in middle school is the differences between the uses of "there, their and they're". I cringed when reading a sentence in the paper saying "I got there shoes from a local Macy's". Oh my word. I was just in such shock! If we notice it changes the complete context of the sentence structure. It just blows my mind. I then was forced to teach my friend the different uses of there, their and they're. I said that thEIr shows ownership where as thERe shows direction. That sentence was a major correction. I felt bad but at the same time I felt as though my friend should know because when it comes to papers in college, I felt as though that was a big deal. Also, the use of (') was needed in some things that showed contractions and ownership. Thank goodness for Mrs. Raymond, my middle school English teacher for emphasizing that. When reading a sentence "We then went to Johns house" also made me cringe. One thing I remember from middle school also is the need for ownership on something. I explained to my friend that when something shows ownership, there must me a (') to show it. John's house, because the house is Johns. After all was said and done, I did not want to seem like too much of a weirdo for knowing this stuff. I felt like I saved my friend from a lot of corrections that could have been wrong on her paper.I hope that she thanks me too :) .

Grammar Makes a Huge Difference

I recently saw something today on facebook that made me laugh. It was quite funny. I came across it on my friends' page saying that grammar does, indeed, make a difference. Let us take the sentence "Let's eat grandma!" or Let's eat, Grandma!" It made me laugh so hard. Almost in a sense where I am so thankful that I was taught that. Those sentences can mean two different things. Either saying that we should eat grandma or telling grandma that we should eat some food! That just makes me almost in a sense to be thankful for the comma because it can change a sentence meaning, so easily. Sometimes, however, one can get confused on certain occasions when to use the comma. It is one of those things that maybe we should think about. For example, the comma used after the word "and" makes many wonder what is the appropriate time to use it. The sentence structure I found to be correct would be "He hit the ball, dropped the bat, and dropped the bat", many here would get confused on whether or not to put a comma before "and" and I came to find out this to be known as a series comma which identifies things in a list. It makes sense because in something like "macaroni and cheese" because it is just two articles, no comma is necessary. This makes me kind of in a sense, proud that we have something like the comma. It helps a lot of people out when trying to describe meanings and also to list things. :)

Phonology Fun

Wow. What a crazy week it has been in the English Language classroom. I had absolutely NO idea that there was a chart about all the sounds that we humans make when we talk! I cannot believe it at all. Things like the labial which are sounds that involve the lips, the dentals involve the teeth, alveolar involves the area behind the teeth, the palatal involves the hard palalte and the velar the soft palate. It just really makes you think when speaking now what type of articulations and manners of them you are exactly using! I found it so fascinating that we do speak with our nasals and you can hear the distinction when it does happen. I was currently looking online because I cannot comprehend the difference between voiced and voiceless. I came to understand that with the vibration of your vocal chord you can actually tell if it is or not. I noticed the difference when making the sound "ch" it is voiceless, while things with the "b" are voiced. It makes me think that our language has a lot to it. I had absolutely no idea before this class that there is such a thing with the consonants chart to help one understnad it. Also, the flow of air that comes out of your mouth when saying a letter is labeled as well. It is absolutely crazy. As I was sitting here at work a lady came up to me and noticed I was working on some English homework. She asked "what is that anyway?" I had told her that it is a consanant chart which I have to work on memorizing... :/ . She was in awe! It just goes to show you that many people today are still unaware what exactly the English Language is capable of. I am starting to like this as I find more information about it :) .

"Hanged or hung?"

While organizing some laundry, I had said that this shirt needed to be hung. My friend had interrupted telling me that "hanged" was what I had meant.Sitting there in awe I began to really think about it. I began to look it up and I was right! "Hanged" was the word used in past tense, and is referred to a person that is literally "being hanged", or put to death. Therefore, when it comes to the word "hung", the way I used it, was completely accurate. In all other senses of the word, hung is the preferred form as past tense and past participle, as in I hung my child’s picture above my desk. Basically, when is comes to hanged vs hung. A person is hanged where as everything else is hung. I found this extremely interesting and I actually seemed to grasp which one I would use in a certain situation. There has been a lot of debate regarding the issue of which one is correct but all in all , if it is not a person, refer to hung. I came back to my friend and told her what I had found out and she happened to learn something also!

Bilingualism

While doing my homework last night. I began to think how crazy it is that schools are against bilingualism in their classroom. It makes me wonder what the big deal is about that. While finding that yes, it can be costly, I sure do not agree with schools, especially California, being against it. Why exactly? It makes me question because we live in a society today, where jobs are in demand for people and the requirements needed to work are rising. I would not be surprised if in five years it is required to speak a second language. Looking back into our society when we were younger, of course it was easy to get a job right out of high school for our parents. Today, it is extremely rare to even make a steady income with just a high school degree. Requirements are getting stricter and stricter. Emphasizing college for a well paid job. I can see in the future some places requiring a minor in a second language. Also, while watching a video about a class in London, being taught English as a second language was extremely interesting. Listening to these 3rd graders discuss how learning English as a second language has been a fun experience was just awesome. The video showed the approaches that the teacher took when teaching grammar. A lot having to do with matching expressions with words, which I thought was pretty cool. I, in all honesty, never have thought of how children acquire English as a second language before. It was pretty cool to see that my everyday language is being taught in countries across the globe. If you think about it also, there are many ways in which the English language would be tough to comprehend if you are just being taught it. Things like "ough" in through or tough are pronounced completely different that each other yet are spelled the same. It is so crazy how many words we have like that today. It is very impressive for such a young aged child to learn that and pick it up. The English language is so great yet so complicating!

"& she's like.."

It is crazy today the overuse of a lot of words. Is it texting or what that many girls today when talking tend to say " and then she was like..." instead of "she said" ? I will be the first to say that the launch of texting has took a toll on many people young and old for grammar. I believe that it is no secret, myself included, we tend to use she's like or she goes, when talking to someone. When digging down into the web for a little more info on maybe where and when this came from, I actually received a lot of information. Apparently, this use of like in a sentence actually came from a Valley Girl speech in the 1980s. Which was, of course, long before texting. Instead of using the verb "say" we replace that with "she's like" "she goes" or "she's all". I can recall even a time when I was younger, my older sister (at the time she was in high school) heard me telling my mom a story and she corrected me saying "no! She said" and I was kinda like "oh, yep, that does make more sense when I talk". Overall, this phrase has gone global and it is rare when someone is telling a story (unless they are our grandparents) to use say. It can be annoying at times when hearing others but then I gotta think that I say it too! A LOT!

Ketchup or Catsup?

While at the grocery store this week, I overheard a family in the condiments section say "catsup". Now, growing up I was never taught to say that. I mean it says right on the bottle ketchup! It just didn't make sense to me at all. I get kind of frustrated about this little issue (haha) when of course I should not at all. I guess I just do not know where they even come up with that?! While searching I came to find out that the word ketchup was in Charles Lockyer’s book of 1711, An Account of the Trade in India. Then, later in his other book he writes catchup which was used much more in North America then Britain. We can definitely blame a fellow named Jonathan Swift for coining "catsup". First used in 1730. Now that I have found out how the heck we even came across getting that term it makes me a little more at ease. It is crazy how words can get changed around starting with one person and then happening to carry from the 1700s to now. It makes me wonder.. can we change a little bit of a word and see when our kids have kids if it was picked up? :) Overall, I found that extremely interesting that the term catsup was used by one person and then was passed. How awesome is that? Well.. kinda. :)

Second Week Discoveries

Throughout my encounter with the David Crystal "Encyclopedia of English Language",  discovering how different words came to be and how some of their meanings have changed over time really caught my eye. From the Christian Missionaries not only was the introduction of literacy came to be but also a huge Latin vocabulary. I guess I never realized that words played a huge role when it came to the Christians. Onto another topic, over the summer while babysitting the little girl I was watching asked me while she was on the internet if it is "colour" or "color" and was confused how in some magazines she reads "colour" when in school she is taught the "or". It kind of made me think about this because I can even recall the time when I was reading in "Seventeen" magazine and they would talk about "colours" or lipsticks. I got so into this that I even looked it up online. I found out that "colour" is actually used in the United Kingdom. I also found that Americans do definitely like simplicity in language so we decided to drop the "u". To me, I find that when written "colour" you almost want to say it different but then you do realize that it simply means color in an American's viewpoint. Overall, when looking on google the different explanations from the U added it really does make you think about how crazy just one letter can make it seem!

Chapter 2 Discussion

When reading chapter 2 in Linguistics, I came across many terms that I had never heard before. Words like "pidgin" or "creole", really were weird words to me in the beginning. As I read more about chapter two, I learned that pidgins are simplified, nonnative "contact" languages that develop to enable speakers of distinct languages to communicate. When thinking about this, I did remember a time when I feel that pidgins would be used, and that would be the time of slavery. Think about all the people that were brought together from different parts of the world and now have to communicate in a variety of ways, using the "pidgin" way and interacting with one another. Creoles, however, evolve from pidgins and instead develops into a more fully formed language and has native speakers. When also discussing second language acquisition, one can argue, is it learning or acquisition? Well, I believe it is learned. Yes, there are many people out there today who are bilingual but many are also taking a french or spanish class, being taught it. Yes, as one would say, travel abroad, they aquire a whole new language and ways of speaking it as well. The social aspects of learning this second language is crucial, and takes motivation.

Children and Language

I found it extremely fascinating today that while reading in my "Linguistics for Everyone", the beginning of chapter 2 focuses on how children can aquire a mastery of language skills by the age of five and that is not directly from being taught, it is by being heard. They tend to overgeneralize information when they talk. Saying things like goed, bringed , mouses. Eventually, it will turn into went, bought, or mice. One thing that happened to catch my eye was the misperception of teenagers ruining the english language. At first, I can totally see this happening. One of many reasons I have include the reason being of my generation being the huge texting generation. It is so true though. We sit there and we abbreviate things on our phone and then we happen to shorten things like "u" for "you" and we become very lazy. It is amazing how our generation has so much going for them with the technology, but I would not say that it is true. It can be argued (especially by our parents) , that our generation is totally ruining it, when, in fact, I feel that our generation is improving the knowledge and changing the English language for the better.

Words and Their Changed Meaning

I found that throughout this class period, it was hard when asked to list some words that have changed over time at first, but then it became a lot easier to me. We started with a word like "goes". One would think in a sentence we can be sure that "She goes to the store" would be acceptable. Now, in conversation, we can be sure that especially when telling a story, we tend to say "Mike goes 'are you kidding me?' ", when, in fact, it can be said as "Mike said.." and so forth. In the "Myths" book, it is  crazy to me that the word "awful" used to mean "inspiring awe", now has a changed meaning to "very bad". When deciding in class if "Pig Latin" would be considered a legitimate language, accoriding to Linguistics for Everyone, it must follow a list with specific requirements. We learned words such as semanticity, arbitrariness, discreteness, displacement, productivity, duality of patterning. These phrases define characteristics if "Pig Latin" would be an acceptable language.

First Week of English

Beginning my first week of the class, I slowly but surely began to engage more and more into class discussions. Language is, indeed, constantly changing. I found it interesting when discussing throughout the class about the forces that language from changing. Things like the society, the media, the acts of history really made sense. Another interesting phrase, which I will admit that I have never heard before this class is the idea of "Received Standard". Received standard comes into play when we began discussing in class the idea of is it "ask" or "aks" and it is quite funny to me because I have definitely heard of people say aks and it now makes sense because they may have been taught to say it that way. This class period really made me think, specifically about "is it octupi? Is it syllabi?" It really makes you think outside of your box.