Wednesday, March 30

The Language of Loonies

Mastering the Art of French Cooking continued to sell.  With our first royaly check, we bought a book on how not to let plants die (for me), a dry-mount press (for Paul), and the latest edition of Webster's dictionary (for both of us), which led us to scream at each other about the proper use of language.  He was a language-by-use type, while I was an against-the-prostitution-of-language type.  We also bought our first television set, a smallish square plastic-and-metal box that was so ugly we hid it in an unused fireplace.

Chapter 6, Part 3: I've Been Reading, My Life in France

Well, I can relate to this... perhaps even too much.  In the first unfolding corner of the day, there was a discussion between members of the 'Middle Table' on language (merging on accent).  To my friends, it is no secret that I use long words.  Now, for once and for all, I don't try.  For Pete's sake (poor Pete - I bring him into things too often), I have read more books than is normal for someone my age to have read, and the majority of them with beautiful language. 

What I did for nearly a year was that every SINGLE TIME that I came across a word I didn't understand when I was reading, I wrote it down, looked it up, and then entered it into an index book, (which I still keep today).  Anyway, the result of this was that I have a good vocabulary, and speak... I suppose you could say, with a tad over-the-top proper...ness.  Add to this a great articulation (if I do say so myself) developed by hours and hours of reading novels aloud to Dad, and I suppose I can say that my language is good, and I enjoy using it.  There's nothing wrong with that.  In any langauge.

2 comments:

  1. Language is a beautiful art form, worthy of plunging head first into, becoming submerged & frolicking around in. Enjoy! Thanks for sharing it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. There are many different forms of language. My math teacher has often told us of the Mathematical Language and every time my music teacher points to a ‘fermata’ he expresses his love for the Musical Language. I surprisingly get none of this in my English Classes... is that wierd?

    ReplyDelete

Please leave a comment to respond to my post or start a new conversation about whatever it is that you're passionate about.

If you don't have a Blogger or Google account, you can always leave an anonymous comment. Thankyou for taking the time!