Linguistically Speaking

Mrs Elton, in her apparatus of happiness, her large bonnet and her basket, was very ready to lead the way in gathering, accepting, or talking – strawberries, and only strawberries, could now be thought or spoken of. – ‘The best fruit in England – every body’s favourite – always wholesome. – These the finest beds and finest sorts. – Delightful to gather for one’s self – the only way of really enjoying them. – Morning decidedly the best time – never tired – every sort good – […] price of strawberries in London – abundance about Bristol – […] delicious fruit – only too rich to be eaten much of – inferior to cherries – currants more refreshing – only objections to strawberries the stooping – glaring sun – tired to death – could bear it no longer – must go and sit in the shade.'

Jane Austen, Emma (324).

I love man as my fellow; but his sceptre, real or usurped, extends not to me.

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

We can all fly as
high as the dreams
we dare to live

unless we are a chicken

[Edward Monkton]

(the title is not the actual quote (see below) - after all our feminist linguistic discussions I just couldn't leave it with 'spokesman')

This is a little passage from Crystal about Global English that made me laugh out loud:

In Ghana, we find heavy in the sense of 'gorgeous' and brutal in the sense of 'very nice', and a number of semantic shifts, including maiden name meaning 'given name' (applied to males) and linguist meaning 'spokesman for the chief'.

(Crystal 2003: 160f.)

(It do wonder how they got to these meanings for heavy and brutal. The others seem like more or less likely misunderstandings in a colonial setting - but these??)

Habt ihr das andre Papier gelesen, so werdet Ihr wissen, dass es sich um nichts geringeres handelt, als um die Muse der teutschen Dichtkunst. … Ihr seid gebeten mit Eurer poetischen Haus und Feld-Apotheke bei der Wiederbelebung des Kadavers tätige Hilfe zu leisten; am besten wäre es man suchte ihn in einem Backofen zu erwärmen, denn dies ist noch das einzige Kunstwerk, welches das liebe Teutsche Volk zu bauen und zu geniessen versteht!

[Georg Büchner: Brief an August Stoeber, 24. August 1832]

http://www.litline.org/ABR/100bestfirstlines.html

An interesting compilation - though I don't really think the Moby Dick-opening deserves the first rank, there are many others I prefer (n. 2 would certainly be among the top openings for me).

The list also makes good exam preparation - quite a lot of these books are on the reading list, so you can check how many you recognize ;-)

And as a good way to recall all the books, we could compile our own list for the exam stuff!

Meine Kunst … entsteht nicht primär aus der Kunst …, sondern aus der Welt, aus dem Erlebnis, aus der Auseinandersetzung mit der Welt, und genau dort, wo die Welt in Kunst gleichsam überspringt, steht der Einfall: Weil die Welt mit ihren Ereignissen in mich einfällt (wie ein Feind oft in eine Festung), entsteht eine Gegenwelt, eine Eigenwelt als eine Gegenattacke, als eine Selbstbehauptung.

(Dürrenmatt: Randnotizen zum Besuch der alten Dame)

"I'm sure you have been told that this is the best time of your life. It may be. But if it's true that this is the best time of your life, then you have my condolences. Because you'll want to remain here, stuck in these so-called best years, never maturing, wanting only to look, to feel and be the adolescent that whole industries are devoted to forcing you to remain. One more flawless article of clothing, one more elaborate toy, the truly perfect diet, the harmless but necessary drug, the almost final elective surgery, the ultimate cosmetic all designed to maintain hunger for stasis. While children are being eroticized into adults, adults are being exoticized into eternal juvenilia. There is nothing more satisfying, more gratifying than true adulthood. The process of becoming one is not inevitable. Its achievement is a difficult beauty, an intensely hard-won glory, which commercial forces and cultural vapidity should not be permitted to deprive you of."

I came across this quote by Toni Morrisson earlier today and just loved it (nothing to do with exams at all, but it's English Literature, too...)

by George Lakoff and Marc Johnson - the foundational text of the conceptual theory of metaphor. To L/J, metaphors are basically conceptual; metaphorical language is just an expression of underlying conceptual metaphors. This is how they define metaphor:

"The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another" (Lakoff/Johnson 1980:5)

For example, we think of ARGUMENTS as STRUGGLES- this is revealed by the metaphors used to talk about arguments: arguments can be won, other people's arguments can be attacked or destroyed, etc. L/J claim that the systematicity with which arguments are talked about (and experienced) as struggles points to an underlying conceptual metaphor (which they refer to as ARGUMENT IS STRUGGLE).

With many other examples, they argue that a lot of our concepts are metaphorically structured in this way, i.e. they apply structures of one concept to another - usually, structures from things we have directly, often physically experienced are used to 'get a handle on' more abstract things (in the ARGUMENT IS STRUGGLE-example, we would know from physical experience how struggle works, and think of argument in the same way).

However, we don't only think of arguments as struggles, but because we perceive and experience them in that way, we also act accordingly - that's why their book is called "Metaphors We Live By".

For many concepts, different metaphorical concepts exist - love, for example, can be conceptualized as MADNESS, but also as a COLLABORATIVE WORK OF ART. To experience love as madness will have different consequences for our actions than to think of it as a collaborative work of art, because different aspects of love are highlighted. If love is madness, it is conceived of as something beyond our control - but if it's seen as a collaborative work of art, it requires effort from all parties concerned to reach some kind of balance.

An application of this theory: In a really impressing article, Lakoff analyzes the conceptual metaphorical system used by the first Bush administration to justify the first Gulf War - like depicting Iraq as a villain raping innocent victim Kuwait, and the U.S. as the hero coming to save the victim and punish the villain. Everything not fitting this picture, like Kuwait's not at all democratical monarchy and former behaviour towards Iraq, was hidden because the conflict was conceptualized in these terms. You can find the article at http://philosophy.uoregon.edu/metaphor/lakoff-l.htm (this is also really depressing, because it did nothing to stop the war - and so much of this was re-used for the second Gulf War :-(. Still, a very worthwhile read if ever you get the time!)

(I hope this was clear enough - I tried to be brief, but maybe that was a little too brief?)

"Zurich odder Züri iss die greescht Schtadt vun der Schweiz unn hot iwwer 360 000 Eiwuhner. Mit ihrer Agglomeration zaame hot sie noch recht meh Eiwuhner. "Züri" leit an de Limet am Ausfluss vum Zürisee unn iss die Haaptschtadt vum Kanton Züri.

Züri iss aa die Economic Haaptschtadt vun Switzerland. Grosse Baenks wie die UBS odder die Credit Suisse henn datt ihre Haaptsitz. Ihre Gebeier schtehe am Paradeplatz.

Züri iss en gans multiculturali Schtadt. Züri iss aa en Schparret-Schteddel. 'S sinn meh wie 20 unnerschittliche Soccer Clubs, die bekanntischde sinn die Grasshoppers odder der FC Züri. In Eishockey henn sie die ZSC Lions.

Züri iss aa en Schtadt mit recht viel culturale Attractions. Es iss was sie en "Kunschthuus" heese, unn aa gebt's en "Operehuus" unn en Taunhall, en "Schauspiilhuus" (sell iss was sie en Schpielhaus heesse), viel Museums unn aa es iss der Zoo, der Zürizoo."

aus: Pennsilfaanisch-deitsche Enseiklopeedieye

There are many different theories about the origin of pidgins and creoles. Some of these stress the importance of the superstratum language (e.g. theories that claim that pidgins are the result of imperfect learning of the target language (e.g. English), or the result of ‘baby talk’ by the superstratum speakers). Others put emphasis on the substratum languages (e.g. claiming that the pidgins/creoles are a result of simple ‘relexification’ of the original languages (e.g. African vernaculars)). A more ‘universalist’ theory with respect to the formation of creoles has been developed by Bickerton.

Bickerton (1981) questions the generally assumed link between pidgins and creoles, finding that the latter do not always simply develop gradually out of the former. He claims that in situations in which creoles (i.e. stabilized pidgins with native speakers) emerge, there is often no ‘normal’ continuity of language transmission (i.e. the handing down of a natural language from a generation to the next). In some situations, the creole-speaking community has been torn from their native cultures and native languages, while they have limited access to the superimposed language. Thus, the pidgin has not stabilized (i.e. become grammaticalized and unified) before it is acquired by children as a first language, which provides an exceptional situation for L1 acquisition.

The question that arises is how the children who are exposed to such an unstable pidgin in childhood acquired complex, rule-governed features that become part of the creole. According to Bickerton, the pidgin they are presented with is “unfit to serve as someone’s primary tongue”. Yet, they have a biological need for a native tongue that can fulfil all functions. This makes them turn the insufficient linguistic input into a fully fledged language by running it though an innate system universal to us all: the language bioprogram (cf. Chomsky’s 'language acquisition device').

An important thought behind this is that over thousands of years, biological, natural languages have come to encode features that diverge from a biological base, and are instead cultural. If there is no such cultural language available, though, the bioprogram kicks in and inserts ‘natural’ features into the gaps. (According to Bickerton, the same happens in L1 acquisition, though the cultural influence ultimately wins over the natural ones).

I cannot really make up my mind about this hypothesis, and do not know whether I should agree with it or not. The hypothesis is hard to disprove, as any elements that show up in pidgins or creoles that are not part of the bioprogram can be said to be culturally inherited. Any thoughts/opinions?