www.GrammarInfo.ca Your Guide to the Language by Carolanne Reynolds |
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Contact:
Carolanne
@ GrammarInfo.ca |
[A work in progress -- hope to add comments from time to time;
please feel free to make suggestions -- corrections, additions,
improvements.]
=== Introduction
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Welcome to the land of lovers of logic and language!
In particular, Canadian English.
It is my hope that visitors will find the information here
helpful in understanding the reasoning behind the language and share a
dedication to an agreed standard for this international language of
communication. As a Canadian, who has lived in, among other
places, the US, UK, Australia, and South Africa, my efforts will be to
walk that middle path Canadians walk with influences pulling them in
different directions. New words and change are most welcome --
as long as the language doesn't lose its precision, logic, and
subtlety.
It is obvious the UK influence has waned over the past 50 years
all over the world with the growing dominance of the world
economically and militarily by the US and more importantly through
communication: films, TV, and the Internet. As the
English-speaking country the closest to the US, naturally our English
has been affected most -- full blast at close range (the Quebecois
benefit from a linguistic moat).
There will be a section on grammar, not just with what is
correct but also with an explanation. It will have common
grammar 'goofs' or grammar gripes -- tell me what grates you and
the correction with reasons can be included on the site.
The correct spelling of commonly misspelled words will be
listed. There will also be a section on pronunciation,
giving the correct one for words often mispronounced. Since
punctuation plays a role in clarity of expression, it will be
included. And no doubt, the Vancouver Sun's having asked me to
do a review of Lynne Truss's book on punctuation (Eats, Shoots
and Leaves) was the final nudge pushing me to record my pet
peeves -- and explain why English makes sense! [The full review is on
this site as well###].
English's vocabulary is particularly rich. English is a
bastard language, one that has borrowed easily, quickly, and widely,
and this has given it a breadth, nuance, and flexibility not found in
most languages. Its main pillars, Norman French imposed on
AngloSaxon, give a double heritage, a richness most other languages
lack. Clearly the result of William the Conqueror's Battle of
Hastings (1066, a pivotal date) was that the words of government
(gouvernement) and law (loi) were imposed on the conquered, and
sometimes added a layer or gradation. Also, the 'fancier' words
are from the Latin and French. Some pairs are: freedom and
liberty, work and labour, bloom/blossom and flower.
Of course, there are Gaelic/Celtic words and roots as well.
The Dutch influence came with printer/printing.
German and Greek sneak in in science.
Every language is special. Each language has expressions
unmatchable in others (or sometimes only conveyed by many words).
There are studies showing that language affects our reasoning and how
we think. One of the most glaring examples is portraying time.
English has tenses involving many verb forms that indicate habit,
emphasis, future, present (continuous just one of three kinds), past
(definite and indefinite), subjunctive (but Spanish beats English
hands down for active use of many subjunctive tenses), and flexibility
whereas, for example, Chinese has one single word for the verb and has
to add other words to indicate whether past or future. It is
incredibly difficult to have to think in terms of time and sequence
when using a verb just before speaking, to know the differences and
choose correctly from I go, I do go, and I'm going. Choices are
made automatically, almost subconsciusly, by native speakers.
Think about the letter S. It is an important marker in
English for both verbs and nouns, but the sound doesn't occur in
Vietnamese, and Chinese has no plural. That's why those
speakers sometimes drop the S (they don't hear the sound and/or it has
no significance for them), but we notice when an S is missing because
some bit of information is lost, incomplete, or ambiguous.
With a degree in languages and as someone who has taught English
to speakers of other languages, please bear with me when some esoteric
linguistic asides creep in.
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