If Only I Had Bloopers

After thirty - seven attempts (and counting), I finally achieved what I think is a video blog. But you know what they say, thirty -  eight is the charm.

Just by the way  if I had bloopers this wouldn't be considered a blog about Tony Morrison's Song of Solomon, but a comedic one.

A Descriptivist Way

What are dangling modifiers? 

Do you know?

Does anyone know?

Is it even necessary to know?

The truth is I had no idea what a dangling modifier is before I read the blog in The New York Times. Even after reading the blog, I still had confused thoughts of its real meaning. What I understood as dangling modifier after reading this article is that a dangling modifier, is one that tries to "modify" a certain part of a sentence but it ends up modifying another one that wasn't wrong in the first place. I'm not sure if this is what a dangling modifier is, but with a little help of my friends (google) I cleared my doubts. If my interpretation wasn't good enough for all of my fans out there, then I'll give you a taste of what my friend says it is. "An error caused by not placing the noun being modified next to it's modifier," thanks grammar-monster you da best. In this blog Phillip B. Corbett, the author, gives different examples and explains why they are "grammatical woes" and why for the people that accidentally uses them makes their writing seem "slipshod." Don' worry I didn't know what slipshod meant either, but according to The Free Dictionary it is and adjective that represents "careless."

For all those that see examples and think that you use them, then welcome to my world. In my opinion it doesn't make any one's writing look careless. I think this is a very descriptivist way to see grammar. They are useless. I think of it as descriptivist because of the name. Personally I dislike labels and this a label, why not just call it a simple, more than common, "grammatical error." Nevertheless we need to know them, and there is no better way to learn that by using examples.

        "Hoping to garner favor, my parents were sadly unimpressed with the gift."

Ask yourself why is it a dangling modifier. If your thoughts were that we don't know who or what was hoping for a garner favor then  you're right. A way to express your thoughts without using these would be:

       "Hoping to garner favor, my sister brought my parents a gift that sadly unimpressed them."

Now comes my dirty secret: I, Emiliana Pacheco, uses dangling modifiers.

But you know what?

I like living my life on the edge.

A New Perspective

As far as I have read of this book, we can see a complex classification of race and gender. We can even say they compliment each other. Within what I have read of the first chapter, it is principally introducing us the characters and the conflicts they might face later on.

I have to wonder what were the authors intentions by introducing us the book with such a flare for the dramatic. Seriously, a man jumps off the roof of "No Mercy" hospital and they have their first black patient. At first when I started reading and found out of Mr. Smith's idea, I won't deny that I was startled. Being prepared for an African-American novel, I wasn't expecting such radical people of this race. We've been raised with the idea that people of color were abused, which is true, but they didn't show us that they did stand for themselves. Movies like The Help are a good example of this phenomenon, which is a subject that we had previously touched in class. This books by Toni Morrison makes ask ourselves "You believe that?" pg (10).

I don't know if

Names

Song of Solomon, sounds like a religious book but it is about an African American men living in Michigan from birth to adulthood. I am in no way taking out the fact that there are a religious characteristics within the book, but it is not the main topic. The truth is Solomon in the bible is the king of Israel and the son of David. He plays a major part in a story in the Hebrew Bible called Judgment of Solomon. In this story two women came before him to decide who was the real mother of a baby, he suggested to divide the child in two with a sword. One of the woman said she'd rather give the baby up that to divide him, that's how Solomon declared that woman the true mother.

You might wonder why I told you a story about the Bible, but theres a reason for my doings.  In the very beginning of the book there is a scene in which Ruth gave birth to his baby boy, being the first colored expectant mother allowed in the "No Mercy Hospital." I still don't have a clear purpose for the title of the book, but the birth of this boy also known as Milkman Dead. Clearly there is a connection between the story of dividing a child, and the birth of a child that in a way made history in an unnamed Michigan town. Also the name Ruth is biblical name, an according to my best friend Wikipedia she was "Moabites". Morrison, the author of the book, clearly has a purpose by choosing this names so related with the bible and a certain significance to it.

"I hate quotations" (353).

Fantasies Within Realities

For this blog entry we had to read three different chapters and choose one fragment that we strongly agree with. In Chapter G, also know as "blur", there was various fragments I agreed with but one stand out. In fragment 191 Shields said, "I'm interested in the generic edge, the boundary between what are roughly called nonfiction and fiction."I like how it relates to the title of the chapter, that in my interpretation is the blur of reality. Is there really a difference between fiction and nonfiction? Is there such thing a the complete truth? As I get more into the world of language I realize there is not, there is always something not accurate, made up, or even exaggerated. Personally I as well am interested in the that boundary that distinguishes this to genres, or if one even exists. After all, itsallalieaplanguageandcomposition.

Now let's continue with Chapter H. I found a fragment that reminded of a certain conversation we had in class, "Our culture is obsessed with real events because we experience hardly any." This is completely true. Let me ask all of you (no one really), how many of you watch CSI or any other crime show? I'm going to assume that everyone answered "me", because if not it would just be awkward. Then there's an other question, how many of you have ever confronted such a situation like the ones in this shows? Once again I am assuming everyone answered "not me". All though we haven't experienced any events like these, people are obsessed with this shows. How said in class, if such thing happen to any person he would be traumatized for life. It does happen they are real event, but most probably we wont confront with such. This is why I agree with Shields #242 fragment.

How Shields say, "Facts now seem important." I like how he points that "now" is that they are seeming important. I agree with him, once again. Living in a world in which you expect to be lied to, having facts to rely on seems necessary. And yes I like the "now" which is also the name of the chapter, because it's so specific. Are current present is so full of lies, that one almost feels oblige to have the facts to back you up.

Oh Grammar

I completely agree with your corrections. I did not gave my essay a second proofread when it was necessary. Some of my sentences made no sense, and some of them needed to revised especially in syntax. If done so as you said my grade in grammar would have been higher. That's what always gets me, grammar. Also maybe going more into specifics, because some of the examples are not only a CNG Spanglish, but a more general Colombian Spanglish.

Overall, I was given good feedback to know what I did wrong and also what could help me improve in further works. My only problem was when the three minutes of the audio corrections were over, I wasn't sure where the written commentary belong to in the paper. Nevertheless I appreciate for the commentary in my paper.

The Variation In Theories

It's weird to see how much the English language has changed, seeing how it used to be amuses me. It is also amusing to see how English has revolutionized the world, for example how Isaac Newton started writing he's books in English instead of Latin. Weird huh? I used to hear that Latin was that one language that intellectuals speaked in, but apparently English brought on the competition. In episode 6 of The Adventure of English, we hear different theories of the language from different writers/thinkers.

First of all we have John Locke, he was an English philosopher and was acknowledge by his ideas of liberalism, but we are focused in his theory of the language. In hi essay concerning human understanding, he says that words should be better defined, so "peace would naturally follow" (2:30). I believe that was Locke said made sense. Imagine a world were words weren't misinterpreted because of the meaning. This can be in a issue between countries which can lead to war, or a discussion in class like Eugenia and Mr. Tangen confusion of LOL and lull. As said in the video Locke has a view influences by Idealism. For those who don't know what idealism is, here you have the definition:  "skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing" (wikipedia). All though it would be great if everyone was able to know everything, we all know not everyone can have an education and such can't apply to the world we live in. Words actually are perfectly defined, for example in Spanish with things such as, La Real Academia Española, but that doesn't mean people use it properly and accurately, or that it's going to bring peace.

We also have the ideas of the writer, Jonathan Swift. According to this video, Swift hated the "vulgar liberties...taking with the English language"(7:27). He didn't agreed with things such as abbreviations, sorry Swift but you wouldn't make it in the 21st century, we don't abbreviate words anymore, we abbreviate phrases. He was a big believer of people talking with big fancy words, he is one of those people who instead of saying vocabulary, would say lexicon. He liked fancy English, or as we learned in the previous videos, Queen's English. Maybe in his time this was what one should think of the language, but as the clock ticks one can't stay behind. By seeing Swift's ideals of how English should not change, like Greek and Latin, I can infer that he is clearly prescriptivist and that he would have a heated argument with Thomas Jefferson if he could. 

BTW: abbreviating is fun.

In the video we

Th' dialect master.

Och ye scottish fowk...yoo shoods bide wi' gaelic. Ah feel 'at when Ah try tae reid an' kin scottish sassenach, Ah am daein' an accent kinda gangsta (if 'at makes onie sense) an' sometimes jist naethin' makes sense. wa diz it soond sae different? weel th' story ay sassenach has th' answers. efter norman conquest mony refugees moved north (scotland), an' created sort ay a different leid. they hae different words frae sassenach, different accent, an' different phrases. aw thocht it differs frae sassenach, it is variation plus nae a different a body. as languages keep modernizin', scottish sassenach is disappearin' reit alang wi' th' culture. scots want tae spick queen's sassenach an' there's is goin' tae disappear. scot ur loosin' their identity, aw tae reach tae th' top ay th' social pyramid. as Ah said in mah previoos entry, th' society we bide in is aye strugglin' tae be th' best. if talkin' braw sassenach an' sendin' yer kinds tae public skale sae they gab correctly is whit it takes. wa nae? as Ah kept readin' things in scottish sassenach, Ah foond some amusin' characteristics. first: they loch cuttin' it words. insteid ay sayin' th', they say th'. in some ways they omit those silent letters 'at we hae in sassenach. woods juin be jun'? fa ken? weel probably whoohoo.co.uk knows, but Ah dornt feel loch translatin'. och, an' second: they loove usin' apostrophes ('). Ah woods hae ne'er thooght 'at scots hud sic' peculiar accents. they soond loch mah russian mukker daein' an attempt tae gab sassenach...fail. aw thocht ye micht feel aam criticizin' it, Ah actually enjoy hearin' scots gab. they hae a unique voice an' dialect 'at most fowk dornt hae, an' 'at is stoaner tae fin' noo a days.

Translation:

Oh you Scottish people...you should stay with Gaelic. I feel that when I try to read and understand Scottish English, I am doing an accent kinda gangsta (if that makes any sense) and sometimes just nothing makes sense. Why does it sound so different? Well The Story of English has the answers. After Norman conquest many refugees moved north (scotland), and created sort of a different language. They have different words from English, different accent, and different phrases. All though it differs from English, it is variation plus not a different one. As languages keep modernizing, Scottish English is disappearing right along with the culture. Scots want to speak Queen's English and there's is goin' to disappear. Scot are loosing their identity, all to reach to the top of the social pyramid. As I said in my previous entry, the society we live in is always struggling to be the best. If talking fine English and sending your kinds to public school so they talk correctly is what it takes. Why not? 

As I kept reading things in Scottish English, I found some amusing characteristics. First: they like cutting out words. Instead of saying the, they say th'. In some ways they omit those silent letters that we have in English. Would June be Jun'? Who know? Well probably whoohoo.co.uk knows, but i don't feel like translating. Oh, and second: they love using apostrophes ('). I would have never thought that Scots had such peculiar accents. They sound like my Russian friend doing an attempt to talk English...fail. All though you might feel I'm criticizing it, I actually enjoy hearing Scots talk. They have a unique voice and dialect that most people don't have, and that is hard to find now a days.

"The Guid Scots Tongue." The Story of English. Writ. Robert McCrum and Robert MacNeil. Dir. Vivian Ducat, Howard Reid. BBC MCML XXXVI. YouTube.

Unpredictable Words

Did you think that by "Mother Tongue" I was talking about about our dear English? Maybe so, but I really was referring to what most of the language of now a days: Latin and Greek. Our real mother tongues. We have so many words that come from words in latin, for example: father is pater, and mother mater. It's not they copied Latin, but they deriver from the same language family. For example in French you welcome is de rien and in Spanish denada. Not identical, but similar.

Let's focus in what the documentary The Story of English by Robert MacNeil is really about English. I really never knew how much language change, and even how many places its has been around. For example have you ever heard in the 21st century saying the word "thy"? I don't think so, unless you are a constat reader of The Daily 9GAG, like myself. Not only words have modernized from thy to "your" (belonging to you), but it also has been influenced by other languages, from different families. Words such as "Waltz" (type of dance) that descend from German, "lacrosse" from French, and there's so much more words that one assimilates as their own. So many changes occur to the language, even slang. Who knows maybe when they unfreeze me because they found the cure for my disease, I wont be able to speak, because they talk an exotic language once known as English.

 I wonder if I had a wish to bring back Shakespeare for a little talk, would he understand me? Would he think I'm talking in another language? The English we know is contemporary, and in my opinion our English and the Shakespeare's are completely different, they can be classified in the same languages but in totally different dialects.

The Story of English. Dir. Robert MacNeil, Robert McCrum, and William Cran. BBC, 1986. 27 Aug. 2009. Web. 13 Jan. 2013

Taking Over The World

They say patience is a virtue, and its one that I don't acquire or at least I didn't. Waiting around 30 minutes for the video to load was kind of boring. All though I can't say that the other minutes watching the video were fun, I did learn things about the english language I didn't know.

"For English their are no borders" (1:06). These are wise words, not only because English is one of the most influential languages, but also because its the native languages of two of the superpowers of the world: the US, and the UK. We live in a world, that how said in the video is an "English-speaking-world." That is not just his opinion, but the reality of how we function and how we communicate. Did you know that English is the only language spoken by airlines in 157 countries? Although everyone that has been in a plane by Avianca or Alitalia knows that the English spoken has a weird accent to say the least, they still speak it. Why? Because for some reason people believe that everyone knows the language, which in many cases is true.

Did you know 80% of the world's computer data is in English? I didn't think so. This is not the only thing done in this language, most of the world's TV is in English. All our time we are in things like: Facebook, Twitter, Google, even Blogger. I am right now writing in English, in an English web page, all though my native language is Spanish. This is the society we live in , everyone always wants to be part of everything, never being left out, and through English they achieve this desire. I do like English, for those who might take it personally when I tell you that I don't believe that is a positive thing for a language to take over the whole world, as English is trying (and achieving) to do. For example in some parts of Scotland, their first language is Gaelic, which I think is amusing for it being part of the United Kingdom. All though the dominance of the language helps everyone around the globe to communicate, which can lead to so many good things, it is also vanishing culture.

The Story of English. Dir. Robert MacNeil, Robert McCrum, and William Cran. BBC, 1986. 27 Aug. 2009. Web. 13 Jan. 2013