Re: Grammar in HS (Was: Re: Argument Structures)

On Wed, 23 Aug 2000, H. S. Teoh wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 23, 2000 at 04:37:01PM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> [snip]
> > Well, I have a very good vocabulary, but there are a number of words I
> > pronounce awkwardly because I primarily encountered that vocabulary
> > through reading.  I could spell it right (...better than your average
> > American, anyway), use it right, and tell you what it meant, but if it
> > wasn't used at home (a lot of words, especially all the archaic ones I
> > picked up from reading fantasy) I'd mispronounce it.  I got laughed at in
> > middle school--6th grade GT, I think--when I said poLItics instead of
> > POlitics, among other embarrassing examples.  :-p  As long as I'm on
>
> Good thing written English doesn't have accent marks, else it'd be very
> revealing :-) But then if it did, you'd probably have learnt the "right"
> pronunciation from the start.
I dunno...that's something I'd *support.*  But I didn't have a problem
picking up accents for words I'd use in normal conversation.  My problem
is most of my conversations aren't normal.  <G>  My sister learned random
military history and archaic vocabulary from me just by listening to my
rants....

> I used to accent words in the wrong places too, but my main problem is
> knowing when a consonant is "hard" or "soft". Embarrasingly to say, just a
> few days ago I got laughed at for pronouncing "chameleon" with a soft
> "ch"... I mean, it's not like every day that you hear people going around
> saying "chameleon", so I'd never realized the first syllable has a "k"
> sound not a "sh" sound. :-)
For some reason that's never given me trouble, but I can't tell you why.
OTOH I've hung out with some delightful and *odd* people using
not-so-common words, so maybe that's why.

I went through a dictionary phase where I'd look up *everything* I
encountered that I couldn't figure out, but after finding the meaning I'd
always forget to look at the pronunciation (how often am I going to use
"cataphract" in most conversations?  or "flamberge"?  or "jazeraint"?).
Now, I don't have dictionary I'm happy with--my sister in Korea has the
2-vol. World Book Dictionary, which I was pleased to find had a decent
number of "obscure" words, and the Big Heavy Unabridged, but I don't
actually have one with me, which is stupid on my part.  Trop de livres...

YHL