Mike Cavanagh's Blog - Posts Tagged "english"
The English World Order of Words.
OK, someone sent me a link to an online article that I found more than a little interesting. I'm also willing to argue against it until the cows come home! (Which probably shows that the link provider knows me rather well.) Here's the link (right mouse click to open in another tab or page):
Crazy English Grammar Rule
The 'green great dragon' reference is to a letter J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to W.H. Auden, dated 7 June 1955. In this letter, Tolkien wrote: 'I first tried to write a story when I was about seven. It was about a dragon. I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say 'a green great dragon', but had to say 'a great green dragon'. I wondered why, and still do.'
When I first read this comment, my immediate reaction was a mild 'Eureka!' I was relieved that someone else at least gets the point about the order of adjectives. The good J.R.R. had no more to say on this point, so allow me to extend the thought and link to the online article referred above. I'll do this by way of an example.
I have two line-ups of dragons; probably because they've committed some petty crime like eaten someone's cows, burnt their house down, trivial stuff like that. One line up is of big dragons all of the one size. Each however is a different colour, so I walk up to identify the culprit, point my finger and say "The green great dragon!" All well and good. Now say the lineup is of dragons of varying sizes, but all of them are green. Then I walk up to the line-up, point to the largest one and say "The great green dragon!"
Yes, silly example but I hope you get my drift. Order of the adjectives can, and I'd argue should, reflect the most discerning of the terms, with the first term being the most defining of the general type, or commonality of feature. Tolkien's 'green great dragon' is perfectly fine in my book when used in a circumstance to discriminate a dragon by colour amongst a group with commonality in size. The online article serves to illustrate a useful guide, but should not be seen as an invariable rule.
I recently had some friendly online banter with someone who does not speak English as their first language; she does speaks it very well however, as well as a number of other languages. Her initial point was that English pronunciations (and the language in general) are difficult, i.e. inconsistent. It's true there are many homographs (same spelling, different sound and meaning), and homophones (same sound, different spelling and meaning) in the English language. There are clear and logical arguments as to why these should be simplified. But I personally would not support such moves.
Language is a product of history, human movement, conquests and discoveries. Like wine it becomes richer and more complex as it ages, which for those who savour it can greatly add to it's enjoyment. English really is a mongrel language, with words taken from almost all over the globe and over long periods of time. Understanding words can help you understand the history of the people who spoke them. This is, of course, the root of J.R.R. Tolkien's created worlds: the words and their history created middle-earth, not the other way around.
Yes, this makes it a more challenging language to learn and use well. But it also provides a rich vein of meaning, interpretation, and nuance that lies deep within our literature, songs and poetry. A depth that would be disconnected, smudged over forever were we to go down the route of simplification of English; a 'chateau cardboard' variety that would be a far poorer wellspring of creativity for our writers to drink from.
English isn't an easy language to learn or to master. But it is an incomparable servant in the right hands.
Crazy English Grammar Rule
The 'green great dragon' reference is to a letter J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to W.H. Auden, dated 7 June 1955. In this letter, Tolkien wrote: 'I first tried to write a story when I was about seven. It was about a dragon. I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say 'a green great dragon', but had to say 'a great green dragon'. I wondered why, and still do.'
When I first read this comment, my immediate reaction was a mild 'Eureka!' I was relieved that someone else at least gets the point about the order of adjectives. The good J.R.R. had no more to say on this point, so allow me to extend the thought and link to the online article referred above. I'll do this by way of an example.
I have two line-ups of dragons; probably because they've committed some petty crime like eaten someone's cows, burnt their house down, trivial stuff like that. One line up is of big dragons all of the one size. Each however is a different colour, so I walk up to identify the culprit, point my finger and say "The green great dragon!" All well and good. Now say the lineup is of dragons of varying sizes, but all of them are green. Then I walk up to the line-up, point to the largest one and say "The great green dragon!"
Yes, silly example but I hope you get my drift. Order of the adjectives can, and I'd argue should, reflect the most discerning of the terms, with the first term being the most defining of the general type, or commonality of feature. Tolkien's 'green great dragon' is perfectly fine in my book when used in a circumstance to discriminate a dragon by colour amongst a group with commonality in size. The online article serves to illustrate a useful guide, but should not be seen as an invariable rule.
I recently had some friendly online banter with someone who does not speak English as their first language; she does speaks it very well however, as well as a number of other languages. Her initial point was that English pronunciations (and the language in general) are difficult, i.e. inconsistent. It's true there are many homographs (same spelling, different sound and meaning), and homophones (same sound, different spelling and meaning) in the English language. There are clear and logical arguments as to why these should be simplified. But I personally would not support such moves.
Language is a product of history, human movement, conquests and discoveries. Like wine it becomes richer and more complex as it ages, which for those who savour it can greatly add to it's enjoyment. English really is a mongrel language, with words taken from almost all over the globe and over long periods of time. Understanding words can help you understand the history of the people who spoke them. This is, of course, the root of J.R.R. Tolkien's created worlds: the words and their history created middle-earth, not the other way around.
Yes, this makes it a more challenging language to learn and use well. But it also provides a rich vein of meaning, interpretation, and nuance that lies deep within our literature, songs and poetry. A depth that would be disconnected, smudged over forever were we to go down the route of simplification of English; a 'chateau cardboard' variety that would be a far poorer wellspring of creativity for our writers to drink from.
English isn't an easy language to learn or to master. But it is an incomparable servant in the right hands.
