Okie, so haven been updating my blog. Getting lazy ah...think coz i stop watching Sex and The City, so dont have the urge to type my thoughts into my laptop. Furthermore, my laptop is not a Apple one.
Anyway a Paradox of English to share............
Let's face it -- English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in ineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore it's paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guineapig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don'tgroce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, whyisn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2meese? One index, 2 indices?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, thatyou comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter,perhaps you bote your tongue?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to anasylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at aplay and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Havenoses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive onparkways?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?
Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown?Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run intosomeone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which yourhouse can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but whenthe lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up mywatch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.
Anyway a Paradox of English to share............
Let's face it -- English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in ineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore it's paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guineapig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don'tgroce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, whyisn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2meese? One index, 2 indices?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, thatyou comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter,perhaps you bote your tongue?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to anasylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at aplay and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Havenoses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive onparkways?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?
Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown?Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run intosomeone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which yourhouse can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but whenthe lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up mywatch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.
posted by Elaine at 1:02 AM
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