Using Examples

Imagine having a conversation with another person and feeling you understand exactly what they mean... because you've had a similar experience or because it made perfect sense to you. People love this type of connection with another because it makes them feel understood or it makes them realize others have felt exactly like them. 

Now imagine a third person who knows what each of these individuals has gone through witnessing a huge misunderstanding between each speaker and listener in said interaction. We've all watched such misunderstandings in various films, and they've often produce a comic effect, but their effect in real life might not be so funny.

This kind of miscommunication evidently happens often when people discuss ideas using abstract words, but it can also happen with the use of concrete words, though the latter can usually be avoided with clear(er) communication. I find it crucial that the parties discussing a topic have a glossary of terms with examples to which they can all refer. 

At a recent meeting with colleagues, we discussed teaching vocabulary by including word families in a passage. We all thought we were talking about the same thing...until forty minutes (!!!) into the discussion, we realized two of the colleagues had a different kind of word family in mind. 

While the rest of us were talking about words from the same family in different parts of speech, such as act (verb), action (noun), active (adjective), and actively (adverb) or create (verb), creation (noun), creative (adjective), and creatively (adverb), two colleagues thought a word family referred to a common group of letters, in which changing the first letter results in a new word with a completely different meaning, like back, hack, lack, rack, and sack. 

I got curious about this disastrous misunderstanding and googled word family only to find out many links exist to information about both kinds of word families, one kind referring to grammar and the other kind to spelling and pronunciation. The topic of our discussion had been grammar, but the other two colleagues, who happen to have young children learning to pronounce syllables and learn spelling, had assumed we were talking about pronunciation practice... for forty minutes... until I shared my experience at a school where the instructor didn't know describe and description belonged to the same word family. This made me realize the importance of using of examples, even in a glossary. 

I've always believed, and said, that the purpose of language is communication, and clear communication can only happen through effective language which is specific, not vague and concrete, not abstract. Now, I would like to add the use of examples.

Word Endings

In English, many adverbs end in ly, so one (particularly English Language Learners) may automatically think a word ending in ly must be an adverb, but this is not the case. 

Many nouns end in ly: ally, bully, family, holly, jelly, lily, reply, supply, tally, ...

Many adjectives end in ly: lovely, curly, daily, chilly, lively, elderly, jolly, manly, ...

Many verbs end in ly: comply, apply, supply, imply, fly, ...

Reflections

 

Mad Hatter

Did you know that the phrase mad as a hatter comes from mercury poisoning, also known as Mad Hatter disease? In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, fur treated with mercury was used to make felt hats, and hatters worked in small spaces and breathed toxic mercury fumes. This resulted in irrational, or mad, behavior.

Heidi Priebe

“To love someone long-term is to attend a thousand funerals of the people they used to be.”
Heidi Priebe

The Visitor

When you open the door to leave the cabin and see you have a visitor/visitur...

Steven Chuks Nwaokeke

“Refusal to engage in spiritual warfare does not exempt you from being among the next casualties of war."
Steven Chuks Nwaokeke

Book Review

 

Blaise Pascal

“The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first.”
Blaise Pascal

Reflections

 

Book Review

Chapbook

What is a chapbook?

Merriam-Webster defines a chapbook: a small book containing ballads, poems, tales, or tracts.

Writer's Digest offers a more detailed explanation:
https://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/what-is-a-poetry-chapbook#:~:text=A%20chapbook%20is%20a%20small,(Common%20poetry%20terms.)

Why I Write

Why I Write
I write...
I write to play with words.
I write to make sure I remember.
I write to get my unspoken words out of my system.
I write to let those who are stuck know there's a way out.
I write to clarify what someone else struggles to understand.
I write to show how I interpret some abstract words.
I write to organize my thoughts.
I write to add another perspective.
I write to express what bothers me.
I write to heal my heart.
I write to soothe my mind.

Roy T. Bennett

“Don't be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.”
Roy T. Bennett 

Time...

Yesterday marked one month since we — my two furry boys and I — lost Koochooloo, my little girl. Every time I'm in the kitchen, I feel her presence behind me, watching me attentively with her gorgeous eyes, her long ears reaching for the skies. I turn around and don't see her, but I know she's there...or I wish she were. I'm still training my mind to replace my painful memory of her last hours with more joyful ones created during our thirteen plus years together. My brain knows that life goes on, but my heart feels that death goes on. 

My Two Boys

 

Fat...Slim...

I recently noticed that many internet sites refer to fat chance and slim chance as interchangeable, and in some cases they might be, but the two don't have exactly the same meaning. 

When someone says fat chance, they mean extremely little or no chance, but when someone uses slim chance, they mean there is some hope.

Example:
She has a fat chance of graduating. 
(Her chances of graduating are very low to nonexistent.)
She has a slim chance of graduating.
(Her chances of graduating are low.)

Anthology: Update

Anyone who submitted their writing to me for the anthology will receive an email message from me in the next few days, letting them know whether or not their submission was accepted.

Inchmeal

Merriam-Webster's word of the day is 

inchmeal

pronounced INCH-meel

an adverb meaning

little by little; gradually

The origin of inchmeal is simple: 
inch is obviously the unit of measurement
meal is a suffix meaning "by a (specified) portion or measure at a time"

The meal part of the word is related to the modern German word mal, meaning "time" as in (how many times) also found in the German word manchmal, meaning "sometimes."

(taken from Merriam-Webster)

To see it in context or listen to the pronunciation, check the link: https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day (June 12, 2023)

The Literate Buck

Since I moved to the woods, I've been saving my kitchen scraps and daily adding them to my compost pile outside my cabin, where I also dump the contents of my lawn mower bag and all the leaves I rake. 

The last few days, I've noticed the deer come and eat my compost pile. I don't have a problem with feeding the deer, but they come a little too close to the cabin, which makes my dogs bark...a lot. 

I finally looked online to see if I could find a solution to my problem, and someone had suggested putting a sign about twenty feet away that read The Buck Stops Here. 

Marie Curie

“Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”
Marie Curie

Reflections

Reflections is available on Kindle Unlimited. 

Charles R. Swindoll

"Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it."
Charles R. Swindoll 

Languages & Life Lessons

 

Hyphens - Part Four

When two or more words are combined together make one modifier (or adjective) placed before a noun, a hyphen must be used between the words to connect them.
Example:
Her one-month-old baby waves at her.
My not-so-handsome brother married a fashion model.

Since in English adjectives don't become plural, the compound modifier will always remain singular.
Example:
1) We saw twelve-foot waves in the ocean.
2) The waves we saw were at least twelve feet high.

Note that in the first sentence (1) you don't say twelve-feet waves even though twelve is more than one and requires a plural noun after it. In the second sentence (2), however, twelve feet is correct because it comes after the noun. 

This is particularly important because many compound modifiers begin with a number. Whether the number is spelled out or in numerals and whether it is cardinal or ordinal, this rule always applies: the noun in the compound remains singular and the compound is hyphenated.
Example:
Her six-month-old baby waves at her.
I've read many nineteenth-century works. 
I've read many 19th-century works.
She's doing her 3-day diet.

Hyphens - Part Three

Many words are compound and hyphenated in English:

one-on-one
long-term
self-esteem
well-being
six-pack
all-inclusive
four-legged
father-in-law
off-road
post-traumatic
cross-country
high-quality

Some of these words lose their hyphen after a while:
e-mail 〰 email
note-book 〰 notebook
data-base 〰 database
multi-task 〰 multitask
mega-byte 〰 megabyte

Numbers between twenty-one and ninety-nine are spelled with a hyphen:
twenty-nine
fifty-five
eighty-six

Two-word simple fractions are also spelled with a hyphen.
Example:
She has finished two-thirds of the book.

Hyphens - Part Two

When we construct a compound modifier with a noun, an adverb that doesn’t end in -ly, or an adjective and a present participle (the –ing form of a verb) before a word to modify it, we need to use a hyphen in our compound modifier.

Example:
1) We often use fast-acting medications in emergencies.
2) The medications we often use in emergencies are fast acting.

Note that in the first sentence (1), fast-acting is used before medications and therefore has a hyphen, but in the second sentence (2) fast acting doesn't have a hyphen because it comes after medications, which is the noun it describes.

When we construct a compound modifier with a noun, an adverb that doesn’t end in -ly, or an adjective and a past participle before a word to modify it, we need to use a hyphen in our compound modifier.

Example:
1) The well-known writer signs her books at the library tonight.
2) The writer who signs her books at the library tonight is well known.

Note that in the first sentence (1), well-known is used before writer and therefore has a hyphen, but in the second sentence (2) well known doesn't have a hyphen because it comes after writer, which is the noun it describes. 

Hyphens - Part One

A hyphen is a punctuation mark that is used to join words or parts of words. 
A hyphen is a short horizontal line: -

It is not the same as a dash and cannot be interchanged with any of the various dashes.
It shorter than both the m-dash, which is the length of the letter m, and the n-dash, which is the length of the letter n.

Hyphens are usually used in compound modifiers when the compound modifier comes before the word it’s modifying.

Here are a few examples of compound modifiers joined with hyphens:

mind-boggling
heart-warming
soul-stirring
sleep-deprived
fun-loving
rain-soaked
sun-kissed
life-changing
heart-breaking
eye-opening

These modifiers are joined only when they come before the word they describe.
Example:
1) I had an eye-opening experience.
2) My experience was eye opening.
In the first sentence, (1), the modifier, eye-opening, comes before experience, the noun it modifies; therefore, a hyphen joins the two words.
In the second sentence, (2), the modifier, eye opening, comes after experience, the noun it modifies; therefore, no hyphen is used.

Victoria Ichizli-Bartels

Every project, however tiny, if given enough attention and peeled off worries, has the ability to bring inspiration and eagerness to do more, to create more.”

Victoria Ichizli-Bartels

Anthology Update

Many thanks to the writers who submitted their pieces to me for the anthology. I have a total of 36 submissions by 32 contributors. I will send out email messages to each person by the 20th of June and hope to publish the anthology in July. Submissions are now closed, but I can still accept short quotes / haikus until the end of June via email or Twitter DM.