 sj |
||
|
||
BS: Rhymes to teach English
|
|
|
|||||||
|
BS: Rhymes to teach English |
Share Thread
|
||||||
|
Subject: BS: Rhymes to teach English From: Airymouse Date: 12 Jun 14 - 04:51 PM I vaguely remember a song, which I believe was in support of Robert Lowth's whacky ideas about "shall and "will". It began There is a flower in our garden We call it 'daffodil And if you ... My father had the idea that people might mispronounce "asterisk", though it's pronunciation seems straightforward. Anyway he had the following verse: Mary upon the ice did frisk How foolish of her her * Anything from Willard Espy should not count, because he must have written a thousand poems to teach English. Here's one from Ogden Nash. Though a baseball may be hit, not hitted The past tense of fit is always fitted The sole exception worth a haricot Is Joshua fit de battle of Jericho I hope these examples give you the thread of the thread. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Rhymes to teach English From: Lighter Date: 12 Jun 14 - 06:25 PM > Robert Lowth's whacky ideas about "shall and "will". Proposed in 1762, no longer worth considering, but not as whacky as is usually claimed. Prof. J. L. Hulbert of the University of Chicago showed in 1947 that English (but possibly not Scottish) letter writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries generally observed the basic "shall/will" rule of intentionality long before any grammarian told them to. None of them was absolutely consistent, of course, any more than we're absolutely consistent in our use of the subjunctive. But apparently they did unconsciously observe the "rule" most of the time. Those who think Lowth's distinction was utterly arbitrary base their belief on a 1925 article by C.C. Fries, who - unfortunately - looked only at the largely *spoken* language of English plays. (He found that "I will" had always predominated.) Bottom line: Lowth's distinction between "I will" and "I shall" is quite consistent with formal, written usage of the 17th and 18th centuries, though not with the usage of everyday speech. (I learned this stuff in grad school, and I've been waiting too long not to use it now!) |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Rhymes to teach English From: Bill D Date: 12 Jun 14 - 08:55 PM The original was: "Mary had a little plane And in it she would frisk- But when she flew it upside down, Her little *" ------------------- "The wind was rough And cold and blough. She kept her hands Inside her mough." -------------------- |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Rhymes to teach English From: meself Date: 12 Jun 14 - 11:15 PM Though most eschew the usage As outmoded and defunctive, I insist some clauses be In the mandative subjunctive. (Which is, I hope, the last I say on that subject!). |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Rhymes to teach English From: LadyJean Date: 13 Jun 14 - 12:13 AM Whales have calves. Cats have kittens. Bears have cubs. Bats have bittens. Swans have Cygnets. Seals have puppies. But guppies just have little guppies. Ogden Nash again. Except for the bittens accurate. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Rhymes to teach English From: Airymouse Date: 13 Jun 14 - 09:24 AM Meself Me too, or should I say, I also. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Rhymes to teach English From: GUEST, topsie Date: 14 Jun 14 - 07:23 AM Once, when I was travelling north through Scotland by train, there was a sudden, very loud announcement saying: "AT CRIANLARICH THIS TRAIN SHALL SPLIT!" It sounded like the voice of a wrathful God, and I was quite expecting a thunderbolt to divide the train from end to end. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Rhymes to teach English From: Mrrzy Date: 15 Jun 14 - 01:01 AM Turlututu chapeau pointu to do the French "u" sound... |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Rhymes to teach English From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 15 Jun 14 - 01:28 PM English has several vowel sounds that are foreign to major foreign languages (hmmm, back up and find a synonym). The "yew" sound is not heard in Spanish. Vowels are ah, ay, ee, o, uu - hard to put in writing without using those peculiar symbols found in the OED. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Rhymes to teach English From: Jim Carroll Date: 15 Jun 14 - 02:35 PM The standard 'Miss Pringle's 'English as it should be spoken' chestnut, "How now, brown cow", was Liverpudianised to, Tarra Teresa, see yer Thersdy" Jim Carroll |
