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Category Archives: Language
Psycholinguistic Musings
Sinew. That word can evoke, for me, images of sturdy steel bands, thick in the middle but narrowing almost to points on the ends; ribbons of metallic lies constrained at either end by truth. It’s as if truth confines the streamer of … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Philosophy, Ruminations, Writing
1 Comment
A Roundabout Tribute to Maggie Roche
I’m a fervent admirer of a handful of musicians. People who know me may understand the depth of my admiration for Leonard Cohen, whose deeply meaningful poetry set to music moves me beyond anyone else’s art. Yet, even in the … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Memories, Music, Philosophy
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Linguafile
An idea for a story came to me during a conversation with my wife yesterday. The story would have been a whimsical one in which a young boy dreams of becoming fluent in every human language and, by working hard, … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Writing
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A Turn of Phrase
I suspect this is the sixth or seventh time I’ve written about the French phrase, Le jeu n’en vaut pas la chandelle, translated into English as “the game is not worth the candle.” The phrase sums up feelings of depression … Continue reading
Posted in Depression, Language
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Ensteubulous Thursday
Soft, early morning light filtered through the windows when I woke up this morning, a highly unusual circumstance for someone who’s up well before dawn almost every day. Why I slept in is beyond me. But sleep in I did. … Continue reading
Negative Space
Negative space. That’s an interesting concept. The term refers to the space around and between one or more subjects of a visual image; it’s the space that surrounds an image. To an artist—and others who understand the concept in an … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Art, Language, Literature
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The Cleansing
Certain words convey meanings that dictionary definitions do not adequately express. One such word , in my humble opinion, is “boisterous.” A group of pre-school children might be called boisterous. But the word is inappropriate to describe a gang of violent … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Philosophy, Politics
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Blood
Some words occupy spaces only they can fill. Those words are like surviving twins; they are incomplete pairs that cannot be repaired, no matter how much energy is expended to that end. One such word is blood. Oh, one might … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking, Language
1 Comment
Letters and Numbers
What gives me reason to think I can stitch together a small sample of all the available words in the English language to create something new? Any word I might choose to use has been used before, very probably in concert … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Mathematics, Philosophy, Writing
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Petrichor
There’s a word for the smell of fresh rain, an aroma that evokes memories of my childhood better than any other. The word is petrichor, derived from the Greek words petra (stone) and ichor (the blood of the gods), coined … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Weather
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A Single Word Can Change Everything
I stumbled upon an interesting bit of wordplay this morning, courtesy of a writer-directed Facebook post. Here it is: She told him that she loved him. The post went on to say that by inserting the word ‘only’ in various places, … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Writing
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Unutterable
It has come to my attention that the French language is far more difficult for me to understand than I had earlier imagined. My mouth is not properly configured to speak, nor are my ears constructed to hear, the sounds … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdist Fantasy, Language
2 Comments
Two Hundred
Poetry can utter thoughts one dare not say aloud, nor commit to prose, because poetry is a language of suggestion, interpretation, influence. “It means what it means to you” or “It means what you want it to mean.” That vague avoidance of … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Poetry, Writing
2 Comments
Only So Far…
The difference between fear and terror is one of intensity and effect. Fear is authoritative. Terror is dominant. Fear generates a response. Terror triggers panic. Fear leads to action. Terror results in paralysis. Consider, as well, the difference between liking and loving. … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking, Language
2 Comments
And on other matters…
It seems one of my favorite phrases, “slogging through the porridge,” belongs only to me. I have used it only once in my blog (that I can find), but it escapes my lips in conversation not infrequently and it has … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Welding, Writing
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Caramel Floods
Soft and thick like flash-cooled caramel, my thoughts creep along in slow motion, their hard edges dragged around obstacles that get in their way by the more pliable core within. Thinking is, at times, an exercise in patience. When the mind … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Writing
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Un Qualunque Mattino
Some of my favorite tunes are by Gianmaria Testa, an Italian singer-songwriter. I do not understand the words to any of his music because I do not speak Italian, but I think I understand the emotions of the music. Still, I wish I … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Music
4 Comments
I Should Have Sawn This Coming
The complexity of the world around us is staggering. It’s not enough that we must be capable of acknowledging and recognizing the incalculably vast differences between butterflies and locomotives. No, we have to distinguish between components of each of them, and of … Continue reading
Skin in the Game
Here’s how it happened: I went looking for the etymology of “skin in the game.” What I found was a set of words that describe some concepts I never knew existed or, at least, I’d never thought about. A word exists, I learned, … Continue reading
Posted in Language
2 Comments
Scientific Inquiry
The older I get, the more I appreciate the magnificence of scientific inquiry and the more I appreciate its civility. Science and politics are worlds apart, one populated by people who strive to understand the world, the other by a … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Science
2 Comments
The Ides of March
In my opinion, the primary reason we know the ides of March is that Shakespeare incorporated the phrase “beware the ides of March” into Julius Caesar, a soothsayer’s warning to Caesar. His impending assassination by Brutus and Cassius would take place on … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Time
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Trends in Benign Neglect
I read something not long ago in which the term “benign neglect” was used. My memory tells me it was used to describe a suggested policy in which improvements in education would occur if the State would just stop investing time and … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Politics
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The Trouble with Words
Komorebi, as I came to learn recently, is a Japanese word meaning sunlight filtering through tree leaves. If I am to properly describe the dim, non-illuminated areas on a wall next to the komorebi coming through the window, I need a … Continue reading
Posted in Language
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The Sound of Wind Rustling in the Trees
I have added another word to my vocabulary, though I can’t guarantee it will stay. Thanks to my friend, Trish, I now know that psithurism (a noun) means, according to various sources, the sound of wind in the trees and … Continue reading
Posted in Language
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Morbid Curiosity?
I stumbled across something intriguing this morning. It was of sufficient interest to warrant the further investigation which followed. My fascination with language and its role in the human condition prompted my search and what, ultimately, might be considered morbid … Continue reading
Posted in Language
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