Adverbs Inside Infinitives

I’ve written about this before, but hey, I have a comic!

Everybody knows about the TV show (or was it a movie?) that started with something about “to boldly go where…” and you probably had an English teacher (if you’re old enough) who said not to do that, you should say “boldly to go…” or maybe “to go boldly.” You might remember that I said that this rule was promulgated by Latinists who wanted English to be more like Latin. Baloney! Put those adverbs right there in the middle of the verb! (If you’re going to use an adverb, anyway. Try your sentence with a better verb and no adverb.)

So here’s the comic. See the second cell:

Thank you, Scott. I’ve been hanging onto this comic since 2014 and only now got around to finally using it. Shame on me.

By the way, at the top of that second cell, he writes, “have only noticed…” a similar construction.

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I don’t often let someone else do my work, but that’s basically what this post is. I haven’t (yet) seen the movie Arrival, though several people have recommended it to me because it’s about a linguist figuring out an unknown language. The link below is to an article about hos the linguist did it. It’s kind of a spoiler for me, because it turns out the technique is about exactly how you learn Greek. Look for phoneme patterns. We’d say things like “oi is the sign of the optative,” and “a nasal infix goes with the present tense.”

The first part of the article describes things I (and you other students of inflected languages) already know. Then the article applies it to the language in the movie, which the movie only touches on, apparently, but at least it’s there. Gratifying and interesting even if I now know how the movie works.

Here’s the link:

http://stephanhurtubise.tumblr.com/post/154076072369/how-louise-solved-heptapod-b

If Latin is as high-falootin a language as you can have, what’s the lowest? Slang, of course. Everybody disparages slang, and everybody uses it. I suppose we mainly differ in which slang words we use, and which we don’t.

I’m not going to say a whole lot about this subject except to say that some folks study the topic rather seriously (I suppose everything is a topic of serious study for somebody), and a dictionary of slang was just released, and it’s online! That means you can go read it!

Green’s Dictionary of Slang

And for a commentary, go here.

This thing has a lot of words that I didn’t even know were words. Browse around and you might notice that a lot of accepted words started out as slang, and maybe some words that you think are slang aren’t. Try looking up your name.

Sometimes I wonder how Mr. Green defined slang. I looked up “roger” and didn’t see a reference to it as a synonym for yes or agreement.

Anyway, I invite you to go waste some time looking up some words.

If you didn’t read my previous post about these two words, do so now. You need its definitions. And one more definition: chaotic. A chaotic system is completely deterministic, but is impossible to forecast because you can’t describe the initial conditions in enough detail. that’s why weather forecasts are only for a week or so, and they are often wrong. Our atmosphere has no free will, but we have too many things to measure to be very accurate.

I have long held the opinion that our country’s society, and it’s relations to other countries is so complicated that it’s impossible to predict with certainty the the outcome (outcomes) of a governmental policy decision will be, particularly when you take differnt time spans into account. I used this idea to comfort myself when someone I didn’t like got elected. In many respects it doesn’t matter who’s in charge because neither you nor they can tell for sure what will be the full effects of their decisions.

I just ran into this thought-provoking article by  a mathematician who formalizes my opinion. I was right!

Emotional trauma happens to all of us; perhaps the most traumatic being the death of a loved one. When this happens, we often feel sympathy for the person or persons left behind. If you want to express your sympathy to the person, a note of condolence is appropriate. Here’s how.

1. Hand write the note on notepaper. Use personalized note paper if you have it. You may use a commercially printed card if you include a handwritten note in it.
2. Address the person by their first name unless it’s someone like your boss or teacher.
3. The first sentence should say something like “I’m sorry to learn about the loss of your husband.” You can use “hear” instead of “learn.” Phrases like “so sorry,”  “was saddened,” are okay, too. The main thing is to say you’re sad and to mention the reason for the sadness.
4. Say something nice about the deceased. “He was such an inspiration to me,” “He had a wonderful sense of humor,” Everyone at work liked him.”
5. Do not say anything about a loss of your own! It’s tempting to put yourself in the same camp as the mourner, but don’t. Nothing about you.
6. Do not offer anything about making the best of it. Stuff like “It happens to all of us,” “Now you don’t have to take care of him any more,” “He’s in a better place now,” or any advice about how to get over the sadness.
7. Make a non-specific offer to help. “If you think of anything I can do to help, let me know.” If you say something specific, such as “Let’s do lunch next week,” or “I’m bringing over a casserole,” do not fail to follow up on it. They will remember your offer.
8. Sign it “Love,” and your name if they’re a close friend; otherwise, just sign your name.

Sometimes you will be with the person, such as at a visitation, or you stopped by to drop off that casserole. If the person wants to talk, shut up and listen. Let them talk it out. Do not compare misfortunes, do not offer advice! They’ll ask if they want any advice, and they don’t want to hear how someone else had it worse.

Wishing you a healthy and happy holiday season,

Rogers

(Okay, that salutation was my offbeat sense of humor. Don’t use it in a sympathy card.)