Oh Language

Oh Language

Dr. R Rangarajan has flung a question: Met Mr. X , Met with Mr. X , Which is correct? All such usage confusions owe themselves to differences between British traditions and American variation in using English.

Met Mr. X [British],

Met with Mr. X [American].                                                  

 In British type, met with is used in connection with unexpected/ unplanned happenings like He met with a highway accident. Generally for any planned meet the usage is He met the chairman /President last night. [British usage].                 But, the American usage is He met with the chairman/President last night. This latter style of usage is popular in so-called English Channels in India, that too often follow American pattern though they use certain other expressions as in British mode. So, what is presented through our TV Channels has to be assessed for correctness; I mean any usage has to stick to one pattern; it may be British or American, so that learners follow one version. Mixed patterns are better avoided. I may sound arrogant but I am afraid that unwittingly a new genre in English would establish in due course , destroying authenticity: our overseas aspirants  to Education from India would be strictly filtered through ‘language tests’.

Oh  LANGUAGE   --  ANOTHER  FACET

Our Sunday postings have been devoted to English.

Well, it is time that I clarified a few things before any one draws unfounded inferences.

1 I am not a student of English literature.

2 I have not had any formal training to teach English even at rudimentary level. 

3 I do not assume to know any better than anyone known or unknown to me.

 4 Brass tacks- at best it is familiarity that arms me with the courage [audacity?] to dwell on the varied forms of expressing ideas in English.  

5 With no ‘reservation’ I submit that other than familiarity and a reasonably long tenure [37years] as a ‘Lecturer’, I hope to survive honourably through such sessions of ‘communicating’.

6 One thing is clear; nothing goes down well with our viewers, as they seem to have far more serious priorities over such trivia as English.

With no suggestions [requested in episode 30 Oh Language] over the topics that viewers may prefer, Dr. R Ramgagarajan had posted some topics in WA, though he generally responds under the blog post itself. Thus it escaped attention till Fri day last]. MEANWHILE, I had chosen  to embark on the domain of ‘Quotes’ to begin with.

Quotes are indeed the finest elixir of time-tested truth expressed in the most articulate phraseology, rich in simplicity.  Our present effort of ‘reminiscing quotes’ starts from the works of John Milton [1608- 1674] an English poet often cited as a polemicist [one who takes strong / aggressive positions against certain ideology or opinion,-political or religion-related]. He is said to have been a mystic poet. But, an opinion that he was richly religious and tried to understand the ways of God to man is also found in references to John Milton.

 Quite subtle and ‘telling’ are the ways of Milton.

Whatever way one may understand Milton, selecting items of ‘quotes’ from Milton’s works is a mental confrontation between what to ‘love’ and what to ‘leave’. Such is the predicament that one has to face.

If so, what of lesser mortals like me?                     

 Now, on to ‘Quotes’

Solitude sometimes is best society.

It suggests that on occasions [with none around] your mind is a mine of ideas, thoughts and analytic options enriching the experience of [self] interaction. Milton has used ‘poetic licence, as he employs the superlative term   ‘best’ without the definite article ‘the’. Of course there are restrictions over the definite articles as in Best Wishes and Best Compliments as none can claim that his/her Wish / Compliment is the best.

The best apology against false accusers is silence

A much needed guidance comes from this quote. The message is ‘false accusations are effectively destroyed by silence; attempting to reply them can only help prolonging the argument over a baseless statement.

None can love freedom heartily but good men, the rest love not freedom but licence

A clear segregation between freedom and licence is the cryptic message. Freedom is for the virtuous and law-abiding, because it comes with responsibility while ‘licence’ is permission without responsibility. 

Reason is also choice

Reason [the act of logical deduction by deep assessment] opens up different options.

The childhood shows the man as morning shows the day.

This quote is explicit in that what would come by is indicated early –be it human life or the day’s weather.

If any viewer perceives some other idea from these ‘quotes’ kindly post it on the blog page itself, helping all of us to stand the benefit of erudition.

Before winding up the present piece, I have an observation to make.

“Politics is the last resort of the --------” is a well-known expression credited to George Bernard Shaw. But it is, also said that Samuel Johnson was the author of the utterance and that Shaw had used it.  The present day scenario tempts the following inference.  Being   their last resort, they resort to Resort politics, lest their members should resort to Horse trading. Being a horse trade, they readily jump fence [like horses hopping over hurdles] crossing hurdles to join new huddles.  Resort politics is no fence to contain horse trade trends- a harsh reality.

Regards

To continue ….