A Narrative Commentary

A Narrative CommentaryBen CharlesKB Bridge

Presented at the Sakhalin Regional Universal Scientific Library (Informational Center of International Cooperation) 24th April, 2014

Program Timelines

Part one– India: Magical, Mystical and PhilosophicalPresentation begins

Part one– India: Magical, Mystical and Philosophical Presentation ends

Part two– The English Language: History, Mystery, PoetryPresentation Ends

Q & A– DiscussionTime for participants to talk

6:30pm

6:50pm

7:20pm

6:50pm

7:20pm

Part two– The English Language: History, Mystery, PoetryPresentation Begins

•Part one: India: Magical, Mystical, PhilosophicalPopulation: 1,210,193,422 (2011)

Major cities: New Delhi (Capital) Bombay (Financial Capital), Calcutta (Capital of the Old British Raj), Madras (Cultural Capital), Bangalore (IT Capital)

Government: Largest Democracy in the World

Total No. of States: 28

Total no. of Union Territories: 7

Economy: US $ 1.842 trillion; 11th largest by market exchange rates - US $ 4.962 trillion, GDP 5.8% (20 year average), Labor Force – 486.6 million. (based on IMF data)

•Part one: India: Magical, Mystical, Philosophical






•Part two: The English Language: History, Mystery, Poetry

DEEP IS THE OCEAN, ENDLESS THE SKIES,COUNTLESS THE SAND, THE LANGUAGE

THAT BINDS;

SCATTERED BY WIT, CONFUSED BY LIT,O BABEL O BABEL, ENGLISH SHALL KNIT.

BENTo know English is to be a global person;

to know English is to be a modern person;

to know English is to be an educated person.


•Part two: The English Language: History, Mystery, Poetry C

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•Part two: The English Language: History, Mystery, Poetry S

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•Part two: The English Language: History, Mystery, Poetry A Simple Example

I am suffering from a SICKNESS (Old English)I am suffering from an ILLNESS (Old Norse)I am suffering from an INFIRMITY (French)I am suffering from an AFFLICTION (Latin)

Another Example (animals and their meats)

Deer (German) – Venison (French)Cow (German) – Beef (French)Swine / Pig (German) – Pork (French)Sheep / Lamb (German) – Mutton (French)

Refer Pg. 16


The general explanation at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary states:

The Vocabulary of a widely diffused and highly cultivated living language is not a fixed quantity circumscribed by definite limits... there is absolutely no defining line in any direction: the circle of the English language has a well-defined centre but no discernible circumference.

The current FAQ (frequently asked questions section) for the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) further states:

How many words are there in the English language? There is no single sensible answer to this question. It's impossible to count the number of words in a language, because it's so hard to decide what actually counts as a word


The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (OED2) includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy:

It embraces not only the standard language of literature and conversation, whether current at the moment, or obsolete, or archaic, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectal usage and slang (Supplement to the OED, 1933).

In December 2010 a joint Harvard/Google study discovered that the language contains 1,022,000 words and expands at the rate of 8,500 words per year. The findings came from a computer analysis of 5,195,769 digitized books. Others have estimated a rate of growth of 25,000 words each year. English language has doubled in size in the last century, Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent, The Telegraph, 16 December 2010.

•Part two: The English Language: History, Mystery, Poetry AU PAIR (V.): Au pair, the noun meaning "...a young girl learning the language of a foreign country while rendering certain services in return for hospitality," has been kicking around the OED since first being published in 1933. It took 80 years for the Oxford English Dictionary to recognize the verb form, meaning exactly what it says: "to act as an au pair for (a person or family).“

BRAGGADOCIOUS (ADJ.): Characterized by braggadocio; boastful, arrogant. A caution for international readers looking to pepper conversations with the bulky adjective: Oxford Dictionaries Online states that its usage is "informal, chiefly U.S."

CLUNKER (N.): An old or dilapidated vehicle or machine, especially a car. Also: a large, ungainly or inelegant example of something, also with etymological roots as an informal North American word. Its less literal but equally blunt secondary entry defines a clunker as "an unsuccessful effort; a failure, a 'dud.'“

DEFRIEND (V.): According to Oxford Dictionaries Online's quick definition, it means "another term for 'unfriend.'" (Side note: "unfriend" was the Oxford Word of the Year in 2009. The 2013 honoree, in case you missed it, was "selfie.") The Oxford English Dictionary offers this slightly more detailed definition instead: "to remove (a person) from a list of friends or contacts on a social networking website."


FLASH MOB (N.): A large public gathering at which people perform an unusual or seemingly random act and then disperse, typically organized by means of the Internet or social media. The addition marks the second appearance in the Oxford English Dictionary for "flash mob." The first entry? A slang historical definition of the phrase as "a group of thieves, confidence tricksters, or other petty criminals, esp. ones who assume respectable or fashionable dress or behavior; such people considered as a class."

LIVE BLOG (N.): A blog providing commentary on an event while it is taking place, esp. in the form of frequent short updates. Making "live-blogging" a verb requires a hyphen and an object that was live-blogged. Live-blogging joins the dictionary ten years after "blog" first appeared in the March 2003 edition of the OED.

MOCHACCINO (N.): Cappuccino coffee containing chocolate syrup or flavoring; a cup of this. Though the word was a new addition to the Oxford English Dictionary in June of 2013, the Oxford Dictionaries website proves that the portmanteau of "mocha" and "cappuccino" is not all that new—the term originated back in the 1980s. It comes iced, too: the word also applies to "a similarly flavored frozen drink.“

MOUSEOVER (N.): The action of moving a pointer on to an element of a graphical user interface or web page; an event (esp. a visual change) triggered by this. Oxford Dictionaries offers a second definition for the word, generally used as a modifier for annoying web-surfing ads: "an image or hyperlink that appears when a cursor is moved over a specific point on a web page."

•Part two: The English Language: History, Mystery, Poetry The most popular word award in 2013 was conferred to the word SELFIE. This noun is classified as INFORMAL and is used mostly to describe self-portraits using a hand-held device and published through online media. The definition goes something like this:

A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smart-phone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website: 'occasional selfies are acceptable, but posting a new picture of you every day isn’t necessary'.

The 2012 word of the year according to the Oxford Online Dictionary was “To Gif”. Wonder what that means? Now until you go and find out it will remain a MYSTERY.


“You taught me language, and my profit on’t / Is, I know how to curse” (The Tempest)

The English language has a plethora of words that are used on a daily basis to express every kind of emotion. Words like S**T, Stupid, Idiot, etc. are a part of common diction and can be used to kindle a laugh or wound a heart. And, like Shakespeare said it beautifully, we learn a language and most of the times, the first words we learn are the CURSE WORDS.


“That man that hath a tongue, I say is no man, if with his tongue he cannot win a woman.” The Two Gentlemen of Verona)

Every man knows how he has had to employ his tongue to woo a woman; and every woman knows how she had to use her tongue to entrap her man. The young and the young at heart have always used language to court and un-court. We call it ‘falling in love’. Have you ever wondered why we call it ‘falling’ in love? To Fall in Love – is it an act of FALLING?


“Love like a shadow flies when substance love pursues; pursuing that that flies, and flying what pursues.” (The Merry Wives of Windsor)

Well if you think ‘falling in love’ is an act of falling, Shakespeare seems to suggest that love is also like a ‘shadow’ flying. Now if you try catching your shadow, you will find that it will always fly away from you. Try it. But if you run away from your shadow, it will faithfully follow you where ever you go. So pursue not your shadow, let your shadow pursue you.


“Go to your bosom; knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know” (Measure for Measure)

So what does your heart know? And if you were to knock on the doors of your heart, what would you discover. Is language a matter of the heart or is it a matter of the head? Is there a difference? We fall in love with our hearts, but we acquire knowledge with our heads. And therein lies the fallacy, for what is learnt with the head, stays but for a season; but what we fall into with our hearts, stays forever, even if after a season it flees.


“Since mine own doors refuse to entertain me, I’ll knock elsewhere, to see if they’ll disdain me” (The Comedy of Errors)

And after much knocking at my own door, I find an empty, hollow space filled with emptiness; and then I turn to other doors, knocking, banging, kicking, and every door that opens shows me nothing more than the emptiness I found in the hallowed space, that is my heart.


“He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man. He that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him.” “Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.” (Much Ado About Nothing)

The heart is truly deceptive for it knows not what it wants. The eye is never satisfied with what it sees. The hands never full with what it touches. The bosom never satisfied with what it feels. An arrow here, a trap there, a pitfall is all that we finally settle for – and Cupid has the last laugh.


“This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy, this Senior Junior, giant dwarf…Cupid.” (Love’s Labour’s Lost)

I don’t think there has ever been a more appropriate description of CUPID: Wimpled – to ripple, as water (the water ripples not forever, it needs to be stirred ever so often to keep it rippling or wimpling); Whining – to give or make a long, high-pitched complaining cry or sound (usually used to describe the sound made by a dog – the dog whined and scratched at the back door); Purblind – To have impaired or defective vision, partially blind (Now I suppose we know where the saying: “Love is Blind” comes from); ‘senior, junior, giant dwarf’ – a beautiful way to say, big, small, overgrown insignificant WHIMP.


“Love looks not with eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” “The course of true love never did run smooth.” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

Now Cupid is not the only universally cherished symbol of the human enterprise which is painted blind. There is another symbol of human ingenuity which is sculptured blind. Can you think of which one?


“…that in the course of justice none of us should see salvation…” (The Merchant of Venice)

Now Justice… I call it the other end of the rainbow… in fundamental character, the same: if LOVE is blind so is JUSTICE …


“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” (As you like it)

Greater tragedy has never been, this way or that, the path does lead nowhere, or should I say, that, every path we choose must end is some form of folly…


“My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.” (The taming of the shrew)

It is a little piece of flesh that is set behind a prison of white pearly grills, and yet, when let loose can set the world on fire; the tongue, is the escalator by which the imaginations of the heart find their way to the world outside – release it and the world will know if it is a conveyor of wisdom or of foolishness; either ways, when you drop a seed, it must first die, to give new life; but this life will only corrupt and return even wisdom to folly – now Themis has the last laugh…


“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” (All’s well that ends well)

Finally, In spite of Cupid and Themis, laugh they may, All’s Well That Ends Well…

THANK YOU

TIME TO TALK & ASK QUESTIONS

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A Narrative Commentary

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