OK, this story does not have anything to do with being a teacher. Rather, it has nothing to do with ME being a teacher. I'm currently taking a class in Semantics as part of my master's program. I've mostly given up on reading the book because it is so dense and incomprehensible that it makes me question any intellectual ability I ever thought to possess. Here's a sample from the first chapter:
Where what licenses the implication has to do with the expectations about the reasons people talk and about their typical strategies in using language, we say that A implicates (or conversationally implicates) B
I actually understand this sentence now (I think), but I had to read it about fifty times before I got it. But, hello, this is the first chapter! If you can't make the introductory chapter simple, there is a problem. Well, we are now in the second to last chapter. I begrudgingly opened it today to see if it would help clarify a homework problem. Here's what I came across:
A developmental story like that sketched for kinship terms might be told, mutatis mutandis, about the causative and inchoative verbs we considered earlier
Excuse me? Mutatis mutandis????? Really? We're throwing out an obscure Latin phrase in a textbook whose subtitle is "An INTRODUCTION to Semantics"??? I will give a dollar to anyone who knows the meaning of mutatis mutandis without looking it up.
I understand this is a book written by language nerds, for language nerds but it seems to be assuming a little bit too much about its audience. I got a PERFECT SCORE on the verbal section of the GRE for crying out loud! I'm smart! I have a good vocabulary!! The concepts in this book are challenging enough; why do they have to be made even more challenging by obscure, confusing language? Shouldn't people who are writing a book about the meaning of language and how to disambiguate it be able to write clear sentences? Must they force their brilliance down my throat? I give! Chierchia and McConnell-Ginet, I bow down to your linguistic prowess! Rant over.
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7 comments:
You are a verbal master, I will give you that.
I was lost on word # 3 in the first sentence. I don't think I can really wrap my head around the whole sentence.
Quinn used to have me read stuff from work, written in business-speak. I didn't get it. I need regular talk. Not stupid talk, just regular talk. At least I hope I don't need stupid talk....
Yeah, I think I only understand that sentence because I learned about it in class so I know what it's talking about.
Part of me wants to get into academia and start a revolution of clear writing. It's a sickness. Is that really how we need to prove that we're smart? By being incomprehensible? And you definitely don't need stupid talk!
That's how I feel when I listen to National Spelling Bees.
Mutatis mutandis = Mutation and mutants. It's about the X-Men of course.
Easy peasy.
I can't believe you got a perfect score on the verbal part of the GRE. No wonder you can't help but correct people's speach!
Wow, Mary you are so smart! S-M-R-T! It is all coming together now. I can't believe I never bragged to you about my GRE score. It's pretty much all I talk about now.
Those sentences made my head hurt.
I think you should start a revolution Jenica!
One of the good things about journalism is the goal to do just what you are talking about...take complicated things and make them understandable. Our professor always told us to write "shorter, sharper and stronger." Of course semantics are way different then dumbing down a news story...but I agree with your goal.
I didn't know about your GRE score either. Totally impressive!
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