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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Below the fold I posted a quotation from Plutarch on his knowledge of Latin, which I'm reposting here as it may be of interest to a wider audience.
But for me, I live in a little town, where I am willing to continue, lest it should grow less; and having had no leisure, while I was in Rome and other parts of Italy, to exercise myself in the Roman language, on account of public business and of those who came to be instructed by me in philosophy, it was very late, and in the decline of my age, before I applied myself to the reading of Latin authors. Upon which that which happened to me, may seem strange, though it be true; for it was not so much by the knowledge of words, that I came to the understanding of things, as by my experience of things I was enabled to follow the meaning of words. But to appreciate the graceful and ready pronunciation of the Roman tongue, to understand the various figures and connection of words, and such other ornaments, in which the beauty of speaking consists, is, I doubt not, an admirable and delightful accomplishment; but it requires a degree of practice and study, which is not easy, and will better suit those who have more leisure, and time enough yet before them for the occupation.
I must admit that's how I sometimes feel about the foreign languages I know.
Bingley
Bingley
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'm sure that by far the greater number of the words I know how to use, I learned by encountering them in passages where
the situation made meaning clear. I simply would never have had to the time to look them up in the dictionary. But I also got more than a few words quite wrong, particularly pronunciation. My interest in language came in large part from reading "hysterical" novels that inserted foreign phrases as sort of mise en scene. There's a sample.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dr. Bill, you and I have the same learning style. What are hysterical novels, please?
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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What are hysterical novels, please?
duh, they're stories about dead white females! ;)
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
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Historical sardoodledumry.
"It was a dark and stormy night...."
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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stories about dead white females!
You mean like...oh, wait; Michael Jackson's not dead.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
You mean like...oh, wait; Michael Jackson's not dead.
Oh? Who says? He is from the neck up. Well, maybe not so much deceased as a case of arrested development.
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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arrested development
If only!
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