Swa fela wundra ...

[cosmolinguist]

My dad has always been sort of dubious at the idea of me majoring in English. I think he'd like to see me do something like business or pharmacy, something practical and boring like that. Soemthing involving math or chemistry or some other subject I can't do. It's not that he isn't supportive, he just teases me about the uselessness of majoring in English.

Today we had a grammar "quizlet." A quizlet means we have to diagram one sentence. Just so we don't forget how, I guess, now that we're talking about syntax and morphology and the political structure of England. This one was different from the previous ones, though. The sentence was in Old English.

She gave us the translation (of course; it would've been impossible without it), but we had to diagram the OE version.

As I was doing this, I wondered what my dad would think of it.

Having combined these two obscure things--diagramming and Old English--I feel even more nerdy than I did before.

Comments

[acromonkee.livejournal.com]

I hear you. Well, in this case, I read you. I am coming to a conclusion, however, and that conclusion does not go something like business or pharmacy. Then again, I live with 6 hippies in Graduate school that might have had more luck with the path less taken than the average "environmental ecology" major. (Insert English where you please).

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

With the deepest respect, although I am PRO English, don't assume you can't do other stuff. Accounting, for instance, often appeals to the detail-oriented among the English majors.

[cosmolinguist]

Oh, I agree. I plan on doing other stuff. When people ask me what I'm going to do with my English major, my usual (and only slightly smartass-ish) answer is "Graduate!" I need to have a major before they'll let me out of this place.

[exit22.livejournal.com]

I am going to randomly add you. Cause you seem to like many things that I do, blah that does sound rather normal, but none the less I am going to add you, cool?

[cosmolinguist]

Perusing recent entries, I see Stuart Davis, The Matrix, sleep ... yeah! Those are definitely things I am interested in. :-) How'd you find me?

[exit22.livejournal.com]

always lookin for fellow stuart fans, basically. I checked out who listed him as an interest, I wonder how many are into the painter one though? hmm...

[photomoviegeek.livejournal.com]

As one who rarely productively uses his English major, I am nonetheless curious to read the OE sentence that (or is it which?) prompted this post...and extra brownie points if you post a pic of your diagram. ;)

[cosmolinguist]

It would be "that." It begins a relative clause that is restrictive--it restricts the noun it's modifying. Or, as I like to think about it, "that" is used when the relative clause is necessary to the understanding of the sentence, and "which" is used when the clause is providing perhaps-interesting but not-essential information.

So, there'd be a difference between, say, "The OE sentence, which prompted the diagram, was interesting." and "The OE sentence that prompted the diagram was interesting." Do you see what I mean? It's a subtle, but sometimes important, difference. That means you're indicating which sentence, and which just adds parenthetical information about the sentence.

I was going to write the sentence, but I couldn't remember it for sure by the time I wrote this entry. When I get the quiz back, I'll let you know what it was, and if I can find a scanner that likes me, maybe I'll diagram the sentence. Unless I messed up really badly. :-)