English Language
In a singularly unimpressive early education, the one beacon of enlightenment for me, was English Language. I loved words and parsing and sentence deconstruction. That love has stayed with me. Unfortunately during a lifetime of professional involvement in education, reading was largely confined to digesting learned tomes and Government papers. It wasn't until I retired, that I had the time to unashamedly wallow in reading, writing and ruminating, devouring papers, magazines, and works of literature and non-fiction, of my own choosing.
Some of you I know, will be horrified to learn that I doodle on books, notes and underlinings; well it's only paper after all! As I read, I collect and collate lists of everything which attracts me; below are some of them. I hope you may be moved to comment, or offer additions.
One of the great things about the English Language, is that it easily adopts and adapts. It takes on board, words from many other languages, and calls them its own. New words are created by authors, cultures, sub-cultures and dialects. And words can often change their meaning over time.
Alternative uses and meanings of words, change according to the parlance of a particular street-culture or age group. (c.f. Words Old and New above.) It is interesting to compare the slang word with its original meaning.
Possibly the greatest explosion of new words, has come about since the invention of the computer and the Internet. Once again, it is interesting to compare the Internet word with the original meaning.
To a pedant like me, it can be quite offensive to hear words being pronounced in new ways. Research is the biggest offender; the word is research not research - which means 'to look again'. However, I argue against myself. As English is the International aeronautical and maritime language, and an official language of the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee, and the third most used World language after Mandarin and Spanish, it is hardly surprising that variations in pronunciation are evident.
Here I hesitate! I stand possibly exposed. As a successful player of Scrabble, I thought I had a good grasp of English and its vocabulary. However, there are many who can far outwit me. Each time I come across a word I don't know the meaning of, I list it and look it up in the dictionary; sometimes many dictionaries.
My extensive and on-going reading of things theological, has led me to a whole new collection of alternative names for God, offered here for your possible education and edification.
Books ReadDuring my working life, reading for pleasure was confined to holiday reading, so much time was otherwise taken up digesting Government papers and legislation on education and allied topics. It wasn't until I retired that I could choose what I read. However you will notice, that now my reading is mostly non-fiction. I prefer to take my escapism via television.