Help cometh from English Majors

[slb2]

joew often clears up my grammar dilemmas, but I don't think he's touched this one.

How can I remember whether to double the ending consonant when changing verb tense?

Example:

shine changes to shining. But for years, I thought it changed to shinning.

The same with dine. We were dining in luxury. Not, dinning in luxury, unless we were having trouble with the candelabra.

But how can I remember this? There must be a pattern that I can't see.

If I'm pining for a simple rule and get it, should I be pinning it to my shirt? (see, I don't even know if I have the words right in that silly sentence. It's like hieroglyphics to me.)

_{One more thing, I did spell-check on this message and had to change THREE words! Y'all don't know just how bad I am about basic English.}

[liriodendron]

Anthropology major here, so I could very well be wrong, but isn't it a short vowel/long vowel thing?

Pinning vs. Pining

Dinning vs. Dining

Sinning vs. Signing

[slb2]

I'm betting it is, lirio, but I can't see the rule. If you want to maintain the short vowel, you double the consonant? For some reason that seems counterintuitive. When I want a long vowel, like to make can into cane, I have to ADD a letter. But when I want to keep a vowel short I also have to ADD a letter?

[slb2]

What's a person do with a degree in anthropology, anyway? Work with anthropods?

[liriodendron]

slb2 said:

What's a person do with a degree in anthropology, anyway? Work with anthropods?

They go to grad school.

[Thomas Scheuzger]

slb2 said:

What's a person do with a degree in anthropology, anyway? Work with anthropods?

Our stage manager got his anthropolgy degree from Harvard. Go figure.

[gailkate]

short vowel/double the consonant is the best rule you're going to find. There are always exceptions. English is made up of so many languages it's impossible to come up with a nice set of rules. (I have a feeling we talked about this once before - all the efforts to standardize spelling that failed because it was too complicated. Didn't GB Shaw try?)

What if you use this as your hook to hang the rule on?
""C'mon, you're thitting me!"
Said to someone whose information you deem suspect.


Here's a new contest for anthropologists turneed librarians. Go to http://www.demco.com:

CONTEST FOR LIBRARIANS
Tell us how much you appreciate your booktruck...in the form of a poem!

Be one of 10 winners of a Poetry Speaks CD Set and a Magnetic Poetry Kit. Plus, the Grand Prize winner will receive a $100 DEMCO Gift Certificate!

See "Words on Wheels" Poetry Contest details...

Hurry! All contest entries are due April 30th!

[liriodendron]

gailkate said:

Here's a new contest for anthropologists turneed librarians. Go to http://www.demco.com:

CONTEST FOR LIBRARIANS
Tell us how much you appreciate your booktruck...in the form of a poem!

Be one of 10 winners of a Poetry Speaks CD Set and a Magnetic Poetry Kit. Plus, the Grand Prize winner will receive a $100 DEMCO Gift Certificate!

See "Words on Wheels" Poetry Contest details...

Hurry! All contest entries are due April 30th!

Well shoot! I could conceivably kill two birds with one stone here (though it's probably against the rules of both contests) - A sonnet wherein I moon over my book truck! Now this has potential!

Good thing I checked out Poetry for Dummies the other day.

[Jane]

Yep, my older daughter's degree is in biological anthropology, different I believe from other anthropologies, but I don't know how many kinds there are. I believe there is also cultural anthropology; anything else?

Her husband's undergrad degree is also in biological anthropology.

She went on to get an MPH (masters in public health) with a focus on epidemiology. He went on to med school.

Now she is busy having many babies, and he is busy supporting them.

[michael]

I don’t have much time now, but a poem about a book-truck sounds like fun.

Maybe something like this:

Oh how I love my bookmobile
All those illiterate TV loving brats
Will become my road-kill
Yeah, when I get behind the wheel
That’s how I feel

V-8 engine with four on the floor
I'm coming at you, baby!
With books galore
Just consider me the deliverer
Of paperbacks on a rolling bookstore!


Mike

[liriodendron]

Um, Mike, I hate to rain on your parade, but a book truck actually has considerably less horsepower.




What you are describing is a bookmobile.





I've driven both. It's much easier to navigate corners with a book truck and have the books actually remain on the shelves.

[liriodendron]

For additional book truck inspiration, watch this.

[michael]

What a bummer!
I just can’t get pumped up over the book-truck. No road-kill with that sissy-mobile. Oh well.

Mike

[joew]

slb2 said:

I'm betting it is, lirio, but I can't see the rule. If you want to maintain the short vowel, you double the consonant? For some reason that seems counterintuitive. When I want a long vowel, like to make can into cane, I have to ADD a letter. But when I want to keep a vowel short I also have to ADD a letter?

It isn't just any letter. It matters that in the one case it's the letter "e" and in the other it's a consonant. To show that the vowel is long, you put an "e" after the final consonant. And the "e" becomes superfluous when lengthening the word puts another vowel there — cane/caning — although it often gets retained (like/likeable). To keep a short vowel short when you're adding a syllable, you double the consonant.

[slb2]

Joew, my eyes widened when I saw how can changed to cane with the addition of an e and then to caning when you dropped the e and added the ing.

I feel like I'm showing you all my bra size or something, that I'm revealing such an intimate aspect of my inadequate understanding of English. (Brut--don't ask)

[doctork]

liriodendron said:

slb2 said:

What's a person do with a degree in anthropology, anyway? Work with anthropods?

They go to grad school.

Yeah - my undergraduate major was anthropology, and I went to grad school all right. Medical school.

Jane, in my small liberal arts college, anthropology = cultural anthropology, but larger schools have a major division between cultural and physical anthropology.

Cultural anthropology has to do with the study of the language, social and family structure in different populations, while physical is just that - the physical characteristics that differ in different populations. It's how through skeletal characteristics one can determine the race and sex of the deceased.

Forensic anthropology is an area within physical anthropology. Forensic anthropologists are brought into areas like Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia to determine exactly what happened, and to identify the individuals in mass graves, by examining the remains.

I think it's the biological anthropologists who say that "there is no such thing as race." I believe their point is that individual differences are so great that they overshadow supposed general "racial characteristics."

Regarding cultural anthropology, I think understanding people is useful for any career, though it wasn't much help for biochemistry or pharmacology. Now physical anthro - that would have been good prep for anatomy lab.

[brutus]

slb2 said:

Joew, my eyes widened when I saw how can changed to cane with the addition of an e and then to caning when you dropped the e and added the ing.

I feel like I'm showing you all my bra size or something, that I'm revealing such an intimate aspect of my inadequate understanding of English. (Brut--don't ask)

Well, your bra size is already public knowledge! Don't ask how this came to be!

~B~

[gailkate]

//Forensic anthropology is an area within physical anthropology. Forensic anthropologists are brought into areas like Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia to determine exactly what happened, and to identify the individuals in mass graves, by examining the remains.//


There's a TV show called "Bones" which is actually quite well-written and iteresting, though I've had to look away quickly when it's too grisly. The characters all have specialities - maggots and stuff. One is an artist who can create holographic images of the victim from bones, hair, whatever is left of the body - this seems like voodoo but it may be based on some sort of real technology.

[doctork]

My husband loves that show "Bones." I sometimes watch it with him. I think the technology is real, but way too costly for most law enforcement environments.

That grisliness doesn't bother me, after all, I've seen much worse up close and personal in real life. It's medical science.

But I'm prone to faint at the sight of injured animals unless they require emergency medical attention, in which case I revert to doctor mode and do whatever is required. (then I faint or vomit when it is over) And I wouldn't even consider watching "No Country for Old Men" on DVD with my husband last night.

[Jane]

I wrote an article once about forensic anthropology, and it wasn't pretty. Oh, the article was pretty enough, but the interview...eesh. I could never be in the medical field. But I did see three of my grandchildren being born, and that was just fine. When my own first child was born, they asked if they should set up a mirror so that I could see, and I said, "Oh, my god, NO!" My second was a csection so they didn't ask.

I was skipping channels the other day and saw a sex change operation--male to female. You better believe that channel disappreared darned quick (although probably a man watching it would have fainted).

I don't know how my son in law does it, but he says it only gets to him when it's a child.

On the very first day of med school, they gave him a cadaver and started him cutting. He said it was ok until he noticed that the body had on nail polish, and he suddenly realized it was a person.

[Jane]

How did we get here from grammar??

[Thomas Scheuzger]

doctork said:

And I wouldn't even consider watching "No Country for Old Men" on DVD with my husband last night.

Why not? I've been meaning to watch that, but not if there are injured animals. For whatever reason, I can watch all kinds of people killing with little or no reaction, but I can't watch cruelty to animals.

[michael]

jane said:

How did we get here from grammar??

Two words: English Majors

Mike

[doctork]

jane said:

How did we get here from grammar??

You asked about anthropology!

And Thomas, I don't know if "No Country for Old Men" has injured animals (though I believe Hollywood is politically correct enough to require a statement that no animals were injured in the course of filming), but others said the movie was very violent - shootings, stabbings and other mayhem involving people.

I don't watch that stuff, not even the previews. Back to grammar, or at least spelling. I am pretty good at spelling thanks to Mrs. McConaughey in the 4th grade, but when I type I get lots of letter reversals. Rpeview instead of preview for example. Even with my name - krisitn.

I can at least avoid looking stupid by paying attention to SpellCheck.

[michael]

slb2 said:

I feel like I'm showing you all my bra size or something

My interest is aroused by this comment... to say the least. I suddenly feel like a teenager peeking at the neighbor lady's dainties hanging on the clothes line.

Yes, I think spring is in the air.

Mike

[slb2]

Well, something's in the air, Mike!