Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Language of Literature

To all my students in Literature 1, kindly copy the following.

THE LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE

What is distinctive about the language of literature?

One of the views of literature suggested in our previous discussion is that literature involves a special, or unusual, use of language. Let us explore this idea further and consider any classroom implications arising from it.

Here are a number of different texts. Read through each one and decide whether or not you think it is a literary text. If not, then think about where the text might have come from. Note down any language in the text which helped you to make your decisions.

1. As this is small Edwardian terraced house with natural light, Venetian blinds were chosen to cover the windows. They screen the street scene during the day and add to the impressions of space given by the light walls and modern furniture. Curtains in deep coral would have looked heavy, but the sunshine that streams through the blinds keeps the overall effects light.

2. Three grey geese in a field grazing.
Gray were the geese and green was the grazing.

3. As Democrats head toward a showdown with President Bush on Iraq, a leading Republican warned that they are making an all – too – familiar mistake: not listening to seasoned commanders. Rep. C.W. Bill Young (news, bio, voting record), R – Fla., said catastrophe always follows when civilians turn a deaf ear to their military officers. In the 2003 run – up to the war, Young said in an interview, administration officials dismissed a top Army officer’s estimate that securing Iraq would probably require several hundred thousand troops.

4. Give me a pure heart that I may see You, a humble heart that I may hear You, a heart of love that I may serve You, a heart of faith that I may abide in you.

5. Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?

6. His breast of chicken with tarragon and girolles goes back to the classic French repertoire: the skin of the fowl crisped to the gold, odorifeously swathed in a thick creamy sauce, golden also, piled with fleshy mushrooms fried in butter till they take on the gleam of varnished wood.

7. The acting crowd is usually the most interesting type to students of sociology because of its well – known behavior. In the acting crowds, the emotion of the group becomes intense, and the crowd performs collective action toward an object. Another more popular name for this type of crowd is the term mob. We frequently read newspapers accounts about mob behavior.

8. We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and ocean, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.

9. One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

10. One day at the pillar, three studs startled Stripe. Three big caterpillars had fallen from some place and smashed. Two seemed dead but one still wiggled. Stripe whispered, “What happened? Can I help?” He made out just a few words. “The top they’ll see…butterflies alone…”the caterpillar died.

11. I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work – a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit, something which do not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listen to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will someday stand where I am standing.

12. A butterfly was in love with a white rose. One day, the butterfly proposed to the rose, the white rose told him that when she turns red that is the only time she’ll love him. The butterfly did not fly, instead, he cut his body and spread his blood on the rose. The rose turned red and fell in love with the butterfly. However, the butterfly was no longer alive. “Love sacrifices” are sometimes useless especially if that someone doesn’t know how to appreciate. They’ll come to realize important things when it’s already too late.

13. Faced with a veering, crazy – making, constantly fragmenting contemporary world, a new breed of fiction writer is emerging. What’s remarkable about their work, which represents some of the best novels and short stories being written today, is not only how inventively it portrays the complex realities of life on the edge of the 21st century, but also how gracefully it moves beyond the literary trends of the recent past.

14. The gulls who scorn perfection for the sake of travel go nowhere, slowly. Those who put aside travel for the sake of perfection go anywhere, instantly.

15. You will begin to touch heaven. Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limits. Perfect speed my son, is being there.

“The only true law is that which leads to freedom,” Jonathan said. “There is no other.

16. She is wearing a purple tube paired with a silver skirt. Moreover, the silver skirt is sprinkled with Swarovsky crystals by King Anthony House of Gems and Crystals on its lining. As she walks along the aisle, my eyes popped into amazement because of the mind blowing beauty that she brings to the crowd.

17. Josephine, Josephine Who to these shores have come Looking for a nest, a home, Like a wandering swallow; If your fate is taking you To Japan, China or Shanghai, Don't forget that on these shores A heart for you beats high.

18. Ang iyong buhay pag-ibig ang pinakamalaking pinagmumulan ng iyong kasayahan ngayong buwan. Sa mga single, maaaring mapagtanto na ang iyong hinihintay na tao ay darating sa mga di inaasahang pagkakataon.

19. The door opened and my brother Leon and Maria came in. "Have you watered Labang?" Father spoke to me. I told him that Labang was resting yet under the barn. "It is time you watered him, my son," my father said. I looked at Maria and she was lovely. She was tall. Beside my brother Leon, she was tall and very still. Then I went out, and in the darkened hall the fragrance of her was like a morning when papayas are in bloom.

20. Nang kumalat sa Internet ang picture ni Willie Revillame kasama ang isang babaing naka – pajama ay marami ang naging espekulasyon. Agad na kinausap ng The Buzz Magazine and Wowowee host tungkol sa isyu at ipinaliwanag niyang kaibigan lang ang naturang babae, na nakitulog sa kanyang resthouse sa Tagaytay kasama ang maraming friends nila.

21. Kahit ano,
kaya kong
pasarapin.

Kahit sino,
kaya kong
pasayahin.

22. Mainit na mainit ang ugong na ang sikat na male TV and movie personality ay nahuhumaling sa isang sikat na female TV personality.

23. Ta nupay no agayatac
Iti maysa a imnas
Aoan lat’ pangripripiripac
Nga adda pacaibatugac.

Ilunodconto ti horas
Nga innac pannacayanac
Ta mamenribo coma a naseseat
No natayac idin ta nayanacac

Natural laeng ti panagbiddut,
nu ti puso ken panunot,
ket maandingay ti sulisog ken sappuyot ni panunut.

Ngem ti tao nu agbiddut weno agbasol man,
ada lata siled ti panagbabawi.
Aturen na dagiti biddut na
ket sapulen na ti nalinteg a dana
nga mangitunda kenkwana iti taeng ni ragsak ken
namnama.

24. There was a girl who argued with her boyfriend because she asked a ring for her birthday but her boyfriend gave a talking doll instead of a ring. The girl refused to accept the doll then she threw it away. The guy run as fast as he could to save the doll but an approaching car hit him. Then, he died. In the burial, the girl was crying, she grabbed the doll then hold it tight. The talking doll spoke saying, “Will you marry me? Please get the ring from the doll’s pocket, hope you like it.”

25. Waste not, want not.
In the new age of high fuel prices,
and environmental awareness.

The days of conspicuous are over,
today we face the need to do more with less.
And not to be responsible with for the world,
we live in.

26. I think I have more than enough experience. But still, I’m willing to learn more.

27. Something inside has changed. And the change came as a surprise. Some of you may say that our cover is very…Let me share with you a little secret. Our cover…it may look different, but it feels right. As a magazine, I dare say we have still so much to offer…not just a men’s magazine anymore. The changes are forthcoming and are bigger than ever. But the biggest change is …the new BACHELOR is not afraid to show that he also has a heart.

28. There was a blind girl who hated herself for being blind. She hated everyone except her boyfriend. The girl said that if she can only see the world she will marry her boyfriend. One time, someone donated eyes to her and saw everything including her boyfriend. Her boyfriend asked her, now that you can see me, will you marry me? The girl was shocked when she saw that her boyfriend is also blind and she refused to marry him. Her boyfriend walked away with tears and said, “just TAKE GOOD CARE of my EYES.”