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Wednesday, 2 October 2013
DIFFERENT TYPES OF PRONOUNS
The Different Types of Pronouns
The term pronoun covers many words, some of
which do not fall easily under the description
given in the section What are Pronouns? There
are many different kinds of pronouns. In
general, these do not cause difficulties for
native English speakers. The list below is
mainly for reference purposes.
Demonstrative Pronouns
These pronouns are used to demonstrate (or
indicate). This , that, these and those are all
demonstrative pronouns.
Examples:
This is the one I left in the car.
(In this example, the speaker could be
indicating to a mobile phone, in which case,
the pronoun this replaces the words mobile
phone.)
Shall I take those?
Indefinite Pronouns
Unlike demonstrative pronouns, which point
out specific items, indefinite pronouns are
used for non-specific things. This is the largest
group of pronouns. All , some , any, several,
anyone , nobody, each , both , few, either,
none, one and no one are the most common.
Example:
Somebody must have seen the driver leave.
(somebody – not a specific person)
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are
looking at the stars. (Oscar Wilde)
I have nothing to declare except my genius.
(Oscar Wilde)
Interrogative Pronouns
These pronouns are used in questions.
Although they are classified as pronouns, it is
not easy to see how they replace nouns. Who ,
which , what, where and how are all
interrogative pronouns.
Example:
Who told you to do that?
Which dog won the race?
Personal Pronouns
The personal pronouns are I , you, he, she , it,
we , they, and who. More often than not (but
not exclusively), they replace nouns
representing people. When most people think
of pronouns, it is the personal pronouns that
usually spring to mind.
Example:
We can't all be heroes because somebody has
to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.
I bought some batteries, but they weren't
included.
Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns are used to show
possession. As they are used as adjectives, they
are also known as possessive adjectives. My ,
your , his , her, its, our and their are all
possessive pronouns.
Example
Have you seen her book?
(In this example, the pronoun her replaces a
word like Sarah's .
Relative Pronouns
Relative pronouns are used to add more
information to a sentence. Which , that , who
(including whom and whose ) and where are
all relative pronouns.
Examples:
Dr Adam Sissons, who lectured at Cambridge
for more than 12 years, should have known
the difference.
(In this example, the relative pronoun who
introduces the clause who studied at
Cambridge for 12 years and refers back to Dr
Adams Sissons.)
The man who first saw the comet reported it
as a UFO.
(In this example, the relative pronoun who
introduces the clause who first saw the comet
and refers back to the man .)
Absolute Possessive Pronouns
These pronouns also show possession. Unlike
possessive pronouns (see above), which are
adjectives to nouns, these pronouns sit by
themselves. Mine, yours , his, hers , ours and
theirs are all absolute possessive pronouns.
Examples:
The tickets are as good as ours .
Shall we take yours or theirs ?
Reciprocal Pronouns
Reciprocal pronouns are used for actions or
feelings that are reciprocated. The two most
common reciprocal pronouns are each other
and one another .
Examples:
They like one another .
They talk to each other like they're babies.
Reflexive Pronouns
A reflexive pronoun ends ...self or ...selves
and refers to another noun or pronoun in the
sentence (usually the subject of the sentence).
The reflexive pronouns are: myself, yourself,
herself , himself, itself, ourselves ,
yourselves and themselves.
Examples:
The dog bit itself.
(In this example, the intensive pronoun itself
refers back to the noun the dog.)
Are you talking to yourself?
Intensive (or Emphatic) Pronouns
An intensive pronoun (sometimes called an
emphatic pronoun ) refers back to another
noun or pronoun in the sentence to emphasise
it (e.g., to emphasise that it is the thing
carrying out the action).
Examples:
John bakes all the bread himself .
(In this example, the intensive pronoun himself
refers back to the noun John .)
The cat opened the door itself.
The Shadow Lines
The Shadow Lines Amitav Ghosh (1988)
Author: Amitav Ghosh
Keywords: The Shodow Lines
Year: 1988
Language: English
This is a novel called "The Shadow Lines"
written by Bengali Indian novelist known for
his English Language. He lives in New York.
[The Shadow Lines (1988) is a Sahitya Akademi
Award-winning novel[1] by Indian-Bengali
writer Amitav Ghosh. It is a book that captures
perspective of time and events, of lines that
bring people together and hold them apart,
lines that are clearly visible from one
perspective and nonexistent from another.
Lines that exist in the memory of one, and
therefore in another's imagination. A narrative
built out of an intricate, constantly
crisscrossing web of memories of many people,
it never pretends to tell a story. Rather it
invites the reader to invent one, out of the
memories of those involved, memories that
hold mirrors of differing shades to the same
experience.]
Questions from Justice
Define a dumb show. How is is revealed in Justice.
In a play,a dumb show is a mute scene. In it, the characters do not utter and no conversation takes place.
In Justice by John Galsworthy,the third scene of Act III is a dumd show. Falder is in his solitary confined cell. He craves for companies . He,in a desperated bid,responds to the banging sound of the bright tin-lid. The show thus exposes the harsh harmful effect on the psychology of the convict behind bars.
Sunday, 30 June 2013
To Autumn by John Keats... Stanza wise Summery
Keats wrote "To Autumn" after enjoying a lovely autumn day; he described his experience in a letter to his friend Reynolds:
"How beautiful the season is now--How fine the air. A temperate sharpness about it. Really, without joking, chaste weather--Dian skies--I never lik'd stubble fields so much as now--Aye better than the chilly green of the spring. Somehow a stubble plain looks warm--in the same way that some pictures look warm--this struck me so much in my Sunday's walk that I composed upon it."
This ode is a favorite with critics and poetry lovers alike. Harold Bloom calls it "one of the subtlest and most beautiful of all Keats's odes, and as close to perfect as any shorter poem in the English Language." Allen Tate agrees that it "is a very nearly perfect piece of style"; however, he goes on to comment, "it has little to say."
This ode deals with the some of the concerns presented in his other odes, but there are also significant differences. (1) There is no visionary dreamer or attempted flight from reality in this poem; in fact, there is no narrative voice or persona at all. The poem is grounded in the real world; the vivid, concrete imagery immerses the reader in the sights, feel, and sounds of autumn and its progression. (2) With its depiction of the progression of autumn, the poem is an unqualified celebration of process. (I am using the words process, flux, and change interchangeably in my discussion of Keats's poems.) Keats totally accepts the natural world, with its mixture of ripening, fulfillment, dying, and death. Each stanza integrates suggestions of its opposite or its predecessors, for they are inherent in autumn also.
Because this ode describes the process of fruition and decay in autumn, keep in mind the passage of time as you read it.
Keats describes autumn with a series of specific, concrete, vivid visual images. The stanza begins with autumn at the peak of fulfillment and continues the ripening to an almost unbearable intensity. Initially autumn and the sun "load and bless" by ripening the fruit. But the apples become so numerous that their weight bends the trees; the gourds "swell," and the hazel nuts "plump." The danger of being overwhelmed by fertility that has no end is suggested in the flower and bee images in the last four lines of the stanza. Keats refers to "more" later flowers "budding" (the -ing form of the word suggests activity that is ongoing or continuing); the potentially overwhelming number of flowers is suggested by the repetition "And still more" flowers. The bees cannot handle this abundance, for their cells are "o'er-brimm'd." In other words, their cells are not just full, but are over-full or brimming over with honey.
Process or change is also suggested by the reference to Summer in line 11; the bees have been gathering and storing honey since summer. "Clammy" describes moisture; its unpleasant connotations are accepted as natural, without judgment.
Certain sounds recur in the beginning lines--s, m, l. Find the words that contain these letters; read them aloud and listen. What is the effect of these sounds--harsh, explosive, or soft? How do they contribute to the effect of the stanza, if they do?
The final point I wish to make about this stanza is subtle and sophisticated and will probably interest you only if you like grammar and enjoy studying English:
The first stanza is punctuated as one sentence, and clearly it is one unit. It is not, however, a complete sentence; it has no verb. By omitting the verb, Keats focuses on the details of ripening. In the first two and a half lines, the sun and autumn conspire (suggesting a close working relationship and intention). From lines 3 to 9, Keats constructs the details using parallelism; the details take the infinitive form (to plus a verb): "to load and bless," "To bend...and fill," "To swell...and plump," and "to set." In the last two lines, he uses a subordinate clause, also called a dependent clause (note the subordinating conjunction "until"); the subordinate or dependent clause is appropriate because the oversupply of honey is the result of--or dependent upon--the seemingly unending supply of flowers.
The ongoing ripening of stanza I, which if continued would become unbearable, has neared completion; this stanza slows down and contains almost no movement. Autumn, personified as a reaper or a harvester, crosses a brook and watches a cider press. Otherwise Autumn is listless and even falls asleep. Some work remains; the furrow is "half-reap'd," the winnowed hair refers to ripe grain still standing, and apple cider is still being pressed. However, the end of the cycle is near. The press is squeezing out "the last oozings." Find other words that indicate slowing down. Notice that Keats describes a reaper who is not harvesting and who is not turning the press.
Is the personification successful, that is, does nature become a person with a personality, or does nature remain an abstraction? Is there a sense of depletion, of things coming to an end? Does the slowing down of the process suggest a stopping, a dying or death? Does the personification of autumn as a reaper with a scythe suggest another kind of reaper--the Grim Reaper?
Speak the last line of this stanza aloud, and listen to the pace (how quickly or slowly you say the words). Is Keats using the sound of words to reinforce and/or to parallel the meaning of the line?
Spring in line 1 has the same function as Summer in stanza I; they represent process, the flux of time. In addition, spring is a time of a rebirth of life, an association which contrasts with the explicitly dying autumn of this stanza. Furthermore, autumn spells death for the now "full-grown" lambs which were born in spring; they are slaughtered in autumn. And the answer to the question of line 1, where are Spring's songs, is that they are past or dead. The auditory details that follow are autumn's songs.
The day, like the season, is dying. The dying of day is presented favorably, "soft-dying." Its dying also creates beauty; the setting sun casts a "bloom" of "rosy hue" over the dried stubble or stalks left after the harvest. Keats accepts all aspects of autumn; this includes the dying, and so he introduces sadness; the gnats "mourn" in a "wailful choir" and the doomed lambs bleat (Why does Keats use "lambs," rather than "sheep" here? would the words have a different effect on the reader?). It is a "light" or enjoyable wind that "lives or dies," and the treble of the robin is pleasantly "soft." The swallows are gathering for their winter migration.
Keats blends living and dying, the pleasant and the unpleasant, because they are inextricably one; he accepts the reality of the mixed nature of the world.
Monday, 18 March 2013
The Lamb
The Lamb by William Blake
Little lamb, who made thee?
Does thou know who made thee,
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little lamb, who made thee?
Does thou know who made thee?
Little lamb, I'll tell thee;
Little lamb, I'll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and He is mild,
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Little lamb, God bless thee!
Little lamb, God bless thee!
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