Chapter 9 Syntax

Chapter nine focuses on syntax which deals with the structure and ordering of components within a sentence. The chapter begins by discussing a rather novel approach to syntactic analysis which was inspired by the great linguist Noam Chomsky. Chomsky takes a mathematical approach to the structure of language in which there is an explicit formula that will produce well-formed sentences; this is otherwise known as generative grammar. I especially enjoyed the section of the chapter that discussed structural ambiguity. It is amazing how a set of words in the same order can convey completely different meanings. I also found the breakdown of simple sentences to be very interesting. I never put much thought into the analysis of the sentences I use everyday. A simple sentence such as “I will go to the store tomorrow” will probably consist of several constituents that can themselves be broken down into smaller elements. I found this chapter to be helpful because it will serve to increase my writing skills through analysis of my sentence structure.

Word Creation

Bill Bryson's "Where Words Come From" analyzes the several ways in which people create words. According to him words are formed in one of six distinct ways: by error, by adoption, by creation, by addition, by subtraction, and by doing nothing. Bryson supports his theory of word creation by providing a historical background of several words. He identifies a few surprising facts of many common used words in the English language such as how the word “brave” used to mean cowardice. Bryson also discusses the arbitrary nature of word creation in the English language. He explains how, for the most part, there is no logical reasoning why some words survive and others die. I enjoyed Bryson’s insightful analysis of word creation. The one fact I found particularly humorous was how he explained that Flatbush, a community in Brooklyn, is just the English pronunciation of the German word “Vlacht Bos.”. I found this fact so funny I actually looked up the word and it does means flat forest. I have many friends who are proud to be from Flatbush and I doubt they would be happy to know that they are actually from Vlacht Bos. But in all seriousness, there is a question that I pose to everyone: Who has the authority to make up a word? Why are the likes of Shakespeare, Issac Newton, and Sir Thomas More able to create words but if I decide to make up a word it will more than likely be shunned?