Thursday, March 27, 2008

When is RE not good?

First and foremost, I learned RE is a Latin prefix that my teacher many moons ago said should never be used with again. We break so many rules in speaking. The spoken arena is just more forgiving with the punches...especially if you know how to roll with them. There are quite a few rules to remember against doubling.

As a second language learner, I learned a little later in life (on my own) that Mr. Webster is a wonderful friend who will never hurt you. On the contrary, he is a friend to people of all ages and of all walks of life. I'm sure he will have other things pertinent to RE or Re.

* Still as a prefix, /re/ (I'm not going to sweat out how to type the 3 possible pronunciation marks), is also of French origin. Here are more interesting blunders visible in writing. It is used with a hyphen:


  • to distinguish it from 'a word of similar form having a special meaning/(s) [re-collect, recollect]'

  • to avoid 'ambiguity in the in the formation of nonce words [re-urge]'

  • to prevent visual tricks in its occurrence 'before elements beginning with e [re-examine, now usually reexamine]

I guess I should be more careful in injecting my own visual clues as there is a standard use of RE or Re in 'words with special meanings' when they 'are entered in their proper alphabetical places in the vocabulary' as follows: Re 1. Bible Revelations 2. Chem. symbol for rhenium 3. rupee ; RE 1. Reformed Episcopal 2. Football right end 3. Right Excellent


This is exactly why I'm leaving you with the thought that English is a very rich language with all the infusions and smatterings of all the etymological contributions from the myriads of denizens congregating onto this little corner of the universe that smartly adapted English as their Common Language. Many English learners complain on the difficulty of having to pronounce the 5 vowels that could take almost as many variations as the 21 consonants. The full comprehension of this dilemma only hit me when I was in the graduate school enroled in Linguistics 101.


May I ask you then, at this point, if you have not reached out yet to Mr. Webster for help...Why not? Hat's off to you if you fully comprehend 'nonce' n. [ME nones, formed by syllabic merging] the present use, occasion, or time; time being: chiefly in for the nonce...as Mr. Webster would say. Start your own sojourn in the beauty of the English language with him as your guide...you'll never get lost. You might even opt to stay longer.


Half a century of awe! It will never cease...everyday there's something new to learn. Serendipity...life is all about, and so is learning. And even blogging! A year ago I could give you a long list of negatives. Oppsss! I almost forgot my initial reason for this post. Read on...


Often times I hear even native speakers falling into the pits of double this and double that. This is just to illustrate that these errors are not solely in the domain of second language learner. Sometimes it can even be charged to fatigue or faulty keyboard, not to mention many more. Morning news source of idea--the newscaster--(on freeway accident closure) '...traffic will re-open again...' or should it be 'reopen'? This time the error would be visibly mine. As they say, after all, 75% of the error (could be more, or less) is committed in writing rather than in speaking. Please do not make me repeat this again as they often say.


*Originally posted @ http://zylla3.blogspot.com/

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