I always say that reading is the best way to see vocabulary and grammar in a natural context. The relationship you create with the characters and situations help you build empathy and by extension emotional attachment which favours long term memorization. But exactly how can you build your vocabulary by reading? Well, like everything in life it takes a bit of work. Let's work through an example together with the first page of next month's novel, Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (No, it's not just a film!) 'I am always drawn back to places where I have lived, the houses and their neighborhoods. For instance, there is a brownstone in the East Seventies where, during the early years of the war, I had my first New York apartment. It was one room crowded with attic furniture, a sofa and fat chairs upholstered in that itchy, particular red velvet that one associates with hot days on a tram. The walls were stucco, and a color rather like tobacco-spit. Everywhere, in the bathroom too, there were prints of Roman ruins freckled brown with age. The single window looked out on a fire escape. Even so, my spirits heightened whenever I felt in my pocket the key to this apartment; with all its gloom, it still was a place of my own, the first, and my books were there, and jars of pencils to sharpen, everything I needed, so I felt, to become the writer I wanted to be. It never occurred to me in those days to write about Holly Golightly, and probably it would not now except for a conversation I had with Joe Bell that set the whole memory of her in motion again. Holly Golightly had been a tenant in the old brownstone; she'd occupied the apartment below mine. As for Joe Bell, he ran a bar around the corner on Lexington Avenue; he still does. Both Holly and I used to go there six, seven times a day, not for a drink, not always, but to make telephone calls: during the war a private telephone was hard to come by. Moreover, Joe Bell was good about taking messages, which in Holly's case was no small favor, for she had a tremendous many. Of course this was a long time ago, and until last week I hadn't seen Joe Bell in several years. Off and on we'd kept in touch, and occasionally I'd stopped by his bar when passing through the neighborhood; but actually we'd never been strong friends except in as much as we were both friends of Holly Golightly. Joe Bell hasn't an easy nature, he admits it himself, he says it's because he's a bachelor and has a sour stomach. Anyone who knows him will tell you he's a hard man to talk to. Impossible if you don't share his fixations, of which Holly is one. Some others are: ice hockey, Weimaraner dogs, Our Gal Sunday (a soap serial he has listened to for fifteen years), and Gilbert and Sullivan -- he claims to be related to one or the other, I can't remember which. And so when, late last Tuesday afternoon, the telephone rang and I heard "Joe Bell here," I knew it must be about Holly. He didn't say so, just: "Can you rattle right over here? It's important," and there was a croak of excitement in his froggy voice. I took a taxi in a downpour of October rain, and on my way I even thought she might be there, that I would see Holly again.' Location specific vocabulary Adjectives Collocations brownstone upholstered run a bar East seventies freckled make a phone call Lexington Avenue take a taxi Gilbert and Sullivan sour stomach croak of excitement froggy voice Phrasal verbs Grammar draw back that one associates with look out onto rattle over Useful phrases It never occurred to me hard to come by downpour on my way As you can see I have put the possible new words and phrases into categories according to word type. Ideally, you should have a section in a notebook or page in a document on your computer for each word type or subject. This may take more time initially but will save you time in the long run as each time you add a new word to your list you can review the words that are already there and so continously add and review, add and review. Let's look more closely at the words and phrases in each group. Location specific vocabulary The first thing to consider is that not all words have the same value for you. The most important words and phrases are those that are USABLE IMMEDIATELY. Then there are those words that may be interesting to understand when you see them again but you may not use them yourself. Lastly there are words that are too particular to the setting or context and are not worth spending too much time on. 'East Seventies' refers to an area of the Upper East Side in Manhattan in New York, in which you can find 'Lexington Avenue'. In New York, the roads running north - south are numbered and called avenues while the east - west roads are called streets. So the seventies are the streets from 70th to 79th street. Lexington Avenue was the location for the scene from the film 'The Seven Year Itch' with Marilyn Monroe standing on an air vent. A 'brownstone' is a typical row house in New York as we see regularly in films. I didn't know this adjective before today. 'Gilbert and Sullivan' were Victorian dramatists and composers who created HMS Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and a total of 14 comic operas still performed today. While all this is interesting if you are planning a trip to New York but it won't improve your English so these are low priority terms. Adjectives 'Freckled' here means covered with brown spots. The condition of the picture in the text might be something like this Perhaps the more common use of this word is to describe a girl or boy's face. This girl has freckles To understand the word 'upholstered' you can put your detective hat on. The suffix 'ed' reveals that it is an adjective to describe the chairs. The prefix 'up' means 'higher', 'upwards', 'towards the top', and here 'over'. So there is something over or covering the chairs. Looking at the etymology on etymonline.com, we can discover that 'upholden' comes from Middle English and means 'to repair, uphold, keep from falling or sinking'. 'Uphold' originally and still means 'support or sustain' but extended to 'maintain in good condition or repair' in the 15th century. That was fun! Phrasal verbs These short verbs with prepositions are one of the most difficult aspects of English as their meaning is often figurative and multiple and not easily worked out. It is impossible and pointless to try to learn them all but probably the more different uses a word has the more useful it is. 'Draw back' can mean 'pull' or 'attract' and 'back' means 'returning to an original point of departure', 'again'. So we could substitute this verb for 'borne back' in the famous last line of 'The Great Gatsby' 'So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back (drawn back) ceaselessly into the past.' If in a lesson you get side-tracked the teacher might try to draw your attention back to the text or audio in question. A drawback is a noun meaning disadvantage. A drawback to reading classic novels is that there are many new words that may slow you down. 'Look out onto' instead has a more literal meaning. I would like to have a house by the sea with big French windows that look out onto the sea. And you? What would you like to see from your window? Collocations These are word combinations that native speakers use. In fact we rarely find words in isolation but as part of fixed phrases. These can be verb-noun collcations like 'run a bar' but even noun-noun like 'a croak of excitement' or adjective noun like 'a froggy voice'. These are your key to natural sounding language. Remember however that writers like to play with language and create their own combinations. 'Sour stomach' is not common but gives the idea of something acidic or uncomfortable. Grammar 'One' is a neutral, singular pronoun used to avoid attributing gender. Now we more often use the generic 'you' or 'they' but 'one' can still be appropriate in more formal situations. It is often associated with how the Queen speaks. She perhaps uses it to seperate her official role from herself as a person. Useful phrases
Is there something that you hadn't considered or thought of before now? 'It had never occurred to me' is the right phrase for this situation. Change the tense and 'It has never occured to me' or 'It occurs to me' are suitable for many situations. Is something difficult to find or obtain? Then it is 'hard to come by'. Today in Italy we can say that a permanent job is hard to come by. Don't say 'It's raining cats and dogs!' - it is used only in text books. Prefer instead 'it's pouring (down with rain). Are you arriving late? 'I'm on my way!'. These are fixed phrases that like collcations will help you to sound more natural. Just look how much we have learnt from just one page! The next step is to use the words in writing or speaking. How many of the words and phrases we have seen can you use to add a comment below?
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What is this?When I started lostinclassics I looked for language lessons in the books I was reading, such as for example the use of phrasal verbs or inversion in conditionals and I explained them through examples found in the text. I also did reviews of the books I read and tried to give some advice on how to read classics using the various resources I know of. Then I switched to just reviews and lately I have been doing a bit of creative writing inspired by my reading. Who knows what I will come up with next! Archives
September 2020
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