Notes

Video notes:
How languages shape the way you think
- sound comes from vibrations
- Humans can transmit knowledge across minds
- There are about 7000 languages
Does the language we speak shape the way we think?
- Charlemagne , Holy Roman emperor said... "To have a second language is to have a second soul"
- There was no data until now...
After researching the Kuuk Thaayorre
- they format their sentences using the cardinal directions (north, south, eat, west)
ex. Hello = which way are you going? ; Answer: = North-northeast in the far distance. How about you?
- Helps them stay orientated
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Languages with no number words
- Have trouble with quantity
Languages that separate dark color names from light color names
- Quick to tell the difference in color
Languages that have grammatical genders (every noun has a gender associated to it)
- shapes how they describe things
Language can differ in describing events
- pay attention to different things
- guides reasoning about event (ex. 'he broke it' as opposed to 'it broke')
Language can have a big, deep, early, broad, and weighty effect
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It shows how ingenious and flexible the human mind is.
sadly, we lose about 1 language a week.
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The joy of lexicography
- lexicography: the practice of compiling dictionaries
Deciding what words are good and what are bad is hard.

James Murray is the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary

Online dictionaries replicate all the problems of printed dictionary except search ability

If you have an artificial constraint = arbitrary distinctions & an eschewed world view.

Words are like tools (there's a right word for the right time)

Just because a word isn't in the dictionary doesn't mean it isn't real
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What makes a poem ... a poem?
1. poems emphasize language's musical quality
2. Poems used condensed language
3. poems often feature intense feelings

Are songs poems?
- rap has rhyme and imagery

Prose poems - use vivid images and wordplay but formatted like paragraphs

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Metaphors : a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two different things that actually have something important in common.

Powerful because they...
-upset our expectations of a boring, literal connection between ideas
-force our brains to work harder to understand the writers intent

Extended Metaphors : large and lengthy to make an even deeper, more involved comparison between the subject and the thing it's being compared with

Definition: A metaphor with multiple layers and parts

Purpose: Detailed Comparison between 2 objects with multiple similarities

Metaphor vs Similes:
- a simile compares and almost always uses "like" or "as"
- a metaphor makes an equal comparison

Why use Metaphors:
THEY...
- enliven ordinary language
- are generous to readers and listeners; they encourage interpretation
- are more efficient and economical than ordinary language; they give maximum meaning with a minimum of words
- create new meanings; they allow you to write about feelings, thoughts, things, experiences, etc., for which there are no easy words; they are necessary
- are a sign of genius

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Structured poetry:

-Concrete Poetry/Visual Poetry - an arrangement of language in which the way the words are placed on the page is more important in conveying meaning than the literal significance of the poem

-Acrostic Poetry - the first letter of each line, when read vertically, must spell out the topic of the poem
1. write your subject word vertically
2. fill in the lines of your poem
3. focus on sensory imagery (use similes and metaphors; use inventive language)
4. revise your poem (make abstract language more concrete; strengthen your word choice; stay on topic)
5. edit your acrostic for grammar and spelling

-Haiku - a popular form of unrhymed Japanese poetry, which evolved in the seventeenth century from the hokku, or opening verse of a renku
first-second-third : 5-7-5
1. Distill a poignant experience
2. Include a Seasonal Reference
3. Create a Subject Shift
4. Describe the Details
5. Show don't tell

-Tanka (Short Song) - Japanese poetry, with five sections
first-second-third-fourth-fifth : 5-7-5-7-7

-Sonnet - a 14 line lyric poem composed in iambic pentameter, with a twist in meaning, known as a "turn," toward the end
Fourteen lines: All sonnets have 14 lines, which can be broken down into four sections called quatrains.

A strict rhyme scheme: The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet, for example, is ABAB / CDCD / EFEF / GG (note the four distinct sections in the rhyme scheme).

Written in iambic pentameter: Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, a poetic meter with 10 beats per line made up of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables.

Sonnets can be broken into 4 quadrants
1. establish the subject of the sonnet. Number of lines: four; rhyme scheme: ABAB
2. develop the sonnet’s theme. Number of lines: four; rhyme scheme: CDCD
3. round off the sonnet’s theme. Number of lines: four; rhyme scheme: EFEF
4. act as a conclusion to the sonnet. Number of lines: two; rhyme scheme: GG

-Blank Verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) - a literary device defined as un-rhyming verse written in iambic pentameter. In poetry and prose, it has a consistent meter with 10 syllables in each line

-Blank verse poetry has no fixed number of lines.
-It has a conventional meter that is used for verse drama and long narrative poems.
-It is often used in descriptive and reflective poems and dramatic monologues — the poems in which a single character delivers his thoughts in the form of a speech.
-Blank verse can be composed in any kind of meter, such as iamb, trochee, spondee, and dactyl.

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Unstructured poetry: a free verse poem
What is it?
- doesn’t follow any specific guidelines; let your thoughts run wild so that the words on the page read more like a conversation or story
Wait, isn't that kind of hard?
- it’s up to you to make the poem sound great without rhyming or any type of pattern
So how does it start?
- settle on a theme or event you’d like to write about
- set the scene in your head and go from there
- write down some key words that relate to your story
- work backwards and create the lines of your poems around those key words to flesh out the poem
Five Senses
- bring life to your poem, focus on incorporating the five senses into your poem

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Drafts:

Haiku -
The dark brew comes out
Into my mug and I take a big sip
The alarm of morn

Sonnet -
Awoke from bed to the bright sun of morn
A small head peeks from beneath the covers
A little brush then with new clothes adorn
My little puppy looks out the shutters
We walk outside to the smell of goodness
Fried eggs with a golden yolk on some toast
The flavor drips out full of tastiness
My mother laughs and starts to go and boast
But time goes by fast and shower I must
The water still cold, the town barely up
We all scamper in hurry, the door bust
To school we must be till time says to sup
I pack my bags to leave and rest all day
Until summer comes and school ends in May