Re: Opening

Brian M. Scott wrote:

On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:23:28 +0100, Catja Pafort
<green_knight@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:1i53vcg.1iw0l3lp8y8bvN%green_knight@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
in rec.arts.sf.composition:

[...]

I have no idea what gorgonstone is, and I'm fairly
confident Nicky doesn't, either, but I'm *used* to
reading texts with words I don't understand - reading (a
lot) in a language that you're not speaking in your daily
life does that to you. When you start out, a simple sink
can throw you. (We had a washbasin at home.) So reading
words I don't understand is something I am familiar with
- there are many more Spanish, French, and Welsh words I
don't understand, and I've successfully read texts in all
of those languages.

Also works the other way, I think: if one is comfortable
sliding over creations like 'gorgonstone', taking what one
can get from them but not worrying if that isn't very much,
it's a lot easier to leave the bilingual dictionary on the
shelf and just plow ahead. My reading knowledge of German
isn't bad, but I still do it all the time with Der Spiegel.
And like you, I've done it with languages with which I'm
*much* less familiar. A year or two ago I was really
tickled to get through _Dalroi en de zwarte ridders_ (Dutch
translation of Colin Kapp's _Transfinite Man_) without using
the dictionary once. It was slow, and I know that I missed
some details, but I was able to enjoy the story as a story.
(I love those 'Oh, so *that's* what that word is!' insights
that a new context sometimes triggers.)

Oh yes indeed. The reassuring thing is that English still has words I've
never encountered - there's a certain 'oooh, shiny' feel about
discovering them. My passive vocabulary is MUCH larger than my active
one; and I adore the way that sometimes a word will flow out of my
subconscious onto the page. Which means I then stare at it and think 'I
don't know what this _means_ and look it up - and at least nine times
out of ten it's _perfect_ for the gap it fills.


The strangest language I've read in is Occitan, about which I know next
to nothing. I was in the South of France in a provincial museum that had
bilingual signage, and it was packed with French speakers. My French is
pretty rudimentary and mostly consists out of a few particles and
grammatical constuctions and much vocabulary gained from surrounding
languages, so for me, the difference between the two languages was
almost nonexistent - Occitan seemed, if anything, closer to its Latin
roots - but I _did_ get a few astounded glances that day.

Catja

--
writing blog @ http://beyond-elechan.livejournal.com
.

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