Proceeding from the Mundane and Ridiculous to the Sublime
I greatly value precision and clarity, especially in writing. And honestly, I often sacrifice conciseness to other concerns (who would have guessed from reading my posts,lol???). If you look in each section below, you may encounter a few surprises...
So, first, I am assuming (and correct me if it is not the case) that my post:
http://inteldinarchronicles.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-power-of-words-and-spelling-by.html
was indirectly responsible for the appearance of the word "gerund" in this post:
http://inteldinarchronicles.blogspot.com/2017/05/gerund-gcrrv-overview-wednesday-may-17.html
In this post, it was said "A gerund is a verb, but it functions as a noun when ending in 'ing.' " I immediately assumed I had made a mistake in my original post. As Yoda would probably say: "Corrected I was!" Do I stand corrected? No, at the moment, I actually I sit corrected in front of my computer:
http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/gerund.htm
There it says:"Gerunds function as nouns."
Even so, this is just part of the full story. Gerunds are gerunds, verbs are verbs, nouns are nouns AND adjectives are adjectives! Gerunds are identical to the present participle of a verb (in spelling), and so always end in "ing" as pointed out in the post above.
While gerunds are simply gerunds, they may function as objects of prepositions, as nouns, as adjectives and possibly even more! [Your all-purpose part of speech, lol!!!]
[Carden's post in February also included the word "gerund": http://inteldinarchronicles.blogspot.com/2017/02/to-repeal-and-replace-i-vote-yes-by.html]
'Nuff said...
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Some one-liners, to be used in verbal "sparring" and other dialogue(s):
> last week, I thought I made a mistake, but I was wrong...
> I was perfect last week, will be perfect next week, but I'm having a little trouble right now...
> I'd like to help you out - just how the hell did you get in???
> you (sir, madam, mister, etc) have delusions of adequacy...
> while I would like to engage in a battle of wits with you, I make it a strict policy never to fight anyone who is unarmed...
> better half a wit than none... [maybe...]
> if you have to ask what wit means...
> my problem? When I stood before the creator, I thought "he" said "drains" - so I only asked for one...
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Some observations and oxymorons (IMO, of course):
A conversation requires speaking and listening. Interesting that the first is oral and the second is aural, which words have identical pronunciations (aurally speaking, lol!!!), which makes "aurally speaking" an oxymoron!
And you (h)ear with an ear!
Jumbo Shrimp
Computer Intelligence
Linguistically Speaking >> how would you speak non-linguistically??? [all metaphorical considerations aside, of course!!!]
Great list of oxymorons:
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-oxymorons.html
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Moving from the ridiculous to the sublime:
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Idries Shah, the prolific Sufi author, has the knack/skill/proclivity to say something which has many, many simultaneous significant meanings.
He is well-known for saying that English has just now reached the level of 13th century Persian, when it was still on its way to greater heights. Fluent in both languages, and a prolific writer, this statement by Shah should be taken seriously, and, especially, as a compliment to English...
Take, for example, his statement: "It is not that you have forgotten, it is that you have remembered to forget."
One meaning is that since your brain is designed to remember, you can only forget something if you deliberately remembered to do so, whether this is conscious or subconscious in nature. [There is however the separate matter of the diseased or damaged brain.] This leads further to the suggestion/question: "Why would I want to forget?"; a number of other questions will likely suggest themselves to you at this point...
Everyone of the following short quotations contains immediately obvious ideas, and then many other ideas which yield themselves as you ponder/meditate on them. There are over a thousand quotes by Shah on this webpage:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/32851.Idries_Shah
What you get from reading these and then pondering them can truly be called rewards [the kind you can actually take with you when you pass over...].
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The Sufi poet Rumi [, Jala-ad-Din also written Jalaluddin, Jalaladdin, and more] who died in 1273 at age 66, is actually the best-selling poet in America:
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140414-americas-best-selling-poet
Also known as the poet of love, here are some profound quotes of his:
> Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.
> Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.
> The wound is the place where the Light enters you.
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Well, I hope I have done one or more of the following for you:
> entertained/distracted you
> exposed something new to you
> given you cause to think differently/more deeply
> amused you
> given you some new perspective(s)
> indirectly pointed out some nuances in the use of our language (English)
> helped you develop greater respect for language and its "spells"
> pointed out something significant, whether directly or not
> something else, which I would be glad to hear [constructive is OK, negative clearly not...]
Jimbabwe [a.k.a. One Who Loves]