#syntax

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.

[dionysiaproductions]

Reading articles on why folks hate adverbs and losing my mind. Who convinced you that complexity is passive? What caused you to read nuance as anxiety? How have you lived in a world where no one ever spoke kindly to you? And why do you prefer it?

[synticity]

the three linguistics papers to read about singular they (morphosyntax)

Bjorkman, B. M. (2017). Singular they and the syntactic representation of gender in English. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 2(1). Open access link

Konnelly, L., & Cowper, E. (2020). Gender diversity and morphosyntax: An account of singular they. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 5(1). open access link

Conrod, K. (2022). Abolishing gender on D. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique, 67(3), 216-241. Open access link

in chronological order because these papers are all basically responding to each other; this papers focus on the (morpho)syntax and semantics of english singular 'they' referring to specific people (like they/them pronoun-users).

if you like posts like this, let me know! i'll give "three linguistics papers to read about (topic)" every once in a while based on interest

[physalian]

How to Make Your Writing Less Stiff 8 | "to-be" and auxiliary verbs

Part 7

Part 6

Part 1

As I go through editing my latest manuscript, I'm faced with the dilemma of when to drop a to-be verb, but also when to keep it and how the differences between the two in any given situation can make just a little... a little *garnish* of a difference.

To-be verbs:

Am, is, are, was, were; a subset of auxiliary verbs

Auxiliary verbs:

To do, to be, to have (simplified)

Auxiliary verbs tend to indicate tense, but we use them more often as crutch verbs, filler verbs, because you can just conjugate the verb itself to the proper tense without the need of the auxiliary verb.

The advice generally goes to remove these, as they count as filler words when followed up by a second verb. Versus the TBV or AXV and an adjective.

He does look / He looks She is cooking / She cooks They were standing / They stood I am fishing / I fish She does cry / She cries We have slept / We slept

vs

He is afraid / He fears She was sorry / She regrets They were happy / They cheered I was confused / I hesitated

The verb+adjective combo can't so easily drop the verb without changing either the tone, the flow, or the actions of the characters, because one is an act of doing, and one is a state of being (for the most part, 'fear' is one of those exceptions in English).

You would have to rearrange the sentence, e.g. "I was confused by this" to "This confused me," to elimiate the TBV. Which, most of the time, does help the narrator feel less passive in the story, but, again, we're here for flavor text, not an MLA formatting guide.

So, sometimes the inclusion of the TBV or AXV adds subtext to the action itself.

"He does look" has slightly more urgency and weight than simply "he looks" because the AXV emphasizes that this is an action the actor might not have taken otherwise, for better or for worse.

In the silence, she stands there huffing, voice wrecked from crying as he heads for the open door. “Don’t you walk away from me.” He turns, face impassive. “There’s nothing left to be said.” vs He does turn, face impassive. “There’s nothing left to be said.”

The latter indicates that this might be hesitation or regret on his part, as opposed to a decisive, quick action, or that this is an action that she, the narrator, didn't expect him to take.

It also helps convey the tone of voice (or at least the general direction of the level of emotion in a voice). This absolutely varies on a case-by-case basis and the context of the action and should not be abused.

One of the juicier verbs for subtext here is "try"

He tries to coach her through how to do it properly. vs He does try to coach her through how to do it properly.

The former is direct and simple. He is attempting (he attempts) to help but through the act of "trying" and not "doing" there's an indication that she isn't getting it.

The latter is a little more hopeless, where he and she both know that whatever she's attempting to learn, she won't succeed, but he's doing it anyway. Maybe because he cares or he feels bad, or, that he wasn't going to help her, but something changed his mind.

Deciding when to use these helps convey the inner thoughts of non-narrating characters without head-hopping, and also shows the biases of the narrator.

Hope this helps!

[defectivegembrain]

Like I'm sure sex is cool and all but have you ever thought about the relationships between different word classes

[dedalvs]

Hi! Quick High Valyrian translation request: I was wondering how you would translate this sentence: "You don't look well, father."

(Context: a character seeing their dad for the first time in a while and noticing that they look tired/a bit haggard)

I did try looking on the wiki dictionary for a verb like "to look", "to appear", or "to seem __" but didn't find anything that seemed right — sorry if it is there and I just missed it, though!

Thanks for your help :D

This needs to be recast as "You are not well it seems, father". That might make it easier. A little syntax discussion. In English, verbs like "seem" can be tricksy. You can say both of the following with roughly the same meaning:

You seem to hate onions.

It seems (that) you hate onions.

Slight differences in meaning aside, it's the syntactic difference I want to draw attention to. In sentence (1), "seem" is the main verb of the sentence and "you" is its subject. "You" is also the subject of the nonfinite clause "to hate onions". In (2), however, that entire thought is rendered as a subordinate clause. Now it's "you hate onions", which is subordinated by "that" (which can be omitted), which is governed by this matrix clause "It seems". Now "seems" is the matrix verb, its subject "it", but "it" doesn't meant anything. It's a dummy subject (or expletive) that is required because English clauses require a subject.

Whatever your syntactic theory, something in the English language allows both of these structures to exist. Not all languages allow for this. High Valyrian is one that does not.

The verb vestragon which means, ordinarily, "to tell" can be used to mean "to seem". Crucially, though, it can never be used in the manner of (1) above in English. In fact, if you think about the original meaning, you can see how there would be very little sense in it. Taking that sentence (1) and translating it literally:

Zāliapossa buqagon vestrā. "You say to hate onions."

It wouldn't make any sense for this to end up meaning "It seems you hate onions" or "You seem to hate onions". Of course it would seem that way if you were saying it! There's no seem about it!

Instead, the way things work in High Valyrian is usually "Here's the main thing in question, now here's a comment about it". And that is, indeed, why vestragon came to mean "to seem". It does so like this:

Zāliapossa buqō vestras. "It seems you hate onions."

That is "Onions you hate, it says". Now that "it" doesn't refer to anyone in particular. It's that dummy subject again. But it's not required in Valyrian. In Valyrian it's enough to have the clause (with a verb in the subjunctive) and then vestras at the end. It's a bit like saying "it is said" or "one says" or "it is heard" or the like. Another way of thinking of it is saying "The situation or my pereceptions tell that you hate onions". In fact, you can actually say as much, by adding a pronoun in the dative:

Zāliapossa buqō ynot vestras. "It seems to me you hate onions."

That is "Onions you hate, to me it says".

Now, back to your original question.

"You don't look well, father" should be reacast as, "You are not well it seems, father". That would be:

Rytsa iksō daor vestras, kepus.

That is, "Well you are not it seems, father".

And there you have it. Thanks for the ask!

[dsm-wannabe-linguist]

[uselessalexis165]

have some more shitty memes 🐵

[itsabouttimex2]

Monkie Kid Tier Lists

“What do they steal from you?”

“Mom/Dad, can I date someone?”

“Mom/Dad, I need help.”

“There’s only one bed.”

[pompadourpink]

A list of questions

À quelle heure tu arrives ? What time are you arriving ?

Avec qui tu parlais ? Who were you talking to ?

Bien ou quoi ? You alright ? (very casual)

Ça va ? Are you alright ? (normal)

Ça va pas non ? Are you crazy ?

C'est moi ou il est fou ? Is it me or is he insane ?

De quoi parle ton livre ? What is your book about ?

De quoi tu parles ? What are you talking about ?

De quoi tu te mêles ? How about you mind your business ?

D'où tu tiens ça ? Where did you hear that ?

D'où tu viens ? Where are you coming from ?

En quoi ça me regarde ? What does that have to do with me ?

Est-ce que tu crois que tu es drôle ? Do you think you're funny ?

Est-ce que tu te sens bien ? Are you feeling alright ?

Est-ce que tu t'es fait mal ? Did you get hurt ?

Est-ce que tu vas bien ? Are you alright ? (slightly elevated)

Faut peut-être se calmer non ? You better calm down (annoyed)

Il faut y aller non ? Shouldn't we go ?

Il fout quoi ? What the hell is he doing ?

Il se passe quoi là-dedans ? What's happening in there ?

Il te faut quoi ? What do you need ?

J'en étais où ? Where was I ?

Je t'ai demandé quelque chose à toi ? Did I ask for your opinion ?

Je te ramène quelque chose/un truc ? Do you need anything (from the store/downstairs, etc.) ?

Le mec en pull rouge, c'est qui ? Who is the dude in the red jumper ?

Les deux ? Both ?

On se calme ? Are you going to calm down ? (appeasing or angry)

On y va ? Shall we ?

Pourquoi tu continues à répondre ? Why do you keep talking back ?

Pourquoi tu ne lui demandes pas ? Why don't you ask him ?

Pourquoi tu t'en vas ? Why are you leaving ?

Quel est ton film préféré ? What's your favourite movie ?

Quelle heure il est ? What time is it ?

Qu'est-ce que ça change ? What does that change ?

Qu'est-ce que ça fait ? What does that do ?

Qu'est-ce que tu as à manger ? What do you have to eat ?

Qu'est-ce que tu branles/fiches/fous ? Wtf are you doing ?

Qu'est-ce que tu racontes ? What are you on about ?

Qu'est-ce qu'il y a encore ? What now ?

Qu'est-ce qui ne va pas ? What's wrong ?

Qu'est-ce qui se passe ? What's happening ?

Sur place ou à emporter ? In or take away ?

Tout est réglé ? Is everything fixed/good now ?

Tout va bien ? Everything alright ?

Tu fais quoi ? What are you doing ?

Tu m'as pris pour qui ? Who do you think I am ?

Tu m'entends bien ? Can you hear me well ?

Tu pars quand ? When are you leaving ?

Tu plaisantes/te moques de moi ? Are you joking me ?

Tu t'es cru chez ta mère ? Did you think you were at your mother's house ? (angry)

Tu te sens mal ? Are you feeling ill ?

Tu vas te taire, oui ? Will you shut up ?

Fanmail - masterlist (2016-) - archives - hire me - reviews (2020-) - Drive

[aistobascistod]

Thesis : Antithesis : Synthesis :: Tax : Antitax : Syntax

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.

[dez-ku]

First time drawing syntax :^]

.

Extras ✨

[spacey-jazz]

Syntax redesign part 1; decided to him him just a bit of a softer look

I wasn’t a fan of how twinky he looked previously in this style

Plus his robotic eye for this au needed a better look-

[physalian]

When To Keep Your Writing Stiff (pt 7)

Part 6

Part 1

Gonna shoutout a specific fanfic, “Salvage” (ATLA) for writing that is even leaner than mine is, and mine has zero fat whatsoever. This was really good. I particularly like how some scenes were only 2 or 3 lines long as an example of what I’m going for here.

When I say “stiff” in the following examples I’m specifically talking about a lot of the same syntax, few similes and metaphors, few ‘said’ synonyms, very little, well, “life” in the prose. And this can be good in a few situations.

1. Your narrator is in shock

Shock doesn’t all look the same, but the kind of shock I mean is the one where the person is really quiet and un-emotive, they’re probably not speaking or reacting much to whatever catastrophe just happened and probably not responding to their name or anything spoken to them. Their body is pretty much going “uhhhhhhhhh factory reset!” when whatever it is, is too much to process.

A asks them a question. Once. Twice. B stares ahead. There’s a brown stain on the wall that looks like a thumb.

So if they’re narrating, they’re probably going to be giving the absolute bare minimum, need-to-know information and won’t be thinking about the best adjectives and adverbs. Especially if you normally write with fluffier prose, a jarring shift like this can really help sell the shock and dissociating of the character, something so traumatizing that it effects how the story is told.

2. Your narrator is depressed

Somewhere between New Moon’s 4 pages of just Months to show Bella did absolutely nothing in a depression rot and normal prose (though it was effective, particularly in the movie when they could draw out the words on the screen for longer and did the whole spin-around-her-depression-chair montage).

January came. It rained a lot.

They’ll probably either narrate very thinly, or listlessly. They might focus on a random detail and start going on a long ramble about that one detail that isn’t at all important, but it’s either all they can think about or all that can move them to feel anything in this moment, like:

On the bedside table, that coffee mug still sat there in a thin sheet of dust. What had been liquid now long since dry and gluey. It still sits there, collecting cat fur.

This might be the best place for sentences that all sound and flow exactly the same, but use it sparingly.

3. Your narrator is having a panic attack or trapped in a traumatic situation

Different from shock in that while they are physically capable of moving and interacting, they can’t let themselves describe what they’re seeing and feeling in grand detail. Maybe they’re moving through the horrific aftermath of a battle and all they can describe is the mud under their feet and how it squelches. Or they simply say that ���there’s bodies everywhere” because looking too long or too hard at who those bodies belonged to is too much.

4. You’re writing something that has incredibly fast pacing

This post was inspired by a fic I just wrote that spanned about 5 months in about 18k words. Narrative was skipping days ahead between paragraphs at some point as my character was processing the end of an abusive relationship. It sped up and slowed down where necessary, but compared to its sequel that I also just finished (22k words across 7 days), I’d covered a whole month in about 2 sentences in the first one.

See nearly any part of Salvage (or my fics if you feel like it)

What happened in that month didn’t matter, only what was before and what’s different now and how this character realizes how their life is slowly changing, some things they never noticed that are suddenly right in their face or things that quietly slipped away.

—

TLDR; sometimes the lack of emotion and sensory details and frenetic, dynamic syntax is the point, that can sell the reader on the narrator’s mental state far better than picking the juiciest adverbs. If it’s so impactful to them that the physical telling of the story is changed, you’ve done your job.

[sleepy8]