rionaleonhart | Entries tagged with language

Eight months late, I've caught up on the fifth series of Supernatural.

Crowley, you are my favourite. He's a deceitful bastard, but he's paradoxically, delightfully straightforward about it. (He and Derren Brown should hang out.) And he's sardonic and flirtatious and a little bit charming, and I think he may end up being one of those characters I 'ship with basically everyone (ESPECIALLY BOBBY, WHERE IS MY BOBBY/CROWLEY FANFICTION). I love him.

(Although the way Crowley is written confuses me sometimes, because he has an English accent and the writers seem to consciously have him using British language - 'this bloody ring business' - and then he'll use the occasional American turn of phrase. It's a bit jarring, that's all. It doesn't mean I don't want to marry you, Crowley, demon of my heart.)

It's odd; I used to love the Winchester brothers so much, but over the past couple of series I've become much more interested in the recurring supernatural beings of Supernatural. Ruby, Castiel, Crowley: these are the figures that hold my interest. It's not that I dislike Sam and Dean, but I certainly don't adore them any more. It's a little sad, really. I miss loving the Winchesters.

On the plus side, I love how Castiel's character has settled. He was a little inconsistent at first, but now the writers seem to have decided to go with Perpetually Slightly Bewildered Castiel, who is my favourite type of Castiel. He is adorable. Never stop being confused by the world, Castiel!

ALSO ON THE PLUS SIDE, WE HAVE CROWLEY.

I want a series in which Crowley and Ruby drive around and... I don't know. Work towards some goal? Their goals in canon oppose each other, which causes a slight problem. Maybe a series in which Crowley and Ruby are enemies in theory, working towards separate and opposing goals, but they also get along famously. Sometimes they try to kill each other; sometimes they just have sex. Oh, my goodness, this would be the best thing ever. There should be fanfiction.

I DON'T KNOW WHY THIS IMAGE IS MAKING ME LAUGH SO HARD. 'I presume you are inquiring as to who this upstanding bloke is' is a very weird juxtaposition - for people unfamiliar with the connotational nuances of British English, 'I presume you are inquiring as to who this upstanding dude is' would probably have a similarly jarring effect - but 'You know the gentlemen are most beguiled by his charming antics and wish to situate themselves inside his trousers for a festive gathering' is possibly the best sentence I've ever read. (I would like to situate myself inside your trousers for a festive gathering, Blaine.)

HERE IS A TERRIBLE MEME IDEA: write out the first lines of songs in the style of Dapper Blaine (exaggeratedly formal, old-fashioned and verbose, basically; I have no idea why this meme exists, but it's one of my favourites, even if reading too many examples ruins my speech for hours afterwards) and have your flist guess to which song each rewrite pertains. Let's give it a try.

1. My gratitude to you, man of the hammer; I believe I would have difficulty expressing the significance of your actions in halting the motion of that delivery vehicle. (guessed by

emmarrrrr and

dracothelizard)
2. Of late, I have found respiration impossible. (guessed by

kadrin)
3. It is a deity-appalling little circumstance to the young woman with rodentlike tresses. (guessed by

honeyfitz)
4. You claim to traverse a region that belongs to you, but on consideration I fail to understand how this can be so. (guessed by

lakester)
5. Set forth upon the thoroughfare; would you allow me to borrow your appellation? (guessed by

marginaliana)
6. Fasten your labia oris, infant; fasten similarly your outer garment. (guessed by

ms_katonic)
7. On every occasion of your drinking a small amount in this smoke-filled environment, you place the glass container of said drink against your mouth and I yearn to be, presumably, the container, rather than the alcohol within, although the metonymic term I use to express this desire makes this unclear. (guessed by anonymous commenter)
8. Raise the coverings protecting your optical organs; I perceive that said organs are now unsheathed. (guessed by

dots)
9. Birthed in the community of a deceased adult male; my initial calcitration was taken upon my making violent contact with the earth. (guessed by

ms_katonic)
10. I wish to achieve the absolute pinnacle of greatness, a feat to date unaccomplished by any person. The true establisher of my skill is capturing them; teaching and improving them is my aim. I shall traverse this region from end to end, extending my search to a great distance and breadth and educating these creatures in the strength held within. POKÉMON, GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL.

Wow, I never realised before how few of the things I listen to actually have lyrics. I had to skip about ten songs for every one I could use. In any case, guess away!

On a note unrelated aside from the shared themes of music and ridiculousness, have you ever wanted to listen to a mashup of 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' and 'Roxanne'? Of course you have. Here, for your listening pleasure: Rudolph (You Don't Have To Put On The Red Light). I love the Internet. (Thanks to

jantalaimon for linking to this on her journal and thus bringing it into my life.)

Last night, I watched an episode of Only Connect, a gameshow presented by Victoria Coren, in which the players have to work out the connection between the items in a series. One of these series was 'Fighting', 'Grass', 'Dragon', 'Psychic'. I, naturally, got the connection immediately, but the contestants did not ('Are they nicknames for drugs?' one asked), no matter how loudly and repeatedly I tried to inform them.

'And,' Coren said afterwards, addressing the camera, 'if you were shouting "Pokémon, Pokémon, Pokémon" at the screen during that last round, why not visit our website and give the puzzles there a try?'

She knows me so well. Which is odd, as we've never actually spoken.

Then I fell asleep and dreamt, my notes inform me, the following:

I was accompanied by two dogs. one was a poodle and also a prostitute. she was later to double-cross me. not that I think prostitutes are inherently immoral, canine or otherwise, although poodles may well be. they were on fairly short leads, so I could swing them around and use them as a weapon. in retrospect, this may have contributed to the double-crossing.

I love that, in the world of Waterloo Road, the results of mass drugs tests are presented with 'NEGATIVE' or 'POSITIVE' printed directly onto the paper and the names to which they correspond on sticky labels next to the outcome. IT'S ALMOST AS IF THEY'RE DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY TO MAKE IT EASY FOR UNSCRUPULOUS FATHERS TO SWAP THE NAMES AROUND.

Any other ways you would like to bend reality to make storylines more workable, Waterloo Road? Perhaps an unscrupulous teacher is photographed speeding and frames a student who's just passed her test by peeling off his easily-removable number plate* and transferring it onto her car. Naturally, the police find the culprit by personally looking at the number plates of all the cars in Rochdale, rather than checking any sort of database.

(For all I know, the results of mass drugs tests could come in with the names on easy-to-switch sticky labels, but it strikes me as unlikely.)

* I have literally only just realised that 'number' as in 'unit of quantity' and 'number' as in 'more numb' are homographic. Obviously I knew they were both spelt 'number', but it hadn't really occurred to me that they were both spelt 'number'.

...look, it makes sense in my head.

LAST-MINUTE ENTRY ADDITION: I have spent the past month pestering every publisher in the south of England, asking for work to edit, and one has finally agreed to send me a trial manuscript! YEAH. Employment, here I have a chance of coming! I am really excited! Please let me not screw this up.

I said in my last entry that Finn of Waterloo Road was dead inside, but of course that's not strictly true, because he craves love. He's been deprived of love in the past, and so he's obsessed with making the people who care about him prove that they love him. If he sets up flaming hoops and you refuse to jump through them for him, he assumes that you're a fraud. If you really love him, why won't you perform a huge, dangerous symbolic gesture? Any failure to do exactly what he wants is a betrayal in his eyes, proof that he was an idiot to think you cared. He is an incredibly tragic character. But, Finn, that's no excuse for being a massive git.

I still want the fic in which Finn and Josh do get into a relationship and it leaves Josh completely broken down and miserable. And then Tom comes to his rescue and SURPRISE, IT WASN'T ACTUALLY ABOUT THE SLASH, THIS IS A FIC ABOUT JOSH'S RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS FATHER. And then they freaking hug.

(I do feel that Josh's storyline in Waterloo Road could eventually come down to a choice between his malinfluential* friendship with Finn and his relationship with his dad. I hope that doesn't happen. I don't want to lose either relationship, but if he chooses Finn over Tom I shall cry until my ankles are damp.)

* I don't think this is technically a word, but I think there's a space in the English language for an adjective meaning 'badly influencing', so let's make it a word.

I've now seen the first episode of the second series, and I just have to say:

'Brian Nolan? Janet Seymour? And Chlo Grainger.'

What sort of register order is that? In my entire educational experience, it's been 'alphabetical order by surname', not 'the most plot-significant name is read out last, damn the alphabet'.

Also, if you show a character apparently committing suicide and then have her show up perfectly well, some part of my mind is going to be convinced that she's a ghost. Waterloo Road, you are a school-based drama that attempts to be at least fairly realistic. You're not Supernatural. (She's a really cute, heartbreaking ghost, though. I hope she doesn't turn into a vengeful spirit. Finn, being a bit of a Dean Winchestery figure in some ways, might be able to handle her, but he doesn't show up for another three series, and I think he'd be around eleven years old at this point in the timeline, which is perhaps a touch too young to be fighting the paranormal.)

Watching the present series of Waterloo Road alongside the early series is quite a weird experience, because I love Current Tom, whereas Early Tom needs to be whacked over the head with a hardback copy of Lord of the Rings. I'm quite interested in seeing how his character makes the transition from 'selfish, cowardly git' to 'someone who may not always get things right, but tries so hard to'.

I recently looked up 'oh dear' in Wiktionary, hoping to find information about the phrase's origin. Whilst it was not terribly informative, I was amused by the example sentence: Oh dear, you seem to have forgotten to wear clothes.

This is an entry about language! Here are some facts about language that I enjoy.

- Children just beginning to learn to speak will often correctly use irregular verbs: for example, I went. However, when they are slightly older, they will begin to say I goed before returning to I went.

The theory is that at first the children are simply repeating what they hear. However, at some point they realise that adding -ed onto the end of a verb puts it into the past tense, and so they apply that rule universally, saying not only I looked and I wanted but I goed. Later, they realise that some verbs are exceptions to this rule and begin to say I went again.

This is interesting because it shows that children aren't simply parroting back what they hear; they are actually learning and applying grammatical rules. Awesome.

- In a verb string, the form of each verb is determined by the verb preceding it. For example:

I ride the unicorn
I am riding the unicorn - the use of am, a form of the progressive auxiliary to be, puts ride into the progressive form, riding.
I have ridden the unicorn - to have puts ride into the past/perfect* participle, ridden. (The past participle is not necessarily the same as the simple past (I rode the unicorn), but in regular verbs the two forms are the same (I licked the unicorn; I have licked the unicorn.))
I have been riding the unicorn - to have puts to be into the past participle, been, and that in turn puts to ride into the progressive participle, riding.

* This is also called the passive participle, because it is used with to be to form the passive voice: The unicorn was ridden by me.

What fascinates me about this is the fact that it all seems so complicated, and yet people follow all these convoluted grammatical rules without really thinking about it. Does it occur to you, when you ask 'Does Riona realise how boring this is?', that what you're essentially doing is taking the sentence 'Riona realises how boring this is', adding the optional auxiliary to do to make 'Riona does realise how boring this is', and then switching the subject and auxiliary around to form a question? (German can do this without the auxiliary verb: 'liebst du mich?' is essentially 'love you me?', but because in English we can only switch auxiliary or modal verbs with the subject we have to add a 'do'.)

...well, I think it's interesting. I love grammar! I can't help it!

- I imagine many of you will already know about pidgins and creoles, but they're so fascinating that I want to mention them anyway. A pidgin is a simplified language, developed as a means of communication between groups of people who don't share a common tongue. It doesn't really have grammatical rules; the idea is just to convey meaning. However, if the speakers of a pidgin have children, and if those children grow up hearing the pidgin, they will spontaneously give the pidgin grammatical rules. It will become a full-blown language, called a creole. Without consciously knowing what they're doing, these children will give the pidgin a whole new level of consistency and complexity, just in the process of learning it. THAT'S CRAZY.

(I should note that my knowledge of the pidgin-creole relationship came from Stephen Pinker, rather than my course, and as Pinker is an advocate of Chomsky's theory that language is innate he may have an interpretive bias.)

If I were to write a Waterloo Road/Pokémon crossover - and I'm not going to, because it would be ridiculous and because there would be literally no market for it and because I'd struggle terribly with the dialect of the pupils, which has grammatical rules that don't come naturally to me (a quote from Josh: 'We was mates! I weren't just 'anging 'round with you so I could jump on you.' Dialects are on the whole grammatically consistent, even if the system they use may not be what's viewed as the 'standard'; Josh certainly wouldn't be using 'was' and 'were' randomly. What rules govern his usage?) - Waterloo Road would be a troubled school for young Pokémon trainers. (Well, young people - not all of the lessons would be Pokémon-related, despite the ridiculous extent to which the canonical Pokémon world appears to revolve around Pokémon - but learning to train Pokémon would form a part of pupils' education.)

Karen Fisher would have a Kangaskhan. I considered giving her a Kangaskhan that had lost the baby in its pouch, but that seemed a little too heavy-handed, even for Waterloo Road. Tom would have a Growlithe. Ronan has a Meowth, I'm inclined to say; a Pokémon that can learn Pay Day seems appropriate for someone so interested in earning money. Also, Meowth and its evolution are associated with Team Rocket, and Ronan's father would of course be a member.

Pupils are not permitted to have Pokémon out of their Pokéballs in the corridors.

Finn has a Mankey. Josh has an Eevee. They have frequent playful Pokémon battles. Sometimes these battles turn a little less playful.

(QUESTIONS I HAVE NEVER ASKED MYSELF BEFORE: what would an Eevee evolve into to symbolise her trainer's acceptance of his homosexuality? ANSWER, REACHED AFTER SOME CONSIDERATION IN A DESPERATE AND UNSUCCESSFUL BID TO FIND A MORE SOLID REASON FOR CHOOSING THAN 'WELL, THAT ONE'S PURPLE': Espeon. It's slightly less terrible reasoning than 'well, Flareon is flaming', at least. (A few years ago, one of my brothers came up with an Eevee evolution and named it 'Lesbeon', but until that species is canonically discovered Espeon it is.))

Were I to write this, there would be a scene in which Josh has just kissed Finn, and they have one of their nastier Pokémon battles, and Tom comes across them and separates them, and Tom's Growlithe picks Josh's injured Eevee up by the scruff of its neck and runs it to the Pokémon-treating facilities in the school, and Josh is panicking about Eevee's health because he's genuinely worried about her but also because he can't leave himself any mental room to think about his rejection and the state of his friendship with Finn, he can't do that.

But I'm not going to write it.

Obviously.

A couple of nights ago, I dreamt that I was being strangled by a Furby. They don't even have arms!

Anyway, I have been musing on the wonders of the Internet. One of the things I like most about the Internet is the way you can learn all sorts of pointless trivia as you leap about from page to page.

Therefore, here is a pointless trivia entry! Tell me something interesting in the comments, and then everyone who comes by can read it and go 'ooh, I never knew that'. (If your interesting fact comes from a particular field, such as 'biology' or 'linguistics' or 'literature', you could put that in the comment title so people can see at a glance whether it's something in which they would be particularly interested, but that's entirely optional.)

A couple of things to start us off:

- The reason the letters 'i' and 'j' have dots: in Latin texts written in the first millennium AD, 'm' and 'n' were each formed entirely of downward strokes, called 'minim strokes': three for 'm', two for 'n'. 'i' was a single minim stroke, and so the dot was introduced, because otherwise an 'n' and an 'i' next to each other would look exactly the same as an 'm'. 'j' was derived from 'i' (it was originally simply 'I' with a flourish) and therefore kept the dot. (The dot over a lowercase 'i' or 'j' is called a 'tittle', incidentally.)

- It's recently been bothering me that many clock and watch faces inconsistently use 'IIII' rather than 'IV' to represent four whilst still using 'IX' to represent nine. It seems that nobody knows exactly why this is the case, but here is a page of interesting theories.

Feel free to link to this entry if you'd like to draw from a wider pool of knowledge (you should, of course, feel equally free not to link to this entry; there's no pressure). Let's make this the best collection of potential pub quiz answers ever.

My mental screensaver is now Charlie Brooker snogging an adorable furry handpuppet. If I'm not thinking of anything in particular, I'm seeing Brooker making out with a puppet. I suspect this may be the case for a while.

By which I mean that I went to see the You Have Been Watching Children's TV Special being recorded yesterday with

causethesounds,

anewcitylife and

th_esaurus. My memory is sort of overwhelmed by CHARLIE BROOKER SNOGGED A PUPPET, but I'll try to recall enough things to make a proper report.

The guests were Mark Watson, Chris Addison and Holly Walsh; the host, of course, was Charlie Brooker.

( Mr Fuggles and Other Stories: the recording of the You Have Been Watching Children's TV Special. )

There was a LINE here. It's gone now.

Hello! First, a call for help: are you from the East Midlands? Are you aged between eighteen and twenty-five? If so, and if you have the time, please consider popping over here to help

sparklenight, my fellow English Language student, with her dissertation on accent features of the East Midlands. It would be extremely kind of you.

And now, alas, although I generally try to keep this journal a place of happiness, I have to take a moment to express how appalled I am by the way in which certain parts of the Supernatural fandom are reacting to the news that Jared Padalecki and Genevieve Cortese are engaged.

( Under the cut. )

Er, sorry about the rant. Congratulations to Jared and Genevieve, and I hope they're very happy! Have some adorable dancing Pikachu videos to make up for this entry: one, two.

Thought of the day: wouldn't Romeo and Juliet have been so much better had the feud between the Montague and Capulet houses in fact been a massive Pokémon battle?

...I typed that out, and then I remembered that that was, in fact, an actual episode of Pokémon. Romeo and Juliet were Nidoran.

Oh, Pokémon. With canon like that, who needs crackfic?

I'm afraid this is going to be another entry about a game about five of you have played, because I cannot stop thinking about Shadow of the Colossus.

It didn't occur to me until some time after I'd finished the game, because at the time I was so caught up in the frustration of missing his hand and being forced to climb up the building he was wearing about twelve times, but now I feel like the worst person in the world for killing the final Colossus. Yes, he shoots exploding lasers at you from afar, which is rude, but when you're actually on him he doesn't attack you at all. You stab him, and all he does is examine his injuries, as would anyone.

And I took advantage of that and killed him.

I feel like a terrible person.

I - I am seriously considering signing up for Wander/Agro (OBVIOUSLY NOT IN A ROMANTIC/SEXUAL SENSE although one of the prompts in the table I'm considering is 'sex', not sure what I'll do about that) at

1sentence. THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA FOR SO MANY REASONS. My strong point in writing is dialogue, and there is no room for dialogue in the tale of an almost-silent boy and his horse! There is so little material in the game that I'm not sure I'd be able to manage twenty sentences, let alone fifty! I cannot possibly match the beautiful, sparse feel of the game! Also, another prompt is 'chocolate' and I doubt that there is much chocolate in the Forbidden Lands. (Same with 'telephone', but I think I may have an idea for that one. NO NO NO I SHOULDN'T DO THIS.)

ONE THING THAT ANNOYS ME ABOUT THIS OTHERWISE WONDERFUL GAME: learn some grammar, Dormin. You can't just say 'thou' and then use any verb form that you like! If thou manage to accomplish what we askest - no, Dormin. No. If thou managest to accomplish what we ask. Admittedly, as Dormin isn't actually speaking English, this is probably the fault of the subtitler rather than the entity.

Here are my favourite colossus battle themes on YouTube:

A Violent Encounter (oh, my goodness, the voices from forty to fifty seconds in, amazing)
A Despair-Filled Farewell
The Opened Way

For full effect, those unfamiliar with Shadow of the Colossus: imagine that you are fighting a creature thousands of times larger than you whilst listening to these.

Also: have you ever wanted to see the opening and the battle with the third Colossus rendered in Lego? Of course you have.

Right! I have a rather nasty exam for Communication Analysis on Tuesday. It is one hundred per cent of the mark for the module, and I find myself forced to teach myself more or less everything, because the tutor, although I am sure she is lovely as a person, has generally failed to impart any actual knowledge. I have actually been staying in bed until ten for the past couple of days (it's late for me) because I can't face getting up and confronting all that revision.

So I don't like revising. On the other hand, I like updating my Livejournal, and typing out and rephrasing the things I've learnt will probably help me get them clear in my head.

( Just dumping some revision notes on Conversation Analysis (one of several communication analysis approaches) here. Probably not of much interest to any of you, apart from the one other person taking this exam, but feel free to read them if you'd like. Grice's Cooperative Principle is quite interesting. )

I cannot express how little I am looking forward to this exam. It seems as if communication analysis deals with potentially interesting stuff, but it simply hasn't been made clear enough. I have attended every lecture and almost every seminar, but I feel I could have skipped them all and still found myself beginning my revision from the same point. Doubleplusungood!

So. Er. I've finished watching Revolutionary Girl Utena.

( Spoilers up to the ending. )

I think Revolutionary Girl Utena is going to be one of those fandoms into which I don't feel quite intelligent enough to seriously enter. It is so clever and symbolic! I am intimidated and unobservant! But I love it, and I'm glad I watched, and I am so, so smitten with its main character. You are wonderful, Utena.

I am very nearly caught up on The Mentalist!

At the beginning of 'Red Scare', I found myself wondering whether I had accidentally put on a Supernatural episode. I spent the rest of the episode half-expecting the Winchesters to show up and was mildly disappointed when they didn't.

(The Winchesters investigate a case! The CBI are already investigating it! Cho interrogates Sam! Dean becomes convinced that this guy with a girl's name is actually psychic and they need to take him out! (They don't actually take him out, though. That would make the concept much less delightful. (Maybe Sam takes him out to dinner.)))

Van Pelt and Rigsby were adorable enough to make up for the lack of Winchesters, though. I love them. Also, the part where Jane was leaning casually against a ledge and drinking tea and basically looked like he was having the most civilised phonesex ever with Cho was bizarrely and enormously hot.

Over the weekend, I made the following rather perplexing slipup when talking to my housemate:

Riona: Would you like some drugs? ...no, not drugs. Water.

It was late and I was sleepy, but that doesn't really make it much less confusing.

(Between that and my starting a story with 'A friend of mine was once strangling me - not for erotic reasons...' in the middle of a discussion about autoerotic asphyxiation, I think my housemate may be slightly afraid of me.)

Finally pulled together the courage to play more Metal Gear Solid! (Metal Gear Solid requires courage to play not because it is terrifying, like Shadow of the Colossus, but because I am so humiliatingly bad at it. I need to erect protective shields around my self-esteem before attempting this game.)

I am now just past the torture scene. (At which, by the way, I totally rocked. YOU'LL GET NO SUBMISSION FROM ME, OCELOT. Thank you, GF-boosting; you have made me a master of repeatedly pressing buttons.)

Notes!

- PSYCHO MANTIS YOU ARE SO CREEPY.

- AND THANKS, MANTIS, I KNOW I'M A POOR WARRIOR. YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME. THAT'S JUST RUDE. (Only three Game Overs in an hour of gameplay! I'm improving! ...sigh.)

- So Psycho Mantis feels a bond with Solid Snake because, if I am interpreting him correctly, Snake is asexual.

I am not certain that I am interpreting him correctly.

(Actually, at first I interpreted how creepy and sexual Psycho Mantis was being when he was working through Meryl as a test of Snake's character, but now the thought occurs that 'asexual' may not be quite the right word.)

- Psycho Mantis must really hate 'shippers. I bet he's always posting to

fandomsecrets saying 'I JUDGE YOU IF YOU PAIR CHARACTERS UP JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE HOT/THEY'RE FRIENDS/THE CANON TELLS YOU TO'. Then he writes eighty thousand words of incredibly filthy Snake/Meryl and claims it's an ironic exercise.

Oddly enough, he's never made an 'I JUDGE YOU IF YOU PAIR UP ENEMIES' secret.

- I knew the technique for fighting Mantis already, probably due to TV Tropes. On the one hand, that's a bit of a shame. On the other, I swear I would never have worked it out myself. Is there any indication at all that that's what you should do?

- 'Other people just complicate my life. I don't like to get involved.'

Wow, Snake, you should hang out with Squall sometime. Although admittedly 'a shared interest in not getting involved with other people' is possibly not the best basis for a friendship.

- Snake and Meryl's reflections do not show up in the incredibly reflective floor of Mantis's room. This is probably due to technological limitations, I realise, but it is slightly unnerving, all the same.

- NOOOOOOOOOOOOO SNIPER WOLF'S INTRODUCTION NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

- Oh, dear. I had no trouble killing the wolf-huskies on my first trip through the caves, and then the puppy gambolled around and sat near Meryl with little hearts coming out of its head, and now I just have to run past them and hope they don't eat me. Blast. I am too soft for this game.

- Dear camera: are Sniper Wolf's pixellated breasts really that interesting? (Sniper Wolf is sort of awesome, though.)

- English accents, despite my Englishness and ridiculously RP pronunciation, sound really odd in videogames. I'm just not used to hearing them there. I'm always pleased when they show up, but there's always a moment of 'Wow, what a fascinating accent! Where is that - oh. Oh. Yes, that's how I pronounce things, isn't it?' (That's assuming it's an RP accent, of course, but when an English accent shows up in a videogame it usually is.) Liquid's accent was rather well-done, but the pronunciation of 'sample' tipped me off to the fact that it was not the voice actor's natural accent.

Speaking of voice acting: I learnt yesterday that Basch fon Ronsenburg's voice actor also voices Bloo of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

I have seen only one or two episodes of Foster's, but this revelation still made me laugh really, really hard.

Last night, I dreamt that I was in the body of the Squall-smitten author of the Final Fantasy VIII self-insertion to which I linked a couple of entries ago, showering with the author herself, who was in the body of Squall Leonhart.

Perplexing! (Does this mean that Squall's consciousness was in my body?)

GUYS. SOMETHING HAS JUST OCCURRED TO ME. What if they make Dumbledore/Grindelwald more explicit in the Deathly Hallows films? Properly treated, that could be amazing. Dumbledore's love for Grindelwald makes his eventual defeat of him so very tragic, and I think Rowling missed a great opportunity by not making it clear in the books. The makers of the films have the opportunity to remedy that.

What do you think the nature of Dumbledore's relationship with Grindelwald was? Was Dumbledore's love unexpressed and unrequited? Did Grindelwald notice it and use it to manipulate Dumbledore? Was it genuinely requited to any extent?

(I rather like the 'Grindelwald is a manipulative bastard' explanation, I have to say. Sorry, Dumbledore. Ooh, perhaps Dumbledore inherited some of his manipulative bastardliness from Grindelwald!)

Actually, let's have a poll.

[Poll #1440014]

The reason for the Final Fantasy questions: I have realised that I am entirely determined to ignore the pronunciations of Seifer, Tidus and Yuffie's names given in Kingdom Hearts. THEY'LL ALWAYS BE SAFER, TYDUS AND YUHFIE TO ME. Are there any characters whose names you cheerfully mispronounce despite knowing better?

Finally and unrelatedly:

lassiterfics is holding a Round-Robin Commentfic Party. The idea: you post the opening of a fic! Others continue it! You continue fanfiction started by others! It is a rather excellent idea. (I have started a Merlin/Pokémon thread over here and encourage you to contribute.)

Regarding the seventh volume of Fullmetal Alchemist: was Greed this amazing in the anime? Surely I would have remembered had he been this amazing. DON'T FIGHT HIM, GUYS; JUST, I DON'T KNOW, HANG OUT AND FIGHT CRIME TOGETHER. (There were points at which Greed and the Devil's Nest crew reminded me of Mello and his gang, actually. But Greed and company are a bit more awesome.

I really wanted to use 'remound' as the past tense of 'remind' there.)

It looks as if the end of the seventh volume may be where the anime and manga begin to diverge, which means that this is where things get really interesting. For the past few volumes, I've been able to vaguely recall the corresponding anime episodes, and so I've had some idea of what to expect; from here on, I do not know what's going to happen at all. How exciting!

HERE IS THE PROBLEM WITH MY HANGING AROUND IN BRIGHTON TO LOOK FOR A HOUSEMATE POST-ACADEMIC YEAR: much of the time, I have nothing better to do than come up with the most appalling crossover ideas possible and then illustrate them.

Who knew he would go this far?

SHARE YOUR BAD CROSSOVER IDEAS WITH ME IN THE COMMENTS. They do not have to be in manip form, although that would be rather fun.

Here is a summary I saw when I was amusing myself by glancing at the Final Fantasy XIII section of fanfiction.net (for those who don't know, Final Fantasy XIII is a videogame that is not coming out in Japan for some months and won't be available in English-speaking countries until some time next year):

She could almost feel his death racing her, could hear the jagged breathing of Death, its cold breath raising the hairs on her neck, but where many people would’ve slowed down in complete fear, that only spurred her to run faster... ShotgunGuy/Vanille

OH, NO, NOT SHOTGUN GUY.

Of course, I am an enormous hypocrite for poking fun at people who write fanfiction for Final Fantasy XIII based on what can be gleaned from a few trailers, given that I've had a Final Fantasy Versus XIII icon for months. It still strikes me as a bit odd, though. (Even more odd: this is not the only 'Vanille/Shotgun Guy' story in the section.)

What really confuses me, though, is the bashing of Stella from Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

That's right: people are bashing a character from a game that hasn't been released. How can you hate her just from some trailers in which, if I recall correctly, she doesn't even speak? How can you describe her as a 'waste of gameplay' if you have not played the game? The only solid reason for dislike I've seen given is 'her clothes are impractical', which can be applied to, er, more or less any Final Fantasy character ever. For all I know, Stella could end up being incredibly annoying, but I can't judge her character before I've actually seen her.

(I'll confess to pre-emptively deciding that I like Sazh Katzroy, but, come on (spoiler blackout, highlight to read if you don't mind knowing minor details about a Final Fantasy XIII character):

Described as a sympathetic and kind man who is easily moved to tears, he is accompanied by a baby Chocobo named Hina that lives in his afro. (source)

He has a baby bird living in his afro. He has a baby bird living in his afro. Perhaps it is possible for a man who keeps a baby bird in his afro not to be amazing, but I doubt it.

Wow, I am being such a hypocrite today! Soon I shall even be 'shipping pairings involving characters about whom I know nothing. (Actually, I've seen Lightning's name shortened to 'Light' in some of this inexplicable fanfiction. Given that Light/Light is my Death Note OTP: Lightning/Light? ...perhaps not.))

Not really speaking of Lightning/Light, I think I might like to attempt Death Note fanfiction. However, there are two major problems with this:

- I am not as intelligent as many of the Death Note characters. How am I supposed to adequately place myself inside a character's head if that character is smarter than me? Had I been Kira, I would have been caught in seconds.

- I watched the series in Japanese, with English subtitles. I don't know whether I can translate the characters' voices into English in my writing. Thinking 'does this sound like something the character would say?' is so much more difficult when I've heard the character saying things only in a language I don't speak. How do I know exactly how Light would phrase things were he speaking English? Perhaps it would be best if I were to buy the manga and get some idea of how his speech is conveyed in the official translation.

A third, more minor problem is the fact that the fanfiction would, of course, be Light/himself, and I'm not sure the world needs that pairing as much as I do.

Perhaps I should just write about Derren Brown being a shinigami. Or a Death Note owner. I think he would pull off either role marvellously. (I've also been meaning for a while to write fanfiction in which Derren Brown is Lucifer, because he would be alarmingly good at it. And, of course, there's

andtimetravel.

All right, Riona, let's get through your last exam first. You can write to your heart's content about narcissism taken to its ultimate limits and Derren Brown being pure evil after Tuesday.)

Right. On the one hand, I have an exam on the history of the English language on Wednesday, for which I need to revise. On the other, I really just want to hang around on Livejournal.

THE OBVIOUS SOLUTION: COMBINE THE TWO.

YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLES AND ITS IMPACT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE AND YOU ARE GOING TO LIKE IT.

(Note: you do not actually have to read this entry. It's really just for my use. But you're welcome to peek if you think you might be interested. Also, if you have any questions about anything, please ask them; answering them would be excellent revision!)

Basic list of topics to revise:
- The early sociolinguistic history of Britain
- The Old English period: 600 - 1066
- The Norman conquest and its linguistic consequences
- The linguistic situation in early mediaeval England
- Late Middle and Early Modern: consciousness of English
- Renaissance and Reformation
- Shakespeare's vocabulary: innovation and popularisation
- Scots: language shift and what drives it
- The drive for standardisation: officialdom and private enterprise
- Modern English

(Seriously, these are just my revision notes. You don't have to read them.)

( The early sociolinguistic history of Britain. )

( The Christianisation of England and its linguistic consequences. )

And this was the point at which I realised that revising in this fashion was taking far too long, and that the level of interest on my flist is probably not high enough to justify persevering. However, I'm still going to post it, just because it's good to have it around and because I know I have someone else on my flist who's going to be taking this exam. Good luck to both of us.

(If you would like to ask questions about the history of the language post-Christianisation, particularly if those questions relate to any of the topics on the list at the top of this entry, please do! It would be very helpful for my revision.)

WHILST I'M BEING INSECURE ABOUT MY WRITING: for as long as I can remember, I have used "double quotation marks" for speech in fiction and 'single quotation marks' for all other purposes. No style guide will recommend this: in British publishing convention, single quotes are used for all purposes, including speech, with speech within speech the only context in which double quotes are used; in American publishing convention, the situation is reversed. Does this inconsistency bother you? (Alternative question: do you have similar stylistic quirks?) I just think there's something quite nice about drawing a visual distinction between speaking and 'setting a phrase aside'. If there are two different types of quotation mark, why not put them to use?

Regarding Supernatural: I rewatched 'Fresh Blood' a little while ago, and it reminded me of how awesome Bela can be. I love that she actually seems surprised and a little upset that Dean is so angry with her for telling a murderous madman where to find them. HONESTLY, DEAN, YOU'RE SO OVERSENSITIVE. And then she helps them track him down, because, hey, she didn't know Dean was going to be so unreasonable about the whole thing. I love her.

HERE IS SOMETHING I WOULD LOVE TO SEE: a rewritten Twilight, with Bela in the role of Bella. Edward may be ridiculously strong and fast, but if he can't hear Bela's thoughts he's doomed. She will seduce him, use him shamelessly and then run off with his sister to form an amazing con artist duo. It would be pretty great. And at least Bela's unsympathetic aspects are intentional, unlike those of Bella 'Stupid Unattractive Humans With Their Stupid Being Nice To Me' Swan.

(Jo is welcome to join Bela and Alice in their con-artistry.)

(Also, Ruby can flit between the three of them, although I have not yet decided whether she would assist with the cons or whether she would ruin them for her own amusement by possessing the team members at inopportune moments.)

Something I've been wondering: when I'm writing fanfiction involving American characters, does my Britishness show? I've been reading a bit of Merlin fanfiction and RPF recently, and much of it has been wonderful, and it's clear that the American writers make a great effort to use British terminology, but so often there's some tiny thing - 'principal' instead of 'headmaster/headmistress/head', 'subway' instead of 'tube', 'pants' used to mean trousers instead of underwear, 'airplane' instead of 'aeroplane' (it's illogical - we don't have 'aeroports', after all - but it's what we say!), a 'stick shift' instead of a manual car, 'purse' used to mean a bag, 'cell phone' instead of 'mobile phone' - that gives a writer away as American and pulls me out of the story a little. I don't mind American spellings in British fandoms (I would be a hypocrite if I did, because I cling desperately to my 'u's and '-ise's no matter what I'm writing (WHO SPELLS 'COSY' 'COZY'? 'Z' IS NOT A COSY LETTER, AMERICA. IT HAS SHARP EDGES)), but when a British character uses a word or phrase that that character simply wouldn't use I find it quite jarring.

I suppose I have a cultural-exposure advantage, as American television is more popular over here than British television is in America, but I don't understand half of what Dean Winchester says, so how can I be sure that I'm writing him accurately? I'm sure I forget to use 'gotten' on occasion when I'm writing from the point of view of an American character, and I've unthinkingly used 'leant' instead of 'leaned' and other '-t' participles in some of my older American-fandom fics (not such a problem now that I've started writing mostly in the present tense), and there are times when the possibility that a word isn't used in American English simply doesn't occur to me (is it true that you don't 'revise' for exams?). In my Supernatural fanfiction, is the fact that I am not American glaringly obvious?

Ah, writer's insecurity. Perhaps I should just use a cultural beta when I'm writing for American fandoms.

Speaking of giant mechanical spiders: I would very much like to see a Merlin and Avatar crossover. I think the tones of the two canons would mesh well. UTHER HAS OUTLAWED BENDING. MERLIN IS THE AVATAR.

Alternatively: everyone, perhaps including Merlin at first and certainly including Arthur himself, believes that Arthur is the Avatar, but in fact he is just a bloody good Earthbender. Merlin, travelling around with him in the Sokka role, comes to realise that he himself is, in fact, the Avatar. Whoops. He tries to conceal the fact that he has any bending skills at all, for, er, no doubt very good reasons. 'Protecting Arthur's ego' does not count as a good reason. I'm going to have to think about this. (They travel with Gwen and Morgana. Gwen is a Waterbender, Morgana a Firebender.)

THEIR MODE OF TRANSPORT IS A GIANT WINGED UNICORN.

POSSIBLY A GIANT SIX-LEGGED WINGED UNICORN.

YES.

I'm not sure of what to do with Gaius. He is not quite awesome enough to take the role of Iroh, and, besides, one cannot have an Iroh without a Zuko, and the only character of whom I can think to play Zuko to Gaius' Iroh is Merlin. Having Merlin striving to capture himself would probably be slightly too confusing.

I suppose Edwin could be Zuko. The question: would it be too silly and superficial to cast Edwin as Zuko purely because one half of his face is scarred? The answer: yes. Yes, it would.

(Perhaps Arthur could be a sort of blend of false-Avatar and Zuko, trying to get back into his father's good graces after he was banished for bending.

OR SOMETHING. I DON'T KNOW. ALL I KNOW IS THAT THE MERLIN AND AVATAR WORLDS NEED TO MEET.)

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Riona

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Entries tagged with language

Why'd You Take A Picture?

Salutations, Spirit Female Kinsperson.

Sadly, I Can Think Of No Good Poodle Prostitution Puns.

Don't Think We Didn't Notice You'd Changed The Letter.

I Am Using This Icon Because David Mitchell Looks A Bit Like A Teacher.

I'm Really Not.

Make Millions Of Coals Go In There.

Their Kisses May Be Sweet, But It's Not Right To Cheat...

Actors Are Not Your Posable Dolls: A Rant.

'Thou Possesses'? Oh, Come On.

Eddie Izzard Does Not Appreciate Your Threat To His Negative Face.

Whoops, I Appear To Have Icons.

Maybe Van Pelt Is A Bit Taken With Dean.

You Might Call Yourself A Mine Reader.

A Bad Salesperson Makes A Bad Dominatrix.

To Catch Them Is My Real Test; To Rule Them Is My Cause.

The True Love Of Lightning And That Guy On The Left.

Then Came The Ninth-Century Viking Raids, Which Influenced Morphology.

I Want To See The Zoo, She Said, I Want To See The Zoo.

'I'll Leave Lolita On Your Bed. ...The Book.'

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