If thinking is about making distinctions, then it can be to our advantage to understand even the finer uses of words and punctuation that sectionize our experience and help us communicate our thoughts accurately. One such is the use of a comma before the conjunction because. Whether or not we include it can change what …
Author Archives: rultimo
What Words Can Do
People who love words, those who used to be known as philologists, have a special interest in what is called the etymology of words. The etymology of a word is its history, and the etymology of etymology is the study (the –logy) of an etymon (-etym), the real, true, and original meaning of a word. …
This Word, Not That Word
If by thinking we mean being rational and clear minded, then making sharp distinctions between the words we use is at the heart of it. In language it is the function of adjectives to mark the differences between nouns, and of verbs to distinguish between actions of one sort or another. The finer the choices …
When the Same is Actually Different
“Can you hear the difference?” That’s a question we’ll ask when we think someone perceives two things as one, say the same note played on two different pianos, one a digital keyboard and the other a concert grand. We might strike the same middle-C note on each instrument, but there’s a difference in the quality …
Seeing and Saying
If we had to choose between these two sentences, which would it be: Her intelligence I never doubted or Her intelligence was never in doubt. The challenge, I admit, is unfair, because we have neither a context nor an intention by which to decide which of these two sentences is the better choice. Still, there …