George Orwells Use of Appositives in A Hanging

George Orwells Use of Appositives in A Hanging An appositive- a noun or noun phrase that identifies or renames another noun- is a handy way of adding details to a sentence. The term comes from the Latin word for placing close by, and an appositive usually appears right after the word or phrase that it renames. Youve just seen one example of an appositive- in the first sentence of this article. Here, from the opening of George Orwells essay A Hanging, are two more: We were waiting outside the condemned cells, a row of sheds fronted with double bars, like small animal cages.He was a Hindu, a puny wisp of a man, with a shaven head and vague liquid eyes. A few paragraphs later, Orwell lines up a pair of appositives to identify another character: Francis, [1] the head jailer, [2] a fat Dravidian in a white drill suit and gold spectacles, waved his black hand. In each of Orwells sentences, the appositive could be substituted for the noun it renames (cells, Hindu, Francis). Or it could be deleted without changing the basic meaning of the sentence. Set off by commas, such appositives are said to be nonrestrictive. In some cases, an appositive might be thought of as a simplified adjective clause (a word group beginning with who or which). This next sentence, for example, relies on an adjective clause to identify the subject, hangman: The hangman, who was a gray-haired convict in the white uniform of the prison, was waiting beside the machine. Now look at George Orwells original version of the sentence, with the adjective clause reduced to a more concise appositive: The hangman, a gray-haired convict in the white uniform of the prison, was waiting beside the machine. Viewed this way, appositives offer a way to cut the clutter in our writing. And that, youll have to admit, makes it a handy little device- a compact grammatical structure. NEXTFor a more detailed discussion of appositives, see How to Build Sentences with Appositives.

Archaism - Definition and Examples

Archaism s An archaism is a word or phrase (or a particular meaning of a word or phrase) that is no longer in common use and is considered extremely old-fashioned. Etymology:  From the Greek, ancient, beginning Pronunciation:  ARE-kay-i-zem Also Known  As:  lexical zombie A  grammatical archaism  is a sentence structure or word order thats no longer in common use in most dialects.   Linguist Tom McArthur notes that literary archaism occurs when a style is modeled on older works, so as to revive earlier practices or achieve the desired effect. (Source: Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language, 2005) Examples The old man raised the axe and split the head of John Joel Glanton to the thrapple.(Source: Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, 1985)[Nick Faldo] speaks in a jaunty, clipped, wised-up vernacular, mixing street-smart patter with solid analysis. His vocabulary is rich in curious archaisms- jeepers, crumbs, gee- and eccentric asides.(Source: Jason Cowley, Nicks Second Coming. The Guardian, Oct. 1, 2006) 19th-Century Archaisms We do not have to go back as far as Elizabethan English or the Middle Ages to encounter archaisms. Here are some from the Victorian and Edwardian eras: beastly (as in so beastly critical) blest, deuced (if I know) capital! (as an exclamation of delight) very civil (of you) confound you! damnable cheek guvnor luncheon pray (come in) (you) rotter spiffing And might we not say that daddy-o is an archaism, even though it was alive and well in the 1960s? (Source: David Crystal, Words, Words, Words. Oxford University Press, 2006) 20th-Century Archaisms Among the technological archaisms Ive had to explain to the Tuned In children- what a record is, why they call it dialing a phone, the fact that, once, you couldnt rewind TV shows- is the fact that, a long time ago, musicians used to make little movies of their songs, and people would watch them on TV. (James Poniewozik, Wake Up and Smell the Cat Food in Your Bank Account. Time magazine, May 2, 2007) Stuff It is rather odd to see that the OED [Oxford English Dictionary] defines the word care as some kind of stuff. This seems at first glance to be a rather nonspecific definition to find in what is arguably the greatest dictionary ever created. But it is actually very specific- just a bit archaic. The word stuff has had a variety of meanings through the ages, and at the time that this definition was written, in 1888, it referred to (among other things) a woollen fabric or material for the gown worn by a junior counsel.(Source: Ammon Shea, Dated Definitions. The New York Times, Aug. 12, 2009) Archaisms and Register It should be added . . . that there is a problem with the identification of archaism, since archaisms are  sometimes not archaic in the register in which they are used. For example, thee and thou are not archaic forms in a certain type of poetic register; they are archaic only in relation to our contemporary day-to-day speech. Thus the use of an archaism can be interpreted as either conforming to a register or looking back to the past (or both). . . . Only by using a dictionary such as the OED, which is a historical dictionary, giving the meanings of words over time, will you be able to find out whether certain words were current or archaic at the time of writing.​  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹(Source: Martin Montgomery et al.,  Ways of Reading: Advanced Reading Skills for Students of English Literature, 3rd ed. Routledge, 2007) The Lighter Side of Archaisms Frank Rossitano: Yo Tray, we got a problem. Tracy Jordan as President Thomas Jefferson: Pray, who be this Tracy Jordan thou speakest of? Frank: Eh, President Jefferson, we got a problem. Tracy: Speaketh. Frank Rossitano: That horse ate your wig. Tracy: Well, stand guard by his rump and await it in his droppings.(Source: Judah Friedlander and Tracy Morgan in Corporate Crush. 30 Rock, 2007)