Monday, August 31, 2009

Fun with words

The nonsense of english spelling.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Gramesis

Gramesis

1. In the beginning my English teacher created nouns and verbs.

2. And the verbs were without form and voice; and darkness was upon
the face of the deep--my teacher.

3. And she said, "Let there be grammar;" and there was grammar.

4. And Teacher saw the verbs and laughed and said that it was good;
and she divided the bright students from those who remained in darkness.

5. And Teacher gave the bright students A's and kept the others after
school. And the homework and the bell were the first day.

6. And Teacher said, "Let there be a sentence in the midst of the
words, and let it divide the nouns from the verbs.

7. And Teacher made the sentence, and diagrammed it on the board; I
looked and saw that it was so.

8. And the Teacher called the sentence declarative. And the capital
and the period were the second day.

9. And Teacher said, "Let the noun words in the sentence be gathered
together unto one place, and let the verb words appear; and it was so.

10. And Teacher called the verb words predicate; and the gathering
together of noun words called she the subject; and Teacher saw that it
was good.

11. And Teacher said, "Let the predicate bring forth modifiers, the
transitive verbs yielding objects, and the intransitive verbs yielding
complements after their own kind, whose place is in itself, within the
predicate;" and it was so.

12. And the predicate brought forth modifiers, and transitive verbs
yielding objects after their own kind, and intransitive verbs yielding
a complement whose place was in itself, after their own kind: The
Teacher saw that it was good and confusing.

13. And the active and the passive were the third day.

14. And Teacher said, "Let there be modifiers in the firmament of the
subject to further confuse and divide the students in the classroom;
and let them be for proper nouns, concrete nouns, mass nouns,
collective nouns, pronouns, and abstract nouns."

15. "And let them be for to give meaning in the subject and to
enhance the predicate;" and it was so---confusing.

16. And Teacher made two great words: the greater word -adjective- to
rule the noun, and the lesser word -adverb- to rule the verb; she made
the conjunction also.

17. And Teacher set them in the sentence in order to make it
difficult to diagram.

18. And to make it easier for her to divide the bright students from
those who remained in darkness; and Teacher saw that her system was
good.

19. And the phrase and the clause were the fourth day.

20. And Teacher said, "Let the verbs bring forth abundantly the many
verb forms, the gerunds, infinitives, and participles; the
subjunctives; the auxiliary verbs, the linking verbs; and the phrasal
verbs."

21. And Teacher created mood for every living creature that moveth,
and tense for all time, and voice after their kind: and Teacher saw
that it was indeed good.

22. And Teacher blessed them saying, "Be fruitful and multiply in
complexity, and fill young minds with bewilderment, and let the
bewilderment multiply into chaos in their minds."

23. And the lecture and the English test were the fifth day.

24. And Teacher said, "Let the nouns and verbs bring forth living
sentences after their own kind, book reports, essay questions, and
English themes for the students to write;" and it was very so.

25. And Teacher made all these things for the freshman English
student to do, and everything that creepeth into her mind she gave to
them to do; and Teacher saw to it that it was good.

26. And Teacher said, "Let us make one project in our image, after
our likeness; and let the product have dominion over the other
projects, and over every subject of the college student."

27. So Teacher created the research paper in her own image, in the
image of Teacher created she it; boring and difficult created she it.

28. And Teacher blessed it, and Teacher said unto the research paper,
"Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the supply of dropouts, and
subdue the remainder of the college students; and have dominion over
the other projects, and over the other subjects, and over every single
grade that the students receive."

29. "And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air,
and to every thing that creepeth into the classroom, wherein there is
life, I have given every rule and principle for good English;" and it
was so.

30. And Teacher saw everything that she had made, and behold it was
very good. (Author Unknown)