Toward a More Simple, Plain and Rational English - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

The book is a critique of the structure of the English language. English lacks neutral causative expressions. 'Eat' has a causative in 'feed' but other verbs do not have corresponding causative forms. That a need for a genuine causative construction is real can be shown by the various processes at work in the present-day English to express causation. 'learn, sit, stand' etc. are joining the ranks of verbs like 'grow, wake' etc. to be used both intransitively and causatively in informal English, though. ' help, make, and have' without the infinitive marker 'to' are being used to convey causation, but they do not sound authentic. In Indian languages, causative verbs are being formed morphologically. All these prove that grammar is constantly changing and evolving and not wired into the brain of a human being before birth. The book enunciates a program for direct well-meaning interventions to simplify and rationalize English, particularly its spelling. It also engages learners in cultivating rational thinking through short stories, episodes, and skits, written in a simple style, as exercises at the end of chapters. There is a wrong notion in the minds of most Indians that everything ancient is good and should be blindly followed, which creates an altogether avoidable tension in the minds of the young people exposed to scientific methods of studying natural phenomena.

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