Caitlyn Reads Books

(via hungryhungryhobbitses)

ferrisie:

allthingslinguistic:

Morphological Typology (illustrations from SpecGram)

Descriptions adapted from The Lingua File: 

Analytic languages: also known as isolating languages because they’re composed of isolated, or free, morphemes. Free morphemes can be words on their own, such as cat or happy. Languages that are purely analytic in structure don’t use any prefixes or suffixes, ever. However, it’s rare to find a language that is purely analytic or synthetic since most languages have characteristics of both. Morphological typology is like a spectrum in which languages fit in somewhere from analytic to polysynthetic (a subtype of synthetic languages we’ll get to in a moment).

Mandarin Chinese and Vietnamese are good examples of analytic languages. […] English, on the other hand, is one of the most analytic Indo-European languages, but is still usually classified as a synthetic language. […]

Types of synthetic language (i.e. languages that have prefixes/suffixes): 

Agglutinating Languages:With these languages, morphemes within words are usually clearly recognizable in a way that makes it easy to tell where the morpheme boundaries are. Their affixes usually only have a single meaning. Turkish,Korean, Hungarian, Japanese, and Finnish are all in this group.

Fusional Languages: Similar to agglutinating languages, except that the morpheme boundaries are much more difficult to discern. Affixes are often fused with the stems, and can have multiple meanings. A prime example of a fusional language is Spanish, especially when it comes to verbs. In the wordhablo ”I speak”, the -o morpheme tells us that we’re dealing with a subject that is singular, first person, and in the present tense. It’s difficult to find a morpheme that means “speak”, however, since habl- is not a morpheme. Fusional languages can be tricky!

Polysynthetic Languages: These languages are undoubtedly some of the most difficult to learn. They often have verbs that can express the entirety of a typical sentence in English, which they do by incorporating nouns into verbs forms. For example, the Sora language of India has one word that means “I will catch a tiger”. Many Native American languages are polysynthetic.

This FASCINATES me.

(via biteme-alienboy)

Fantasy remains a human right.

(Source: peregrint, via roguemormontpromises)

amandaonwriting:

Literary Birthday - 14 May

Happy Birthday, Eoin Colfer, born 14 May 1965

Nine Quotes On Writing

1. Stop telling people about your idea and lock yourself in a room. Stay in the room until the work is done with only broadband and takeaway food for comfort. Writing is about inspiration but there is also a lot of work involved. Not as much work as digging a hole obviously but we like to make it sound tough.
2. I will keep writing until people stop reading or I run out of ideas. 
3. Practise – write every day even if it’s only for ten minutes. Remember, nothing is wasted. Eventually your style will emerge. Persevere!
4. I have wanted to write since I can remember, and I have been lucky enough to have had my parents’ encouragement every step of the way. I have also had the support of several English teachers who gave me high marks and gold stars. I remember several specific instances when my work was praised and I honestly believe that this fed my determination to become a writer.
5. Films definitely had an impact on my writing style. I am a huge movie fan, and the action genre is one of my favourites. I realised that very few action movies are specifically for kids, even though kids love them. So, I decided to fill the vacuum with a book that reads like an action movie. Hopefully when you read the book, the movie will play itself in your head.
6. I have a lovely office at the back of my house, it’s an old stable and you can see right out to the countryside on one side and into the house on the other side. I just sit there, put on my Kate Bush CDs and work away. I love it.
7. I would tell aspiring writers to observe. They already know it is vital to read and write whenever possible, but often people forget to watch what is going on every day in their surroundings. That is where your ideas come from. Keep one eye on your computer screen and the other on the world around you
8. Nothing is wasted; don’t throw anything away. I often meet frustrated young writers who say they’ve only got so far and just can’t finish a book. Even if you don’t happen to use what you’ve worked on that day, it has taught you something and you’ll be amazed when you might come back to it and use it again. Keep all your writing in a box somewhere. I wish I had, I bet there was at least a couple of good ideas in there that I could have used.
9. I’m delighted to be in Who’s Who, but for me, the big thing is being able to call myself a writer

Colfer is an Irish author who is most famous as the author of the Artemis Fowl series. He also wrote the sixth instalment of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, entitled And Another Thing….

by Amanda Patterson for Writers Write

(via booksandhotchocolate)

(via booksandhotchocolate)

noseinabook:

YA Books For Ravenclaws.

Chosen because they feature intelligent conversations (often about books), smart characters and smart stories. The Ravenclaw coat of arms is from Think Geek. 

(via teachingliteracy)