Thursday, February 09, 2006

wordself

i just had this thought in a clear and perceptible way, even though I've thought about it hazily at many other times in the past. I feel lazy and dishonest if I don't include pronouns in my written communication. Let me explain - pretend I am writing you a text message. I write "wanted to meet up with you later" by which I mean that "I wanted to meet up...etc.", does this make sense? I feel like speaking English may somehow force you to convey yourself unambiguously by using pronouns all the time. Its alot of pressure! I guess I can compare to the languages I know where you really don't have to do that; to get slightly grammatical, the subject is just internal to the verb, there can be one word in place of two. When I say "bailo" in Spanish it is like a mirrored opposite of "I dance" or something. In Spanish, its as if the verb overtakes the person, literally attaches it to itself at the end of itself! (Okay now this is getting weird...Has someone else written about this somewhere, I wonder?) Anyway, I think that maybe this difference makes one person different from another on some fundamental level. I wish I knew about Asian languages and ideograms! That is a whole different can of worms!! So to get back to my point then, I am compelled to express myself in English with the appropriate pronouns and that is probably just a result of my over education, but I don't do it when I speak necessarily so its really neither here nor there. Writing just sucks sometimes, so I try to outsmart it.