Welcome to my blog!
Like every other proper English rose I blog about things English. About what you didn't know. About what you possibly knew. About what you thought you knew. About what you were hoping to find out.On Paths and Crossings
Friends, followers, countrymen, lend me your ears! It is only fitting that this blog be initiated by a blog post of a rather confessional nature. Therefore, let me tell you a little story about my new, start-up life. I call it a cheerful elegy and it reads as follows:
There is nothing I enjoy more than my weekly visits to Oslo. It had, after all, been my home for sixteen years. Now that, at the crossroads of my life, I have started a business and moved to Asker just outside Oslo, I go to it by commuter train almost every Saturday as any prodigal daughter should. Strolling down Karl Johan bathing in the sublime Nordic light, doing some light shopping or having a reasonably priced yet perfectly edible lunch with a friend while plotting a brilliant scheme for an inevitably bright future is my idea of heaven.
On a perfect day like this there is nothing I dread more than running into an old overachieving acquaintance to remind me of how pathetically unsuccessful I am in a series of subtly venomous remarks. The possibility of this type of unsought encounter increases dramatically if you frequent one of the capital’s trendy, grossly overpriced coffee shops or restaurants, which is also the only reason I always take utmost care to steer clear of those.
I bumped into them while crossing the street in the city centre. After exchanging a couple of usual pleasantries, they were gracious enough to buy me some coffee and show a decent measure of polite interest in my new life at the very bottom of the social scale:
‘You don’t teach school anymore, I gather. It’s interesting you should change a career path late in life. So, what are you now?’
‘I am a sole trader.’
‘Meaning?’
‘I am a Freelance English Language Training Professional.’
‘Fancy …’
‘I’d like to think so.’
‘Do you tutor?’
‘Yes …’
‘You are a tutor, then?’
‘That too ..!’
‘Someone told me you offer consultancy.’
‘I do.’
‘Isn’t that called ‘coaching’ nowadays?’
‘It can be.’
‘Just about anyone can call themselves ‘coach,’ can’t they? I mean, you don’t have to have a degree to be that.’
‘I suppose not.’
‘So, basically you are a jack of all trades, master of none?’
‘Master of Arts actually …’
‘Life used to be simpler when you were just ‘teacher.’ No identity issues, eh …? At least you aren’t one of those lifestyle gurus giving people advice on things they know little about …
‘That I’m definitely not!’
So this is what it must have felt like to be a victim of Socrates’ intellectual midwifery, when he used to ambush respectable Athenians in the streets of Athens to make them define things to give birth to the wisdom that was already in them. And then I suddenly realised: Why not do like the ancient Greeks? If you cannot define what something is, try defining what it is not. Thus instead of ‘trader’, ‘tutor,’ ‘trainer,’ ‘teacher,’ ‘coach’,‘consultant’, ‘professional’, ‘postgraduate’ etc., the description of what I am or what I do should in all its truthful simplicity be: Not a lifestyle guru. Good start!
Shakespeare says that we know what we are but not what we may be. Hence, my dear friend, if you feel lost in the woods of semantics or just lost full stop, let us cross paths and take a stroll down Karl Johan on a Saturday afternoon in the sublime Nordic light, do some light shopping or have a cheap meal while chatting about what things are, what they are not, and what they may be. Our ways do not have to be as solitary as they may seem destined to be.
Either and Neither
‘Either’, ‘neither’, ‘one’ or ‘both’ or ‘none,’ that is the question! As my inbox has been inundated with messages from despairing students, I have decided to write a blog post to shed some extra light on this not altogether uncontroversial topic. ‘Either’ and ‘neither’ (BA /aiðə/,/ˈnaiðə/ and AE /ˈiːðər/,/ˈniːðər/) can have different meanings and be used in different ways. Here is a simple presentation of some of the main ones:
-
We use ‘either’ and ‘neither’ when facing two possibilities: ‘either’ means ‘one of the two’ whereas ‘neither’ means ‘not any of them’ e.g.
You may borrow either film. i.e. You may borrow one of the two films (on the table).
You may borrow neither film i.e. You may not borrow any of them.
Please note that ‘none’ instead of ‘neither’ is not acceptable because ‘none’ applies to more than two items.
-
So far, so good, right? But what if I tell you that ‘either’ can also mean ‘both’ as in
‘There were people on either side of the street’. and
‘There were houses on either side of the river.’?
This happens when ‘either’ occurs in front of a single countable noun. On the level of meaning ‘either’ here means ‘each,’ but because a river and a street can only have two sides it ultimately means ‘both.’
In the sentence ‘I have two colleagues at work and I don’t like either of them,’ ‘either’ is used due to the fact that this is a negative sentence.
Of course, it is quite often difficult to know whether ‘either’ means ‘one’ or ‘both,’ but context will hopefully clarify. What can also be helpful is to have a look at the verb of the sentence containing ‘either’ e.g.
Is either of your parents at home?
Here the verb is singular, which in turn tells you that this means ‘one of the two.’
I must point out that many a language expert would claim that the example ‘You may borrow either film’ actually means ‘both.’ I think the solution to the seeming paradox of ‘either’ being interpreted as ‘one’ and ‘both’ simultaneously is that in this context the speaker thinks that both the options are desirable or plausible and therefore any of the two could be chosen (both are fine) but perhaps not both at the same time. So, I think, the best translation of ‘either’ in cases such as this one is in fact any (of the two).
-
‘Either … or’ and ‘neither … nor’ are coordinating conjunctions indicating a choice that includes two options: two positive ones ‘this or that one’ or two negative ones ‘not this, nor that.’ In addition, unlike ‘either,’ ‘either or’ eliminates ambiguity by presenting two alternatives that are mutually exclusive e.g.
You may bring either your brother or your sister to the party (one, but not both).
You may bring neither your brother nor your sister to the part. (not any of them)
Note that if there is ‘not’ or ‘never’ involved, what would normally be ‘neither nor’ becomes ‘either or:’
I could neither eat nor drink.
I could not either drink or eat.
-
‘Either’ is used in negative statements instead of ‘also’ or ‘too’ e.g.
I like meat, but I like fish, too.
I don’t like meat, but I don’t like fish, either.
I like this this dress, but I like that one, too.
I don’t like this dress, but I don’t like that one, either.
This is by no means a complete treatment of the subject, but knowing the above is a very good start indeed.
For a set of check-your-answer exerciseses visit my Facebook page. facebook/TutorRose