"Please Don't Say What You Mean" by Amalia Gnanadesikan
Annotation by Sydney Sanders
Gnanadesikan, Amalia. "Please Don't Say What You Mean." Vocabula Review 12.12 (2010). Vocabula Review. Vocabula Communications. Web. 6 Apr. 2015. <http://www.vocabula.com/2010/VRDEC10Gnanadesikan.asp>.
Amalia Gnanadesikan discusses the issue of functional and literal language in English language and in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in her article, Please Don't Say What You Mean (2010). We often speak in terms of functionality rather than literal terms. For instance, when asking how someone is feeling, a positive response is universally acceptable although it does not explicitly answer the question. This eventually leads to the popularization and use of idioms in day to day life, meaning that we do not often explicitly say what we mean and instead use a functional synonymous phrase. Gnanadesikan cites the scene in which Alice meets the March Hare and Mad Hatter as an example of the use of functional language as opposed to literal language. The March Hare criticizes Alice for using functional language even though her message is clearly understood. Alice's use of figurative/functional language could have caused her message to get lost in translation. Gnanadesikan notes this as a consequence of the use of figurative and functional language in society.
Amalia Gnanadesikan discusses the issue of functional and literal language in English language and in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in her article, Please Don't Say What You Mean (2010). We often speak in terms of functionality rather than literal terms. For instance, when asking how someone is feeling, a positive response is universally acceptable although it does not explicitly answer the question. This eventually leads to the popularization and use of idioms in day to day life, meaning that we do not often explicitly say what we mean and instead use a functional synonymous phrase. Gnanadesikan cites the scene in which Alice meets the March Hare and Mad Hatter as an example of the use of functional language as opposed to literal language. The March Hare criticizes Alice for using functional language even though her message is clearly understood. Alice's use of figurative/functional language could have caused her message to get lost in translation. Gnanadesikan notes this as a consequence of the use of figurative and functional language in society.