Considering the Jot

In Which Tittles are Revisited, Jots are Explored, Scripture is Quoted, and Hosannas Ring Across the Land

As an informal companion piece to a previous essay regarding the tittle, let us spend a brief moment upon the jot. The word jot, as in "jot or tittle," comes from an anglicization of the Greek letter iota, which corresponds to the Hebrew letter yodh, which is itself the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Thus we have both jot and iota having the connotations of insignificantly small items, or the smallest of some set of items. The phrase "jot or tittle" is from a translation of the new testament, "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

Addendum: a tittle can also refer to the dots on a die, and before the word dot as a verb became commonplace, tittle meant roughly the same thing for some time. Thus, until recently, people were more likely to tittle their iotas instead of dotting their i's.

An Index of Obscure Punctuation

In Which a Series of Esoteric Marks are Presented, for Purposes of Enlivening Curiosities of a Typographical Nature

◊
is a Lozenge

⁂
is an Asterism

‽
is an Interrobang

« »
are Guillemets

☞
is a Fist

A Garden Path Through a Confused Grammarian's Lexicon

Whilst today one can select from the theories of Stochastic Processes, Con-Spiracies of varying degrees of malevolence, Chaotic Dynamics, or simply pure Nihilism in order to explain away the seemingly un-caring randomness of the universe, in ancient days Men had contrived Deities whose purposes seemed to be divine emodiments of capricious urges and malicious pranks¹. The Norse painted their trickster god as alternately a figure of malicious rage, a cunning techno-logy innovator, or a mischievous relief side kick³; While the Coyote figure in many native american stories apprehends a more hapless stance, acting typically out of selfish urges and often suffering many comical slapstick mis-fortunes as a result of his deceits⁵.

The point being, that in order to console ourselves with various aspects of un-predictability, it is often helpful to Name this phenomona, a process by which we come to Know it, and accustom ourselves to it's existence. This Action of Naming suffuses our lives to such a degree that we often over-look it's omni-presence, and I consider it a part of my Duties as a Web-Logger to assist in drawing attention to this uniquely human phenomenon. Leading us by quite the elliptical garden path to today's subject at hand: unpredictability and chaos in sentence structure.

A Garden Path sentence is a grammatically correct sentence subject to multiple divergent parsings depending on how the reader chooses to interpret the various clauses. Typically this is a result of words that seem to function simultaneously as multiple forms of speech within various interpretive contexts of the sentence. Examples include:

The old man whistling tunes pianos.

The tomcat curled up on the cushion seemed friendly.

The cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi.

The man who hunts ducks out on weekends.

The Eskimos can fish in a new factory three miles away from sea.

He gave the child the dog bit a band-aid.

We painted the wall with cracks.

Fat people eat accumulates.

The prime number few.

A Paraprosdokian is a figure of speech that begins normally enough but at some point veers off course into a differing context, causing the reader to re-interpret the meaning of the first clause. Famous examples include:

"If I am reading this graph correctly, I'd be very surprised."

"I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long."

"She looks as though she had been poured into her clothes, and forgot to say when."

"My father said, 'I'll miss you son,' because I had broken the sights off of his rifle."

"Have you ever tried just sitting down with your children, turning the tv off, and hitting them?"

"Laudandus, ornandus, tollendus⁶."

"I like going to the park and watching the children run around because they don't know I'm using blanks."

Antanaclasis (or often, antistasis) are sentences wherein a key word or phrase is repeated in a way that takes advantage of a word's multiple meanings to change the expected interpretation of the sentence. Naturally, I have clarifying specimens:

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."

"Your argument is sound, nothing but sound."

"We must indeed hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

"Those who are not fired with enthusiasm will be fired, with enthusiasm."

Syllepsis, or semantic zeugma, is a deliberate inflection of grammatical rules generally used by lyricicists and poets (not to mention classical hard boiled noir authors and Groucho Marx) for it's disorienting yet pleasing effect. The zeugma in general is a series of phrases joined by a single common word; this semantic zeugma occurs when the fulcrum word has multiple interpretations which are exploited by the multiple phrases. And who would I be if I did not have revealing exemplifications?

"Oh, flowers are as common here, Miss Fairfax, as people are in London."

"[The rat] returned in haste and flames to its original hideout."

"When he asked "What in Heaven," she made no reply, up her mind, and a dash for the door."

"You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, how you see fit."

"You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff."

"Monica had exploded, and I had a mystery, and pieces of her pancreas, on my hands."

I hope this linguistic gallery has been both amusing and instructional. Perhaps for purposes of merriment you can infuse one of your daily memorandums with a handful of self-constructed exemplars of the above listed sentence forms and watch the con-fusion and chaos in your life increase, secure in the knowledge that this ataxia can be laid squarely at your own doorstep.

¹Einstein famously said "God does not play dice with the universe," and while it is quite clear to anyone familiar with the history and past-times of the but lately (in historical terms) promoted War-God of the Israelites that He certainly wasn't a Gamer (not in the strict "Games of Chance" context perhaps, but his antagonism with The Antagonist can certainly be interpreted as a Zero-Sum Game² per se, it is not suitable to conclude that No God plays dice with the universe. Einstein may be forgiven for his assumption though, not being trained the methods of mystical meta-mathematics.

²see Von Neumann's Theory of Games and Economic Behavior.

³see various myths concerning the mis-adventures of Thor and Loki that appear to be the originals of the mis-matched buddy comedy genre so beloved by Shane Black and his descendants ("Someone has stolen the Thunder God's might hammer Mjolner, and to get it back he is going to have to join forces with the notorious half-Jotun⁴ loose cannon Loki and together go undercover as goddesses betrothed to Frost Giants" for further details see Þrymskviða...)

⁴essentially an ethnic minority, at least in Asgard at the time.

⁵not entirely unlike Chuck Jones' noted Wile E Coyote.

⁶"He must be praised, decorated, and tolerated."

An Anniversary Jubilee

While it has seemed to me to be but the merest blink of an eye from whence I began this Web-Log, perusal of my date book has revealed to me that over one whole series of lunar rhythms has since passed, days spiraling logarithmically into the the halls of time. Examination of my semblance in reflecting-glasses shows little evidence of the passage of time other than a certain new-grown shaggy-ness in and about my hair and a perhaps perceptible added degree of weariness to the dark bags under my eyes, yet as I peer out of the window of my study I can see by the now omni-present mobs of Gang-Bangers and Roust-a-Bouts lounging in informal ellipses about stoops and corners that Spring-Time has officially Sprung. I can't help but berate myself over all of the essays begun but not yet finished, or finished but not yet polished, that have accumulated in that now noted passage of time such as Gravure and Foxing, the Wasp Gun, Pornographic Daguerrotypes, the Relationship Between Curry and Combinatorics, Famed Crucifixions, the Quaternion-Vector War, Paraprosdokian, Excerpts From Hoyles Beloved "Rules of Games," and Baby Manipulation for Fun and Profit, but I can always return warmth to my heart by poring over those writings refined enough to "make the cut," so to speak, on subjects as varied as Inappropriately Placed Flowers, Eggcorns and Their Ilk, Moss Piglets, Sex Hair, Diversions of Ramanujan, Pugilistic Appellations, Tittles, Wynn and Yogh Tagas the Conductor, and many more.

In honor of this anniversary I shall return like, much like ouroborous the world serpent, to the tome who's excerpts first inspired this web-log, the ever delightful and questionable reliable "Why We Say It." Let your gaze pass o'er these edifying snippets to help soothe the passing of time as minds turn to enterprises of a week-enderly nature.

Toady. What is the original of the term "toady"?
The original "toady" was the magician's assistant who ate toads so that his master could demonstrate his magical healing powers-since at one time toads were considered poisonous. Th other duties of the "toad-eater" were very much like those of the "yes-man" of today-to prove the boss right-and so we got the word and its meaning.

Welsh Rabbit. What is the reason we call a dish made of cheese "Welsh Rabbit"?
The term is humorous. The Welsh were supposed to be so poverty-stricken that they could not afford even rabbit meat but had to substitute cheese for it.

Drunk as a Fiddler. What is the reason we use the phrase "Drunk as a Fiddler"?
The expression refers to the fiddler at wakes and weddings whose fee was often set at "all the liquor you can hold." In order to get his full fee it was necessary for him to drink long and often.

Amuck. Where did we get the phrase "running amuck"?
From Malaya. Malays under the influence of opium or a stimulant sometimes become very excited-so excited that they rush about with daggers, killing anyone they chance to meet and yelling, Amoq! Amoq!-meaning "Kill! Kill!"

May thine week-end bless thee with fruitfulness.

An Index of Extinct Letters

In Which Exactly and Only What Is Promised By the Title of The Post is Presented For Your Edification and Idle Amusement, With No Context, History, Explanation, Or To Be Quite Honest Any Thing Other Than The Letters In Question and Their Names Bestowed Upon You, Such Is My Esteem For Your Potential, My Dear Readers, In That I Respect Your Researching Abilities To Such A Degree That I Will Allow You To 'Fill In The Blanks' Left Vacant By the Above On Your Own Time, Should You Possess Both the Desire And Drive Necessary For The Task, Which If Not, I Can Only Shake My Head and Make a Small Sound Of Disappointment

Þ
is Thorn
Ð and ð
are Eth
Æ and æ
are Ash
Ƿ
Is Wynn
Ȝ
Is Yogh

Whence the Tittle

A Most Brief but Nevertheless Densely Informative Aside Upon the Subject of Small Strokes, As Circumstances Unforeseen Prevent the Culmination of My Ever Lengthening Essay Upon the Subject of Pugilism

From the medieval Latin word titulus meaning "small stroke, or accent" we have the English word tittle, which refers to any small distinguishing mark made upon a letter. Notable tittles include the decorative dots that sit atop lower case i and j, and diacritics. But beware the distinction, and for avoidance of the placing of one's foot squarely in one's mouth and general social ostracization repeat after me: A diacritic is a tittle, but not all tittles are diacritics, as an applied diactritic results in a change of the standard pronunciation of a letter.