LIFE AND LITERATURE

  William Cowper      William Cowper, (born November 26, 1731, Great Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England -  died April 25, 1800, East Dereham, Norfolk), one of the most widely read English poets of his day, whose most characteristic work, as in The Task or the melodious short lyric “The Poplar Trees,” brought a new directness to 18th-century nature poetry. Cowper wrote of the joys and sorrows of everyday life and was content to describe the minutiae of the countryside. In his sympathy with rural life, his concern for the poor and downtrodden, and his comparative simplicity of language, he may be seen as one in revolt against much 18th-century verse and as a forerunner of Robert Burns, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.       While he is often gently humorous in his verse, the sense of desolation that was never far below the surface of his mind is revealed in many of his poems, notably “The Castaway.” After the death of his moth...

   INTRODUCTION                                                                       -   KAMALA DAS An Introduction is obviously an autobiographical poem written by Kamala Das Which first appeared in her Summer in Calcutta (1965). The poem is a brilliant example of her confessionalism wherein she unfolds her entire self with extreme frankness and candour. In this poem, the poet expresses her experiences which were strictly private and personal. The poem is a revolt against conventionalism and restraints put against Indian women. In this poem, the question of whether or not Indians should write in English is put to rest. The poem is also remarkable for its daring innovativeness. The poet says she is not interested in politics but claims that since the time of Nehru, she can name all the ...

                                                                   STRUCTURAL GRAMMAR  BACKGROUND TO STRUCTURAL GRAMMAR             The beginning of the twentieth century was marked by a new approach to grammar suggested by linguists like Ferdinand de Saussure and American linguists such as Franz Boas, Edward Sapir and Leonard. This school of linguistics is called structuralism.  It is against the approach of the traditional grammarian so the 17th,18th and 19th centuries. Traditional Grammar The traditional grammarians had looked upon Latin as their model. Since English is a member of the Indo -European family of languages, to which Latin and Greek also belong, it did have many grammatical elements in common with them.       But many of these had been obsc...

                                                                           INTERVIEW                                         An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers. In common parlance, the word "interview" refers to a one-on-one conversation between an interviewer and an interviewee. Interviewing skills are your ability to interact with the employer or interviewer and show them why you are the best-fit candidate for the job role. Your interview skills give an intervie...

                                                          MORPHOLOGY AND WORD FORMATION   DEFINITION   According to the traditional linguistic theories,grammatical description largely operates on two important units: the word and the sentence. These two units form the basis of different writing system in various languages of the world. This section is intended to examine the term word and the smaller elements that constitute words. A word is a single unit of language, which means something and can be spoken or written .The English word unkind is made up of two smaller units: un and kind. These are minimal units that cannot be further sub-divided into meaningful units. Such minimal, meaningful units of grammatical description are generally referred to as morphemes (already briefly introduced in Chapter 6).A morpheme is a short se...

                                                              THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE  We do not have any definite information about the origin of language. What we have only speculations about the origin of language. Human language must have originated during some period between 1,50,000 to 50,000 years. The Hindu belief is that language originated from Goddess Saraswathi. These are the divine source theories of language. There are also certain other theories about the origin of language.  1. Bow-Wow theory: According to this theory, language began when our ancestors started imitating natural sounds. This based on onomatopoeia or sound suggesting the meaning.  2. Ding Dong theory: According to this theory speech started in response to essential qualities of objects in environment. This theory was supported by Plato an...

                                                                     LANGUAGE VARIETIES  Dialect: Standard and nonstandard dialects A standard dialect also known as a "standardized language" is supported by institutions. Such institutional support may include any or all of the following: government recognition or designation; formal presentation in schooling as the "correct" form of a language; informal monitoring of everyday usage; published grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks that set forth a normative spoken and written form; and an extensive formal literature (be it prose, poetry, non-fiction, etc.) that uses it. An example of a standardized language is the French language which is supported by the Académie Française institution. A nonstandard dialect has a complete grammar and vocabulary, but is usuall...

  T.S ELIOT      Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 26, 1888. He lived in St. Louis during the first eighteen years of his life and attended Harvard University. In 1910, he left the United States for the Sorbonne, having earned both undergraduate and masters degrees and having contributed several poems to the Harvard Advocate.      After a year in Paris, he returned to Harvard to pursue a doctorate in philosophy, but returned to Europe and settled in England in 1914. The following year, he married Vivienne Haigh-Wood and began working in London, first as a teacher, and later for Lloyd's Bank.      It was in London that Eliot came under the influence of his contemporary Ezra Pound, who recognized his poetic genius at once, and assisted in the publication of his work in a number of magazines, most notably "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in Poetry in 1915. His first book of poems, Prufrock and Other Obs...