Rational:
I was following your presentation vs that of DIPY on Intelligence, literacy, illiteracy, wisdom etc. It was educational.
Here is something U might enjoy.
Blame People For The Silliness Of Their Language
Author: Unknown
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocer's don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why
isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, two geese. So one moose, two meese? One index, two indices?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you can comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one, what do you call it?
Since we say teachers taught, why don't we say preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same thing, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can over look and oversee be opposite, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike?
How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?
Have you noticed that we only talk about certain things when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?
You have to marvel at the lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, you fill in a form by filling it out and an alarm goes off by going on.
I suppose the answer is that English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all).
That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.
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