Why I love English

Why I love English

I do not say that I am aa linguist. As pre-indepedence born, I quite well anticipated the 3 language policy and confined myself to learning Tamil( my mother tongue), English (the medium of instruction in schools upwards class V) and Hindi ( most of my life was spent in Delhi and other non - Tamil speaking cities. However, I am  drawn to love English a lot more than the other two languages. I find several oddities  in its usage in  written and spoken forms. 

For example, one finds  words and their antonyms used together in conjunction for emphasis. On the other hand, some words and their synonyms are used in opppsition or as alternatives. Singular and plural forms of the same word are employed simultaneously. You might find other unique features if you research a bit.

 Take words like up and down and back and forth. Though they respectively imply vertical and horizontal movements, they can be used one for the other. For instance, if you are the boss and a junior has committed some mistake. You are in a rage . 

You have the choice of pacing in your room up and down vertically(!)  or back and forth hrizontally . 

You want to  give him a dressing down left and right and ask for his explanation  in black and white.

You may now and then join the staff in their picnics but they know that you are not one of those give and take guys.

 You narrate to them your early life struggle working day in and day out for the company, splicing the story here and there with juicy details of your bosses.

  

 Words like useless, meaningless and harmless connote the absence respectively of use, meaning and harm. But priceless does not mean no price or free .(!) 

 The dictionary defines the adjective full (double use of l )  as holding of any thing that its limlits will allow . But when used in combination with words like beauty , use and harm,  there is only a single  l. Does it mean that these words are with a lower degree of their respective  quality ?

Statisticians have matured from yearly comparisons to say year on year growth and repeat time and again

I have more or less conveyed what a great language English is to one and all