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"Aspiring" cavities, a "long-haired" star, and ice "impersonating" the road: The Role of Animacy in Leni Zumas’s The Listeners
Throughout the novel, jumbled animacy amplifies the protagonist’s central existential distress.
May 1
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Nicole Nelson
March 2023
Exploring Animacy: An Example from Macbeth
Shakespeare flouts expectations of animacy in the Second Witch's spell.
Mar 22
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Nicole Nelson
February 2023
Verbs, Power, and Macbeth's Three Witches
The subjunctive mood heightens the contrast between the agency of the three witches and Macbeth's diminished power.
Feb 2
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Nicole Nelson
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January 2023
Old and New Information in Amy Hempel's "Tonight is a Favor to Holly"
Hempel's narrator toys with expectations about what information can be taken as given.
Jan 1
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Nicole Nelson
December 2022
Reading Response: Lily King’s Euphoria
Details ground the character in the moment with lots of sounds—branches snapping, monkeys’ greeet greeet greeets, and other onomatopoeias.
Dec 10, 2022
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Nicole Nelson
November 2022
Copulas in Amy Hempel's Tumble Home
Hempel takes full advantage of the many hidden expectations and functions of linking verb constructions, which can be deceptively complex.
Nov 26, 2022
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Nicole Nelson
Reading Response: The Awakening, Kate Chopin
In this excerpt, Chopin plays with balance in various ways, to reflect the protagonist’s mental imbalance.
Nov 25, 2022
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Nicole Nelson
A Garden Path Sentence from Amy Hempel
"The nearest neighbor is from the South, and how he knows if he likes you is he puts on Hank Williams and do you know who that is singing?"
Nov 24, 2022
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Nicole Nelson
Welcome
This is Sentence Appreciation, a newsletter about literature through the lens of a linguist. It is and will be free. If you enjoy it, please share it…
Nov 24, 2022
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Nicole Nelson
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