Monday, April 18, 2011

R's

Rereading reorients. Repetition reinforces. Retrenchment reforms. Recognition reactivates. Revelation reveals (yes, I know this is a tautology, but this is also true, as I believe are the four preceding gems).

I was looking up an entry in the dictionary recently and got bogged down in the R words. It was a pleasant diversion (I once had a desire to read the entire dictionary and did get from A-E before I gave up in exhaustion) and caused me to think in terms of alliteration (occurrence of the same sound or letter) and the predicative function associated with the antecedent word. (I know that this is a high-sounding explanation but just look at the two-word sentences in the first paragraph and you will get the drift.) Since I am prone to clichés, I thought it might be an interesting activity some day when you are sick in bed to come up with some of these two-word truisms and to further ponder when you are pulling weeds, washing dishes or some similar activity.

Here are a few starters: reading…; reconciliation…; rectitude…; responsiveness…. And here are a few predicates: restores; rescues; radiates; ratifies; reanimates; rectifies; regenerates.

You might have a little more trouble with Q or K words.

You don’t have to get sick to engage in this activity; just start some day when you are stuck in traffic.

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