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How should I systematically dismember a text ? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5038 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 9 of 11 11 January 2012 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If we were voting, I'd go for 'rip apart' or 'gut'. For the fussy, 'take apart' may be a good compromise between plain and pedantic English :)
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| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5578 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 10 of 11 12 January 2012 at 12:44am | IP Logged | |||||
My vote goes to disembowel.
I almost agree. Remster, what exactly do you need to do with the books except for 'reading', and which are the books in question? For example, Cainntear's advice is suitable when you want to use the books for language study, and to get a general idea of the text. But some of the German books I know can't be treated like that - you simply won't understand them well enough to work with the text. Volte's second option is where I'd start when reading for good comprehension, but rather than simply looking up unknown words and forms I'd read until I encounter a sentence I do not understand immerdiately, and then I would: Copy the sentence by hand, with spaces between words While writing each word, recall its meaning, name its form, identify its relation to the surrounding words and jot down a makeshift translation Look up all words and forms and grammar points I couldn't recognize Divide the sentence into different clauses Find the predicate of the main clause Find its subject and its objects Identify how secondary clauses fit into the sentence (linked with a conjunction or taking the place of an object, for example) Reduce the main clause to predicate, subject and necessary objects Translate that core sentence Add all other words from the main clause one after the other into my translation, including secondary clauses that work like objects Translate remaining secondary clauses like the main clause, then link the secondary clause to the main clause to form a meaningful sentence Once again, look at the way words interact, which words another word modifies, how word choice and word order change the overall meaning etc. Once I'm sure I actually understood what that sentence means and how it works, read until I encounter the next difficult sentence. Sounds like a real hassle, but works like a charm for me: Once I've worked through a sentence pattern like that, I never need to do it again for similar sentences. But if you have to look for stylistic devices that doesn't go far enough, so after understanding a paragraphs well, the next pass should deal with that, too. Edited by Bao on 12 January 2012 at 11:37pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6191 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 11 of 11 12 January 2012 at 1:32am | IP Logged | |||||
That's why I wrote *think.* I wasn't sure what the right word was...as meramarina has said deconstructing has taken on the meaning of breaking into smaller pieces to analyze which sounds like what the OP might have wanted to do based on the use of dismember. Edited by newyorkeric on 12 January 2012 at 3:27am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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