Word: syntax
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...other leads below the elementary school syntax and semantic void which Jonesco's characters utter to the recognition that what makes sense in and of this play is the tone of voice, namely boredom. Not only do the player's voices range systematically from torpid boredom to orgiastic boredom; their words do, too. Nearly every sentence is, by itself, a cliche. Juxtaposed, the frightening novelty of the message of cliches suggests that novel messages are no more than cliches, artfully rearranged. Thus the characters--they too are not individuals, but cliches--break down their own messages and shout the ultimate...
...Senators?" With professional nonchalance, Valachi detailed hits (murders) he had a hand in, punctuated his scrambled syntax ("There was this fella named which he died a long time ago") with a solicitous "got dat clear, Senators?" They sometimes had not. Cried South Dakota Republican Karl Mundt at one murky point: "You're getting me all confused. It sounds like a Chinese chess game...
Died. Margarita Sierra, 26, peppery Spanish nightingale, who as Cha Cha O'Brien, Castanet-clacking Miami nightclub singer on TV's Surfside 6, for three years played herself down to the last brightly mangled bit of syntax; following surgery for damaged heart valves; in Los Angeles...
Standing and sitting, Senator Church uses his hands to supplement but not replace words. He has a large and versatile vocabulary; his syntax is varied and correct. Church is quite conscious of the subtleties of language and in conversation he pauses often to find the proper words before proceeding. The Senator's casual and articulate conversation here dispelled many unfavorable impressions left by his meticulously rehearsed keynote speech at the 1960 Democratic National Convention...
...Cummings: "His misuse of parts of speech ... his systematic relation of words that grammar and syntax don't permit us to relate - all this makes him a magical bootlegger and moonshiner of language...