[lit-ideas] Re: How do people read?
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 13:47:04 EDT
In a message dated 9/17/2004 1:05:42 PM Eastern Standard Time,
andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
_http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm_
(http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm)
---
Thanks for the reference. Have not checked it yet.
It should be remembered, though, that 'read', in Anglo-Saxon, meant 'to
interpret'. Totally different, the idea, I think, from Latin-Romance, _leere_,
Fr. _lire_, which is more associated with the written word. In OE, you could
'read' the sky, for example -- and I guess you still can.
The etym. note and first cite of 'read' from the OED below.
This etymology is still operative in ambiguities like "He read the newspaper
(but understood _sh*t_)", and "he 'read' the newspaper -- i.e. got the gist
of what it said.'
Cheers,
JL
----
"read"
Comm. Teut.: OE. <NOBR> = OFris. rêda, OS. râdan (MLG. raden, MDu. and Du.
raden), OHG. râtan (MHG. râten, G. raten, rathen), ON. <NOa (Sw. råda, Da.
raade), Goth. -rêdan:OTeut. **an, prob. related to OIr. im-rádim to
deliberate, consider, OSl. raditi to take thought, attend to, Skr. dh- to
succeed,
accomplish, etc.
The Comm. Teut. verb belonged to the reduplicating ablaut-class, with pa.
tense **<N and pa. pple. **<Nono-z, whence Goth. <NOBR>-, *-rêdans, ON. <NO,
<NOinn, OHG. riat, girâtan (G. riet, geraten), OS. ried or rêd, *girâdan
(Du.
ried, geraden). The corresponding forms in OE. are reord and (e)den, but
these are found only in a few instances in Anglian texts, the usual
conjugation
being dde, erd(e)d, on the analogy of weak verbs such as dan: cf. MLG. radde,
redde, Sw. rådde, and G. rathete (for usual riet), Da. raadede. The typical
ME. forms are redde or radde in the pa. tense, and (i)red or (i)rad in the
pa. pple.; in the later language (from the 17th c.) all tenses of the verb
have the same spelling, read, though in pronunication the vowel of the
preterite
forms differs from that of the present and infinitive. Individual writers
have from time to time denoted this by writing red or redd for the pa. tense
and pa. pple., but the practice has never been widely adopted.
The original senses of the Teut. verb are those of taking or giving counsel,
taking care or charge of a thing, having or exercising control over
something, etc. These are also prominent in OE., and the sense of â??adviseâ??
still
survives as an archaism, usually distinguished from the prevailing sense of
the
word by the retention of the older spelling 'rede'. The sense of considering
or explaining something obscure or mysterious is also common to the various
languages, but the application of this to the interpretation of ordinary
writing, and to the expression of this in speech, is confined to English and
ON.
(in the latter perhaps under Eng. influence).]
Transitive use. To consider, interpret, discern, etc. To have an idea; to
think or suppose that, etc.
900 tr. Bæda's Hist. III. x,
<NO ongann he.. th ong & raedan, thae ra nan nan intinga waere.
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