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hospital did not apologi%e when they said they had lost the 4AT
scan and she had come for nothing. -hesaid they did not seem to
have any sympathy when she told them she was an!ious to know the
e!actdiagnosis, since her husband and son had both died of brain
tumors. -he said they would not give her anymore information until
the ne!t time and she would have to make another appointment for
that. -o she saidshe would not leave until the doctor called her
daughter. -he wouldn(t budge. And when the doctor nallycalled her
daughter, me, who spoke in perfect English lo and behold we had
assurances the 4AT scanwould be found, promises that a conference
call on Monday would be held, and apologies for any su$eringmy
mother had gone through for a most regrettable mistake.
I think my mother(s English almost had an e$ect on limiting my
possibilities in life as well. -ociologistsand linguists probably
will tell you that a person(s developing language skills are more
in;uenced by peers.:ut I do think that the language spoken in the
family, especially in immigrant families which are moreinsular,
plays a large role in shaping the language of the child. And I
believe that it a$ected my results onachievement tests, I.>.
tests, and the -AT. *hile my English skills were never &udged
as poor, compared tomath, English could not be considered my strong
suit. In grade school I did moderately well, gettingperhaps :(s,
sometimes : pluses, in English and scoring perhaps in the si!tieth
or seventieth percentile onachievement tests. :ut those scores were
not good enough to override the opinion that my true abilities
layin math and science, because in those areas I achieved A(s and
scored in the ninetieth percentile or higher.
This was understandable. Math is precise? there is only one
correct answer. *hereas, for me at least, theanswers on English
tests were always a &udgment call, a matter of opinion and
personal e!perience. Thosetests were constructed around items like
ll in the blank sentence completion, such as, 'Even though Tomwas,
Mary thought he was .' And the correct answer always seemed to be
the most bland combinations of thoughts, for e!ample, 'Even though
Tom was shy, Mary thought he was charming+( with the
grammaticalstructure 'even though' limiting the correct answer to
some sort of semantic opposites, so you wouldn(t getanswers like,
'Even though Tom was foolish, Mary thought he was ridiculous+(
*ell, according to mymother, there were very few limitations as to
what Tom could have been and what Mary might havethought of him. -o
I never did well on tests like that
The same was true with word analogies, pairs of words in which
you were supposed to nd some sort of logical, semantic relationship
for e!ample, '-unset is to nightfall as is to .' And here you would
be
presented with a list of four possible pairs, one of which
showed the same kind of relationship+ red is tostoplight, bus is to
arrival, chills is to fever, yawn is to boring+ *ell, I could never
think that way. I knewwhat the tests were asking, but I could not
block out of my mind the images already created by the rstpair,
'sunset is to nightfall' and I would see a burst of colors against
a darkening sky, the moon rising, thelowering of a curtain of
stars. And all the other pairs of words red, bus, stoplight, boring
&ust threw up amass of confusing images, making it impossible
for me to sort out something as logical as saying+ 'Asunset
precedes nightfall' is the same as 'a chill precedes a fever.' The
only way I would have gotten thatanswer right would have been to
imagine an associative situation, for e!ample, my being disobedient
andstaying out past sunset, catching a chill at night, which turns
into feverish pneumonia as punishment, whichindeed did happen to
me.
I have been thinking about all this lately, about my mother(s
English, about achievement tests. :ecauselately I(ve been asked, as
a writer, why there are not more Asian Americans represented in
Americanliterature. *hy are there few Asian Americans enrolled in
creative writing programs= *hy do so many4hinese students go into
engineering@ *ell, these are broad sociological /uestions I can(t
begin to answer.:ut I have noticed in surveys in fact, &ust
last week that Asian students, as a whole, always dosigni cantly
better on math achievement tests than in English. And this makes me
think that there are otherAsian American students whose English
spoken in the home might also be described as 'broken' or'limited.'
And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from
writing and into math andscience, which is what happened to me.
5ortunately, I happen to be rebellious in nature and en&oy
the challenge of disproving assumptions madeabout me. I became an
English ma&or my rst year in college, after being enrolled as
pre med. I startedwriting non ction as a freelancer the week after
I was told by my former boss that writing was my worstskill and I
should hone my talents toward account management.
:ut it wasn(t until 986 that I nally began to write ction. And
at rst I wrote using what I thought to bewittily crafted sentences,
sentences that would nally prove I had mastery over the English
language.1ere(s an e!ample from the rst draft of a story that later
made its way into The )oy "uck 4lub, but withoutthis line+ 'That
was my mental /uandary in its nascent state.' A terrible line,
which I can barely pronounce.
5ortunately, for reasons I won(t get into today, I later decided
I should envision a reader for the stories Iwould write. And the
reader I decided upon was my mother, because these were stories
about mothers. -owith this reader in mind and in fact she did read
my early drafts I began to write stories using all theEnglishes I
grew up with+ the English I spoke to my mother, which for lack of a
better term might bedescribed as 'simple'? the English she used
with me, which for lack of a better term might be described
as'broken'? my translation of her 4hinese, which could certainly be
described as 'watered down'? and what I
imagined to be her translation of her 4hinese if she could speak
in perfect English, her internal language,and for that I sought to
preserve the essence, but neither an English nor a 4hinese
structure. I wanted tocapture what language ability tests can never
reveal+ her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of
herspeech and the nature of her thoughts.
Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing, I knew I
had succeeded where it counted when mymother nished reading my book
and gave me her verdict+ '-o easy to read.'
8/11/2019 Mother Tongue-What is Rhetoric
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WHAT IS RHETORIC?
Rhetoric is the study of e ffective speaking and writing And the
art of persuasion And !any other things
In its "ong and vigorous history rhetoric has en#oyed !any
definitions$ acco!!odated differing purposes$ and varied wide"y in
what it inc"uded And yet$ for !ost of itshistory it has !aintained
its funda!enta" character as a discip"ine for training students
%& to perceive how "anguage is at work ora""y and in writing$
and '& to (eco!e
proficient in app"ying the resources of "anguage in their own
speaking and writing )See rhetorica" pedagogy &
*iscerning how "anguage is working in others+ or one+s own
writing and speaking$ one !ust )artificia""y& divide for! and
content$ what is (eing said and how this is said)see Content,-or!
& .ecause rhetoric e/a!ines so attentive"y the how of "anguage$
the methods and means of co!!unication$ it has so!eti!es (een
discounted asso!ething on"y concerned with sty"e or appearances$
and not with the 0ua"ity or content of co!!unication -or !any )such
as 1"ato& rhetoric dea"s with the superficia"at (est$ the
deceptive at worst )2!ere rhetoric2&$ when one !ight (etter
attend to !atters of su(stance$ truth$ or reason as atte!pted in
dia"ectic or phi"osophy orre"igion
Rhetoric has so!eti!es "ived down to its critics$ (ut as set
forth fro! anti0uity$ rhetoric was a co!prehensive art #ust as !uch
concerned with what one cou"d say ashow one !ight say it Indeed$ a
(asic pre!ise for rhetoric is the indivisi(i"ity of !eans fro!
!eaning3 how one says so!ething conveys !eaning as !uch as what
onesays Rhetoric studies the effectiveness of "anguage
co!prehensive"y$ inc"uding its e!otiona" i!pact )see pathos &$
as !uch as its propositiona" content ) see "ogos& Tosee how
"anguage and thought worked together$ however$ it has first (een
necessary to artificia""y divide content and for!
CO4TE4T A4* -OR5
Rhetoric re0uires understanding a funda!enta" division (etween
what is co!!unicated through "anguage and how this is
co!!unicated
Aristot"e phrased this as the difference (etween logos )the
"ogica" content of a speech& and lexis )the sty"e and de"ivery
of a speech& Ro!an authors such as 6uinti"ianwou"d !ake the
sa!e distinction (y dividing consideration of things or su(stance$
res $ fro! consideration of ver(a" e/pression$ verba
In the Renaissance$ Eras!us of Rotterda! reiterated this
foundationa" dichoto!y for rhetorica" ana"ysis (y t it"ing his !ost
fa!ous te/t(ook 2On the A(undance of7er(a" E/pression and Ideas2 )
De copia verborum ac rerum & This division has (een one that
has (een codified within rhetorica" pedagogy$ reinforced$ for
e/a!p"e$ (ystudents (eing re0uired in the Renaissance )according to
8uan 9uis 7ives& to keep note(ooks divided into for! and
content
Within rhetorica" pedagogy it was the practice of i!itation that
!ost re0uired students to ana"y:e for! and content They were asked
to o(serve a !ode" c"ose"y andthen to copy the for! (ut supp"y new
content3 or to copy the content (ut supp"y a new for! Such
i!itations occurred on every "eve" of speech and "anguage$ and
forcedstudents to assess what e/act"y a given for! did to (ring
a(out a given !eaning or effect )see I!itation&
The divide (etween for! and content is a"ways an artificia" and
conditiona" one$ since u"ti!ate"y atte!pting to !ake this division
revea"s the funda!enta""y indivisi("enature of ver(a" e/pression
and ideas -or e/a!p"e$ when students were asked to perfor!
trans"ations as rhetorica" e/ercises$ they ana"y:ed their
co!positions in ter!sof appro/i!ations$ since it is i!possi("e to
co!p"ete"y capture the !eaning and effect of a thought e/pressed in
any ter!s other than its origina" words
This division is (ased on a view of "anguage as so!ething !ore
than si!p"y a !echanistic device for transcri(ing or de"ivering
thought With the sophists of ancient;reece rhetoricians have shared
a profound respect for how "anguage affects not #ust audiences$ (ut
thought processes
Within the -orest of Rhetoric the c"ose pro/i!ity (etween what
is said and how this is said can (e o(served in the continuity
(etween topics of invention )concernedwith what is said& and
figures of speech )ways of speaking& The figures )often
disregarded as superficia" concerns& turn out to (e !icrocos!s
of the !ore su(stantivetopics of invention )concerned with what
so!eone says& -or e/a!p"e$ a figure of speech such as
2synecdoche2 )in which a part represents a who"e$ such as referring
toone+s car as one+s 2whee"s2& turns out to (e !icrocos! of the
topic of invention *ivision$ which inc"udes "ooking at how parts
re"ate to who"es
One way to understand the over"apping nature of logos and
lexis$res and verba $ invention and sty"e$ is through the word
2orna!ent 2 To our !odern sensi(i"ities thissuggests a superficia"$
inessentia" decoration kairos $ audience$ and decoru!
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