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Seuss ification

Seuss ification. The process of transforming a relatively predictable ‘reading event’ into a phonetic adventure ‘ in some contexts’. History of Children’s Readers. Theodore Geisel (gaɪzəl), aka Dr. Seuss. Born in Springfield, Massachussets on March 2, 1904 to German immigrant parents

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Seuss ification

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  1. Seussification The process of transforming a relatively predictable ‘reading event’ into a phonetic adventure ‘in some contexts’.

  2. History of Children’s Readers Theodore Geisel (gaɪzəl), aka Dr. Seuss. Born in Springfield, Massachussets on March 2, 1904 to German immigrant parents Died September 24, 1991 “Dr.” attached to Seuss ( mother’s maiden name - his middle name) - a tribute to his father’s desire for Theodore to receive a doctorate from Oxford. Early Readers McGuffy Readers 120 million copies sold between 1836 – 1960. Since 1961, rate of sales has been 30,000 per year and of particular interest to homeschoolers Dick and Jane Dick and Jane (1930 ~ 1970)

  3. The Book that Killed Dick and Jane The Cat in the Hat Fifty Years On by Richard King Sales popularity 12,000 books per month Over 7 million copies sold by the year 2,000 in the USA, Parameters of the commissioned writing Limited to a word list of 200 Commissioned by William Spaulding of Houghton Mifflin to write a book that ‘first graders can’t put down’. Spaulding was influenced by a book penned by Rudolf Flesch, i.e., Why Johnny Can’t Read. Flesch: existing primers ‘were not just boring, but educationally flawed based as they were on word recognition’ learning was accomplished through memorization. Flesch proposed employment of a phonetically based learning method where sounds would be associated with letters or groups of letters. After one year of brainstorming, Seuss took the first two words from the list that rhymed ‘cat’ and ‘hat’, making literary history.

  4. Seuss, Lear, and Carroll Seuss, similar to Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, expressed language ‘in memorable and fantastic fauna.’ (fauna = name of animals of a certain region) Nonsensical poetry Vivacious Words – Life of their own The Cat in the Hat characters diverged from the white picket fence perfect environment depicted in Dick and Jane. - The Cat - Slightly anarchist in nature Coaxed adventure

  5. The Grinch • The word ‘Grinch’ according to www.dictionary.com, means “a person or thing that spoils or dampens the pleasure of others.” • Origin: 1965–70; from the Grinch, name of a character created by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) • Perhaps influenced by the French word “grincer”, which means ‘to grind’ as in ‘grincer les dents’ (grinding the teeth). A Grinch could potentially ‘grind someone the wrong way’. • The relative/interrogative pronoun ‘who’ (subject of a verb vs. ‘object’ of a verb in the case of ‘whom’) undergoes inflectional alterations becoming the Whos (Proper Noun), who live in Who-ville (Compound/Proper Noun).

  6. Who-ville This delightful town is filled with ‘Who-pudding, and rare Who-roast-beast.’ (‘roast beast’ as opposed to ‘roast beef’) But, Whatever the reason, His heart or his shoes, He stood there on Christmas Eve, hating theWhos, Staring down from his cave with a sour,Grinchy frown Adjective Test Notional/Semantic = an inherent property of the noun ‘frown’ Morphological = Grinch (fun); Grinchy (funny); Grinchier (comparative); Grinchiest (superlative) Structural/Syntactic/Distributional [Det_ N] We have a truly adjectiveyadjective!!! At the warm lighted windows below in their town. For he knew everyWhodown in Who-villebeneath Was busy now, hanging a mistletoe wreath. “And they’re hanging their stockings!” he snarled with a sneer. “Tomorrow is Christmas! It’s practically here!” Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming I MUST find some way to stop Christmas from coming!” For, Tomorrow, he knew…

  7. Seussy Views • Seuss presented his ecological views in the Lorax. • The Lorax was an environmental statement • A pro-logger book was launched in response • As he believed kids could smell a moral a mile away, he exercised restraint in the moralistic domain. • As exemplified in the following reading, Seuss seussonified other words such Lorax, Grickle, Once-ler, and Lerkim. • Once = Single occurrence; One time only; Erstwhile; Former time • –ler = Ler is a noun in Irish mythology, i.e., the personification of the sea and the father of Manannan: corresponds to the Welsh Llyr. • Though one may not have any clue as to the exactness of these words, using the Morphological and Syntatic/Distributional Tests, we can discern the words categories.

  8. Lorax At the far end of town Where theGrickle-grassgrows [Det _ N] And the wind smellsslow-and-sour (moves & tastes) when it blows And no birds ever sing excepting old crows… is the Street of theLifted Lorax.[Det _ N] “And deep in the Grickle-grass, some people say, If you look deep enough you can still see, today, Where theLoraxonce stood Just as long as it could (It stood it, or took the adversity for as long as possible.) Before somebody lifted (stole/rose it in the air) theLorax away. [Det _ N] What wasthe Lorax? And why was it there? And why was it lifted and taken somewhere From the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows? The old Once-ler(Once upon a time/Geezer) still lives here. Ask him. He knows. [Det _ N]

  9. More Lorax You won’t see theOnce-ler. Don’t knock at his door. He stays in his Lerkim on top of his store. Semantic: Lurk (noun) means a hideout (Australian Informal) A tangible, concrete object Morphologic: Takes the plural marker Syntactic: [Possessive Det_N]/N to the rght of Prep (Perhaps Suess’s inspiration came from the Australian association.) He lurks in his Lerkim, cold under the roof, Where he makes his own clothes Out of miff-muffered moof.

  10. Loraxed to the Max Let’s disect miff-muffered moof Miff: Semantic: (noun) a petty quarrel; (verb) to offend Muff: Semantic (noun) a thick, tubular case for the hands, covered with fur or other material, used by women and girls for warmth and as a handbag. (verb) Informal. to bungle; handle clumsily: He muffed a good opportunity. Moof: Semantic: 1. n. The call of a semi-legendary creature, properly called the dogcow. (Some previous versions of this entry claimed, incorrectly, that Moof was the name of the _creature_.) 3. v. On the Microsoft Network, the term `moof' has gained popularity as a verb meaning `to be suddenly disconnected by the system'. One might say "I got moofed". And on special dank midnights in August, He peeks Out of the shutters and sometimes he speaks And tells how the Loraxwas lifted away. He’ll tell you, perhaps… if you’re willing to pay.

  11. References Ahead of his time.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)." The Christian Century 126.1 (Jan 13, 2009): 8(2). General OneFile. Gale. Eastern Michigan University.  8 Mar. 2009 http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS Dick and Jane. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 9 March. 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_and_Jane Dick and Jane Sample Reader Pages: Living the American Dream http://faculty.valpo.edu/bflak/dickjane Image source: Fun with Dick and Jane: A Commemorative Collection of Stories. San Francisco: Collins Publishers, 1996. http://faculty.valpo.edu/bflak/dickjane/spot.html Dr. Seuss. From Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. 9 March. 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss grinch. (n.d.). Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7). Retrieved March 21, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/grinch grinch. (n.d.). Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7). Retrieved March 21, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/grinch King, R., The Book that Killed Dick and Jane: The Cat in the Hat Fifty Years On (Australian, 04/02/2007) POSTED BY RICHARD KING AT 8:53 PM 3 FEBRUARY. 2007 http://richardjking.blogspot.com/2007/02/book-that-killed-dick-and-jane.html ler. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved March 21, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ler lurk. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved March 21, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lurk miff. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved March 21, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/miff moof. (n.d.). Jargon File 4.2.0. Retrieved March 21, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/moof muff. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved March 21, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/muff Moran, Edward. "Dick and Jane Readers." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Eds. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 1. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. 2 pp. 5 vols. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Eastern Michigan University. 8 Mar. 2009 <http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS>. Seely, Daniel. Modern English Grammar. Winter 2009. The Lorax. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 9 March. 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorax

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