Fun with Words - from Sentences to Paragraphs (1970)

you know I've been thinking the world can be pretty dull and uninteresting sometimes you mean like right now when there's nothing to listen to or to look at or to read Yes except for you and me there's nothing to pay attention to or get interested in well maybe I can do something about it for instance look at that a quinet film those are just words yes but words make life interesting words can tell the name of a film fun with words from words to sentences and they can tell about a person who helped to make the film well okay the words were there all right but I didn't see any sentences that's the next thing I was going to mention using words to make sentences I'll start with words first and then I'll work up to sentences you mean you'll talk about them no I I think I'll let you see for yourself by looking at an imaginary person at um well at a Mr Brown I'll call him a friendly neighborly man who likes to tell stories but imagine that when Mr Brown tells his stories he uses only naming words the kind of words we call nouns boy Dog House mother father toy that's not much of a story the words don't make sentences that's right a string of nouns together by itself doesn't make much of a sentence so let me me set it up a different way Mr Brown can use nouns and he can also use doing words the action words we call verbs boy runs dog barks girl sits frog haps these could be sentences yes a noun and a verb together can make a short sentence each pair of words is arranged so it makes sense it's what what we call a complete thought capital letters and periods are all we need to make them look like sentences well maybe they're sentences but they don't tell much and they're not very interesting used by themselves nouns and verbs don't make much of a story but there are words that do add meaning to verbs and nouns we'll call them modifiers and maybe Mr Brown can use some of them in his sentences little boy has big [Music] balloon strong wind blows boy's balloon free balloon flies away little boy cries sadly those are better sentences but he still needs a few kinds of words like a and the Once Upon a Time things like that no sooner said than done now watch Mr Brown tell it once upon a time a little boy had a big red balloon a big wind blew at the boy's balloon the balloon flew away it flew high in the sky the Little Boy Cried sadly hey that makes a better story yes the nouns verbs modifiers and other words all went together to make sentences but there was a lot to read from now on can't we hear Mr Brown all right I'll give him a voice so that he can tell you the stories himself there once was a train full of toys and I'll set it up so we actually see the stories as he tells them the train had to go over a big mountain over the mountain was a town the toys on the train were for boys and girls in the town the engine of the train broke down a big new engine came by the Broken engine asked for help the big new engine said no an old dirty engine came by the Broken engine asked for help the old dirty engine said now then a happy little engine came by it looked too little to pull the train it pulled the train though it pulled it over the mountain the boys and girls of the Town got their toys how's that well it was all right but there was something I noticed about the sentences let me show you one there the broken engine asked for help now what did you notice that it's short and he has one idea in it it has one naming word and one doing word that's true the sentence has only one noun and one verb most of the sentences in the story are like that and most of them tell what things do the broken engine asked for help that was what it did understand I think so and I was wondering can you put some short sentences together so they make longer ones of course now listen and I'll have Mr Brown tell another story and this time he'll combine some of his shorter sentences into longer ones there once was a giant Lumber man named Paul bunan and he lived in the North Woods see the idea that there was a man in the place where he lived two ideas combined in one sentence his helper was a giant Blue Ox one day A Lumber man complained to Paul there was trouble down at the river and Paul went to look it was a log Jam the river was crooked and the logs could not float Downstream so Paul bunan caught two blizzards at the North Pole and they blew on the river and froze it then he and his Ox pulled on the Frozen River and they straightened it from then on the river was straight and the logs floated down stream you see how Mr Brown combined short sentences to make longer ones can I see one of those sentences of course the river was crooked and the logs could not float Downstream what do you think it seems more grown up the way it combines two ideas one about the shape of the river and the other about where the logs could float and another reason why sent es in this story are interesting is that they have words in them to tell what things look like the river was crooked that was what it looked like and the logs could not float Downstream the Crooked look of the river explains why so now you've seen Mr Brown used two different kinds of sentences but they're not the only kinds for instance there's a combined sentence with two thoughts but one thought is more important than the other watch for it in this story once there was a very little boy because he was as small as a man's thumb they called him Tom Thumb even when he grew a little bigger Tom always got into trouble though he loved his parents Tom left home after Many Adventures he was swallowed by a fish when he came out he found himself in King Arthur's Court he wanted to be a knight one day Tom saw a spider stealing the king's [Music] gold though he was not as strong as the spider he fought bravely he won and the King made him a knight though Tom Thumb was very small he was very brave do you see what I mean about those sentences I'm not sure well let me show you one you see there are two ideas combined first the idea that he loved his parents and then the idea that Tom left home but the word though makes one idea sound less important than the other though he loved his parents that sounds less important Tom left home that sounds more important and another thing about the words in this sentence they tell how people feel though he loved his parents that's how he felt about them Tom left home do you understand I think I do and do you understand what I was talking to you about a little while ago you mean that words make life so much more interesting by telling us things that's right words like those the words tell us that it's the end of a film yes but that doesn't mean that we're going to stop thinking about words and sentences I guess not you say I can start with nouns and verbs and work up the sentences well how am I going to use nouns and verbs and the story about my vacation