31Justthismorning,mysonandIwereeatingbreakfastwhenIattemptedtoaddmilktomytea.“Dad,”hesaid,“IfIwereyou,Iwouldn’tdothat.It’ssour.”(Para.14)Meaning:Whilehavingbreakfastthismorning,Itriedtopoursomemilkintomyteabutmysonstoppedme,sayingthathewouldn’tdothatbecauseittastedsour.32“Ohmy!”Isaid,swellingwithpridetowardmyson,“That’sagrammaticallyperfectsentence.Youusedwereinsteadofwas.”(Para.15)Meaningbeyondwords:Thefatherwasextremelyhappyandimpressedbyhisson’sgoodEnglish.Note:“Ohmy!”isoftenheardinaninformalconversation.Notinfrequently,youalsohearpeoplesay“Ohmygoodness!”or“OhmyGosh!”.Allthesecanbeusedwhenpeopleshowsurprise,excitement,boredom,ordistress.Thesensecanbeeitherpositiveornegative,anditisbasedonthespeaker’stoneandthesituationinwhichitisused.33“Iknow,Iknow,”hesaidwithalongagreeablesigh.“It’sthesubjunctivemood.”(Para.16)Meaning:Withaslowanddeepbreath,mysonpleasantlysaidthatheknewit’sthesubjunctivemoodingrammar.34Iwas,like,whoa!(Para.17)Meaning:Iwasreallysurprisedandimpressedbymyson’sgrammarknowledge.Meaningbeyondwords:Thefatherwasveryproudofhisson.Theexpressionusedhereistocontrastwiththeonesaidatthebeginningofthetextwhentheauthordescribestheincapabilityofthestudent’slanguage.Thoughbothareinasurprisedtone,thepurposesareapparentlydifferent.Byreturningtothephrasefromthebeginningofthetext:“…,like,whoa!”,thefatherisplayingballwiththis“condensednon-statement”.Usingthiswordattheendofthetext,therefore,reflectstheauthor’sskillfullyexpressedhumor.
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