sylvia plath biography essays

sylvia plath biography essays On October 27, 1932 in Bostons Memorial Hospital, Aurelia (Schober) Plath and her husband Otto Plath (21 years her senior), gave birth to a baby girl, which they named Sylvia. Otto Plath was a writer, whose book Bumblebees and Their Ways was published in 1934. While Sylvia was still extremely young her father began to get rather ill. He had his toe amputated, only to be followed by his foot and later on his leg. Shortly after these events another member of the Plath family was born. Warren Plath came into the world on April 27, 1935 (Sylvia was 2 Â ½ years old). When Sylvia turned eight something happened that would hang over her for the rest of her life. Her father Otto died a victim of diabetes mellitus. According to her mother, Sylvia had always been an overachiever. After her fathers death, her mother moved the family to Wellesly, Massachusetts, where Sylvia was placed in the sixth grade (two years above those her age). Throughout the rest of her grammar and high school years, Sylvia was noted for being and extremely happy and cheery person. Her first story And Summer Will Not Come Again was published in the 1950 August issue of Seventeen magazine. The following November Seventeen also published her poem Ode on a Bitten Plum. In 1950 she was offered a scholarship to Smith College. There she continued achieving straight As maintaining her perfect streak. She once wrote home to her mother saying: I think I would like to call myself the girl who wanted to be God. (Plath, Letters Home) The summer after her junior year at Smith she was offered the position of guest managing editor of Mademoiselle magazine. The same summer she went home and found out that she was denied acceptance to a Harvard writing class, this ending her perfect streak. She left a note to her family saying that she went out for a walk, and that night crawled into a ...

Definition and Examples of Epenthesis

Definition and Examples of Epenthesis In phonology and phonetics, epenthesis is the insertion of an extra sound into a word. Adjective: epenthetic. Verb: epenthesize. Also known as intrusion or  anaptyxis. According to some linguists, vowel epenthesis is often motivated by the need to make consonant contrasts more distinct (The Handbook of Speech Perception, 2005). Etymology: From the Greek, putting in Pronunciation: eh-PEN-the-sis Examples and Observations In certain varieties [of English], a vowel breaks up the cluster (epenthesis): film becomes [filÉ™m] in Ireland, Scotland, and South Africa.(Elly van Gelderen, A History of the English Language. John Benjamins, 2006)The history of English provides examples [of epenthesis] like the development of aemtig into empty, with epenthetic p, and of à ¾unor into thunder, with epenthetic d. Non-standard pronunciations include athalete for athlete and fillum for film, with epenthetic vowels.(R.L. Trask, A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology. Routledge, 1996)Fambily for FamilyShe were gentle an sweet, an the mos beautiful creetur in allinin the place where we lived. An her fambily was that proud an aristocratic thet no one could tech em with a ten-foot pole.(L. Frank Baum, Aunt Janes Nieces at Millville, 1908)Athalete for AthleteThats the thing, said McCloud plaintively. A athalete has to keep up appearances. Sure, people think a athalete makes plenty, and he do on paper. But people never s top to think hes allus gotta keep up a expensive front.(Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano, 1952) Mischeeveous for MischievousThe pronunciation (mis-chÄ“vÄ“-ɘs) is considered nonstandard  and is an example of intrusion, a phonological process that involves the addition or insertion of an extra sound. Mischievous is properly pronounced with three syllables, with the accent on the first syllable. The word is often misspelled with the suffix -ious, which matches the mispronunciation.(American Heritage Dictionaries, 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses. Houghton MIfflin Harcourt, 2004)  Ã‚  Vowels and Consonants-  Epenthetic sounds are not always vowels. For example, consider the two indefinite articles a and an. We know that a is used before consonant sounds and an is used before vowel sounds . . .. We may view this [n] as an epenthetic sound that breaks up a sequence of two vowels: a apple - an apple.(Anita K. Berry, Linguistic Perspectives on Language and Education. Greenwood, 2002)The Effects of Epenthesis on SpellingEpenthesis occurs frequently, both in legal and in lay language. The addition of an i before the t in speciality is an example. The pronunciation of jewelry as jewelery is a result of epenthesis, as is the pronunciation contentuous for contentious. Other examples of epenthesis: the ubiquitous relitor for realtor and that favorite of sports announcers, athalete for athlete.(Gertrude Block, Legal Writing Advice: Questions and Answers. William S. Hein, 2004)