Val Dumond

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Articles on Writing, Grammar, and Publishing
by Val Dumond

What's on Val's mind now?

Val writes articles on grammar, the art and science of writing, and publishing, for budding writers and seasoned authors alike. These articles are not only informative and educational, they're entertaining - written as only Val can. Enjoy this latest of her articles:

Wild, Wildly, Wilderness, and Wildings
by Val Dumond
©2008

In searching for a title for my upcoming new grammar book, I took out my dictionaries and thesauruses and copied off some words that expressed my feelings about grammar and the search for the right words.

Some of my favorites included: rowdy, confusing, tangled, muddled, messy, disorderly, untamed, natural, madcap, crazy, sensible, harebrained, mad, undisciplined, riotous, rebellious, revolutionary... wild!

Wild is the word that caught the most excitement in my inner reaction control site. So I pursued that word. Here are just a few of the definitions that I found in my dictionaries (yes, I have several). Take a journey with me through the files that belong to "Wild".

First, we're going to accept only the adjective uses of wild. We won't go into the wild-eyed fury of the wildlife to be found in the "wilds" of wilderness, nor into the wildness of the Wild West, or even the wildings of teenagers in the middle ages. And of course we won't go into the writings of Oscar Wilde, Laura Ingalls Wilder, or Thornton Wilder, much less the career of Billy Wilder.

Just a few adjectival definitions.

• Wild refers to an animal not kept as a pet but living freely in a natural habitat.
• Wild is growing in a natural state rather than being cultivated in fields, parks, or gardens (as in wild roses, wild rice, and wild honey... mmmm!).
• Wild refers to what is produced by animals living freely rather than by domesticated animals, as in wild salmon, and oh, that wild honey again.
• Wild is a place not inhabited or able to be inhabited by humans because of being barren, remote, or desolate.
• Wild is also an enthusiastic or eager feeling showing enthusiasm or eagerness. Duh!
• Oops! Wild is "an offensive term used to describe a people or its culture or customs as being supposedly culturally inferior". There's a judgment statement if ever I heard one. We now call people that come from cultures we don't understand "indigenous" or "native to the land".
  
  Following the enthusiastic eagerness comes a feeling of being "overwhelmed by or showing a strong emotion such as anger, grief, or desire".
• Or, in the context of weather, wild means rough and stormy, with a strong wind.
• In the context of people, wild indicates one who is lively and showing a disregard for rules.
• How do we recognize wild? It is marked by a lack of restraint or prudence, especially in things considered to be vices. Oh, the sins of the wildings!
• Probably in tribute to the wildings, wild means not neat or well-groomed (remember the wildings of the '70s?).
• Wild also refers to actions not based on rational thought, evidence, or probability, or not carefully aimed.
• Here's the part I like: Wild means unconventional, exciting, and slightly irrational. Used as "dated slang" it means excellent!

But the best is last (isn't it always?). Wild is used to describe a playing card that has any value that a player using it wishes to give it. Free choice!

Now more than ever I am convinced that "wild" is the perfect word to refer to grammar. It is unconventional, open to choice, unconstrained, sometimes irreverent, open to emotional eagerness or terror, not always neat, and it's exciting! There! If those definitions don't thoroughly describe this crazy American English language, there just ain't any!

[When you're looking for a respite from the stress around you, pick up a good, recently published dictionary and choose a word, any word. Play with it. Have a great time.]

The above definitions were helpfully provided by the Fourth Edition of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.

For your continued reading enjoyment, here are more articles that Val's written:

• Poetry the Fun Way
• et Ready to Meet Your Maker! How?
• When You Write a Book...
• I Wish I'd Been Mrs. Webster
• Names and Naming
• Cookie As a Metaphor
• On Being a Forfatter
• To Spell or Not to Spell?
• How to Get Along Without What You Love
• Three Ways to Write
• I Wanna Be a Rock Star
• I Saw It On the Computer - Go Fish!
• Nature Rocks!
• Writing Contests and Other Scammy Stuff
• America the Bee-you-tee-full
• Val's Viewpoint
• The Self Story
• Sentences
• Drawing Sentences? Don't Cringe - Try It!
• Whatever Happened to the Equal Rights Amendment?
• Whatever Happened to the E.R.A.?
• Weaving Word Baskets
• When Did You Learn To Write?
• Sadness in One Sentence
• On Hedgehogs and Foxes
• Who Makes Up the Creative Class? You!
• Words Can Create Warmth or Freeze Out a Listener
• Little Green Apples
• Keeping Up With Life and Language: A Balancing Act
• About Bubbles and Bubbling, Bubba!
• What I Believe
• The Promiscuous Apostrophe
• Writing Tips
• If We Don't Make Up Words, Who Will?
• Inturn, Outturn, Upturn, Downturn, Overturn... Writers I Admire

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