Drawing inferences

Among my treasured possessions is a Donald Duck comic book in Norwegian. In 2010 it was a gift from a delightful exchange student whose host family lives down the street. I still miss her.

The book reminds me that reading the comics is a fun, easy way to learn new words—either in one’s native language or in another.

Many words in comics are sight words—those learned early on. Examples are: a, big, by, can, carry, do, eat, for, go … well, the list goes on. (For more information, google Fry word lists or Dolch word lists.)

As children read comic strips, they use their command of sight words and the clues they gain from the pictures to draw inferences, or logical guesses, about words in the strip they don’t know.

Case in point: lollygagging.

In the strip above Grampa is first shown plopped on the couch, doing nothing. His hands are clasped behind his neck––a classic gesture of relaxation.

Even without understanding the Americanism “lollygag,” most readers can figure out from Grampa’s body language that he’s not doing much. That comes as no surprise for regular readers of the strip; they know that Grampa’s made “kicking back” an art form.

It’s therefore unsurprising that Webster’s defines “lollygag” as “to waste time in trifling or aimless activity; to fool around.”

For an extensive explanation of the word, I recommend a blog entry by “Richard,” a contributor to The Mavens’ Word of the Day on a Random House site. I’m inferring that he’s a credible source because of Random House’s prestige in the publishing world.

Incidentally, he provides a second definition of “lollygag” that reminds me of recent local headlines regarding behavior at school dances. The link is: http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20001109.

Finally, below is my best attempt at translating today’s Pickles into Norwegian. (I hope Kari would approve.) Bye for now. See you in the funny papers.

Grampa: Hva stirre du for?

Nelson: Du.

              Bestemor sa du kastet bort tid. Jeg var interessert i så synet av det.

              Det hørte ut mer moro enn det ser ut.

Photos special to the Sentinel