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Copywork
About This Passage
Peggy Parish builds an entire children's classic on a single linguistic insight: English idioms are radically ambiguous when taken literally. The book's whole humor is the pleasure of seeing the literal reading played out without irony.
Amelia Bedelia got some scissors. She snipped a little here and a little there, and she changed those towels.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize the chapter and identify the linguistic insight at its heart.
Discussion Questions
- Amelia Bedelia is the literal-minded reader of language; the Rogers are figurative speakers. Wittgenstein argues that meaning is determined by use, not by literal definition. Is Peggy Parish staging a Wittgensteinian observation?
- Mrs. Rogers learns to speak Amelia's way at the end ('undust the furniture'). The flexible speaker accommodates the rigid one. What is being claimed about who actually does the work in cross-language friendships?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
having more than one possible meaning
Item 2
a phrase whose meaning is not the sum of its individual words
Item 3
using language in a non-literal way
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Critical Thinking
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