[HPforGrownups] Re: Teeth, Braces, and the English Language or Variations there of.

Shelley Gardner k12listmomma at comcast.net
Wed Apr 27 18:23:35 UTC 2011


No: HPFGUIDX 190307


> Geoff:
> As a native speaker of UK English, I would ONLY interpret this comment by
> Hermione as a reference to an event in the past continuing on. In no way
> would it indicate to me that it was a future possibility suggested by Mr. and
> Mrs. Granger.
>
> -----------------------
>
> As a person who works with kids with different levels of speech fluency and reads almost all the time that she's not working, talking to someone, writing or crocheting something or other and who listens to something or other all the time because a noiseless enviroment is creepy, I think that Hermione, like many kids her age was using a common phrase for something that had not yet happened. I see it all the time with more speech confident Special Ed and Regular Ed kids. We're always having to ask them if something has occurred yet only to have them say "No. After school" or "this weekend" or "Next year" or something. Granted, a lot of the kids I work with are SE which means they're verbal skills aren't always the greatest, but I hear this not only at work, but at church, at Jr. orchestra workshops (which are with RE kids) with kids (and adults) on the bus. People just don't always live in a straight timeline verbally. They're speech isn't always perfect and that's what I think happened with Hermione/Rowling here.
>
> Lynda
Shelley now:
I have a big beef with this interpretation! It's not consistent with how 
the educated and intelligent Hermione speaks, and secondly, it's not 
consistent with how Rowling wrote the rest of the series.

I'm not a native of UK English, my English is only American English, and 
I'd have to agree with Geoff 100%: Hermione's comment is one of having a 
treatment plan for her teeth and continuing with that treatment plan in 
the future. What she may be calling a "brace"- note the singular form- 
may have been a nighttime headgear or retainer of sort, although the 
nighttime headgear was usually worn with braces and attached with rubber 
bands. A retainer or a single mouthpiece worn only at night would not 
have been seen by the boys (Ron or Harry) during the day, and thus might 
have more "believability" to the story line that "braces" were not 
mentioned at all before that point. It's a stretch- Buck teeth take more 
work to correct than other deformities, and most kids I knew who had 
that correction had constant daytime and additional nighttime appliances 
to contend with.

Even if it were a single nighttime appliance, still, I would have a hard 
time with the fact that there were nighttime events and sleepovers and 
still Harry never saw any sort of headgear or retainer or braces ever 
mentioned with Hermione. Given as thorough as Hermione was for packing 
for their extended camping trip in Book 7, I hardly think she's the type 
to just "skip it" during sleepovers at the Weasley house or at the 
Sirius's on the days they spent together before term started again or at 
Christmastime.

Shelley





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