The meaning of ‘the underlined part’
The meaning of ‘the underlined part’
The passage below is from Fathoms: The World in the Whale Hardcover by Rebecca Giggs.
If ever I hear myself recorded, I think: a voice is an uncanny possession for any animal to have, especially a recording animal who has tooled itself to ply apart voice and body. The human voice is hewn through an inner karst, the hidden alcoves of the torso, voice box, and teeth, and, in that way, the tenor of your personal voice — its timbre and grain — seems a wholly intimate, unique, and biophysical property. But then: the tongue. The tongue — that pliant and beguiling traitor grown inside your mouth — schools the voice for its reception, dropping vowels, placing stresses and sibilance, anticipating the prosody of class, slang, or the accent of geography, in league with its two cunning elocutionists, the lips.
I have problems with the last sentence.
First and simple, what do the two italicized ITS commonly stand for?
I thinks both of it stand for ‘tongue’. (Am I right?)
Last and hardest, I cannot get the meaning of the underlined part.
Without the underlined part I think I know the meaning of the last sentence.
Let me paraphrase it.
The tongue — that pliable bewitching betrayer inside your mouth — teaches the voice to admit the tongue, to drop vowels, to place stress and hissing sound, with the help of its two clever orators, the lips, (Am I right?)
But the underlined phrase I cannot grasp the meaning.
Literal meaning of each word I think I can suppose from dictionary but the whole contextual meaning is mystery to me.
Let me tell you what my understanding of each word from dictionary first.
Anticipate means expect.
Prosody means the patterns of stress and intonation.
Class makes no sense to me. With its many meanings I cannot specify one.
Slang seems to mean informal language, but I don’t see any purpose that this word serves in the context.
Accent seems to mean stress.
Geography is mystery to me, surely it doesn’t mean study of the earth’s surface. Except that, I am in the dark.
Could you help me out? Thanks in advance.
Top answer
Stenka25 I thinks both of it stand for ‘tongue’. ) Nobody thinks they need an editor except editors. The first "it" is the voice, and the second one is the tongue, but that is by no means clear.
- Stenka25 I thinks both of it stand for ‘tongue’.
- ) Nobody thinks they need an editor except editors.
- The first "it" is the voice, and the second one is the tongue, but that is by no means clear.
- ) No.
- The tongue teaches the voice how to behave, like a debutante coach.
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
Stenka25I thinks both of it stand for ‘tongue’. (Am I right?)
Nobody thinks they need an editor except editors. The first "it" is the voice, and the second one is the tongue, but that is by no means clear.
Stenka25The tongue — that pliable bewitching betrayer inside your mouth — teaches the voice to admit the tongue, to drop vowe
0
Related Questions