The Indispensable Get

The Indispensable Get The Indispensable Get The Indispensable Get By Maeve Maddox I’ve been amusing myself lately by eavesdropping on people, listening for the use of the word get. I’ve concluded that get is as necessary to English speakers as the verb to be. The most common synonyms for the verb get are receive, obtain, and buy: I get the daily paper. (receive) Next month I will get my first raise in salary. (obtain) He got a 45† television set at the auction. (bought) In his sonnet â€Å"The World is Too Much With Us† Wordsworth uses get in the sense of â€Å"to accumulate wealth†: The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; The verb get has so many additional meanings that I wonder how ESL learners sort them all out. For example, used with the preposition on, get can have at least four different meanings: How are you getting on with your studies? (managing, progressing) Sallie gets on with her mother-in-law. (has a good relationship) At 93, Mr. Biggs is really getting on. (becoming older) Stop obsessing about the past and get on with your life. (continue) Here are a few more uses of get: Don’t get so nervous when you have an interview. (become) How do you get to Carnegie Hall? (reach, arrive at) I can’t get used to your new hairdo. (become accustomed to) So he mispronounced your name; get over it. (forget it, let it go). Now that everyone is in town, let’s get together for dinner. (meet) I know that losing your best friend is difficult, but you’ll get through it. (survive, overcome) I want my neighbor to get rid of his vicious dog. (dispose of) She’s trapped in a dead-end job and wants to get out. (escape) We hope to get away this weekend. (travel, go somewhere else) I’ve tried and tried to master algebra, but I just don’t get it. (understand) Then there are the imperatives with get: Get busy! Get a move on! (Hurry up.) Get lost! (Stop bothering me and go away!) And these two, which have different meanings according to the context: Get out! Get out of here! These expressions can mean â€Å"go away, leave my presence,† as in â€Å"Get out! I never want to see you again,† or â€Å"Get out of here! The dam is about to burst.† Or they can be slang expressions of disbelief: â€Å"You pay only $600 a month for an apartment in Manhattan? Get out of here!† Listen for get in your own speech for a day. You may be surprised by how often you use it. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:70 Idioms with HeartWhat's a Male Mistress?Woof or Weft?

Human Geography - an Overview (Cultural Geography)

Human Geography - an Overview (Cultural Geography) Human geography is one of the two major branches of geography (versus physical geography) and is often called cultural geography. Human geography is the study of the many cultural aspects found throughout the world and how they relate to the spaces and places where they originate and then travel as people continually move across various areas. Some of the main cultural phenomena studied in human geography include language, religion, different economic and governmental structures, art, music, and other cultural aspects that explain how and/or why people function as they do in the areas in which they live. Globalization is also becoming increasingly important to the field of human geography as it is allowing these specific aspects of culture to easily travel across the globe. Cultural landscapes are also important because they link culture to the physical environments in which people live. This is vital because it can either limit or nurture the development of various aspects of culture. For instance, people living in a rural area are often more culturally tied to the natural environment around them than those living in a large metropolitan area. This is generally the focus of the Man-Land Tradition in the Four Traditions of geography and studies human impact on nature, the impact of nature on humans, and peoples perception of the environment. History of Human Geography Human geography developed out of the University of California, Berkeley and was led by Carl Sauer. He used landscapes as the defining unit of geographic study and said that cultures develop because of the landscape but also help to develop the landscape as well. In addition, his work and the cultural geography of today is highly qualitative rather than quantitative - a main tenant of physical geography. Human Geography Today Today, human geography is still practiced and more specialized fields within it such as feminist geography, childrens geography, tourism studies, urban geography, the geography of sexuality and space, and political geography have developed to further aid in the study of cultural practices and human activities as they relate spatially to the world.