Amy Tan's Mother Tongue Vocabulary and Concepts

Flashcards covering key vocabulary terms, narrative details, and linguistic concepts from Amy Tan's essay 'Mother Tongue'.

Language of Intimacy

The non-standard variation of English that Amy Tan shares with her family and husband of twenty years, serving as a private code of familiarity rather than formal correctness.

Nominalized Forms

Complex grammatical structures characteristic of formal standard English that Tan noticed overburdened her public speech about her life and writing.

Du Yusong

A political gangster in Shanghai who originally ran an off-the-street fruit stand and later attended Tan's mother's wedding to show respect according to Chinese custom.

Forbes Report and Wall Street Week

Financial news sources that Tan's mother regularly reads and listens to, demonstrating her high level of English comprehension despite her non-standard spoken English.

Empirical Evidence

Observational proof—such as being ignored or given poor service in department stores, banks, and restaurants—that led young Tan to wrongly believe her mother's non-standard speech reflected limited intelligence.

Broken or Fractured English

Terms commonly used to describe non-standard English speech, which Tan winces at because they imply the language is damaged or needs fixing.

Limited English

A descriptor for non-standard English speakers that Tan criticizes because it often causes others to perceive the speaker's thoughts and abilities as equally limited.

CAT Scan Incident

An event at a hospital where staff lost Tan's mother's brain tumor scan and refused to apologize until Tan spoke to them on the phone in standard, unaccented English.

Fill-in-the-Blank Sentence Completion

A standardized test format that Tan struggled with because it forced bland, semantically rigid opposite answers rather than expressive or imaginative possibilities.

Word Analogies

Standardized test questions pairing words (such as 'sunset is to nightfall') where Tan's vivid visual imagery hindered her from isolating simple logical relationships.

Pre-med

The college academic track Amy Tan was initially enrolled in before rebelliously switching her major to English during her freshman year.

Nascent

Meaning coming into existence or displaying signs of future potential; featured in Tan's discarded early fiction draft line, 'That was my mental quandary in its nascent state.'

The Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan's novel about mothers and daughters, written with her mother in mind as the primary reader and utilizing the various 'Englishes' she grew up with.

Internal Language

Tan's translation of her mother's spoken Chinese into English that preserves her mother's true intent, passion, imagery, and thought rhythms without strict standard grammar constraints.

So easy to read

The simple verdict given by Tan's mother upon finishing her daughter's book, which Tan considered her greatest indicator of success.