Teacher Discussion Forums

The following is from the 8th (?) paragraph of the American Declaration of Independence:
"He (the King) has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise;...."
I don't quited understand the 'incapable of Annihilation' part.
1. Who (or what) is incapable?
2. What is to be annihilated?
"The King couldn't get rid of the Representative House"?
"The Regislative Powers couldn't be got rid of"?
Thank you.

Itasan, dude, language changes over time.

You're looking at something that was written over 200 years ago. These days annihilation means total destruction (and I bet seven out of ten Americans don't know how to spell it!)

Back in the day when this was written, it obviously meant something different. The capital A shows that it has a special meaning. I'm guessing it means something similar to 'dissolution of parliament', but you are probably better off asking a historian than an ESL instructor.

Also, I'm guessing that you sometimes have difficulty pronouncing the 'l' sound in English. Am I right?





my site: www.roadtogrammar.com

Thank you very much.
Yes, most of us have difficulty pronoucing
'l', 'r', 'th' dounds.

'Us' meaning Japanese speakers, right?

In your original message you wrote 'regislative', which seems to me that you are saying the word to yourself while writing, and then writing it with your own pronunciation mistake. So you have 'internalised' the process rather than looking to the external source for the correct spelling. Does that make sense?

I'm guessing that a high-level English user such as yourself would benefit from linking the oral and written skills in your study. For example, you would benefit from reading an article in Time or the newspaper, and then watching a news bulletin on the same article.

Good luck, Itasan