Different Words by Nancy L. Eady

On Monday, I wrote my blog post on “Point of View.” Originally, because I was using photographs to illustrate the idea, I wanted to call the post “Frame of Reference.” I considered the two phrases to be synonymous. But since I never like to take such things for granted, I googled the phrases and found out that the concepts are related, but different. 

According to Google, “frame of reference” in writing is the context and background that shapes a character’s understanding and interpretation of events. Something I think about every Fourth of July is fireworks. Here in the United States, the “boom” of fireworks, especially when cannons are included as part of an orchestral rendition of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, heralds a spectacular display we enjoy watching. Someone from a country or region where internecine warfare occurs on a regular basis probably reacts quite differently to the same sounds. 

The difference between the two is their “frame of reference.” “Point of view” is the perspective from which a story is told. If an American heard the sounds of a fireworks show in the distance, their memories and story about the sounds they are hearing will be very different than those of a person newly arrived from Ukraine who has been suffering constant battles since 2022. 

The close relation between the two terms stirred my inner word geekiness, and I thought of two series of single words where each word is similar, but different. The first set of words deals with groups of trees. I think of “woods” as a pleasant stand of trees with paths ambling through it, for example, Robert Frost’s “yellow wood.” A “forest” is still a group of trees, but it is a more extensive and wilder grouping. I had to return to Google to see if there is a difference between “jungle” and “rainforest.” At least according to the web page of the Mashdi Lodge in Ecuador, a jungle, while still a group of trees, has thicker undergrowth and more chaotic plant life than a rainforest. A rainforest has a “complex, layered flora structure and diverse fauna.” I think it might be enchanting to see a rainforest, at least a suitably tamed section of one, but a jungle would be more challenging. 

The second set of words deals with flattish patches of land, which include meadows, plains, prairies, veldts and savannas. I have a clear picture in my mind of an upland meadow, a rich green patch of land ringed with mountains and dotted with wildflowers. Since this meadow lives only in my imagination, it is bug free, with the exception of the butterflies that roam around. 

I think of plains and prairie interchangeably in connection with the Midwest and West before taming, when herds of buffaloes a million strong roamed freely on them. If I were to be precise, however, a prairie is a specific type of plain.  Or then again, maybe not. According to a presentation in 2012 by a professor at Hunter College, a plain is a “topographic term signifying expansive and relatively flat land.” “Prairie,” however, is defined as “a vegetation that refers to a variety of grasses.” Because most of America’s Great Plains were covered with prairie, the vegetation, they started to be called prairie, the place. 

Google’s dictionary, which is powered by Oxford Languages, defines a “veldt” as “open, uncultivated country or grassland in southern Africa.” Flippantly, I’d say that it sounds like South Africa’s version of America’s prairies, but perhaps I am mistaken. “Savanna,” also spelled “savannah,” is a marriage of plains and woods per Wikipedia. Wikipedia’s official entry states that “a savanna … is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses.”

If you’re looking for a point to this post or a grand ending tying everything together, there isn’t one. But I am curious to know if there are word groupings that interest you, or am I the only word geek here?