Why reem and omishambles have more in common than you might think...

We as humans have a lot of emotions. Happy, sad, angry,shocked...the list goes on. One of the problems of having such complex feelings is trying to put them into words. Take happy for example. This covers the simple pleasure of talking to a friend to the ecstatic screams of someone who has just been proposed to. Anger covers the miffed to the furious . Emotions are often abstract nouns, we feel them and to some extent can see them by someone's exterior actions or expression but if you haven't experienced them there is no way to describe them.

Therefore when a new word comes along to describe something more definitively its no wonder we latch onto it. Steven Fry in his series Planet Word pointed out that by having a wider vocabulary we can pin point how we feel, therefore allowing others to understand the pragmatics. If you were to look at urban dictionary almost every variation of emotion is covered. The feeling after days of walking on a DofE walk is named as a "DofE hangover" for example. We create new words to describe things like bitter sweet.

Reem may make some of us cringe, the basic "ee" noise elongated like some animal squawk. But it has its place in the lexis as long as it is said by its users. Its not too genetic, whilst one may say that a pair of shoes or a new phone was "reem" good exam results or an interesting tweet is unlikely to be tagged so. Its probably wont over take good anytime soon but it covers what its user wants to convey. The same as omnishambles does. When we find a word that exactly covers what we mean, the bittersweet words. It doesn't matter where they come from, as long as they are understood.

Sesquipedalians unite

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-22765498


The longest word in the German language "Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz" has been removed. What does this mean for the future of other languages and their long words?

Children and their written lexis

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22714629


BBC magazine.
Children under thirteens entries to a competition, the lexis that they use has been analysed in detail. Worth reading.

English and French

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22607506

Are we influencing the French language?

Stephen Pinker and language

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU

^ Language as a window into human nature.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir7arILiqxg

^ CLA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKbp4hEHV-s

^ Language pragmatics

Euphemisms

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22545351


Looking at euphemisms and how they come about. BBC magazine has collected the best of what readers have sent in. Its worth looking at the original article as well, most stem from the Private Eye ( "tired and emotional")....

Attitudes to spelling and grammar

Today, across England, children in Year Six will be sitting down to take part in the new grammar test. How prepared they might be will vary.  Some teachers may have been proactive in drilling correct grammar into their students for years. Others may have just started putting on the pressure this year in response to the new tests.

Looking back upon my own education I recall when "grammar" was brought up in class that would mean punctuation. I honestly did not realize that grammar meant the actual content and structure of sentence until secondary school. Was this my own failing or the teachers? The teachers from my primary school were mainly fantastic teachers, particularly those from my final two years. However whilst we were taught spelling explicitly, for about every three spelling focused activities there would be one on grammar.Grammar is not (as I type this) a subject that teachers have to compulsorily focus on through school, at GCSE one does not need to analyze the use of grammar or (realistically) have a deep knowledge of it. But come A Level understanding is a must.

Therefore I welcome the new tests. Not with a petty vengeance as "I had it harder" or saying it in the safe knowledge that I will never have to sit the test,  but because I want the children who will sit it today to have  better chance at knowing grammar. Learning grammar, from the difference between "Who" and "Whom" to what a gerund is, from a younger age will save it from having to be taught at a later stage and make language texts more assessable. When it is taught younger it becomes second nature, those at the top may criticize at thirteen year old for not knowing the difference between "less" or "fewer" but we cannot blame them when they have not been taught the difference. We need to know more than simply "a verb is a doing word" by Year Nine. We need to know the rules, not just to have the rule book thrown at us.

BBC magazine again

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22403731

One of the single most useful articles I have read on the subject! Enjoy!

More articles

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/13/david-crystal-champion-english-language


Article on David Crystal, covers his professional history and some of his opinions.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2005/jul/24/theobserver.observerbusiness6

Do we lose out by not having to learn another lanuage?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/13/americanisms-closer-to-home-imagine?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

Are we over eager to label words as "Americanisms"?


 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/23/war-on-terror-bush-language

Bush administration and its lexis.




Apologies for being Guardian heavy.

Test your grammar skills

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22512744


BBC magazine has come up with a quiz similar to that of the one that Y6 students will be sitting today. See how you fare!

From Nixton to Findus...

Once again BBC magazine has come up trumps.

How scandals became '-gates'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22464422

Why Facebook is like fight club

Recently I have begun to notice a similarity between the rules of fight club and of Facebook. Mainly do not talk about Facebook outside of Facebook. Try talking to someone, even a close friend about their posts. For some reason it does not work. That is mainly (aside from obvious awkwardness) because there is a difference in the discourse that you use on the internet and how you actually speak. We tend not to speak in the small declarative s  or the small used to comment on a post. "Meme" has probably been typed more times than it has ever been said out loud (there is an on going debate on how to pronounce it).

If Facebook was like real life, conversations would be halted and frankly weird. Imagine a friend walking into a room saying "The awkward moment when you mistake gravy granules for coffee. Lol." then someone shouting "LOLZ!" and other single word replies, that mainly focus on questioning the intelligence of the OP. It would seem strange as it doesn't follow natural speech patterns.

However the lines are not always clear. Everyone knows at least one friend who will say out loud LOL, maybe accompanied with a small smirk or perhaps in a deadpan voice. These people are in the minority however. The internet, for its purpose being to share information, is a strangely personal thing. Its not really a group activity, akin to reading it is done in spare time. Even in social media and networking one can still control interaction with others. You can choose whether or not to post, comment on a status or answer the "Heyy" that pops up. Its much harder in reality where if you ignore the elongated y, it is deemed rude. 

So when the language of the internet starts to leak into real life what do we do? Nothing really, the internet has become an extension of our lives. I am not going to say if that's a good or bad thing but the reality is that the language we use on Facebook is different to real life therefore is not a threat. Although terminology and internet jargon may lead to certain words becoming part of the general lexicon no damage has come of it.

Foetuses learning language

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22457797


From BBC news

Accent project

Whilst on the Internet today I came across this. Whilst the main text is interesting, I would stay away from the comments.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/regional-dialect-meme

"Like"

This lexical choice can be the bane of many a person. Article from November 2011 by Rachel Carlyle, notes.

The use of "like" as a filler comes from the West Coast of the USA and has picked up to be a linguistic "tsunami".
 David Crystal, there are two ways in which "like" is used. Empathetic, as in "I couldn't believe it was, like, one o'clock" and the 'grating' quotative like (" I was like, no way, sir, you cant give me more homework!") so it is used as an alternative for speech marks.

Editor from the OED Jesse Sheildlower believes that it has spread because of it saves times from saying "he/she said", it is also more dramatic and displays emotion. The users only use it in certain sentences, reflecting an understanding of its usage. Its not rude, there is worse language for children to be using.

Children's author Antony McGowan puts it down to being similar to the popularity of mimicking the Australian rising intonation in the 1990s. "It could be stamped out if you care enough but it's not that bad" "Like may be irritating but it is not indicative of a world view".

The article ends on the note that apparently in the US "all" is becoming a popular substitute for "like"....

Language and tec

Notes from Samuel Cuttings article. Emagazine issue 52April 2011

Different websites use subtly different language, because of expectations and their purpose.

Language of the internet is changing, whereas the first "generation" terms may be 'link' and 'browser', new verbs are being created or re contextualized such as 'trending' or 'tweeting'. This makes language of the internet hard to define in correct terms. "Each text is a specific part of the discourse of the internet.".

Facebook as an example for analysis. Interaction with the text, single noun phrases such as "search" and imperatives such as "get connected". Encourage activity from the user. Fairclough's synthetic personalization, Facebook mimics politeness strategies, colloquial register and language. Facebook has multiple audiences and multiple authors, as the original poster doesn't know who will reply and how. The replies often reflect the power and relationships between the posters and the changing way that we use interactive written discourse.

Language change & issues

1) Perjoration is a process by which words are acquire negative meaning
2) "Ethnic cleansing" "collateral damage" and "nuclear deterrent" are examples of euphemisms
3) Dialect leveling is a decrease in dialect differences
4) Prescriptivism is the study of language with the intention of controlling it-by dictating the rules of usage
5) 1755 is significant for the development of the English Language because it is when Samuel Johnson published his dictionary
6) Jargon is technical language or field specific lexis
7) Amelioration is a process by which words gain a positive status or become more socially acceptable       
8) The word process cupboard is not an example of borrowing
9) Etymological fallacy is the mistaken belief that a words earliest historical meaning is its only true meaning
10) Time was once pronounced as team, see like say and now like noo. These are examples of phonological differences brought about by the Great Vowel Shift
11) Fax, flu and memo are examples of abbreviations or shortening
12) The use in the USA, of phrases such as "I guess" for "I think" and "gotten" are examples of Americans retaining an earlier form of English that has largely died out in Britian
13) Bidialectalism is a term used by Crystal and others to describe the ability to describe two dialects of the same language
14) Government, peasant, crime and justice are words loaned from Latin
15) The prescriptive "Short Introduction to English Grammar" was written by Bishop Robert Lowth
16) The printing press was introduced to England by William Caxton in 1476
17) Accommodation theory was developed by Howard Giles to suggest that we adjust out accent and speech to the person that we are adressing
18) Children, oxen and men are irregular plurals that are a hangover from a time when English had a greater number of latinate words
19) When Johnathan Green describes "the counter language, the language of the rebel, the outlaw, the despised, the marginal, the young" he is talking about slang
20) The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis" put forward the theory that

Language, Comedy and Politics

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/24/eddie-izzard-language-of-standup

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/24/europa-english-official-language-eu

Europe may mean a lot of different things to different people, some politics, others food. But one of the first things that comes to mind is the rich languages that they use. In this post I will briefly cover the links above.

Eddie Izzard shares with the journalist how he has tried to overcome language barriers when preforming his standup in  "What humans should do is come together. Speaking other languages is a way of reaching people and saying I respect you to want to speak your language." because of this he has made the effort to translate his show so that it does not just make sense to the audience but so that is actually funny- idioms don't always translate. And if they do the cultural understanding is not always there.

European parliament is a hub of different languages, from English to German, Swiss to Flemish. But there is one office that does something a little different.

"In Marani's office, employees have been experimenting with "Europanto", which he describes as "der jazz des linguas": a freestyle mash-up language made up of the common body of European languages, without grammar rules and an unlimited vocabulary."  Some of you may have heard of Europanto before however it is not widely known; as I type this the computer has added that fine, red wiggly line of disapproval. The idea was to try and create a more communal sense about Europe, that there would be a shared language based upon the principal of word borrowing. That was in 1996. Make of that what you will. However the language does have a slightly interesting history and can be viewed in full on its Wikipedia page (do not try googling it, not only are most of the pages non translatable but are also long out of date).

The article goes on to tell us of how it has been suggested by the German Chancellor that it may be a sensible decision to have everything in English. This seems a sensible idea at first, its one of the most widely understood language and would save time and potentially money by only having only one language.

But there is one simple reason why they probably wont change to just English. Money. Currently if any discussion or debate continues past eleven at night the translators fees increase. Therefore decisions are reached quicker. If everything was in English this would be lost. There is also the fact that somewhere along the line it would need to be translated anyway. Despite each country understanding English to some extent, the idea is that all countries are coming together on equal grounds, each country does have a chance at the presidency (currently it is Ireland) on rotation. Its a difficult debate, I'm going to leave this one to the politicians.

OED chief steps down

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22378819

With the chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary stepping down the BBC look back at some interesting word origins.Lets just hope no one puts   Etaoin shrdlu as a comment on here!

Accents

Accents are the cause behind many debates. From George Osborne to the Beckhams no one is free from critique over how they pronounce words or more importantly why they have changed their accents. But why do we change our accents?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/07/george-osborne-does-mockney-accent

"But that's normal, isn't it? You change the way you speak, usually without even noticing, because you assume the person you're talking to is better than you are. Imagine assuming the opposite! Dreadful! That's a level of confidence suitable only for racing drivers and the French. (Or "zee French", as I call them when I'm in France.)"  The author of the article has described the main reason why we change our accent, to aim for higher aspiration and to seem like you have a 'better' social standing.

The article also goes through the changes towards acceptance of accents, from Jeremy Kyles guests shouting that they should be accepted for who they are to TOWIE esque Facebooking. 

But why did Osborne decide to converge? The journalist puts it down to him being aware of how people dislike him ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLXFXIXOkjc go to two minuets in) as this clip from a 2007 comedy explains, abet riddled with hyperbole, how badly things can go wrong for politicians more specifically Osbourne. The reason for Osbourne is because he is embarrassed and self conscious of how he appeared, Beckham is more likely simply converging to make sure that he is understood. The difference between subliminal and conscious convergence. The theory behind this comes from Howard Giles and his accommodation theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_accommodation_theory)

  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR_2Ro5lHrY   Here is the clip of the actual speech he made and compared it with a similar speech delivered in the commons, with comparisons of words such as "kind of" and "kinda" .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXeRZNaGvEA    BBC's Paxman explains why people change their accents.

Child language stages

Year One:

• Crying
• Cooing
• Babbling

Year Two:

• One word
• Two word
• Telegraphic
  

Year Three:
 

By year three, children are effective language users: still needing to practice, still needing to develop additional lexis, but fundamentally with the building blocks for all future language use. At this stage they begin to crack the code of implied meaning: to understand that, sometimes, language contains messages which can seem to contradict their face value statements.

Year Four:
Children begin to develop and understanding that language carries a multiplicity of meanings, that it can be manipulated and that different audiences require different language use including variations in lexis and intonation. In other words, by year four, their use of language is purposeful.

Year Five:
This is the age that most children start school. So here we see a shift from spoken language as the complete focus to written language: learning to read. This shift towards literacy sees children beginning to make links between print and meaning.

Year Thirteen:

Some researchers believe that around this age, children's ability to acquire language may begin to decline. Lenneburg et al propose that there is a period during which children are predisposed to acquire language. They also believe that there is a ‘cut off' age (around 13 years) after which acquisition is not possible.

Some terms

Etymology: the study of word origins and meanings

Prosody: The patterns of stress and intonation in a language.

Adjacency pairs:  Two utterances that follow on from one another in a logical sequence. E.g. question and   answer

 

Deictic: A deictic expression cannot be understood unless the context of the utterance is known. Examples are ‘here’ and ‘there’.

The things I think about when I am unwell

A few weeks ago I was unwell and had time to think about a whole matter of things. One thing (and this really happened, I think I was slightly delusional as I felt compelled to try and figure this out)  that occurred to me is the cultural shift, particularly in fiction towards unmarried females and their role in the family.

The maiden aunt has changed faces over the last hundred years. No longer is she Great Aunt Sarah who comes over on birthdays and receives a lift to weddings.  She lost her sweet heart in the war and looked after mother for years afterwards. At a wedding she may have a glass of sherry and toast the couple, but after the obliged turn around the dance floor by a young male relative she is content to sit in the corner. Similar to Grandma she offers surprising words of comfort during hard times to a broken protagonist, being the right balance; familiar yet not as personal as a parent or friend.   

No, today she is Sara (no need for Aunt, she isn’t going to be told what her role is in life by anyone). She doesn’t have a partner as she is too busy with her career, and the implications are that even if she did settle down she would not get married. Her behavior and attitude is remarkably close to that attributed to males, but she is not quite a 'ladette'. She will interrupt others, not apologize for her input and empty adjectives will not be found in her vocabulary  . She visibly flouts language theorists, from Lakoff to Zimmerman & West without a second thought. And why should she?

Why has this change occurred may be asked, examples of her were not found in the sixties and seventies when feminism was, arguably, at its most visible peak. Mostly because of  social change, with public figures such as Dr Lucy Wolsey being open about not wanting to follow the traditional role of mother it has become more acceptable for other women to be honest about their choices. Because of greater acceptance by a larger proportion of society, she is no longer a "ball breaker" or labelled as vulgar for not talking in a 'ladylike' manner . It is simply accepted as being her personality.

The disappearance of Great Aunt Sarah marks the change in not only our society but also our language, showing how out of date some of the theories haunting lexis information hunters can be. Sara doesn't apologize for her language, why should we?

Useful links

Here are some interesting language articles that I have come across. Hopefully I should update this regularly!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21518574
Article from BBC news about how our tense system effects our financial decisions

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20332763

Internets impact on language

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3656080/Mind-your-language-it-matters.html

Language change and grammar

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/9966117/Text-speak-language-evolution-or-just-laziness.html

Text speak debate

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/dec/16/language-police-error-hunters-oliver-burkeman

Why do people correct each others language

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2013/apr/20/debate-accent-david-victoria-beckham

Changing accents

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9280753/The-Queens-English-changes-through-the-years.html

Queens English; how it has changed

Thank you Denmark!

Until recently I have avoided at all costs a certain kind a TV program, the European police drama. The sort that the middle aged are going crazy for. Often they come with short, dramatic or gloomy titles that promise a deary setting with characters wearing mute drab colours so dampen any high spirit that you might have upon tuning in. All of the critics give them high reviews and describe how they rush home to watch it with a bottle of wine -despite the fact that they proudly crow about how they have mastered iPlayer (as if to make up for the long standing joke of the 90's, having a VCR but not knowing how to use it).

But after watching Homeland (not European, I know but the groups slightly lesser American cousin. But perhaps that's just my taste) and loving it, I sat down to watch with my parents The Bridge. For once characters that just get on with the story, no token/pointless characters (you know the sort that I am talking about-there is one in every program) or female characters that have to be oppressed because they are women or men that have to be stupid .Or even the very worst, futile subplots about their family;they are in the middle of a divorce, their mother is a cougar that wishes to be known by the name Barry. Yes these things happen in real life and if perfectly pulled off with the right balance it can work. But all too often in England, it just doesn't. Perhaps because there is too much concern with pumping out enough episodes to hang on to ratings. It is possible for us to get it right. Look at Sherlock, less than ten episodes over nearly four years but as an audience we are more satisfied than the random failings of a fairly successful stand up who is given his own family sit com. Please. No more.

Again and again watchers say that they would prefer a four part decent drama than the poorly made dragged out things. Look at the BBC HYS section or the back of the Radio Times. Things are getting violent, and these are the moderated comments.

To be fair, when I started to type this post it was half way though 2012, its now spring of 2013. Britain has started to catch on, although I have not personally watched it ,many praise Broadchurch and we were getting the prime cuts of foreign tell. I have moved on to the delights of Borgen, and I am more than eager for the third series. The success of The Killing brought new life to our television but also to our opinions, we are starting to see how other Europeans live normally and that we are facing similar social and economic problems.  In an increasingly euro-septic country, its a reminder that we are not alone in our grievances and its being presented in the least aggressive format possible. And for this understanding (and for improving television) I will always be thankful to Denmark.

Language change

Okay language change; to break it down there are three main types of change. Grammatical change (so structural change), phonological change (how it sounds) and semantic change (meaning).

When new words enter our lexicon how they are created is a bit more complex as there are many different reasons or methods:

• Abbreviation: shortened word, "celeb" from "celebrity"
• Back formation: removing affixes, "vegeburger" from "beefburger"
• Blending: two or more existing words are merged. "Brunch" or "Wikipedia".
• Borrowing: word from a foreign language that becomes widely used, pajamas ,for example.
• Compounding: two or more words are put together (with or without a hyphen) e.g. bittersweet.
• Conversion: from one word class to another, "google" as a verb and a noun
• Eponym: new word from some ones name "Hoover"
• Root creating: words are made up entirely from scratch, often for phonological effect "blurb" or "dork"

Words can sometimes change semanticaly:

• Meaning extension: use becomes widened, "bird" used to simply mean only young bird
• Meaning narrowing: "nephew" used to apply to both genders
• Ameliorated: word gains positive associations
• Pejoration: gains negative status, "madam" or "mistress"

In spite of this some words have the status of "nonce" meaning that it has failed to catch on and has entered the deadpool of language. These are often the words that are created in response to current events so are only used as long as needed. Alternatively it may be a simple question of that the word was not phonologically pleasing enough or was not widely understood, for example "ConDems" to describe the current UK coalition government.