Americans Willing to Give Up Cars

There is a website that scores U.S. cities based on how good it is to live there without a car! Can you believe it? We Americans are soooo attached to our cars! Yet the price of gas (petrol) has driven us to consider giving them up (at least for a time). Here is the site Walk Score.

Identity of the individual through language

English drives us to consider our relationship to the past. The individual is related to the act. Consider the differences between

• I swam
• I was simming
  
• I have swam
  
• I had swam
• I used to swim
• I used to go swimming
  
• I went swimming
• I have gone swimming
• I had gone swimming

You have to really think about how you are individually related to the action of swimming in the past that you are trying to communicate. This is an example of how language can try to own us as we are trying to make the language our own.

ING, not Chinese!

Words that look like verbs, but end in -ing in English play special roles. Indo-European Languages have words that function in similar positions within them. Here is one of the simplist presentations of the matter from the FSI (Foreign Service Institute - the old name for the Foreign Language Center at the Presidio of Montery) handbook for Swedish. I hope this clears up the Chinese influence in English up for you ;-)

1. Gerund - an English verb with an -ing ending and with the function of a noun.
   ................Swimming is my favorite sport.
   ................I'm tired of running.
2. Participle - English has two participial forms: the present participle which ends in -ing and the past participle which ends in -ed, or sometimes -en, -n, etc. These are used in forming complex verb phrases, such as I am working; I have worked.
   
   Apart from their use in forming complex verb phrases, participles are also used as adjectives.
   ................A crying baby
   ................A closed door
   

Th and Thz

If you are not trying to eradicate your 'f' sounding 'th' then you will end up sounding like a child, since English speaking children exhibit this problem universally up to about the age of three or four. Also, you might be grossly misunderstood, even evoking a punch in the face!

Consider this common polite phrase, "Thank you!" If your 'th' is still an 'f' then it sounds like "Fank you!" Add the other common problem that vowels in Europe are darker sounding and the 'a' sounds like an 'uh'. Now we have the English speaker hearing "Fuhnk you!" Since the 'n' in European languages tends to have more of a nasal quality than in English, the English speaker may not hear it so well. Finally, just before he hits you in your face, he hears you say, "Fuhk you!" or more properly spelled, "Fuck you!"

You see why pronunciation can be critical to your health and good relations with English speakers.

English Dialects: American and British - part 3

Here is a good site regarding dialects in the British Isles. As the author says, "There is a problem in identifying any dialect as the standard, since this implies that other dialects are inferior or wrong. In the case of spoken English, we have good evidence that such prejudice exists - so there is an exaggerated danger that, in referring to a standard, we will strengthen what is already a tyranny. It may help to note that Standard English, too, is a dialect - albeit one that is no longer found in any one region of Britain." How enlightening! We are teaching a dialect of English that no longer exists as a regional representation. Perhaps this is the ideal situation, and it would be if it were not for the social stratification and oppression that accompanies the domination of RP.

Now consider which dialect of English can boast the largest number of native speakers. Without a doubt it is American English. Likewise, in spite of the brink of recession that the US is on, America is the world's largest economy. Britain as a whole comes somewhere near 5th. Consider that RP is really tied to England and then try to place England alone on the list of economies and you get the picture.

The opposing argument here in Poland goes something like this. England is closer than the U.S. and visas to work in England are no longer required. What they really mean is that visas to work in Ireland are no longer required, since far more Poles land there than in England. So RP does not really blend with the Irish Catholics' politics and ultimately places you on the outside even more than simply being a foreigner. Whereas, speaking the American dialect of English in Ireland is not nearly as offensive.

English Dialects: American and British - part 2

Here in Eastern Poland the middle-aged and older generations speak with quasi-British accents, while the younger generations speak with American accents. This is due mostly to the lowering of the Wall in 1989, before which British forms of English were the most accessible ones. The Cold War with America depprived the people of materials for American English. However, the younger generations, who have grown up since the Wall fell, have been fed steady diets of American music and films.

The battle is not over. In fact, it has just begun. Since Poland has joined the E.U. the older teachers have become emboldened to reassert the supremacy of RP British English, suffering the younger generations to relearn the American accent they have already partially developed through natural means. It's HIGH TIME these teachers recognize the possibility of co-existing variations of accents. Of course that would require them to develop new strategies of teaching such subjects as phonetics and pronunciation. If they did, then my students would not bring up the issue of two different systems of pronunciation for the English they are being taught.

Certainly an alternative solution is for me to speak with a British accent, but if you heard my imitation of British you would scream for me to stop - it's so terrible. I could teach them in my native accent, Southern American, but I am sparing them the pains of laughing so hard in every class from confusion over such words as tire and tar or the ambiguous phrases such as d'ya (meaning did you) or Git y'on outa hir! (meaning Get out of here, now!).

English Dialects: American and British

Why should we list British before American? After all, American starts with an A and British with a B. Just as the lists of countries when filling out forms at websites have changed, so that the most popular countries that were once listed at the top have been put in their places alphabetically, so also should we follow suit here.

I often hear students complaining that they are learning British English in one class and American English in mine. So I am providing some sites regarding dialects.

First off, here are some resources on British English:
Collect Britain
Learning: Sounds Familiar?

The Wikipedia (unfortunately not a greatly respectable resource, but usually pretty reliable) informs us regarding English in Britain, "The forms of spoken English, however, vary considerably more than in most other areas of the world where English is spoken and a uniform concept of "British English" is therefore more difficult to apply to the spoken language." Furthermore, we are informed regarding the pronunciation taught to students of English as a foreign language, "The most common form of English used by the British ruling class is that originating from southeast England (the area around the capital, London, and the ancient English university towns of Oxford and Cambridge). This form of the language is known as the 'Received Standard', and its accent is called Received Pronunciation (RP), which is improperly regarded by many people outside the UK as 'the British accent'. Earlier it was held as better than other accents and referred to as the King's (or Queen's) English...Moreover, only approximately two percent of Britons speak RP."

"The official languages of the European Union" indicates English, but not which dialect of English is meant. Regarding differences between British and American English see this page on Wikipedia.

Star Dictionary and English

Here is a link to Star Dictionary, which runs on Windows, Linux or Mac. Available for Star Dictionary are some good resources for students of English as a foreign language.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
43052 words

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
34153 words

Merrian Webster 10th dictionary
20517 words

The Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
24402 words

English Thesaurus
20003 words

CMU American English spelling
105626 words

The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary
127012 words

English irregular forms
4690 words

English Etymology
18380 words

Oxford English Collocation Dictionary
8338 words


Enjoy!

Really? or Really!

The placement of the adverb can affect not only the actual meaning, but the mood as well. It can convey important information about the feelings of the speaker or about the relationship between the speaker and someone else. Really is one of the most obvious adverbs used like this.

I don't know whether she really saw it, but...
I don't know whether she saw it really, but...

In the first instance we are emphasizing the aspect of actuality with regards to the woman seeing it. Furthermore, the speaker is conveying the feeling of uncertainty that he has about whether she did see it herself or possibly only heard about it and passed on the information.

In the second instance we are emphasizing incredulity. The speaker does not believe the woman saw it. However, there is a feeling of contrast. The speaker is admitting that he had indicated his belief that she had seen it, on some level, and now wants to set things straight. This may be in any degree from outright correction to mere indueno.

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Brand names for proper nouns - American English

In American English we have substituted brand names for many proper nouns. Here is a brief list off the top of my head:

• kleenex (tissue)
• vaseline (petroleum jelly)
• band-aid (adhesive bandage [plaster in BrE])
• kool-aid (a children's sugary fruit juice)
• q-tips (swabs / cotton buds)
• cornflakes (There is no other real name to distinguish it from other cold cereals.)
• coke (cola)
• jello (gelatin)
• kitty litter (the gravel used in a cat's litter box that absorbs the odor)
• muzak (music piped into a store to effect customers' moods)
• scotch tape (clear, light-weight tape)
• xerox (a photocopy)
• crayons (wax pencils, used especially by little children for coloring)
• saran wrap (plastic food wrap)
• post-it (the little sticky notes)
• white-out (liquid mistake eraser)
• crockpot (an electric cooking vessel)
• jacuzzi (tub with jets)
• zip-loc (plastic storage bag that zips closed)
• chapstick (lip balm in a lipstick shape and dispenser)
• windex (liquid glass cleaner)
• aspirin (Bayer came up with the name Aspirin - from the 'A" in acetyl chloride, the "spir" in spiraea ulmaria (the plant they derived the salicylic acid from) and the 'in' was a common suffix for medicines.)
• frisbee (a plastic disc thrown like a flying saucer for play)
• thermos (an airtight container to keep liquids hot while at work or traveling)

Notice that we capitalize these if they refer to the actual brand or if they stand at the beginning of a sentence, of course. Otherwise, when they refer to the category of item they are decapitalized.

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As Big vs. Bigger

A colleague brought to my attention these two sentences:

• Your house is three times as big as mine.
• Your house is three times bigger than mine.

He asked what the difference was and whether one was incorrect or not. I told him that they were both fine, but that the former has a feeling of competition, while the latter anywhere from an objective to a humble feeling.

This doesn't work though with other similar constructions. When you say, "Your house is as big as mine" you are making your house the reference and indicating that his house may be the same size, but that there is likely something else inferior. So there is a feeling of pride involved now. Yet, when you say, "Your house is bigger than mine" you are making a different statement altogether and it has the same feelings as it did when the comparison was three times the size.

Answer to the 2nd 'Both' quiz

• It's both of our form of entertainment.
• It's both of our forms of emtertainment.

Both refers to a pair. So when we say form of entertainment, we mean only one type. Both cannot refer to the type(s) of entertainment, since there is only one. Therefore, "It's both of our form of entertainment." means that the type of entertainment is what each you and I prefer. Our cannot in this case refer to more than two people, if the sentence is grammatically correct, since both restricts it to two people.

The second one, "It's both of our forms of emtertainment," is a mistake. It refers to one thing, whereas, they refers to more than one. While both still may refer to the two of us, forms cannot compliment it. Forms is plural and it is singular. They cannot refer to the same thing.

Oh no! Another quiz!

Here is another one of those 'stop-and-think-about-it' comparisons.

• It's both of our form of entertainment.
• It's both of our forms of emtertainment.

When do you use each of these? Is one correct and the other incorrect? Do they refer to singular and multiple forms of entertainment? Do they refer to entertainment for one group as opposed to multiple groups of people? Does both refer to us in the first one and to forms of entertainment in the second (meaning there are only two forms of entertainment in the second)?

Make a guess and I'll tell in the next post. ;-)

Regarding the Quiz Question: You're Not Nuts!

Regarding an earlier post, The Quiz Question, if it drove you nuts to read these phrases: Someone we both don't know and Someone we don't both know, then you are ok. Don't worry! The first should technically be Someone neither of us knows and the second one Someone only one of us knows. However, in real English, in the real Universe, the other two are possible and likely within a string of conversation. In fact, I was quoting from an argument I had had. The other person, a Pole, had said one of these, but clearly meant the other. We laughed over it, but as we know, an argument with its intense emotions can produce interesting language. Can you imagine what kind of mistakes I would make trying to argue in Polish? :-o My Polish is at such a low level it is probably impossible for me to argue. It's unfair to judge someone for making language errors when arguing in a language that is not their native tongue. Be generous if you are in this situation! :-P

The last 's' in terms of a sequence

From a song I've been listening to, written and performed by Keith Green, here is a logically loaded construction. I want more than Sundays and Wednesday nights. This is a song criticizing Christians for limiting their dedication to God merely to their meetings at church, which in the Protestant churches is on Sundays and Wednesday nights. It is easy to convey the wrong times though by eliminating the 's' on Sundays. Then it becomes Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, which was not the intention.

• Sunday and Wednesday nights = Sunday nights and Wednesday nights
  
• Sundays and Wednesday nights = Sundays (sometime during the day or all day long and Wednesday nights)

Be careful of sequences and the final 's' on the terms!

The answer...

1. Someone we both don't know
2. Someone we don't both know

In the first case the negative applies to someone, but in the second case it applies to both. So the answer is c. In #1 neither you nor I know the person, in #2 only one of us knows the person.

Quiz Question

Here is a quiz question. What is the difference in meaning between these two statements.

1. Someone we both don't know
2. Someone we don't both know

a. In #1 you and I know the person, in #2 neither you nor I know the person.
b. In #1 only one of us knows the person, in #2 you and I know the person.
c. In #1 neither you nor I know the person, in #2 only one of us knows the person.
d. In #1 only one of us knows the person, in #2 neither you nor I know the person.

This can be tricky! I'll post an answer in the next blog entry.

Regionally Embedded Mistakes

Everywhere you go you find peculiar regional fluctuations in the usage of English. Some of the publishing companies have begun to categorize national versions of English as spoken in countries that are non-native ones. I myself have found some interesting propogations of outright mistakes, but more often bad or antiquated choices of phrases here in eastern Poland. Of course, I have kept in mind that I am not an expert on British English and the older generations have learned this brand and have been pressing it on the younger ones as well. The younger generation speaks mostly American English due to the free access to the Entertainment and Technology industries, which the older generations had been denied.

High Time
You want some examples, don't you? If I said, "It's high time I started grading these test." What would be your impression? Maybe I really AM a cowboy actor! ;-) Perhaps I am simply making fun of myself as if I were lazy, when everyone knows I ain't. :-( If you thought this phrase "high time" was a simple expression commonly used in English, then you should reconsider. It is an expression of slight self-ridicule in the face of a reputation for the oppostie behavior.

I'll be posting more examples, though not only of regionally embedded mistakes. Stay-tuned!