phrasal verb
A phrasal verb is a sequence of words
involving a verb and one or more particles:
get away with (He could get away with murder.) put down (The whole herd
had to be put down.)
Phrasal verbs
can be shown to be units by the way they function. A one-word verb can often be
substituted for a phrasal verb:
blow up—explode
drop off—sleep
and the
elements may continue to co-occur when the sentence is transformed:
What could he get away with?
Phrasal verbs
are sometimes subdivided into adverbial and
prepositional sub-types. The former
involve sequences of verb+adverb where the adverb may be separated from the
verb:
 |
and prepositional verbs involve
verb+preposition:
He went into the house.
They were all in the red.
Many phrasal verbs are idiomatic
in the sense that their meanings cannot be deduced from the meanings of the
individual parts:
She put off (delayed) her departure.
See: idioms,
prepositional verb, verb phrase.
phrase
In traditional grammar, a phrase was defined as a sequence of
words which functioned as a unit:
I put it on the chair.
Where did you
put it? On the chair.
I put it there.
and which did not contain a
subject+predicate structure. Thus, the unit in bold in:
He arrived at supper time.
is a phrase, whereas the unit in
bold in:
He arrived while we were eating supper.
is a clause.
Five types of phrase are usually identified:
1 noun phrases: The man in the moon is a foolish myth.
2 adjective
phrases: She was very pleasant.
3 verb
phrases: We shall be arriving by train.
4 preposition
phrases: He is in big trouble.
5
adverb phrases: I only set off last week.
Some modern linguists extend the
term phrase to a word which functions
in the same way as, or can replace, a phrase. Thus pronouns are often referred
to as noun phrases:
All the children went to the
fair.
They went to the fair.
and a predicate
consisting of one word is often called a verb phrase:
We left.
See: clause,
rankshifting, transformational grammar.
pidgins and
creoles
Pidginisation refers to the processes of
simplification and reduction that occur in languages when people who do not
share the same language come into contact. The replacement in Old English of grammatical gender
(where inanimate nouns could be either masculine, feminine or neuter) by
natural gender (where males are masculine, females are feminine and inanimate
objects are neuter) is an example of pidginisation and a direct result of the
Viking invasions and the Norman Conquest.
Whilst pidginisation is widespread, the crystallising of a pidgin is
less common. A pidgin is a simple,
spoken language which evolves to permit communication between people who do not
share a mother tongue. Pidgins, which are nobody’s mother tongue, usually
involve:
1
the exploitation of linguistic common denominators
2 a small
vocabulary drawn almost exclusively from the socially dominant language 3 a
relatively fixed word order
4 a reduced number of function
words such as pronouns and prepositions 5 use of reduplication for emphasis
6 reinforcement by signs and body language
Rudimentary
pidgins can be found where two language communities come into contact but do not need sustained or profound verbal
interaction. The pidgin
English
which developed
in Vietnam between GIs and non-English-speaking Vietnamese was a rudimentary
pidgin which began to disappear as soon as US involvement in Vietnam ceased.
Highly flexible pidgins have, however, developed in multilingual areas of the
world, especially along trade routes. Since the European colonial expansion of
the fifteenth century, flexible pidgins have evolved from Portuguese, Spanish,
French, English and Dutch.
Many of these have become creoles,
that is, the mother tongues of groups of speakers. A number of well-known
creoles are Afrikaans (Dutch-related), Jamaican Creole (English-related) and
Patois, the French-related creole of St Lucia.
The essential difference between a developed pidgin and a creole is
sociological rather than linguistic: a pidgin tends to be learnt in conjunction
with one or more mother tongues, whereas a creole tends to be the sole mother
tongue of its speakers.
There are two large families of English-related pidgins and creoles in
the world: the Atlantic varieties (all of which are influenced by West African
languages) and the Pacific varieties, the best known of which is Papua New
Guinea’s Tok Pisin.
See: Caribbean
English, Cameroon English, creole, Nigerian English, Papua New Guinean English.
place names
Place names can help to provide details
of the history of a region, revealing the nature of earlier settlements.
North-East England, for example, has many Norse-derived place names,
reinforcing historical accounts of its being under Scandinavian rule from the
ninth century. Among such names are: Elsecar,
Heckmondwike, Skelmanthorpe, Thurgoland and Wetwang. In the midst of these, however, is the city of Leeds, which takes its name from a
Celtic form, Leodis, thus revealing
an earlier stage of settlement.
A study of US names and their pronunciation can reveal the patterns of
settlement of different groups of Amerindians and Europeans. Louisiana was called after King Louis of
France, Virginia after Queen
Elizabeth of England (the ‘Virgin’ Queen), Los
Angeles was named by the Spanish, and throughout the USA are names like Mississippi and Susquehanna which were taken over from the Indians by the European
settlers.
Place names are sometimes extended into general usage as toponyms, deriving from Greek topos (place)+onyma (name). The word bungalow,
for example, originally meant a house built in the Bengali style. Other
widely-used toponyms are:
blarney<Blarney, Co. Cork, Ireland canary<Canary
Islands denim<de Nîmes, France duffel<Duffel, Holland jeans<Genoa, Italy marathon<Marathon, Greece mascara<Mascara, Algeria tweed<River Tweed, Scotland
See: etymology, word formation.
plagiarism
In theory, plagiarism, from Latin plagiarus (plunderer), is
straightforward. It involves the theft and use of another’s ideas, words or
inventions and is thus unethical and, in certain circumstances, illegal. In
practice, however, it is not always easy to draw a sharp dividing line between
plagiarism and research that develops or depends on the work of others. As a
matter of principle, it is desirable to give credit to all sources that have
been consulted. The penalty for not doing so in a student essay may be failure;
and the unacknowledged use in print of another’s copyrighted material may lead
to prosecution.
For unpublished student research, a footnote acknowledging the source is usually sufficient. For
material to be published, an author needs permission from the original author
or publisher if the quotation is:
1 over ten lines or 300/400
words in a single prose extract 2 over 800 words in a series of extracts
3 over 40 lines of poetry or an
extract longer than one quarter of a poem 4 if the material consists of an
illustration, photograph or table
In the UK the copyright period normally ceases to operate 50 years
after publication.
In the USA the copyright period
is usually 56 years.
pleonasm
Pleonasm, from Greek pleonazein (to be excessive), is a term
for the use of superfluous words:
The answer is ambiguous and its precise meaning is unclear.
Apleonastic is an adjective occasionally applied to a style where redundancy is kept to a minimum.
See: circumlocution, periphrasis, redundancy, tautology, verbosity.
plurals of
nouns
Most
nouns in English form their plural by the addition of -s or -es:
cat cats /kæts/
dog dogs 
horse horses
match
matches 
although, as the phonetic equivalents
illustrate, these two written endings comprehend three in the spoken medium
The following rules comprehend the major difficulties and exceptions
in noun plurals
in English:
1 Nouns that end with a vowel+‘y’ normally form their
plurals by adding -s: boy/boys monkey/monkeys trolley/trolleys
but we have:
money/moneys
monies (technical
use)
storey/storeys
(UK and US)
stories (US)
2 Nouns
that end with a vowel+‘o’ form their plurals by adding -s: cameo/cameos folio/folios
radio/radios video/videos
3 Nouns
ending in a consonant+‘o’ usually form their plurals by adding -es: echo/echoes hero/heroes no/noes
potato/potatoes veto/vetoes
The main exceptions to this rule
are:
dynamo/dynamos Eskimo/Eskimos Filipino/Filipinos photo/photos piano/pianos solo/solos soprano/sopranos
Because of this variation, we
have a number of nouns with two acceptable plurals:
banjo banjos/banjoes cargo cargos/cargoes
domino dominos/dominoes
4 Nouns
that end in ‘ch’, ‘s’, ‘sh’, ‘ss’, ‘x’ or ‘z’ form their plurals with -es: bunch/bunches fez/fezes/fezzes gas/gases/gasses
hoax/hoaxes Jones/Joneses loss/losses wish/wishes
5
Nouns that end with a
consonant+‘y’ form their plurals with -ies:
berry/berries fairy/fairies hippy/hippies
6
Most nouns ending in ‘f’
form their plurals with -ves: leaf/leaves thief/thieves wolf/wolves
Some words ending in ‘f’ have
two acceptable plurals:
dwarf dwarves/dwarfs hoof hooves/hoofs scarf scarves/scarfs wharf
wharves/wharfs
7 The
irregular nouns which occur most frequently
are:
brother brethren (limited to religious
language)
child children mouse mice
foot feet ox oxen
goose geese tooth teeth
louse lice woman women man men
8
Certain plurals are taken over from other
languages, including Latin:
datum data
fungus fungi (occasionally funguses) genus genera
stimulus stimuli
Greek:
crisis crises criterion criteria
phenomenon
phenomena
Hebrew:
cherub cherubim kibbutz kibbutzim seraph seraphim
and French:
bureau bureaux
cheval chevaux
gateau gateaux
Because of the process of analogy with English words, some
borrowed words have two plurals, often differentiated semantically or
stylistically:
antenna antennae (biology) antennas (radio and TV) appendix appendices (formal) appendixes (informal) crocus croci
(formal) crocuses (informal) formula formulae (science) formulas (general) medium media (communication) mediums (spiritualists) nucleus
nuclei (science) nucleuses
(informal) stigma stigmata (religion) stigmas (informal)
9 Some
nouns, including many words for game and fish, do not change their form in the
plural. The following are those that occur most frequently:
buck Chinese deer fish forceps fowl grouse pike salmon series sheep
species trout
10
Plurals of compounds or fixed phrases usually
take -s at the end:
bookcase bookcases moneybag moneybags
Occasionally, however, the first
element is pluralised:
fathers-in-law passersby
or both parts are:
lords justices trades unions
or sometimes two variants exist:
courts martial court martials spoonsful spoonfuls
See: countable, foreign words in English, number.
poetic diction
Poetic diction refers to the choice of
vocabulary regarded as suitable for poetry. Words like:
beauteous nymph verdant
and archaisms
like:
doth
’twas
are frequently considered poetic.
Writers in different periods
have evolved their own characteristic diction.
Old English poetry, for example, was
marked by kennings, poetic metaphors such as swan’s bath and whale’s road for
‘sea’ and circumlocutions such as giver of rings for ‘lord’. Most
contemporary poets would probably subscribe to the view that there are no
specifically ‘poetic’ words, only words which are either poetically appropriate
or inappropriate.
See: diction.
polemic
A polemic, from Greek polemikos (warlike), is a controversial
dispute, usually involving religious or social issues. It may be one-sided,
constituting an aggressive attack on a person or principle:
He launched
into a polemic against Jones’s
pacifism.
or it can
involve closely-reasoned argument, as in Milton’s polemic on the freedom of
speech, Areopagitica (1644).
Occasionally, polemic is used
to mean ‘an agressive disputant’ as well as a ‘dispute’. Although polemic has occurred as both noun and
adjective, there is a tendency for polemical
to be preferred for adjectival uses.
polysemy
Polysemy, from Greek poly
(many)+sema (sign), is the term
used to denote that a word or morpheme can have several meanings. The
word fast, for example, has five main
meanings:
1 It is the
equivalent of both ‘quick’ and ‘quickly’ in:
She has an
extremely fast car.
She drives far too fast.
2
It occurs with the meaning
of ‘fully, completely’ in the fixed phrase fast
asleep: In spite of all the noise, we found her fast asleep.
3
It is a colloquial equivalent of ‘sexually
promiscuous’ or ‘wild’:
They have got in with a very
fast crowd.
4
It can mean ‘very tightly’
in the collocation stuck fast: The
animals were stuck fast in the mud.
5 Fast can mean ‘abstain from food’ and can be used as both
a noun and a verb:
Ramadan is a thirty-day fast.
People used to fast for forty days during Lent.
Morphemes,
too, can be polysemous. Un-, for
example, has three main meanings: 1 When it precedes a verb, it usually implies
‘reverse the action of’:
zip unzip
2 When it
precedes a noun, it can change the word class and mean ‘deprive of’:
nerve unnerve
This usage is becoming archaic.
3 When it precedes an adjective, it can
mean ‘not’:
true untrue
Polysemy
is often exploited in crossword puzzles.
See: ambiguity,
pun, semantics, syllepsis.
portmanteau word
A portmanteau
word, from French porter (carry)+manteau (mantle) meaning ‘a large
travelling bag’, is an older term for a blend.
For example:
splurge—to spend extravagantly
is probably derived from a blend of:
splash+surge
See: blend.
possession
In English, possession can be indicated in four main
ways: 1 by the use of the genitive:
John’s success
the young girl’s parents
2 by the
use of of:
the six wives of Henry VIII
the tale of the Wife of Bath
3
by the juxtaposition of nouns:
man eater (eater of men)
table leg (leg of a table)
4
by the use of HAVE/GET/POSSESS and
semantically related verbs:
He has a lot of money.
They possess 45% of the country’s wealth.
The verb
POSSESS and its related noun possession often
co-occur with of in formal and legal
language:
He is possessed of enormous wealth.
She is in possession of those particular
documents.
The use of
POSSESS meaning ‘under the control of a devil’:
He was possessed by seven devils.
is unusual
outside biblical English, although a metaphorical extension of this usage
survives in such structures as:
What possessed you to do such an idiotic
thing?
He drove like a man possessed.
See: apostrophe, case, genitive, of.
précis
A précis, deriving from French précis (precise), is like a paraphrase in that it changes the form
of a piece of language without altering its essential content. Unlike a
paraphrase, a précis is always more condensed than the original and does not
contain direct quotations from it. The length of a précis is usually
predetermined at between one-third and one-fifth of the original.
The points to
remember in précis-writing are:
1 Identify esssential information.
2 If possible, use your own words.
3
Ensure that the précis is coherent.
4 Retain the attitudes of the original piece. See: paraphrase.
predicate
English sentences
can be subdivided into Subject+Predicate:
Subject Predicate
Robin died.
Robin replied that they were sorry. Robin went on a
spree.
The predicate
can consist of a verb alone or a verb plus all that follows it, as in the
examples above. The verbal element of the predicate is often referred to as the
predicator.
See: verb phrase.
prefix
A prefix is a morpheme that is added to the beginning of a stem in order to
modify its meaning:
de+mythologise mis+understand retro+rockets
Prefixation is
common in English, with prefixes coming from both native (e.g. un-) and Romance (e.g. de-) sources.
See: affix, derivation, morpheme, suffix, word formation.
prejudice
Prejudice, coming from Latin prae (before)+judicium (judgement), has undergone a process of semantic
deterioration during the last two hundred years. Until the eighteenth century, prejudice was com-mendable in that it
implied that a person had weighed up the evidence before reaching a conclusion
about a person or idea.
In contemporary English, prejudice
is applied to irrational attitudes formed without sufficient evidence or
knowledge:
He is prejudiced against strangers.
Although it is
possible to be prejudiced in favour of, as well as against, people and ideas,
there is a tendency for it to be most commonly used for a hostile attitude
against a person, a group of people or what they stand for:
They are prejudiced against one-parent families.
Certain
prejudices are ingrained in the English language: professions usually imply men
unless prefaced by lady/woman:
a lady doctor
a woman lawyer
and colour,
race and religion are denigrated in such expressions as:
to black (a cargo, factory, ship)
to welsh
and in such
nouns as:
nignog
wop
Consequently,
attitudes (including prejudices) may be directly albeit unconsciously moulded
by the languages we learn and speak.
See: black,
propaganda, racist language, sexist language.
preposition
Prepositions are words like at,
in, with which precede nouns, noun phrases and pronouns to form a unit:
He was at
school.
That’s the man
in the moon. They came with me.
The word preposition derives
ultimately from Latin praeponere meaning
‘to put in front of’ and Latin prepositions always preceded and governed a noun
phrase:
ad altare dei—to the altar of God
Because a
Latin sentence could not end with a preposition scholars claimed that English
sentences should not end with prepositions. This tenet would rule out such
naturally- occurring utterances as:
A preposition
is a word you can’t end a sentence with.
What did you put it on?
and
can result in such tortuous examples as:
This is the
sort of behaviour up with which I shall not put.
Sentences ending in prepositions
are perfectly acceptable in the spoken language but should be used sparingly in
the written medium.
Prepositions belong to a closed set, the commonest being:
at by for from
in of on to with
They can be simple (consisting of
one word) or complex (consisting of two or three words):
because of
on account of
The units
formed by prepositions and noun phrases are called preposition(al) phrases and they are most frequently used
adjectivally:
the boys in blue
adverbially:
He went to the country.
as complements:
She was in a hurry.
and to indicate possession:
The Merry
Wives of Windsor.
See: adjunct, parts of speech.
preposition(al) verb
A preposition(al)
verb is a unit consisting of a verb+a preposition:
She went into labour. These units
can be idiomatic: He went into the red.
or literal:
He went into the house.
See: phrasal
verb.
prescriptive grammar
A prescriptive grammar is one which provides its readers with rules
telling them how the language should be
used. These grammars instil such precepts as:
i before e except
after c, thus relieve but receive
Nominative pronouns must follow BE, thus It was I.
Prepositions should not
occur at the end of sentences, thus To
whom did you give it? is preferable to Who
did you give it to?
Prescriptive grammars often forbid certain uses: Don’t say in actual fact. Actual is redundant.
Don’t use less with countable nouns: less money but fewer women.
Don’t write abbreviations like advert in formal essays.
A grammar made up entirely of prohibitions is called
a proscriptive grammar.
See: grammar.
presently
In the UK presently means ‘in a little while’ and it usually occurs in
initial or final position:
The doctor
will see you presently.
However, UK practice is
increasingly following that of the USA in using presently in close proximity to the verb to mean ‘at present’:
He is presently in New York.
prime verbs
A prime verb is one that occurs very frequently in the language, can
be shown to underlie many synthetic verbs:
 |
and is basic to much idiomatic
language:
I’ll bring it
off.
He’ll come good.
She’ll go bananas when she hears what you’ve done.
The prime verbs in English are: BE, BRING, COME, DO, GET, GIVE,
GO, KEEP, MAKE, PUT and TAKE.
See: idioms,
phrasal verb.
principal, principle
Principal functions as an adjective meaning ‘primary, most
important’:
It was hard to
decide whether his principal motive
was greed or fear.
and as a noun with three main
meanings:
1 a head teacher or director
of a teaching institution:
She had only been at the
school six years when she became principal.
2
a person for whom someone else acts as representative:
He’ll have to
consult his principal before
agreeing to the price.
3 a sum
of money invested:
It was impossible to live on
the interest alone so they had to dip into the
principal.
Principle functions as a noun meaning ‘rule, fundamental truth,
basis of reasoning, ethic’:
On principle,
we’re totally opposed to whaling.
The ‘Peter Principle’
involves promoting people beyond the point where they can function efficiently.
See: problem
pairs.
pro forms
A pro form is any form which can substitute for other units or
structures. The commonest pro forms in English are:
1 pronouns which can
substitute for nouns and noun phrases:
That young man
proposed to Mary.
He proposed to her.
2
auxiliaries (occasionally called
‘pro-verbs’):
You can go and so can he.
He wouldn’t do
that, would he? She ran away! Did she?
3 so:
She wanted to run even
though to do so was risky.
Who said so?
4 adverbs:
He went to Paris.
He went there.
See: anaphora, cohesion.
problem pairs
Problem pairs are pairs of words that
give users difficulty because they are similar in form or function. A
dictionary can help to disambiguate the pairs as long as a user is aware that a
problem exists. The commonest pairs of problem words are listed below with brief exemplary sentences. The more
complicated sets are also dealt with under separate headings. Where a
difference of class occurs, this information is also provided.
accept (v) except (prep and v)
We’d like you to accept this small token of our esteem.
Everyone went except
me.
Their policy was to except nobody.
Everyone over eighteen was drafted.
access excess
He was denied access to the
children. She invariably had excess baggage.
acetic ascetic
Table vinegar is made from acetic acid.
His ascetic nature attracted him to a life
of prayer and penance.
adapt adopt
They adapted the appliances so that they
would work on both voltages.
The committee
did not feel it could adopt your
ideas as they stood.
With certain changes, however, they may be acceptable.
admission
admittance
His admission
that he had accepted bribes astonished everyone.
Many museums now ask for an admission fee.
It’s impossible to gain admittance to his fortified mansion.
adverse
averse
She resented
the adverse report she had received
on her son’s progress.
I’m not averse to jogging. I’m just too lazy to get interested.
affect (v)
effect (n and v)
Such poor conditions are bound to affect
the children’s outlook. It’s hard to know what effect the treatment will have on her.
If you want to effect a
significant improvement in sales, you’ll have to work much harder.
affectation affection
You’ve forgotten
how to be natural. Your affectation is
obvious in your speech, your manner, your clothes, everything.
The deep affection which the
children had for their parents revealed itself in many acts of kindness.
aggravate irritate
The so-called
medicines only aggravated his
condition.
Your habit of
saying ‘hice’ when you mean ‘house’ really irritates
me.
alive live
After a five-day search they were found alive and well That wire is live!
Don’t touch it!
all ready already
The children were all ready for
the party. They had already gone
when we arrived.
all together altogether
The children
were all together in the one room.
He was an altogether different type.
allude delude
She often alluded to her first marriage.
She didn’t try
to delude us. The deception was
unintentional.
amend emend
The constitution was amended to
give all citizens equal rights. He emended
the texts, removing all inconsistent spellings.
amiable amicable
She was an amiable, well-intentioned person.
In spite of
their row, they eventually reached an amicable
arrangement.
analogue analogy
The lungs and
gills may be described as analogues: they
are similar in design and function.
The child produced the word ‘goed’, presumably on analogy with the past tense form of regular verbs.
anticipate expect
The doctor anticipated the next stage of the
illness and was able to counteract it.
We expected you yesterday.
apposite opposite
She said very little at meetings but her comments
were always apposite
and pertinent.
You deliberately misinterpreted my statement. That’s the opposite of what I intended.
around round
They had books
lying around everywhere.
We walked round the lake.
aural oral
An ‘aural’ examination relates to the ear
and hearing.
An ‘oral’ examination involves talking.
beat win
John beat Steve and Alan in the 400 metres
hurdles.
Zara won the race.
beside besides
Why don’t you sit down beside me?
Besides, I’ve other things to do.
biannual biennial
It’s worth
checking whether the interest is biannual
If the interest is credited every six months, it can make quite a
difference to your savings.
Their conferences are biennial They meet every other year.
born borne
He was born in a stable.
They have borne their troubles with great
patience.
burst bust
The winter was so severe that almost every household
suffered from burst
pipes.
That firm went
bust five months ago.
cannon canon
They used
those huge cannons for the
twenty-one gun salute.
Such behaviour
violates every canon of good taste.
carat caret
These rings are twenty-four carat gold.
A caret is a wedge-shaped
character used to indicate that something has been omitted from a word or
sentence.
casual causal
Many students look for casual employment during the vacation.
They looked in vain for the causal
agent responsible for the rapid spread of the disease.
censor censure
He was one of
a panel of censors responsible for
commenting on the ethical content of soap operas.
His censure of falling standards was
severe.
cereal serial
She has a
different breakfast cereal every
morning.
My serial number is 01010101.
ceremonial ceremonious
They were
instructed to wear full ceremonial dress.
He was inclined to be over
formal and ceremonious.
childish childlike
You’re being childish! Why don’t you grow up!
He maintained a childlike innocence throughout his
life.
complement compliment
BE takes a complement,
not an object.
He paid her the compliment of
listening carefully to everything she said.
comprehensible comprehensive
It’s just not comprehensible. It’s gobbledygook!
They undertook comprehensive reforms of the tax laws.
concession concessive
After a strike
lasting twelve months, the miners still could not wring any
concessions from the Coal Board.
Concessive clauses are usually introduced by ‘although/as/but/ though’ and they
involve a contrast.
contemptible contemptuous
I find his lack of
sensitivity contemptible.
He was contemptuous of his opponent’s skill.
continual continuous
He had got
used to the continual pain and
hardly noticed the rare moments when it eased.
We’ve had continuous
rain for sixteen hours.
contort distort
His eyes were
evil, his face contorted and his
mouth cruel.
You have distorted the whole affair. It didn’t
happen like that.
council (n) counsel (n and v)
He worked for
the local council for thirty years.
He often asked
for counsel but only took the advice
when it suited him. When their marriage ran into trouble, they were counselled by the
Marriage Advisory Bureau.
defective deficient
With my luck, even a new
computer will be defective!
Their diet was
deficient in calcium and iron.
defensible defensive
The general had blundered. Their position was not defensible.
He was always on the defensive, attacking
before anyone could attack him.
dependant dependent
She has three dependants: her
mother and two children.
Babies are completely dependent on
their parents.
deprecate depreciate
She deprecated what she felt was the rapid decline of English.
If you don’t
invest wisely, your money will depreciate.
desert (n and v) dessert (n)
The Sahara is the biggest desert in the world.
He promised that he would never desert
them and, in spite of problems, he stayed with them while they needed him.
They were allowed to have any dessert
they wanted and they all chose apple pie and cream.
device (n) devise (n and v)
She invented
the most wonderful device, a little
contraption for magnifying the sun’s rays.
‘Devise’ is a legal
term referring to a clause in a will. She devised
a telephone-answering system of her own.
discreet discrete
She is the
most discreet person I’ve ever met:
she shows very good judgement in all she says and does.
The categories are
absolutely discrete and do not
overlap.
eminent imminent
Eminent scientists often win the Nobel Prize.
By August 1939, war was clearly imminent,
for those who could read the signs.
equable equitable
They were too
old to put up with the snow and ice of Alaska. They wanted to find a place with
a more equable climate.
We’ll have to come to an equitable
arrangement with them so let’s avoid trouble and give everyone the same
amount.
exacerbate exasperate
Government action only seemed to exacerbate the suffering of the poor.
He knows how to exasperate me.
If he says that one more time I’ll hit him.
exceedingly excessively
It is running exceedingly well now.
He was excessively and unnecessarily jealous.
exercise exorcise
We’ll have to exercise the dog. It’s getting fat.
If you don’t
believe in ghosts why are you looking for someone to
exorcise that old house?
explicit implicit
I’m not good
at assembling gadgets. I make mistakes even when I try to follow explicit instructions.
He had little education and no formal training, but his implicit faith seemed to need no
external reinforcement.
extant (adj) extent (n)
There are only
about four manuscripts extant. The
others were lost in an eighteenth-century fire.
The extent of their losses became more apparent each day.
fallacious fallible
That’s a fallacious argument and you intended to
deceive.
We are all fallible, all capable of being wrong.
foregone forgone
It was a foregone condusion.
Everyone could see that. He has forgone alcohol
for the last twenty years.
formally formerly
He will be formally introduced to the Ambassador
tonight.
Formerly, they had great wealth, but
now they have nothing.
gourmand gourmet
They call themselves ‘gourmands’
but they are just gluttons. He was a gourmet,
a connoisseur of good foods and wines.
historic historical
The birth of a panda was an historic event for the zoo.
I’ve always wanted to write an historical
novel. The only trouble is that my
knowledge of history is very limited.
human humane
Yorkshire
people sum up human inconsistency by
saying: ‘There’s nowt as queer as folk!’
Surely there are more humane ways of killing an animal?
improvident imprudent
They were
utterly improvident, always behaving
as if the future would look after itself.
In spite of his apparent shrewdness, he made a
number of imprudent
investments.
industrial industrious
I believe he’s
a dealer in industrial diamonds.
She had the
knack of finding conscientious, industrious
workers.
ingenious ingenuous
We’ve found an
ingenious solution. It may not be
legal but it is brilliant.
It’s hard to
know if anyone of his age could be as innocent and
ingenuous as he appears.
invaluable valueless
Your help has been invaluable. We could have done nothing without you.
They bought the painting hoping it might be a Goya but it turned out to
be a valueless imitation.
its it’s
The cat licked its paws.
It’s time to go home.
judicial judicious
Everyone
thought there should have been a judicial
enquiry into the disposal of those government contracts.
I wonder if Solomon found it easy to be judicious or if he too occasionally made unwise judgments?
less fewer
We should probably eat less meat
and less sugar and drink less coffee. There were fewer animals on show and fewer people looking at them.
lightening (v) lightning (n)
He wasn’t
exactly renowned for lightening other
people’s burdens! I’m afraid of thunder and lightning.
loose lose
Don’t let the
animals loose.
Don’t lose your temper! Keep calm!
luxuriant luxurious
Wherever we looked we could see luxuriant vegetation.
They lived in a luxurious home.
They had everything they could ever need or want.
marshal
(n and v) martial (adj)
How many Field
Marshal(l)s were there in France in
1945?
He marshalled
his family the way he had dragooned his troops.
Do you know the ‘Tin Soldier’? What comes after the
line: ‘With a
martial tread through a storm of
lead’?
masterful masterly
He was masterful, domineering and imperious.
He was good at giving orders but bad at taking them.
Well done! That was a masterly achievement!
material materiel
She bought eight yards of heavy material for her curtains.
The USA gave the allies materiel
support by supplying them with all the extra equipment they required.
meretricious meritorious
Some people
regarded the book highly, but he described it as tawdry, trashy and meretricious.
His was a most meritorious action
and he deserved the recognition he got.
metal mettle
Tin and zinc
are fairly common metals.
You’ll have to
be on your mettle if you want to
beat him!
militate mitigate
Poor attendance could militate against you when it comes to promotions.
The gifts of food mitigated the
worst effects of the famine but did little to solve the underlying problem.
momentary momentous
Don’t throw away your career for what will
eventually seem a momentary
pleasure.
It was a momentous occasion:
the band played, the dignitaries arrived and everyone waited for the winner to
be announced.
monogram monograph
He always likes to have a monogram
embroidered on his handkerchiefs. Her monograph
was a detailed classification of rare blood groups.
moral morale
African
stories always have a moral because
they were meant to teach as well as entertain.
The morale in the group was
poor because no one had any respect for or faith in their leader.
notable noticeable
The discovery
was all the more notable when you
realise he had no formal education.
Over the next few weeks the change in attitude
became increasingly
noticeable.
observance observation
What sort of observances do you keep in Lent? Do you
fast or abstain from meat?
It was meant to be an observation
post but I could see nothing because of the thick fog.
obsolescent obsolete
Weapons have a
relatively short useful life. These ones are obsolescent
now and they will be totally
obsolete in another five years.
official officious
The government
is expected to make an official announcement
today.
He was not well liked because he was an officious young man, always telling people the best way to do
things.
ordinance ordnance
There is an ordinance protecting grazing land.
The ordnance section deals with military
stores.
permissible permissive
It’s perfectly
permissible to walk on the grass but
you mustn’t pick the flowers.
He criticised our ‘permissive society’
for failing to consider the long- term consequences of sexual freedom.
practicable practical
It’s just not practicable. You’ll have to come up
with a different solution.
I’m a practical person. I’ve never been
interested in theory.
precede proceed
The letter I precedes
m in the alphabet.
I don’t think we should proceed.
It’s getting dark and we don’t know the area.
prescribe proscribe
Doctors can only prescribe a limited number of drugs.
Such marches should be proscribed.
They cause a great deal of trouble.
prophecy (n) prophesy (v)
All the prophecies were fulfilled.
He prophesied the end of the world.
relative relevant
He compared their relative merits before deciding on the cheaper brand.
I only want the relevant facts,
not all the facts, just those that have a bearing on this matter.
reverend (n) reverent (adj)
This is the Reverend John Smith.
He was reverent in his attitude to all life forms.
review revue
They both wrote very kind reviews of her last book.
Revues aren’t very popular with today’s theatre-goers. They seem to prefer
serious drama.
role roll
I always
fancied myself in the role of King
Lear.
His name should be included
in a roll of honour.
rout route
The rout of the second battalion led
directly to their final defeat.
We plan to take the scenic route through the mountains.
sceptic (n) septic (adj)
Don’t listen
to that old sceptic! He wouldn’t
believe it if he saw it with his own two eyes!
The wound quickly turned septic because
there were no antibiotics available.
seasonable seasonal
Frost and snow are seasonable in Britain in January.
The unemployment figures dropped because of the seasonal work in tourism and farming.
seize siege
They seized his
passport so that he couldn’t leave the country.
The siege eventually ended
when the gunmen surrendered, freeing their hostage.
sensual sensuous
Be careful how
you use ‘sensual’. It tends to mean
‘carnal’ or ‘licentious’.
Every critic discusses his sensuous
imagery, where all the senses, including the sense of smell, are gratified.
sew sow
I hate sewing. My stitches are always crooked.
The farmer sowed good seed.
sewage sewerage
The Mediterranean has been polluted by the sewage of many countries. London’s sewerage system was designed and built by the Victorians.
sextant sexton
Navigators
have used sextants for hundreds of
years.
The sexton’s sons usually help him to ring
the bell and to dig graves.
spacious specious
They lived in
a spacious sixteenth-century abbey.
That’s a specious argument. It may sound
attractive but it is false.
stationary stationery
Passengers must wait until the bus is stationary before getting off.
Their stationery is very
distinctive: light blue paper and dark blue envelopes.
superficial superfluous
There’s no need to worry. The cut is only superficial, just a graze.
Get rid of all superfluous gear.
We keep only what is strictly necessary.
temporal temporary
It is not
always easy to draw a line between temporal
and spiritual matters.
We can only give you a temporary
filling now but we’ll do a permanent job when your abscess has cleared.
usage use
A ‘raise in salary’ is US usage;
a ‘rise’ is more usual in the UK. This is of no use whatsoever. Get rid of it.
venal venial
This post
seems to attract venal politicians.
Several have already been indicted for accepting bribes.
It’s only a venial sin. That means it’s not as
serious as a mortal sin.
veracious voracious
George
Washington is renowned for being veracious.
He wouldn’t tell a lie.
He had the most voracious appetite!
He ate as if he hadn’t seen food for days.
See: problem
words.
problem words
There
are many words, usually latinate and polysyllabic, that are used vaguely or inaccurately
because speakers are not certain of their meanings. Sometimes such misuse can
lead to a change of meaning, (aggravate,
for example, has taken on the meaning of ‘irritate’) but often it results
in poor communication or the blurring of useful distinctions. To restate that
certain words should not be used in particular ways is unlikely to have much
influence. Instead, we provide a list of the commonest problem words, citing
their
basic
meanings and offering exemplary sentences: anticipate—foresee and deal with in
advance
We anticipated
the fluctuations in the market and so they did not adversely affect our trading.
bonus—something
good in addition to what is due
All staff members got a bonus of $100. brutalise—make brutal or unfeeling
Abject poverty tends to brutalise
people. There is little scope for finer feelings when one has to struggle
just to stay alive.
chronic—not
acute, but long-term and recurrent
About a quarter of the population suffers from chronic indigestion.
complex (n and
adj)—1 a set of emotional desires and memories which may have been suppressed
by the conscious mind but which continue to influence one’s personality 2 a
whole made up of interconnecting parts 3 not simple
An Oedipus complex can be
defined as the sexual emotions and desires aroused in a male child by his
mother. The equivalent emotions in a female child are referred to as the
Electra complex.
He designed the new housing complex.
She never saw the easy solutions, only the complex ones.
crescendo—a
gradual increase in volume in a piece of music
After the first crescendo we
have a contrasting passage where we gradually play more and more quietly.
dilemma—a
problem involving two (usually unattractive) alternatives
They were faced with a dilemma.
If they agreed to the operation, she might not recover from the anaesthetic,
but without the operation she would die.
echelon—a troop arrangement in
which soldiers follow each other in such a way that each has a clear line of
fire
Echelon arrangements continue to be used in modern warfare.
feasible—capable of being
performed
It was the old man who suggested the only feasible plan.
forensic—used in courts of law
Forensic medicine involves the application of medical science to legal problems.
fulsome—abundant, copious,
excessive
He described his own achievements in fulsome detail.
gracile—slender, slight,
emaciated
The word gracile has
gradually lost its association with ‘starvation’ because it has been confused
with ‘graceful’.
hoi polloi—the masses, the common
people
He did not like general elections because he did not value the opinions
of the hoi polloi, his usual term
for the masses.
holocaust—a sacrifice consumed
by fire, destruction by fire
Most people are frightened by the threat of a nuclear holocaust.
(The Holocaust is often used to refer to the slaughter of Jews
during the Second World War.)
infamous—having a bad reputation
Richard III was not nearly as infamous
as Shakespeare suggests. Indeed, some historians believe he was a gentle
and generous monarch.
literally—in a non-metaphorical
way
He literally lost his shirt. Someone must
have picked it up by mistake.
myth—traditional story which
attempts to explain beliefs or natural phenomena
Many cultures
have myths about how the human race
began.
panacea—a remedy for all ills
Some people
think that money is a universal panacea.
pathetic—capable of evoking pity
The ‘Pathetic Fallacy’ suggests that Nature
reflects human moods, by being sunny when we are
happy and by raining when we are sad.
peremptory—not admitting denial
or contradiction
He was
disliked for his peremptory statements.
People hated the fact that he knew he was always right.
phobia—a deep and usually
illogical fear
Like many people she had a phobia about flying.
potential—something that can
develop
Most of us
seem to have a potential for
violence.
pristine—belonging to the
earliest time or state, uncorrupted
Adam and Eve
lived in the Garden in a state of pristine
innocence.
protagonist—one who plays a
leading role
Many of the protagonists in the struggle for
independence are unknown because no one took the early leaders seriously.
quixotic—impractically and
romantically devoted to chivalry
Many people
admired his quixotic attempts to
establish a system of courtesy and gentleness among his pupils.
rationalise—to explain by
offering plausible reasons
You can’t rationalise everything. There are some
reactions which are instinctive and not capable of logical explanation.
schizophrenic—a person suffering
from a phychotic disorder
Her mother was
schizophrenic. Sometimes she was
gentle and loving but at other times she behaved like someone demented.
trauma—an injury, physical or
mental
The trauma of the surgery sent her into
shock.
progressive
Structures containing BE+Ving:
I am walking.
She was walking.
We have been
walking. They had been walking. He will be walking.
involve progressive or continuous aspect because they emphasise the
continuity and duration of the action.
See: aspect, verb phrase.
pronoun
A pronoun is a word which can substitute for a noun or noun phrase:
The book is heavy.→It is heavy.
John is here.→He is here.
Mary Smith is tall.→She is tall.
Pronouns can
reflect gender, indicating in the
third person singular whether a noun is masculine, feminine or neuter. They can
also reflect case. The nominative occurs as the subject of a sentence, the possessive indicates possession and the accusative occurs after a preposition
and as the object of a sentence:
Nominative:
I have talked to John.
Who was singing?
Possessive:
The teacher
took his but not hers.
Whose is it?
Accusative:
John surprised me.
To whom was the letter addressed?
Pronouns belong to a closed set,
which means we can list every single pronoun in the language. It is convenient
to divide pronouns into eight sub-categories:
1 Personal Pronouns (12):
Person Singular Plural
Nom
Acc Nom Acc
1st I me we us
2nd you you you you
3rd Masc he him
Fem she her they them
Neut it it
2 Possessive
Pronouns (6):
Person Singular Plural
1st mine ours
2nd yours yours
3rd Masc his
Fem hers theirs
3 Reflexive
Pronouns (8):
Person Singular Plural
1st myself ourselves
2nd yourself yourselves 3rd Masc himself
Fem herself themselves
Neut itself
4 Demonstrative
Pronouns (4):
Singular
Plural
this these
that those
5 Interrogative
Pronouns (5):
Nom
Accusative Possessive who? whom? whose? what? what?
which? which?
6 Relative
Pronouns (5): these pronouns are used to introduce subordinate clauses.
that The hat that he sat on was mine.
which He kept all the letters which had
been written. who She was the winner who resigned
within two days. whom They are
the people on whom we all rely. whose The child
whose shoes were taken is waiting.
7 Distributive
Pronouns (5): these pronouns are often followed by ‘of+pronoun’: all All (of them) went home.
both Both (of you) should go.
each Each (of us) received a present.
either Either (of them) might do.
neither Neither (of you) will play tomorrow.
8
Indefinite Pronouns (3):
any He wouldn’t have any.
one One ought to try one’s best.
some Some like it hot.
These pronouns often occur in compound forms such as
anyone, anybody, somebody and
something. Occasionally, so and such function like indefinite pronouns:
I think so.
Such is life!
See: complement, noun phrase, object, parts of speech, pro forms,
subject.
pronunciation
There has
never been an Academy for the
English language and so there has never been one form of pronunciation accepted as standard for the entire English-speaking
world. Most educated speakers approximate to the standard grammar and vocabulary
of the written language in their speech and pronounce the language according to
the accepted
norms of their
region. Increasingly, these norms are set by regional radio and television
announcers but because the media are international as well as national in their
influence, it seems probable that people throughout the world are beginning to
sound more alike. There will probably always be individual and national
differences in the pronunciation of English, but the influence of the media and
the ease of international communication will ensure that the differences will
be outweighed by the similarities.
In spite of the fact that there is not and never has been one acceptable way to pronounce English,
people worry about pronunciation, and most letters to newspapers or radio and
television companies on the subject of usage
relate to problems with or criticisms of pronunciation.
It would in theory be possible to set up an international body to
monitor pronunciation, but any such body would find that pronunciation of all
words changes with time and that logic has little to do with preferences. Most
English people at one time in the past pronounced post-vocalic r; now they do not although most
Americans do. The t now frequently
heard in the pronunciation of often is
due to the influence of spelling and is acceptable whereas to pronounce the t in castle
is not.
Speakers of English throughout the world agree more closely on the
pronunciation of consonants than on that of vowels. Apart from the differences
in vowels, however, General American English (GAE) and Received Pronunciation (RP) can be further differentiated as
follows:
1
GAE is rhotic,
RP is non-rhotic, that is, GAE pronounces post-vocalic r whereas RP has longer vowels.
2
In GAE, intervocalic (t)t in words such as latter and
biting tends to sound like a d.
3
In GAE, the first vowel sound in words like due, news and Tuesday is /u/; in RP, it is
/ju/.
4
In GAE, the words in each of the following
sets tend to be homophones: Mary, merry, marry, hairy, Harry, ant, aunt,
can’t, cant, whereas such sets as paw,
poor, pour are homophonous for many RP speakers.
5
In words of four or more syllables, GAE
speakers tend to use more secondary and tertiary stresses than speakers of RP:
contemporary 
(GAE) 
laboratory
(GAE) 
(RP)
6
Words ending in -ile tend to be pronounced 
in GAE and 
in RP:
fertile 
(RP) 
missile 
(GAE) 
(RP)
7
A number of miscellaneous words are
pronounced differently in the UK and the USA; the best-known of these are:
|
|
USA |
UK |
|
ate |
rhymes with gate |
rhymes with get |
|
figure |
fig+yer |
fig+er |
lever rhymes with
ever rhymes
with weaver
processes rhymes with less+ease rhymes with less+is route rhymes with bout rhymes with boot shone rhymes with bone rhymes
with gone
8
In both regions, the consonant cluster /kw/
in words such as quart and quote is being simplified to /k/. Many
purists disapprove of the change especially in quote and related forms.
See: accent, network norms, phonetics.
propaganda
Propaganda is a clear example of a word
whose meaning has been debased. It was originally a religious term derived from
Congregatio de Propaganda Fidei (Congregation
for the Spread of the Faith) and referred to the dissemination of Christian
beliefs. Nowadays, the word implies:
1
the spreading of information for the purpose
of hurting a cause, person or organisation and, less commonly,
2
the spreading of information with the
intention of helping a cause, person or organisation.
Propaganda thus involves the transmission of information plus attitudes
and values. Information, on its own, provides facts and figures (a weather
forecast, populations) but propaganda packages the facts so as to produce a
calculated response such as fear, dislike or distrust. Successful propaganda
tends to use truths rather than lies, but selected truths often presented to
reinforce a prejudice.
Like many successful
communicators, propagandists tend to: 1 use emotive vocabulary: patriotism, purity
2 play on feelings of insecurity,
pride, envy 3 emphasise the prestige of the speaker
4 aim to use
devices, both linguistic (rhetoric, repetition) and non-linguistic (music,
colour, crowds), to modify the attitudes of their audience.
See: cliché, euphemism, semantic change.
proper noun
Nouns can be subdivided into
common (cheese) and proper (China), with proper nouns
being signalled by the use of a capital
letter. They can occur as subjects:
Wordsworth was a poet.
objects:
Who has read Virginia Woolf?
complements:
He thinks he
is Hamlet!
and in preposition phrases:
I propose a
toast to Robbie Burns.
Proper nouns cannot be modified
as extensively as common nouns but the following patterns of modification are
found:
1 the+descriptive adjective+person’s name
the
extraordinary Millie Milestone
When the structure
‘a+(adjective)+proper noun’ occurs, the reference is to one resembling the
person named:
a new Jane
Austen
or to a representative of a type:
a peeping Tom
2
possessive adjective (especially our)+proper noun. This is often used for
family and pets:
our Henry our Fido
3
NP+proper noun, or proper noun+NP:
the dramatist, Oscar Wilde Pepe,
our pedigree chihuahua
4
young/old+person/animal or
ancient/modern+place:
poor old Joe young Albert ancient Egypt modern Albania
5 proper
noun+embedded sentence:
John Keats, who wrote
‘Hyperion’
6
proper noun+preposition phrase:
Jeanie with
the light brown hair
7
popular newspapers often use a considerable
amount of pre-proper noun modification:
47-year-old
father of two Martin Smith
A proper noun which is
frequently used can become a common noun. This is particularly likely to happen
with trade names:
cola
hoover
or with products from a place:
cashmere
denim
See: noun, noun phrase, place names.
prose
The word prose derives from the Latin phrase prosa oratio meaning ‘straightforward speech’. Today, the term is
applied to:
1 the normal language used in
speech and writing 2 all written language that is not poetry
3 dull written or spoken discourse
Prose is
usually thought to reflect the patterns of speech more closely than verse
because of the variety and irregularity of its rhythms. Much prose style, however,
utilises parallelism of sound,
vocabulary and syntax, a fact that becomes clear whether we examine prose
stylists of the sixteenth century like Francis Bacon:
Now I proceed to those errors and vanities which have intervened
amongst the studies themselves of the learned, which is that which is principal
and proper to the present argument…
The Diseases
and Humours of Learning
or the
oratory of the twentieth century:
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the
true meaning of its creed… I have a dream that on the red hills of Georgia the
sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down
together at the table of brotherhood.
Martin
Luther King, 28 August, 1963
It is probably
true that good prose takes as much time and care as good poetry. It is probably
also true that good poetry tends to be written by the young and good prose by
the mature.
See: parallelism, style.
prosody
Prosody derives ultimately from Greek prosoidia (a song sung to musical
accompaniment). Today, the word is most frequently applied to the study of
verse form including such features as rhyme,
rhythm and stanzaic patterns. In linguistics, prosody refers to the patterns of stress, rhythm, pitch and
intonation in a language.
proverb
A proverb expresses a generally recognised
truth in an easily remembered form. Unlike an aphorism, a proverb is usually anonymous:
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Each proverb is
a self-contained sentence and the syntactic patterns tend to be fairly simple,
allowing the saying to be easily retained and reproduced. Most of the verbs
involved are in the simple present and affirmatives are more common than
negatives or interrogatives. Proverbs are often centuries old and archaic in
form:
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Since proverbs are usually
associated with oral cultures, they exploit such devices as
alliteration:
Wilful waste
makes woeful want.
rhyme:
Early to bed
and early to rise
Makes a man
healthy, wealthy and wise.
metre:
If you lie down with dogs You’ll get up with fleas.
and lexical and syntactic parallelism:
He who knows
not and knows that he knows not is not so bad; but he who knows not and knows
not that he knows not is dangerous.
There seems to
have been a gradual decline in the production of proverbs in English,
coinciding with urbanisation and the growth of literacy.
Proverbs are the distilled wisdom of a group of people and their study
can provide insights into the activities, interests and philosophy of the
people who created them. Victorian England, with its emphasis on self-help,
created:
God helps those
who help themselves.
whereas
speakers in West Africa found solace in:
God helps
those who cannot help themselves.
See: aphorism, maxim, oral tradition.
psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics
is the
branch of linguistics that studies
the relationship between language and the mind. It may involve:
1 the
study of language as it interacts with memory, perception and learning
2
the study of the psychological processes
involved in acquiring, storing and remembering
language
See: aphasia,
linguistics.
psychologese
Psychologese is a type of jargon consisting of elements of technical vocabulary
drawn from psychology and psychiatry. Often the terms are used inaccurately but
many have been popularised by journalism, among them: frustrate, neurotic, paranoid, phobia, psychotic, schizoid,
schizophrenic, subliminal, traumatic.
See: jargon.
pun
A pun is a humorous or witty use of a word
or phrase to exploit its ambiguity:
She filed the papers and her nails.
or
its similarity in sound to another word:
When is a door not a door?
When it’s ajar. (a jar)
Punning may be
for comic effect or it may be for wit, as in the poetry of the metaphysicals:
The grave’s a
fine (i.e.
‘fine’+‘confined’) and private place But
none, I think, do there embrace.
Andrew Marvell, ‘To his coy
mistress’
or the
epitaph attributed to John Donne on his inauspicious marriage:
John Donne Ann Donne Undone
The word pun was first
recorded in English in the seventeenth century, but its etymology is uncertain.
