English Grammar and Language Usage: Part 38

synonym

 

Synonym derives from Greek syn+onyma (together+name) and refers to a sense relationship in which different words seem to have the same meaning and are in free variation with each other in all or most contexts:

Autumn Fall big large regal royal

 

Close examination of words such as those above reveals that synonymy is always partial, rarely if ever absolute:

 

I love my big brother. (big suggests elder)

I love my large brother. (large suggests fat)

 

The nearest we come to total synonymy is when synonyms belong to different dialects, as with Autumn and Fall, although even here the choice of Fall would imply the region of origin of the speaker.

Words may be cognitively synonymous in that they have essentially the same reference:

 

die     expire          kick the bucket          pass on/over

 

but such words often differ stylistically in that they would be used on different occasions and in different contexts. Cognitively synonymous words may also differ in the  emotional response they evoke. The A and B lists are often given as synonyms but the A words have more positive associations:

A B

carpenter joiner statesman politician strongminded stubborn

 

Absolute synonymy involving the identity of cognitive, emotive and stylistic implications is thus more of an ideal, or extreme, than a reality.

It has often been pointed out that the number of near synonyms for any object or phenonemon indicates its relative significance in a culture. English, for example, has many words for the use of excessive words (circumlocution, periphrasis, pleonasm, tautology, redundancy, verbiage, verbosity); Arabs distinguish many types of sand; Inuits have an extensive vocabulary for types of snow; and many dialect speakers in Ireland have a dozen different words for potato, including:

 

chat (small, not very tasty)

cutling (good for cutting and planting)

marley (tiny but tasty)

poreen (very tiny) See: antonym, connotation.

syntax

 

Syntax, from Greek syntassein (to arrange together), refers to the study of the ways in which words are combined to form sentences. In many traditional accounts of language four levels of language were postulated:

1  Phonology: dealing with sounds and combinations of sounds

2       Morphology: dealing with word formation and including inflection

(cook/cooks/cooked) and derivation (amalgam/amalgamate)

3  Syntax: dealing with the rules for combining words into acceptable sentences:

 

I saw the big brown cat yesterday.

*I the saw brown yesterday cat big. He can come.

*Come can he?

 

4  Semantics: dealing with meaning.

Some linguists (especially from the UK) use the term grammar to comprehend both morphology and syntax; others, following Chomsky, describe language in terms of three major categories:

 

Phonology Syntax Semantics

 

with syntax being the link between sound and meaning.

In all descriptions, however, syntax implies the rules governing acceptable arrangements of smaller units into larger ones.

See: grammar

 

 

 

synthetic

 

This word is used by linguists with two main references:

1   Languages are often subdivided into synthetic languages, where words consist of two or more morphemes, and analytic languages, where each word tends to be one morpheme.

2  Many causative sentences can occur in two forms:

(a)  Ojo makes your whole wash whiter.

(b)  Ojo whitens your whole wash.

The (a) forms, which are often more explicit, are called analytic sentences and the (b) forms, where two or more words are combined, are called synthetic.

Many synthetic verbs are related to adjectives:

 

activate<active+ate legalise<legal+ise

 

and others to nouns:

 

beautify<beauty hospitalise<hospital

 

See: analytic, ergative.

 

 

 

taboo words

 

All languages have words and expressions that are regarded as unsuitable for general use either because they deserve particular reverence or because they are felt to be ‘unclean’ or vulgar. In English there are six main areas associated with linguistic taboos. (The word taboo derives from the Polynesian word tabu which referred to a prohibition forbidding certain actions, contacts, relationships or words.)

1   Religion—Words associated with God and religion are only fully acceptable in religious contexts. Even then, many orthodox Jews avoid the use of the word God. In colloquial speech, terms like God, Jesus, damn and hell occur frequently but can still give offence and should be avoided. Euphemisms for these words, such as Gosh, Jeepers Creepers, dash and heck, are usually considered inoffensive but tend to be limited to colloquial speech. Latinisms, often abbreviated to initials, are acceptable but such forms as DG<Deo Gratias (Thanks be to God) and DV<Deo Volente (God willing) are rarely used now.

2  Sex—Words relating to sex or the sex organs are only fully acceptable in intimate relationships or in medical contexts. The most frequently used of the so-called ‘four letter words’ has been reduced to an emphasiser in such contexts as:

 

He’s fucking stupid!

She fucking well did!

 

Four letter words can be extremely offensive.

3   Bodily excretions—All bodily excretions with the exception of tears and perhaps sweat can have taboo associations.

4   Disease and Death—Many people avoid discussing serious illnesses like cancer, often preferring to use a euphemism such as terminally ill. The subject of death is not so much avoided as dealt with in euphemistic or idiomatic terms:

if anything should happen to me (when I die)

casket (coffin)

pass on/away (die)

earthly remains (dead body).

 

Mental illness or handicap is also a taboo subject and is often dealt with in terms of euphemisms:

 

He’s not all there.

She’s a little eccentric/a little confused.

 

or ‘humorous’ idioms:

 

a screw loose/missing off his rocker

 

Abbreviations are frequently used so that speakers may avoid overt reference to illness:

 

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)

Big C (cancer)

DTs (delirium tremens)

 

5   Social stratification—Some people are embarrassed by talk of wealth or poverty, preferring understatement or idiom:

 

He’s well off/rolling in it.

They’re down on their luck.

 

Classifications occur but euphemisms are preferred:

 

upper class, middle class and working (not ‘lower’) class the rich countries and the third world (not ‘poor’ world)

 

Some occupations are judged less prestigious than others and renamed:

 

garbage/refuse collector>sanitation officer electrician/machine worker>engineer

 

6   Age and weight—The fear of growing old or of being obese has engendered such euphemisms as:

 

evergreen clubs (clubs for people who are 60+)

senior citizens (people over 60)

fuller figure (fat)

Junoesque (tall and fat—women)

High and Mighty (tall and fat—men)

 

In the British parliament, certain ‘unparliamentary expressions’ are taboo. Among the terms which may not be used are: cad, cheeky young pup, dog, jackass, liar, prevaricating, rat. This list is extended from time to time. In June, 1984, fascist was judged ‘unparliamentary’ and added to the list.

See: euphemism.

 

 

 

tags

 

There are three types of tags in English:

1 question tags, involving an auxiliary verb+(negative)+pronoun which are attached to statements in order to elicit agreement:

 

He’s tired, isn’t he? (expected answer ‘Yes’)

He isn’t tired, is he? (expected answer ‘No’)

 

2    reinforcement tags, which tend to be a feature of colloquial English and more widespread in the UK than in America:

 

You’re an idiot, you are.

Lovely people, the French.

3  speech fillers, especially you know, you see: I knew him, you see.

It’s getting late, you know.

 

See: auxiliary, fillers, question tags, speech and writing.

 

 

 

Tanzanian English

 

The United Republic of Tanzania (with a present population of 20 million) came into existence in 1964 with the merging of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Tanganyika was part of German East Africa until after the First World War, when it began to be administered by Britain until it achieved independence in 1961. Zanzibar was a British Protectorate from 1890 until 1963.

When the Republic of Tanzania was formed, English was the official language, the chief medium of education, government and international activities. Swahili was, however, more widely understood by the masses and less obviously a marker of  privilege. Gradually, it has replaced English in primary and early secondary education, in internal commerce and in government. Swahili has an advantage over English in being widely spoken, even by uneducated Africans, in several countries in East and Central Africa, but it lacks international currency. English continues to be widely used in secondary and tertiary education, in literature and in international dealings.

See: African English, East African English.

 

 

 

tautology

 

Tautology, from Greek tautologus (saying the same thing), involves the repetition of the same idea, often using different words:

 

Little Willie’s dead and gone and now he is no more;

For what he thought was H₂O was H₂SO₄.

 

Many orators and writers use tautology for effect:

 

He was a riddle, a mystery, an enigma.

 

and such repetition, even with slight semantic modification, is acceptable. It is less acceptable when used to avoid answering questions:

 

Our defence policy on nuclear arms is to have nuclear arms for our defence.

 

a statement which is as informative as the mathematical tautology that: 2=2

See: circumlocution, pleonasm, redundancy, repetition.

 

 

telegraphese

 

Telegraphese is a term given to the elliptical style used in telegrams, diaries, headlines, slogans and in stream-of-consciousness novels. It is characterised by a brevity resulting from the omission of inessential words. A six-word headline in The Times (London), for example:

 

Veto call on gifts to parties

 

is explained in a nineteen-word sentence:

 

The council voted to call for a law requiring companies to ballot share- holders before making donations to political parties.

 

A telegram such as:

 

Arriving Dallas noon. Meet Flight AA129.

 

costs considerably less than the longer equivalent:

 

I shall be arriving in Dallas at noon. Please meet Flight number AA129.

 

Conjunctions and prepositions tend to be omitted and pronouns and auxiliary verbs are either omitted or reduced in number.

See: paraphrase, précis, stream of consciousness.

 

 

 

tense

 

Tense is the term applied to distinctions of time which are made overt in the verb phrase:

 

I like him because he is kind. (time=now)

I liked him because he was kind. (time=before now) Often, tense and aspect co-occur:

I am trying to fix it. (time=now+continuity)

I have tried to fix it. (time=before now+completion)

 

but whereas the marking of aspect always presupposes the marking of tense:

 

I was listening intently. (tense+aspect) tense may occur without aspect:

I listened intently. (tense)

 

Traditionally, three main tenses, present, past and future, have been described but there is not a one-to-one relation between tense and time:

1 The so-called present tense is frequently used for the expression of scientific or sociological truths:

 

Water boils at 100 degrees centigrade.

A stitch in time saves nine.

 

for oral narratives (sometimes called the ‘narrative aspect’ or the ‘historic present’):

 

There was this man. He walks up to me and says…

 

and, with an adverb, to mark future time:

 

I leave tomorrow.

 

2  The so-called past tense is frequently used to mark hypothetical or unreal meaning:

 

I wish I knew (at this moment).

It’s time we stopped (now) quarrelling.

 

It is also used in reported speech:

 

‘I’m tired.’→He said that he was tired.

 

3  Future time can be marked in a variety of ways in English:

 

I set out next week.

I’m setting out next week.

I’m going to set out next week.

 

none of them by means of a morphological change in the verb.

Many contemporary linguists suggest that English has two tenses: a past tense and a non-past tense and that futurity can be expressed in many ways:

1 by modal+verb:

I shall go.

I could go if you babysat for us.

 

2 by a variety of verbal forms, alone or in combination with adverbials:

 

He leaves at noon.

He is about to leave.

 

Tense usage throughout the English-speaking world is virtually identical. The one marked difference is that some speakers of US English tend to use the conditional modals in consecutive clauses:

 

I would have gone if I would have seen him.

 

whereas other speakers of English prefer:

 

I would have gone if I had seen him.

 

See: aspect, modality, time, verb phrase.

 

 

 

than I, than me

 

Purists insist that than should be followed by the subject pronoun:

 

He is taller than I.

 

assuming that such a sentence is a reduced form of:

 

He is taller than I am (tall).

 

Such a contention ignores the parallel structures:

 

He went in before me.

He went in before I did.

 

Contemporary usage:

1 allows the use of ‘than+object pronoun’ in speech and informal writing:

 

She’s got more money than us.

 

2  prefers ‘than+subject pronoun’ in formal contexts:

She has more money than we.

 

3   demands ‘than+subject pronoun’ in all contexts where the pronoun is followed by a verb:

 

She’s got more money than we have.

They are faster than we are.

 

See: as, case.

 

 

 

their, there, they’re

 

These words are sometimes confused.

Their is a possessive adjective:

 

They lost their dog.

 

The possessive pronoun is theirs:

 

It was theirs. I’ve often seen it in their house.

 

In informal contexts, their often serves as the equivalent of his or her: Everyone should do their best.

There can occur as a pronoun:

 

There was once a wise old owl.

 

as an adverb of place:

 

I was sure I had put it there.

 

and as an exclamation, often implying satisfaction:

 

There! I told you it would work.

 

They’re is a pronoun+verb, a reduced form of they+are:

 

They’re older than I thought.

They’re cheap at the price.

till, to, until

 

Till and until have the same meaning and are both acceptable in all styles of speech and writing, although till is more widely used in the UK, especially in conversation, and until in the USA. Both forms are used in time references for a period ending at a specific time:

 

We waited till/until the plane was out of sight.

 

and they may both occur as conjunctions:

 

She pleaded with him till/until he relented.

 

and as prepositions:

We have booked it till/until Friday. ’Til, the clipped form of until, is nonstandard.

To can also be used in time references, in contexts where the length of time is specified:

 

It’s two weeks to/till midsummer.

We work from nine to five.

 

See: conjunction, preposition, time words.

 

 

 

time

 

Time is often equated with tense and, although time references can be carried in the verb, they are not limited to it. Futurity is often expressed in English by means of a non-past verb+an adverbial:

 

I fly out tomorrow.

 

or by a combination of the non-past tense, progressive aspect and an adverbial:

 

I am flying out tomorrow.

 

Many nouns also incorporate a time reference:

 

His past caught up with him.

‘Youth is wasted on the young.’

 

and kinship terms give information on generation as well as (occasionally) sex:

 

ancestors

grandparents great-aunts/uncles parents aunts/uncles

children cousins descendants

 

See: family tree, tense, time words.

 

 

 

time words

 

There are three conventional ways of expressing time and although all three are used throughout the world, there are differences between preferred uses in the UK and the USA.

1 Minute(s)+hour (twelve-hour clock)

According to this spoken method, the minutes are given before the hour. In the UK, the prepositions past and to are used, whereas US usage prefers after and of. Both varieties can use quarter and half when referring to 15, 30 and 45 minutes:

Time UK USA

5.05   five past five five after five

5.15   quarter past five quarter after five

5.30 half past five/half five half after five

5.45   quarter to six quarter of/to/till six

5.55   five to six five of six

 

but half after five is less common than 5.30 in the USA, and the UK form half five is never used by US speakers.

The word minutes must be used with numbers which cannot be divided exactly by five:

 

It’s two minutes past/after five.

It’s twenty-two minutes to/of six.

 

Times on the hour are given with o’clock: It’s just four o’clock.

Colloquially, however, many speakers say:

It’s just four.

 

Where it is necessary to distinguish between day and night, the abbreviations a.m. (ante meridiem=before noon) and p.m. (post meridiem=after noon) are employed:

 

They will arrive at 3 p.m. (=15.00)

She didn’t leave until 3 a.m. (=03.00)

 

2  Hour+minute(s) (twelve-hour clock)

This method uses figures only and occurs mainly in formal announcements and in writing:

 

It’s 4.30 not 4.25.

The train arrives at 6.06.

 

3  Hour+minute(s) (twenty-four-hour clock)

This method has become increasingly popular, even in speech, since the advent of digital clocks and watches and of international travel. The cycle is from midnight (00.00) to midnight and all times are given as figures:

 

At the third stroke, it will be 9.27 and 30 seconds.

The flight has been delayed until 13.30. Depart 07.45 Arrive 14.30.

 

Where precision is essential, the words hundred hours are added to times on the hour:

 

We set out at eighteen hundred hours. (=18.00)

 

Some of the terms used in English to express time illustrate both the semantic changes that can affect all words and a human tendency towards procrastination. Thus, anon, by and by, in a moment/minute, just now and soon all meant ‘immediately’ but changed to ‘in a little while’.

See: dates, time.

 

 

 

to forms

 

Verb forms such as to see are referred to as infinitives, to infinitives, to forms and V_to. The to form has the following characteristics:

1 It can be either simple:

 

to follow

or complex:

 

to be following

to have been following to have been followed

 

or clipped:

 

I didn’t go because I didn’t want to.

 

2  It can be used as a noun phrase:

 

To err is human.

I want to sing.

 

as a complement to intransitive verbs:

 

He will come to see you tomorrow.

 

and as a complement to adjectives:

 

I’m very happy to meet you.

3  There is often little semantic difference between an active and a passive to form: There’s a lot to do.

There’s a lot to be done.

 

4  The to form often occurs in the construction ‘verb+object pronoun+to form’:

 

Do you want us to stay?

We expect them to do their best.

 

In these and similar examples, the pronoun looks as if it is the object of the verb it follows but it functions as the subject of the to form:

 

Do you want us to stay? Shall we stay?

We expect them to do their best. They’ll do their best.

 

See: infinitive, verb phrase.

 

 

tone languages

 

In many languages, words and grammatical categories are often distinguished by tone, thus in Lamnso, a Cameroon language, lum can, depending on tone, mean ‘man’ or ‘rat’ or ‘bite’. Languages which use tone in such a way are known as tone languages.

A number of English-related pidgins and creoles utilise tone to differentiate meaning.

In Krio, the English-related creole of Sierra Leone:

 

εn (with a high level tone) means ‘and’

εn (with a high falling tone) means ‘hen’

 

English is not regarded as a tone language although a number of distinctions seem to be carried by tone changes:

 

It rained some.

 

can mean both:

 

It rained a little.

 

and:

 

It rained a lot.

 

Similarly, the sentence:

 

She’s quite beautiful.

 

can, with different degrees of stress and pitch, mean:

 

She’s fairly beautiful.

 

and:

 

She’s extremely beautiful.

 

See: intonation, stress.

transformational grammar

 

A transformational grammar (often referred to as TG) is a grammar which recognises different levels in language and attempts to relate these levels systematically. Sentences such as:

 

She advised me what to do.

 

and:

 

She asked me what to do.

 

look alike but the first implies:

 

She advised me about what I should do.

 

whereas the second implies:

 

She asked me about what she should do.

 

Similarly, pairs of sentences such as:

 

John saw Mary.

Mary was seen by John.

 

may look different but they are similar in meaning and can be shown to be related. The underlying pattern of the active sentence is:

 

NP₁ past+V NP₂

 

and this can be transformed into the passive sentence by the rule:

 

Noam Chomsky first described a transformational grammar in

Syntactic Structures (1957). There have been many changes of model since then but all models attempt:

1  to make explicit what the native speaker implicitly knows

2  to assign a structure to a potentially infinite set of sentences belonging to a specific language

3  to describe competence, that is, the perfect storehouse of linguistic knowledge rather than performance, that is, actual language data with all its imperfections.

Since native speakers can associate noise with meanings and meanings with noise, TG models have three components:

1 a phonological component, to deal with sounds and sound patterns 2 a semantic component, to deal with meaning

3 a syntactic component, to explain how strings of noises are matched with specific meanings. Most native speakers recognise two levels of structure, a surface level where very different meanings may be carried by similar patterns:

 

John is delightful.

John is delighted.

 

and a deeper level where similar meanings are carried by similar patterns. The syntactic component is therefore subdivided into a base subcomponent and a transformational subcomponent. The base subcomponent assigns structures of the following kind (called ‘phrase markers’):

 

S→NP+VP

(Sentence can be rewritten as noun phrase+verb phrase) NP→det+N (determiner+noun)

VP→V+NP

 

which can also be represented as a tree diagram:

 

providing a simplified representation for such sentences as;

 

The boy loves the girl. The dog ate the bone.

 

The transformational subcomponent operates on phrase markers showing how surface structure forms like:

 

The woman followed the man.

The man was followed (by the woman). The following of the man (by the woman)

 

are all derived from such an underlying structure as: NP₁ past+V NP₂

where NP₁=‘the woman’, V=‘follow’ and NP₂=‘the man’.

The account above is, of necessity, superficial, but it stresses the essential point that the TG model attempts to parallel the native speaker’s linguistic abilities. TG models also emphasise the underlying similarities in all human languages.

See: active voice, competence and performance, deep structure, grammar, passive voice, transformations, universals of language.

 

 

 

transformations

 

Transformations (also called transforms and T-rules) are the rules which occur in the transformational subcomponent of a transformational model of grammar. Transformations allow a grammarian to explain:

1 insertion:

 

2  deletion:

 

3  permutation:

 

4  substitution:

 

Transformations can be either optional or obligatory. Optional transformations help to account for stylistic differences, such as the preference for passive sentences in scientific prose. Obligatory transformations are of two main kinds:

1 obligatory in the sense that they must be used. Most native speakers can use both:

Call Jane up.

Call up Jane.

 

but must use:

 

Call her up.

*Call up her.

 

2 obligatory in the sense that they must not be used. The passive transformation, for example, can only apply to transitive verbs such as DRIVE and not to intransitive verbs such as ARRIVE:

 

See: transformational grammar.

 

 

transitive

 

A transitive verb is one which can take a direct object:

 

I saw him.

He attracts me.

Verbs which can take two objects are often called ditransitive: I gave her the money.

She made them a lovely cake.

He wrote me a letter.

 

Many verbs in English can occur both transitively and intransitively:

 

The child opened the window.

The window opened.

 

See: active voice, ergative, passive voice, verb.

 

 

travel

 

There are some differences in the terminology for travel in the UK and the USA, although the increase in international travel and exchanged television programmes has made many speakers of English familiar with both varieties.

UK                  USA

articulated lorry trailer truck Bonnet hood

book (holiday) make a reservation Boot trunk

Caravan trailer

car park parking lot central reservation median strip/divider cloakroom (restaurant) checkroom

coach (long-distance) bus

cul-de-sac dead-end

diversion detour

dual carriageway divided highway dynamo generator

estate car station wagon

gear lever gear shift

guard (railway) conductor (railroad)

jack-knife fishtail

junction intersection

lay-by pull-off

left luggage room baggage room level crossing grade crossing

milometer odometer

motorway freeway, superhighway, express way

mudguard, wing fender

number plate license plate pavement, footpath sidewalk petrol gasoline, gas

public convenience/toilet restroom/washroom railway railroad

receptionist desk clerk

return ticket round-trip ticket

reversing lights back-up lights

silencer muffler

single ticket one-way ticket sleeping car, pullman pullman, sleeping car

subway underpass

sump    oil pan

timetable schedule

tube, underground subway

 

See: Americanism, Anglicism, UK and US words.

 

 

 

Trinidadian English

 

The islands of Trinidad and Tobago, with a population of 1.2 million, have been united since 1889 and won their independence from Britain in 1962. The islands have known many inhabitants, Arawaks, Africans, Spanish, French, Dutch, British and Indians. The official language is English, but many people speak a local variety known as Trinibagianese and large numbers use creole English.

The English in Trinidad and Tobago is non-rhotic and has been influenced in vocabulary by Hindi and other Indian languages (about 37% of the population being of Indian origin).

See: Caribbean English, West Indian English.

 

 

 

typescript

 

The entire typescript (TS) of a text intended for publication, including footnotes or endnotes, bibliography and quotations, should be typed with double spacing. The format for a dissertation or photo-ready copy differs in having single spacing for the notes, bibliography and indented quotations.

Where possible A4 paper (approximately 12×8.5 inches) should be used and margins should be wide, 1 to 1.5 inches at the top, bottom and sides. There should be about 28 lines to the page and the script should be numbered consecutively from the first page to the last, not chapter by chapter. To guard against loss, it is advisable to type the author’s surname before the number on each page. Name and academic address may be required  at the beginning or end of the TS but the conventions of individual journals should always be checked.

The title of the article or chapter should be typed at the top of the first page of text in capitals. Neither underlining nor a full stop should be used. The first paragraph should not be indented but other paragraphs should be indicated either by indenting the first line five spaces or by doubling the normal space between lines and not indenting. Prose quotations of up to 100 words should be incorporated in the text within quotation marks. Longer quotations should not have quotation marks but should be indented five spaces at the left margin. Spaces should be left after most punctuation marks: one after a comma,

two after a colon, semi-colon, exclamation mark, question mark and full stop. Two hyphens can be used to indicate a dash and lower case l can be used for the figure 1.

Italics can be indicated by underlining. Titles of books, plays, journals and long poems should be underlined and quotation marks should be used for the titles of other works.

Texts may be organised according to a system of numbered sections and subsections. This method allows references to be inserted immediately as it does not depend on page numbers.

Small corrections may be written or typed in above the line involved but margins should not be used for this purpose. All quotations, notes and references should be checked and an exact copy of the TS should always be kept.

See: bibliography, dissertation, footnotes, italics, paragraph, quotation.

 

 

 

U and non-U

 

U and non-U are terms invented in 1954 by the British writer A.S.C. Ross. U refers to upper-class speech and non-U to all the rest. Ross wrote a number of books and articles distinguishing prestigious U forms from stigmatised non-U equivalents. He claimed, for example, that U speakers invariably put the stress on the first syllable of lamentable, say rich and not wealthy and avoid clichés (leave no stone unturned) and jargon (pilot project), but he insisted that it was possible to be too affected in speech. For example, he would rule out the use of such a phrase as:

 

beyond a peradventure

 

Ross was correct in believing that speakers often reveal their class origins in their speech. His comments are, however, markedly classist, although they still carry weight in parts of British society.

If speakers of English are to communicate freely, then certain standards of pronunciation, vocabulary and syntax are clearly desirable. Today, however, these standards are more likely to be advanced by films, radio and television than by a privileged minority.

See: Received Pronunciation, shibboleth.

 

 

 

Ugandan English

 

Uganda was a British protectorate from 1894 until 1962, when it was granted independence. English is the official language of Uganda’s 14 million inhabitants and widely used in education, in the media and as a link language between Ugandans of

different linguistic backgrounds. English is not widely used among the poor, for whom Swahili is the most useful lingua franca.

See: African English, East African English.

 

 

 

UK and US grammar

 

The overlap between the two main varieties of world English is large and increasing. Nevertheless, differences occur in pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary and grammar. The main grammatical differences are to be found in the use of adjectives and adverbs, articles, auxiliaries, noun forms, prepositions, pronouns and verb forms.

1 Adjectives and adverbs

(a)  Colloquial US English frequently uses adjectives where colloquial UK English

requires an adverb:

 

He drives real fast.

We had a real good time.

 

(b)  Different tends to be followed by from in UK English and than in US English:

 

This pen is different from that one. (UK)

This pen is different than that one. (US)

 

(c)  Adverbs ending in -wise occur more frequently in US English, often with the meaning ‘concerning this noun’ or ‘as far as this noun is concerned’:

 

Foodwise, he’s easy to please. How are we fixed timewise?

 

The -wise adverbs tend to be criticised in both communities.

(d)   Speakers of UK English use the present perfect affirmative with the adverbs

already and yet. Many US speakers prefer the simple past:

 

Have you finished it already/yet? (UK) Did you finish it already/yet? (US) I’ve seen it already. (UK)

I saw it already. (US)

 

(e)  Momentarily and presently can be used by US speakers to mean ‘in a moment’ and ‘at present’:

 

I’ll finish it momentarily.

He is presently in China.

2 Articles

Speakers of both varieties use articles in very similar ways but the following phrases tend to differ:

UK English US English be at table be at the  table be in hospital be in the hospital go to university go to a university in future in the future

 

This is only a tendency, however, and many Irish and Scots speakers also prefer the US forms.

3 Auxiliaries and quasi-modals

(a)  Dare and need are less commonly used as quasi-modals in US English:

UK English                           US English

I daren’t do it.  I don’t dare do it. You needn’t go. You don’t have to go.

 

(b)  The dummy auxiliary DO tends to be used differently:

UK English US English Have you any wool? Do you have any wool? Yes, I have. Yes, I do.

 

(c)  Ought to and used to tend not to be used as quasi-modals in US English:

UK English US English

Ought I to go? Should I go?

I oughtn’t to have gone. I shouldn’t have gone. He usedn’t to be cross. He didn’t use to be cross.

 

It should be added that many young UK speakers no longer accept usedn’t to but are unhappy with didn’t use to.

(d)    Shall is less common than will in US English, tending to be limited to proclamations (There shall be…) and Shall we? suggestions:

UK English                         US English

I shan’t go. I won’t go.

We shall have to leave. We will have to leave.

 

(e)  Would is used to denote regular past actions in US English:

 

We went there every day. (UK)

We would go there every day. (US)

 

4 Noun forms

(a)   Collective nouns are more likely to take a singular verb and singular pronoun substitution in US English:

The government have made up their mind, haven’t they? (UK)

The government has made up its mind, hasn’t it? (US)

 

(b)  Nouns such as inning(s), math(s) and sport(s) tend to have different forms in the UK and the USA:

 

It was the best innings I’ve seen all year. (UK) It was the best inning I’ve seen all year. (US) He has decided to study maths. (UK)

He has decided to study math. (US)

She is excellent at sport. (UK)

She is excellent at sports. (US)

 

(c)   The morphemes -ee and -ery are more productive in US English, providing forms such as:

 

advisee retiree crookery fakery

 

(d)  Speakers of US English regularly transform phrasal verbs into nouns, producing:

 

a cook-out                   a fly-over                   a turn-off

 

Such nouns are quickly absorbed into UK English.

5 Prepositions

Occasionally, different prepositions are preferred in UK and US English or one variety requires a preposition where the other does not:

UK English                        US English

He hid it behind the house.                                 He hid it in back of the house.

I haven’t seen her for weeks.                                     I haven’t seen her in weeks.

I live in River Street.                                     I live on River Street.

I’ve tried talking to her.                                I’ve tried talking with her.

It’s five past four.                                 It’s five after four.

Let’s do it on Sunday.                              Let’s do it Sunday.

She threw it out of the door.                                She threw it out the door.

Please fill in this form.                           Please fill out this form.

We’ll have to check it.                             We’ll have to check it out.

They were in a sale.                              They were on sale.

Rows A up to and including D are reserved for non- smokers.

Rows A through D are reserved for non- smokers.

The plane departed from Austin.                                The plane departed Austin.

They protested against the war.                              They protested the war.

 

6  Pronouns

(a)  One tends to be used more frequently in speech in the UK:

One instinctively knows what to say.

 

Many Americans would prefer to use you in such contexts. When Americans select one they can use he/she in subsequent clauses. UK speakers are taught to use one for all references:

 

One should always do what one knows is right. (UK)

One should always do what he/she knows to be right. (US)

 

(b)  One another is much less formal in UK English:

 

They really loved one another deeply. (UK)

They really loved each other deeply. (US)

 

7  Verb forms

(a)   US speakers are less likely to use to infinitives after COME, GO, HELP and ORDER:

 

Come to see me tomorrow. (UK) Come and see me tomorrow. (US) She went to get it. (UK)

She went and got it. (US)

You should help to clean the car. (UK) You should help clean the car. (US) We ordered him to be followed. (UK) We ordered him followed. (US)

 

(b)  US English uses more subjunctive constructions in formal English:

 

He advised that we should be set free. (UK)

He advised that we be set free. (US)

It is necessary for you to be punished. (UK)

It is necessary that you be punished. (US)

 

(c)  Verb morphology is sometimes different:

 

dived (UK) dived/dove (US) got (UK) got/gotten (US) learnt (UK) learned (US)

 

The differences highlighted above are not absolute. Many young speakers in the UK now use constructions that their parents would have considered Americanisms.

See: GET, pronunciation, quasi-modal, spelling, UK and US words, UK English, US English, yet.

UK and US words

 

The many vocabulary differences between UK and US English can be categorised under three main headings:

1 Words which are known only in one country:

 

Oxbridge (pertaining to Oxford and Cambridge Universities) (UK)

panda car (police patrol car) (UK)

odometer (milometer) (US)

Phi Beta Kappa (academic fraternity) (US)

 

2 Words that have different meanings in the two countries:

 

chaps (UK men, US leggings)

vest (UK undergarment, US sleeveless garment) 3 Words that are widely recognised as being equivalent:

Autumn and Fall

candidature and candidacy centenary and centennial entitled and titled

firework and firecracker

 

The major semantic fields in which differences occur are: Business and Finance, Clothes, Education, Food and Drink, Household and Accommodation and Travel. Each of these has a separate entry.

 

 

 

UK English

 

The term United Kingdom comprehends England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. It is preferred in this book to Great Britain, which denotes the political union of England, Scotland and Wales only. The population of just over 56 million is more multicultural and multilingual than it has ever been, but, because the census forms do not ask questions about race, it is impossible to estimate how many ethnic minorities exist in Britain. There are, however, large settled communities (1% and above) of Gypsies, Indians, Pakistanis, Southern Irish and West Indians, as well as smaller communities of Chinese, Cypriots, Maltese and Poles.

There are more regional and social dialects in the UK than in any other part of the English-speaking world. Although education and the media are exerting a levelling

influence on the language of all, it is still possible with the majority of people to estimate their regional origin and their social standing from the way they speak. Each region has a spectrum of dialects. In Yorkshire, for example, thou/thee can occur as a marker of intimacy and as a means of indicating one’s superiority:

 

If thou thees me, I’ll thee thou and see how thou likest it.

 

the regular past progressive is:

 

I/you/he/she/it/they were stood

 

and vocabulary items such as:

 

anyroads (anyway)

bits and bobs (bits and pieces)

leyk (play)

 

are still widely used.

UK English is one of the two main varieties of world English. The standard language is the medium of education throughout the country and, although there is no standard pronunciation, RP (Received Pronunciation) is the most prestigious accent and the one that is used for national broadcasts and official announcements. RP is also a prestige norm in many countries which were previously part of the British Empire.

See: accent, Anglo-English, Anglo-Romani, Irish English, pronunciation, Scottish English, spelling, UK and US words, Welsh English, West Indian English.

 

 

 

Ulster Scots

 

Ulster Scots is a variety of Scottish English spoken in Northern Ireland. It is the mother tongue of many of the Ulster people whose ancestors came from Scotland. Like Scottish English, it is rhotic, uses fewer vowel contrasts than RP and uses /x/, a palatal fricative,

in such words as Augher                         and lough  The vocabulary of Ulster Scots is still recognisably Scottish:

 

chookie (chicken) dunt (thump) forby (as well as)

hallion (a clumsy fool)

neb (beak, nose and mouth)

The features that distinguish the grammar of Scottish English from other British varieties are found also in Ulster Scots. These include the use of the negator na/nae after the auxiliary:

 

He diznae know a parlour from a midden.

 

and the use of aye as an intensive:

 

She’s aye throughother. (She’s very untidy.)

 

The term Scotch Irish is used in the USA for people from Ulster.

See: Hiberno-English, Irish English, Scottish English.

 

 

 

understatement

 

Understatement is a type of irony in which something is deliberately described as being less than it really is. It is common in colloquial contexts:

 

It’s not half cold. (It’s extremely cold.)

I can live with it. (I like it a lot.)

 

In literary contexts, understatement is formally known as the rhetorical device of meiosis. Shakespeare uses it in Romeo and Juliet when Mercutio (Act 3 Scene 1) describes his wound:

 

…’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a churchdoor, but ’tis enough, ’twill serve…

 

See: irony, litotes, meiosis.

 

 

 

unique

 

Unique, from Latin unicus (unus=one), is not a gradable adjective. Logically, something cannot be more or less unequalled, and therefore expressions such as:

 

rather unique more unique most unique

very unique

 

are absurd. However, logic is not always adhered to in usage, and the increased occurrence of forms such as more unique suggests that its meaning is changing from ‘unequalled’ to ‘remarkable’ or ‘notable’. (A similar change affected singular.) Such a semantic shift could rob us of a useful distinction. We have many words for ‘notable’, few for ‘having no like or equal’, and consequently there is resistance to the change.

See: adjective, gradable.

 

 

 

universals of language

 

The fact that all languages are capable of being translated into all others suggests that, at some level, all human languages are similar. These similarities may be accounted for in terms of biology: all human beings seem to be predisposed to acquire a specific type of communication system. Support for a ‘biological blueprint’ may be found in the regularity of the onset of language and the speed with which mother tongues are  acquired. All children of whatever background pass through a number of maturational stages as they learn the language of their environment.

Human languages all share certain phonological, syntactic and semantic characteristics. They make use of vowels and consonants and of word order; they all allow discussion of past, present and future events; they all have methods of indicating singularity and plurality, location, possession and pronominal reference; they all have rules for deriving certain structures from others; and they all evince creativity.

Other types of linguistic universals have been suggested, including the notions that all languages have noun phrases and verb phrases, and that within languages there are certain types of probabilities. For example, if a language has the surface order:

 

Predicate+Subject+Object

 

it is likely that the adjective will follow the noun. Thus, in Gaelic, we find:

 

Chuala mé Seán.—I heard John. (Heard I John)

 

and:

 

Seán mór—Big John (John big)

 

If, however, the language patterns like English:

 

Subject+Predicate+Object

 

then it is likely that the adjective will precede the noun.

Most linguists agree that there are linguistic universals, but there is still debate as to their extent and exact specification.

See: acquisition of language, Behaviourism, transformational grammar.

 

 

 

US English

 

The United States of America is made up of 50 states and the District of Columbia. Its population of over 232 million makes it the largest English-speaking country in the world. As in the UK, there are many regional and social dialects, but a regional accent is less of a social stigma in the USA than in the UK and there is no accent which is as unmarked for regional origin as RP is in the UK.

There are three main speech areas in the USA:

1  eastern, which includes New England and New York

2    southern, which includes Alabama, Arkansas, the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia

3  General American, which includes the rest

Such divisions are to some extent arbitrary and oversimplified (many speakers from Texas, for example, have much more in common with speakers from Kentucky than they do with speakers from Hawaii), but they reflect patterns of settlement in the USA.

The most widely described accent is GAE (General American English) and this implies the accents of educated speakers throughout the USA, the accents used by national newscasters.

US English is one of the main varieties of English in the world. It is the most influential variety in parts of Central America and the Caribbean, South America, the Philippines, Liberia and Japan and its influence is being felt by most countries which watch US films or television, listen to Voice of America radio or read American publications.

See: Black English, pronunciation, spelling, UK and US grammar, UK and US words.

 

 

 

usage

 

As long as people continue to speak English, users will continue to worry about which

usages are correct and which are not. Often there is a simple answer:

 

between you and I

 

is incorrect because prepositions take the accusative form of the pronoun, thus:

between us between you and me between him and me from us from you and me from him and me

 

Occasionally, there is nothing linguistically wrong with an expression but it may be unacceptable because it is stylistically inappropriate. The idiom:

 

snuffed it

 

is as grammatically correct as:

 

died

 

but would not be acceptable in an expression of sympathy.

Words and phrases can come into the language because there is a need for them. An ummer is a useful term for a hesitant speaker, and most adults have been involved in a catch 22 situation. Such words and phrases are often criticised because they can be overused and reduced to the status of cliché.

Other items of language, borrowed phrases such as:

 

comme il faut (as it should be done)

infra dig (beneath one’s dignity)

verb sap (a word is enough to the wise)

 

are rarely criticised as ‘poor usage’ but when they are deliberately used to stress one’s educational background, they can be as unacceptable as slang.

See: ‘chestnuts’, cliché, purist, slang.

 

 

 

utterance

 

A distinction is frequently made between an utterance and a sentence. An utterance is a speech event. It is produced by a specific individual at a specific time and in certain circumstances. It is often defined as ‘a stretch of speech before and after which there is silence’, a definition that encompasses monosyllabic morphemes such as Sh! and lengthy monologues. It also includes language use such as the following:

 

I’m a not too clear a clear about you didn’t actually a specify you didn’t and I’m not clear what you said a meant really

 

which was uttered by an educated speaker without appreciable pause. Such utterances are often hard to transcribe because they do not follow the norms of the written language.

See: competence and performance, sentence, speech and writing.

Vanuatuan English

 

Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides) is a group of small islands in the southwest Pacific. Between 1897 and 1980 the islands were governed jointly by Britain and France, and English and French were the official languages. In 1980 Vanuatu with its population of 100,000 became the 44th member of the Commonwealth.

Although English and French were the official languages for over eighty years, the effective language of wider communication among islanders and expatriate settlers was Bislama, an English-related pidgin, similar in origin and form to Tok Pisin, the lingua franca of Papua New Guinea. Since independence, the three languages—English, French and Bislama—have been given official status and Bislama is widely used in commerce, government and international dealings. The norm for standard English is set by the local anglo-phone settlers, many of whom have been educated in Australia or New Zealand. Bislama is being expanded lexically and syntactically and is used for one-third of the items in the most widely-read local paper, Tam Tam:

Bill i pas blong mekim jenis

Paliamen hemi appruvum finis Bill blong jenisim samfala wod mo toktok insaed long Konstitusem.

Bill passed to make changes

Parliament has just approved a Bill to change some of the wording in the constitution.

 

See: Papua New Guinean English, pidgins and creoles.

 

 

 

variable

 

The word variable is used in three main ways in language studies:

1 Word classes in English are occasionally subdivided into those which are variable,

that is, capable of expressing distinctions by a change of form:

 

bad worse worst boy boys

build builds building built I me mine

and those which are invariable: and but

in on

 

2  Words are occasionally described as being free variables when they can substitute for each other in all or almost all contexts. Till and until are free variables:

 

Wait till/until I arrive.

3  William Labov used the term to apply to phonological, lexical and syntactic variation that correlated with class, style, age, sex, regional or religious background. For example, most speakers vary in their pronunciation of -ing forms. In rapid colloquial speech, many say walkin’ although they would use the more correct pronunciation if they were reading or talking formally. Equally, most speakers have a set of vocabulary items which would only be used in intimate circles and which might provide information on the user’s background. A New Yorker, for example, who spoke of boychik (lad) or kiddush (blessing) would be likely to be Jewish. Syntactic variables are also widespread. In a formal situation, speakers approximate to the standard norms:

 

I would have gone…

 

but the same speakers may use:

 

I would have went…

 

when they are not exercising conscious control over their performance.

The variability which is found at all levels of language and which usually corresponds to social differences can also help explain how and why languages change.

See: shibboleth, sociolinguistics.

variety

 

The term variety is used to mean a subdivision of a language. This subdivision may be regional (e.g. Appalachian English), occupational (e.g. medical English), sex-related (e.g. women’s language), stylistic (e.g. religious English) or may reflect the age of the speaker (a seventeen-year-old girl rarely sounds like a middle-aged woman). Because variety can comprehend such different subdivisions, from an entire dialect to occupationally- influenced vocabulary, many scholars avoid the term, preferring to use dialect for regional usage, register for socially-motivated styles and field for distinct subject matter.

See: dialect, register, style.

 

 

 

verb

 

A verb has traditionally been defined as a ‘doing’ word and, although this definition does not comprehend copula verbs:

 

She is a teacher.

He seemed tired.

 

it is often useful. A more adequate definition can be based on formal criteria. Verbs can change their form in response to subjects:

 

I/you/we/they sing he/she/it sings

 

time:

 

He sings every day.

He sang yesterday.

 

aspect:

 

He is singing.

He has sung.

 

voice:

 

He was singing.

It was sung.

 

and mood:

 

Sing!

If he sang tomorrow, he’d miss his flight.

 

Verbs can be subdivided in various ways:

1   They can be described in terms of the number of nominals with which they habitually occur. Verbs like ARRIVE, DIE, DISAPPEAR require only one nominal, in the subject slot:

 

John arrived.

Mary died.

 

These are called ‘one-place’ verbs and they are intransitive, that is, they do not take an object nor can they occur in a passive construction. Other verbs like ADD, KILL, SEE tend to require two nominals, a subject and an object:

 

The chef added the flour.

John killed Peter.

 

These are called ‘two-place’ verbs; they are transitive and can occur in passive constructions:

The flour was added (by the chef).

Peter was killed (by John).

 

A number of other verbs such as GIVE, MAKE, WRITE can require three nominals, a subject, a direct object and an indirect object:

 

John gave him the packet.

Mary made him his favourite meal.

 

These are called ‘three-place’ verbs; they are transitive and can occur in passive

transformations:

 

The packet was given to him (by John).

His favourite meal was made for him (by Mary).

 

Three-place verbs do not always need three nominals. WRITE, for example, frequently occurs with both one and two nominals:

 

John writes.

Mary writes stories.

 

although it might be argued that a direct and indirect object are always implicit.

2  A number of verbs such as BOIL, RING and OPEN appear to occur equally often with one and two nominals:

 

The water boiled. John boiled the water.

The bell rang. John rang the bell.

 

The term ergative (from a Greek verb meaning ‘cause’) is applied to the causative

relationship that exists between such pairs of sentences as:

 

The plate broke.

She broke the plate (i.e. caused the plate to break).

 

where the subject of an intransitive verb becomes the object of the same verb and a new subject is introduced as the agent or cause of the action.

3  Verbs may be either main (or lexical):

 

She sang and danced and had a wonderful time.

 

or auxiliary:

 

She can sing and should dance but she won’t.

4  Verbs may be either finite (requiring a subject) or non-finite (not taking a subject). The non-finite forms are the to infinitive, the present participle and the past participle:

 

to go

going gone

 

All other forms are finite:

 

(they) go

(he) goes (she) went

 

5  Verbs that take complements and not objects are known as copulas:

 

She is a teacher.

She felt a fool.

She looks nice.

She seems angry.

 

See: auxiliary, copula, dummy subject, ergative, gerund, modality, verb phrase.

 

 

 

verb phrase

 

The term verb phrase is used in three main ways in English:

1 It can refer to a main verb preceded by one or more auxiliaries:

 

(he) may watch

(he) may have been being watched

 

The pattern for such verb phrases is: Modal+HAVE+BE₁+BE₂+Headverb

a formula which may be interpreted as follows:

First position: Modal+base form of the following verb:

 

(he) may watch

 

Second position: HAVE+past participle of the following verb:

(he) has/had watched

 

Third position: BE+present participle of the following verb:

 

(he) is/was watching

 

Fourth position: BE+past participle of the following verb:

 

(he) is/was watched

 

with the maximum verb phrase containing four auxiliaries and one lexical verb.

Verb phrases may be finite:

 

(he) may have been watching

 

or non-finite:

 

having gone to be seen

 

2 It can refer to the verb+all that follows it in a sentence:

 

She sang.

She will sing a song.

She will attempt to sing that song tomorrow morning at nine o’clock.

 

This usage is particularly widespread in transformational accounts where ‘Sentence’ is defined as ‘Noun Phrase+Verb Phrase’.

3 It is often applied to phrasal verbs where a group of words functions like a single verb:

 

You won’t believe what he got up to (did) this time.

We ran into (met) each other yesterday. See: auxiliary, transformational grammar, verb.

 

 

verbosity

 

Verbosity, from Latin verbum (word), implies the use of more words than are necessary:

 

He crawled like a child on his hands and knees.

Verbosity is a common feature of speech but is less acceptable in writing. It is perhaps a comment on users of the language that we have many more terms for styles involving too many words than we have for styles that are spare.

See: circumlocution, periphrasis, pleonasm, redundancy, tautology.

 

 

 

vernacular

 

The term vernacular derives from Latin verna (slave). It is used to refer to: 1 the native language or nonstandard dialect of an area

2  languages without a writing system or written tradition

3  local varieties of a language, such as ‘the Liverpool vernacular’

 

 

 

vocabulary

 

The vocabulary of a language is a comprehensive list of the words that occur in it. Often, these words are arranged alphabetically in dictionaries, where definitions and etymologies are also supplied. The term is also applied to the stock of words used by a specific writer or group of speakers in a particular period. When applied to an individual, a distinction is usually made between:

1  an active vocabulary, that is, the words actually used

2   a passive vocabulary, which contains words that are understood but rarely used. Many language users would never say contumely or desuetude, for example (and may not even be certain of their pronunciation), but would recognise such words and might use them in writing.

See: dictionary, lexicography, lexicon.

 

 

 

voice

 

The word voice is used in two ways in descriptions of language.

1 It occurs in descriptions of verbs and sentences where a distinction is made between

active voice:

 

She bought the farm.

and passive voice:

 

The farm was bought (by her).

 

2 In phonetics, a distinction is made between:

(a)  voiced sounds such as vowels

(b)  voiced consonants such as /b, n, z/, which are produced while the vocal cords are vibrating

(c)  voiceless sounds such as /f, p, s/, which are produced without vibration of the vocal cords.

See: active voice, passive voice, phoneme, verb.

 

 

 

vulgarism

 

A vulgarism, from Latin vulgus (common people), is a word, phrase or expression that is stigmatised as coarse or substandard. These may vary with time: kid (child), sheila (female) and whatever (what ever) have been classified as vulgarisms although many speakers would now classify kid as colloquial.

The term vulgarism, as its etymology suggests, has frequently been associated with class distinctions and nonstandard usages such as:

 

I seen him.

You shoulda went.

 

Today, however, it is most frequently applied to any usage that is coarse, offensive or stylistically too colloquial for its context. The items in bold in the following sentences may be regarded as vulgarisms:

 

She told him to f—off.

They were determined to exclude yobbos and vandals. Both the definition and the etymology were way off beam.

 

See: barbarism, colloquial English, slang, taboo words.

 

 

wake

 

Many speakers are uncertain about which form of WAKE to use, mainly because there are four verbs (WAKE, AWAKE, WAKEN, AWAKEN) which have overlapping uses and meanings.

In UK and UK-influenced English, WAKE is an irregular verb with the past time form woke and the past participle woken:

 

I woke up suddenly.

He was woken by the noise.

 

In US English, the verb can be irregular, as in the UK, but there is a growing tendency for it to be regularised:

 

They waked us at noon.

 

The forms wake, woke and woken are still, however, the preferred forms throughout the world. WAKE can be used in both transitive and intransitive constructions:

 

I woke her (up) immediately.

He woke (up) at nine.

 

AWAKE is usually treated as an irregular verb (awoke, awoken) although some US speakers regularise it (awaked). It can also be used in transitive and intransitive constructions:

 

It awoke old, forgotten memories.

She awoke to find that he had gone.

 

As a verb, AWAKE is most frequently used in the past tense, but it also occurs as a predicative adjective:

 

It’s no use. I’m wide awake now!

They’re bound to be awake at this time.

 

WAKEN is a regular verb and shares with WAKE the meanings of ‘rouse someone from sleep’ and ‘be in an alert state’:

 

I tried to waken him.

 

WAKEN is often thought to be more literary than WAKE.

AWAKEN is a regular verb and is much less frequently used than the other verbs:

 

That noise would awaken the dead.

 

Like WAKEN it is often thought to be literary.

In certain parts of the world, WAKE can mean ‘keep a vigil over the dead’ and this WAKE is regular and transitive:

 

He was waked in his own home.

 

although the noun is probably more widely used than the verb, as in the following adage:

 

The sleep that knows no waking is followed by the wake that knows no sleeping.

 

See: a- words.

 

 

 

-ward, -wards

 

The use of final s with adjectives and adverbs ending in -ward is declining:

 

a backward glance

He looked forward not backward.

 

It is now more usual to use the forms without s as in:

 

backward forward homeward inward outward toward

 

Although the forms in -s are still acceptable, it seems likely that preference for -wards

will become a marker of region and/or age.

See: among, while.

 

 

 

well

 

The word well has many uses in English. It can be: 1 a noun:

They need to build artesian wells.

 

2  a verb:

 

The tears welled up.

 

3  a discourse marker:

 

Well, I just stood there.

 

4  an interjection often indicating disapproval:

 

Well! I wouldn’t have expected this.

 

or surprise:

 

Well! Well! Well! So that’s what you’ve been up to!

 

5  an adverb, with better and best as comparative and superlative forms:

 

He is well dressed now but he used to be the best dressed man in town.

 

6  an adjective, with better and as its comparative form:

 

He’s not well today but may be better tomorrow.

 

Well is widely used as a predicative adjective:

 

I’m very well, thank you.

 

but is quite rare in attributive position:

 

He’s not a well man.

 

See: adjective, adverb.

 

 

 

Welsh English

 

The Celts now known as the Welsh (Wealh is an Old English word meaning ‘Celt, Briton, foreigner’) occupy an area in the south-west of Britain, although Welsh-derived place names are found to the south in Cornwall, and to the north in Cumbria and

Scotland, suggesting that Welsh speakers were once more widespread throughout the  UK. Almost all of the 2.75 million people in Wales have a good command of English, although as many as half a million have Welsh as a mother tongue and so speak English as a second language. As one might expect, therefore, the English spoken by many in Wales is strongly influenced by Welsh.

 

 

Phonology

 

1   The intonation of Welsh, where the voice often rises for the second syllable of a disyllabic word, is carried over into Welsh English (WE), causing lilting, sing-song patterns.

2  Assimilation and elision are frequent with his song being realised as   and with That’s wrong, then being heard as

3  WE has fewer diphthongs and more monophthongs than RP. In particular,   is often realised as /e/ and   as /o/.

4   

The  sound   as  in  situation   is often realised as /u/, thus

5  WE is non-rhotic.

6  The consonants /t, d, n, l, s, z/ are often dental and not alveolar.

7  The voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ are strongly aspirated and the fricatives /f, s/ are also aspirated when they occur at the beginning of a word.

8   WE has a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative  which occurs in words such as Llangollen. (Non-Welsh speakers can approximate to this sound by saying hlan+goh+hlin.)

9   WE has a voiceless alveolar roll   in place names beginning with Rh such as

Rhondda. (To approximate to the pronunciation, one can say hron+dha.)

10  Unvoiced medial vowels tend to be lengthened so that chapel sounds like chap+pel

and pity like pit+ty.

 

 

Vocabulary

 

The influence of Welsh on the vocabulary of English has not been fully explored. Among the well-known borrowings are:

 

bard

cog (part of a wheel)

cromlech (megalithic tomb)

eisteddfod (festival, plural eisteddfodau) penguin (head+white)

More pervasive than borrowings is the use of Welsh names, such as Bronwen, Gladys, Glyn, Gwen(llian), Gwyn, Megan, Olwyn, Owen, and the Welsh formula for surnames ap+father’s name has produced Bevan (ap Evan), Powell (ap Howell), Price (ap Rees) and Pugh (ap Hugh).

Influence from Welsh can be seen also in the use of the address term bach: Need your rest, bach.

which is sometimes replaced by boy: Need your rest, boy.

and in informal or intimate contexts by boyo: Need your rest, boyo!

Again, as in Welsh, the term stranger can be used for any outsider, even one from the next village:

 

You’re like us, boy—don’t like strangers.

 

 

Grammar

 

The ways in which the syntax of WE differs from other types of UK English depends on the degree of influence from Welsh. Nevertheless, the following characteristics are found in the English of the majority of people in Wales.

1 An extensive use of well as a preface to an answer:

 

Well, beats me.

 

2  In informal speech the subject pronoun and the auxiliary are often deleted:

 

[I] Could manage it with you, Parry. Couldn’t do it without help. [Do you] Need help, boy?

[You have] Earned it, boy.

 

3  The filler look you occurs frequently in conversations and explanations:

 

It’s hard work, look you.

Everyone stayed out, look you, because miners got to stick together.

 

4  The structure ‘There’s+adjective+now’ often occurs:

 

There’s happy now. (We/they/you are content now.)

See: Celtic influences.

 

 

West African English

 

West Africa comprises fourteen countries, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, and has a population approaching 140 million. English is an official language in Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon and is the most widely-taught second language of the other eight countries. In spite of the multilingualism of the area (with over 1,000 indigenous languages) and five different colonial legacies (British, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish), there is a homogeneity about all the varieties used. This is because the mother tongues of West Africa have many phonological and syntactic similarities, and because there is a chain of mutually-intelligible coastal pidgins and creoles from Gambia to Gabon which influences the English of the region.

The main types of English spoken in the region are:

(a)  the English of expatriates (mainly American, British, Dutch, Indian and Lebanese)

(b)  Standard West African English (always a second language)

(c)  the mother-tongue creoles of Liberia (Merico) and Sierra Leone (Krio) and of the Krio-speaking settlers in Gambia, Nigeria, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea

(d)  the pidgin Englishes of the coastal regions and of many urban communities

(e)  broken English

The variety described here is (b) because it is the language of prestige and advancement and the variety most frequently used by the media.

 

 

Phonology

 

1 Standard West African English (SWAE) is non-rhotic. 2 There are no central vowels or centring diphthongs:

 

better is realised as /beta/ bird is realised as /bed/ but is realised as /bet/ here is realised as /hia/ fire is realised as /faia/ glare is realised as /glea/

 

3  There are fewer vowel contrasts than in RP with a strong tendency to realise:

 

beat and bit as /bit/

hat and heart as /hat/

4  The narrow diphthongs in gate and goat tend to be monophthongised to /get/ and /got/.

5            /θ, ð/ tend to be replaced by /t, d/:

 

thief is frequently /tif/ and father is /fada/

 

6  Intrusive vowels are introduced into word-initial consonant clusters:

 

straight is frequently /setret/

 

and word-final clusters are often reduced:

 

sand is frequently /san/

 

 

Vocabulary

 

1 Each area has its own set of lexical items, especially those drawn from local languages, but the following words are widely used throughout the region:

 

akara (beancake)

balance (small change)

branch at (stop off at, go via)

bush (remote place, outlandish, primitive)

chop (food, eat)

danshiki (type of shirt)

dash (tip, something for nothing)

fufu (pounded yam/corn)

juju (magic, witchcraft) 2 Many local idioms occur:

be in state (be pregnant)

enstool (instal a chief)

have long legs (have influence)

 

3 In francophone zones, many French words are adapted into English including:

 

dossier (CV, file)

mission (trip)

titularize (confirm, establish)

 

 

Grammar

 

Many West Africans speak and write standard international English but many also use constructions which are common to many non-native users of English. These include:

1 problems with articles:

 

I bought one fine car.

There was series of rehearsals.

 

2  the tendency to use uncountable nouns as countable:

 

Furnitures are now being manufactured in Accra.

 

3  problems with tense and modals:

 

I have gone to Jos two years ago.

You would (i.e. will) please buy this book for me.

 

4  nonstandard phrasal verbs:

 

She has taken in. (become pregnant)

I can’t voice out my real opinion.

 

5  the use of is it/isn’t it/not so as universal tags:

 

You are tired, isn’t it?

You did your best, not so?

 

In all the anglophone countries of West Africa, the indigenous languages are being studied and described, but English is the chosen language for advertising, the civil service, education, government, the media and much local literature.

See: African English, Cameroon English, Nigerian English, pidgins and creoles.

 

 

 

West Indian English

 

The term West Indian English is used to refer to two related phenomena: 1 the spectrum of Englishes found in the Caribbean

2 a similar spectrum found in Britain and, to a lesser extent, in Canada, among people of West Indian origin

The spectrum ranges from creole English, through creole-influenced English to standard English with regional accents. West Indians in the Caribbean and Canada are increasingly influenced by US norms, whereas West Indians in Britain reflect British standards and conventions.

Many West Indians speak and write standard English but working-class communities still show influences from Caribbean creoles. Among such influences are the tendencies to:

1 substitute t and d for /θ, ð/ producing:

 

tin for thin and den for then

 

2  palatalise g and k producing:

 

gyaadin for garden and kyat for cat

 

3  substitute n for ng in present participles:

 

dancin’ singin’ waitin’

 

4  simplify consonant clusters at the end of syllables:

 

yesterday>yesaday band>ban

 

This tendency frequently results in the past tense of regular verbs sounding like the unmarked verb form:

 

banned>ban laughed>laugh screamed>scream

 

5  use vocabulary items which refer specifically to West Indian food:

 

calalu (green vegetable) or culture:

nancy (spider hero of many tale cycles)

 

or which indicate the influence of African languages:

 

nyam (eat)

 

6  use intonation to distinguish between statements and questions:

You got trouble?

 

and between can and can’t:

 

Di teacher doan seem to know dat di chile kyaan unnastan. (can’t understand)

 

7  do without BE as both copula and auxiliary:

 

She a fine scholar.

We happy most of the time.

 

8  use serial verbs:

 

Take de ting go now.

 

West Indians, like other groups, reflect the speech patterns of their environment and their peers. In Britain, many West Indians continue to live in mainly West Indian communities, thus reinforcing West Indian speech patterns.

See: Caribbean English, creole, pidgins and creoles.