disinterested, uninterested
Interested has a variety of related
meanings, two of which are sometimes confused. One relates to personal
advantage, profit and partiality:
He admitted
that he was a director of the company under discussion and was thus an interested party.
This use of interested is negated by dis-:
He is not a disinterested judge,
because his brother is one of the contestants.
The other
meaning of interested relates to
something that attracts attention or excites curiosity:
I was even
more interested in sport when I was
young.
This use is
negated by un-:
He was utterly
uninterested in what was going on.
Disinterested is often mistakenly used
for the second meaning—so often, in fact, that it may in time become the
acceptable form. For the present, however, it is advisable to distinguish
between the uses.
See: problem pairs.
dissertation
The terms for
written pieces of academic research or exposition differ slightly between the
UK and the USA:
UK USA
c. 3,000 words essay report, essay
c. 10,000 words long essay, paper thesis submission for doctorate thesis dissertation
although the
terms dissertation and thesis are relatively interchangeable in
both countries, implying a sustained piece of research.
Many of the conventions for academic writing are given under headings
such as argument and typescript, but certain practices are
peculiar to the essay, thesis or dissertation and certain procedures are thus
advisable.
1
Find out about the regulations for binding
(hard, soft, none) and colour, and follow the instructions of your institution
concerning length, number of copies and acceptable methods of duplication. Also
check the local conventions for the wording on the cover and title page.
2
The Preface
follows the title page, and contains any essential preliminary remarks
about the dissertation and acknowledges any debts (e.g. to a supervisor). If
there is more than one page to the preface, these pages should be numbered in
small roman numerals (i, ii, iii) at the top right-hand corner. The preface
should be as brief and simple as possible.
3
The Contents
should follow the preface (on a separate page), numbered consecutively in
roman numerals. Close to the left-hand margin, list the title of each section,
chapter and major subsection within a chapter, as well as all appendices. Close
to the right-hand margin, give the page number (arabic numerals) for each title
in the list.
4
The Abstract should follow the table of
contents, continuing the sequence of roman numerals.
5
The first page of text should begin the
sequence of arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) that continues to the end of the bibliography. The text should be in
double spacing, but within the text all indented quotations should be in single spacing. Acceptable conventions for
endnotes and footnotes should be
checked. (Footnotes are more difficult to type.) Footnotes should be in single
spacing at the bottom of the page to which each note refers. Endnotes are typed
at the end of each chapter or together at the end of the text, and should be in
single spacing with a double space between each note.
6 An Appendix should be included only if its
material does not fit logically or easily into the text itself and it should
not be regarded as a’rag-bag’ for a badly organised dissertation. Appropriate
material for an appendix would be a set of texts needed for the verification of
claims made in the dissertation or the details of an experiment from which only
some results have been drawn for the main argument of the dissertation.
7
The Bibliography
should come at the end of all text including appendices or endnotes and
should be in double spacing. A decision must be made on the author-title or
author-date system, as this choice will have a direct bearing on the format of
references and footnotes. A bibliography should normally consist of a single
list organised alphabetically according to the last name of the authors.
8 Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum,
so that the text and notes are readily interpretable. Among the appropriate
scholarly abbreviations are:
cf. confer=compare
ed., eds. editor(s)
e.g. exempli
gratia=for example (e.g. is usually preceded by a comma)
et al. et alii=and others (authors)
ff. following,
pp. 22ff (Be more precise if possible.) fig. figure
ibid. ibidem=in
the same place (used for title already cited in note immediately above)
i.e. id est=that
is (preceded and followed by a comma; use ‘that is’ wherever possible.)
l., ll. line(s), e.g. ll. 22–3
MS., MSS. manuscript(s)
n.d. no date
n.p. no place of publication
p., pp. page(s), e.g. pp. 23–4
Pseud. pseudonym
sc. scene
Sic thus; used
with brackets as an editorial comment Trans. translator, translation, translated
viz. videlicet=namely (use ‘namely’ wherever possible)
vol., vols. volume(s)
9
The style of a dissertation should suit its
audience. In relation to other styles, it is fairly formal. Some commentators
have urged that first person pronouns should be avoided and passive voice preferred. However,
whereas excessive use of ‘I’ may be egocentric or stylistically repetitive, it
is unacceptable to be forced to refer to one’s own contributions to knowledge
(the main purpose of the thesis) in terms that imply either that the facts are
well established or that the agent is unknown or insignificant. The best policy
is to use first person references to highlight those parts of the research
where the writer claims an innovation or a new
interpretation.
10 It may
be useful to organise the text into numbered subsections. For example, all
sections of Chapter Two could begin with the number 2, followed by a full stop
and the number of the section, and perhaps a further full stop and subsection.
Thus 2.2.1 would indicate Chapter 2, second section, first subsection. Such
numbering allows for easy cross-references that do not depend on knowing the
page numbers of the final typescript. This system of numbering should be kept
as simple and logical as possible, and the numbers should also precede the
titles in the table of contents:
Chapter Two The Poetry of Yeats 38
2.1
The Early Verse 41
2.1.1
The Early Lyrics 42
This numbering
system has two additional advantages: it helps the writer to organise the
material, deciding on the relative importance of ideas and arguments; and it
allows the reader to locate sections in a dissertation that lacks the signposts
we have in books (such as an index or the chapter title on each page).
See: abbreviations, abstract, bibliography, footnotes, typescript.
DO
DO can occur as a dummy
auxiliary and as a full verb.
DO as a dummy auxiliary—DO has been called the dummy auxiliary when it has formal significance but little semantic
value. It can be classified as follows:
1 DO occurs when no other auxiliary
is present to allow:
(a)
the formation of interrogative sentences:
You like it.
Do you like it?
(b) the
formation of negatives:
You like it.
You don’t like it.
(c) the
formation of tag questions:
You like it,
don’t you?
You don’t like it, do you?
(d) the
occurrence of emphatic affirmation or denial:
You don’t like it. I do.
You like it. I don’t.
(e) comparisons
in US English:
They have a bigger garden
than we do.
2
DO triggers off the base form of the following verb:
Does she sing?
and, like the modals, it does
not occur in non-finite constructions:
*to do sing
*doing sing *done sing
3
DO exhibits past/non-past contrasts:
Does she sing?
Did she sing?
and agrees with its subject in
non-past sentences:
I/you/we/they do know. He/she/it does know.
DO as a head
verb—DO can
occur as a head verb:
I do my best.
They did their best work in
the twenties.
When used as a head verb, DO
needs the dummy auxiliary in the formation of interrogatives:
Did she do her
best?
negatives:
They didn’t do
as much as they should have.
and emphatic assertion or
denial:
They did do their best.
They certainly didn’t do their best.
See: auxiliary, dummy subject, modality,
prime verbs.
doublespeak
The word doublespeak, coined
on analogy with George Orwell’s ‘Newspeak’, is the term used to
describe language that is intended to conceal rather than reveal information.
It is, for example, applied to the warnings on cigarette packets which say:
Smoking can
seriously damage your health.
(where the
‘can’ implies that it might not) instead of the more accurate:
Smoking has
been shown to contribute to cancer and heart and lung disease.
Doublespeak
(occasionally also doubletalk) is a
means of promoting a cause, whether political, commercial or ideological, by
manipulating language. For example, a common answer by politicians to the
question:
What are you
going to do about unemployment?
is:
This is a very
serious problem and one that we are deeply concerned about.
Such an answer
avoids responsibility or blame, claims interest but does not commit anyone to
doing anything.
One form of
doublespeak relates to the use of unwarlike vocabulary in descriptions of war
and weapons:
the theatre (of war) cruise (a missile) fat man (a weapon)
See: euphemism,
gobbledygook, jargon, Newspeak.
due to, owing to
There are some strong
prejudices associated with the use of due
to and owing to. According to purists, due to should be used only adjectivally, as a nominal complement which follows the noun it
relates to:
The delay was due to snow on the runway.
Her success will be due to her upbringing.
Owing to should be restricted in
function to phrases acting as adverbials:
Owing to the accident, train services
will be disrupted.
There will be
a delay, owing to the late arrival
of BA623.
There is no
logical or linguistic reason for categorising due to and owing to in
the way we have described. Nor is there any logical or culinary reason for
preferring a fish fork to an ordinary fork when eating fish. Both are a matter
of imposed convention.
See: ‘chestnuts’, purist.
dummy subject
Occasionally,
elements that are functionally significant but semantically negligible are
introduced into sentences in English. These are known as dummy elements. The most frequently-used dummy is DO as in:
Do you want
it?
There are two dummy subjects, it and there, in such sentences as:
It’s a lovely
day.
There are
three twos in six.
Not all uses
of subject it are dummy, as is clear if we contrast:
That lion is
six years old. It (It=the lion) was born in
captivity.
with:
It’s going to
rain. (It=?)
When there is used as a subject, it is almost always a dummy element. It
can, however, have locative implications in such sentences as:
There’s
the quotation we wanted. See: anaphora, auxiliary, DO, subject.
dyad
The word dyad comes from Greek dyo (two). It is used in stylistic
analysis to refer to pairs of words that habitually collocate:
by hook or by crook might and main
Dyads (also
known as doubles) occur frequently in
bilingual communities where they are an easy way of ensuring understanding.
Many developed in English after the Norman Conquest and some survive:
full and
plenty (Middle English full+Norman French plenté=
full)
goods and chattels (ME god+NF chatel=property)
A number of
writers from the fifteenth century onwards have used dyads as a stylistic
device and the technique was further ingrained in the language by the use of
such phrases in the Bible as:
And Jesus spoke to the multitude saying… And he waxed and grew strong.
It seems
probable that such stylistic embellishment was a development of the use of
dyads in post-Norman times.
Dyads may be adjectives:
hale and
hearty
adverbs:
well and truly
nouns:
with a heart and a hand
and verbs:
aided and abetted
See: cognate, euphuism.
dynamic
Verbs in English are often subdivided into those which can, and
usually do, occur in the
progressive:
I am dancing
and singing and enjoying myself.
and are frequently used in imperative structures:
Sing, dance and enjoy
yourself.
These verbs are called dynamic.
A second type
of verb, often referred to as stative,
essive or static, rarely occurs
in the progressive or the imperative:
I am tired. not *I am being tired. *? Be tired.
I have a cold. not *I am having a cold. *? Have a cold.
I like you. not *I am liking you. *? Like me. I see you. not *I am seeing you. *? See me.
Among the commonest stative verbs
are: BE, HAVE, RESEMBLE, and verbs
of liking (LOVE), mental processes (REMEMBER, THINK) and perception (HEAR,
SEE).
Most verbs
in English can occur with and without progressive aspect. When dynamic verbs are used in a non-progressive way, they
imply regular or habitual activity:
I go to work
on the bus (i.e.
usually).
I am going to work on the
bus (i.e.
on this occasion).
Stative verbs
used without the progressive do not imply regular or habitual activity:
I like you (i.e. at the moment).
I remember you (i.e. now).
Verbs of
perception co-occur with can when
they imply that the activity is taking place at a particular moment:
I can hear
you.
I can see you.
The term dynamic is used in sociolinguistic research to describe models of languages which
attempt to illustrate the variation that exists and the changes that are taking
place in a speech community at a
particular time.
See: aspect, fad words, stative and dynamic, verb.
dyslexia
Dyslexia derives from Greek dys (bad)+lexis (word, speech) and is the technical term for a disability
known also as ‘word blindness’. It manifests itself early in a child’s life:
in his
or her inability to differentiate between p and 9, or b and d or any of the other letters
which are
similar in shape; or in an inability to remember the ordering of letters in a
word, causing a child to write or spell the
as hte, for example.
No one is certain how many children are affected by this problem,
although the frequently-cited figure of ten percent is probably an
underestimate. The danger is that children who confuse sets of letters and
habitually misspell words will be considered unintelligent, whereas they seem
to have visual problems associated with shapes, comparable to but not necessarily
related to colour blindness.
See: aphasia.
each
Each can
be used as a determiner:
Each man was
supplied with a uniform.
and as a pronoun:
Each had a map of
the area.
When each is used as a pronoun, it takes a
singular verb:
Each chooses his
own gift.
In speech,
pronominal each is almost invariably
followed by of them:
Each of them has been given
a month’s salary.
Some
authorities insist on distinguishing between each other and one another, claiming
that the first relates to only two:
John and Mary love each other.
and the
second to more than two:
John, Paul and
Damian love one another.
It would be
extremely hard to support such a claim from contemporary usage.
See: all, determiner.
East African English
East Africa includes nine countries
(Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Somalia, Djibouti, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and
Tanzania) and has a population of just under 120 million, although only a
minority can speak English. Contact with English goes back to the late
sixteenth century, but it was not until the nineteenth century that a large
community of English-speaking expatriates settled in the area. Many of these
settler families have remained in Kenya and this nucleus of mother-tongue
English speakers has been reinforced in the present century by expatriates on
short-term contracts.
Pidgin English did not develop in East Africa because Swahili (also
called ‘Kiswahili’) already existed as a viable lingua franca throughout the area. Indeed, Swahili has replaced
English as an official language and a medium of primary education in Tanzania.
Five main types of English can be
distinguished in East Africa:
(a) mother-tongue English
(b) Standard
East African English, the variety used by educated East Africans
(c) Standard
East African English as spoken by Asians
(d) Arabic/Portuguese/Swahili-influenced
English
(e)
broken East African English.
Our
description will focus on (b) since this is the prestigious norm for most East
Africans.
Phonology
1 Standard East African English (SEAE) is
non-rhotic.
2 There are
fewer vowel contrasts in SEAE than in Received
Pronunciation, with little distinction being made between the vowels in:
leave and live (usually
/i/)
gnat and net (usually
/e/)
far and for and
fore (usually /a/)
pool and pull (usually /u/)
3 Diphthongs tend to be
monophthongised. This is particularly true of /ei/ which is usually realised as
/e/ so that laid and led are often indistinguishable.
4 The
consonants /b/ and /v/ are often devoiced, especially in word-final position,
so that tab sounds like tap and have like half.
5 The
initial consonants in thin and then (that is /θ/ and /ð/) are realised
as /s/ and /z/ or /t/ and /d/.
6 Consonant clusters such as str-, -nst and -ns
tend to be split up:
straight>/setret/ against>/egenest/
dispence> 
Vocabulary
Apart from
the vocabulary found in all international varieties of English we find: 1 words
from local languages, some limited to East Africa:
chitenge—cloth cover
reaching from waist to ankle
panga—machete pole—empathy formula shamba—farm
and others well-known outside
East Africa:
bwana—sir
safari—journey uhuru—freedom
2
calques from local languages:
clean heart—pure
dry coffee—coffee without milk or
sugar
hear—hear, feel, experience
3
English words with extended local meanings:
borrow—lend
duty—occupation mono—first-year student overlisten—eavesdrop
refuse—deny
Grammar
The syntax is derived from and
very similar to Standard English in the UK. The main differences occur in:
1 the use of phrasal verbs. Sometimes the preposition is omitted as
in:
leave for
leave out
pick for
pick up
or new phrasal verbs are coined:
come with (bring): Come with that box. stay
with (keep): I’ll stay with this one.
2
There is a strong tendency to answer
questions such as:
Isn’t John in?
with ‘Yes’, if the implication
is:
What you have
said is correct. John is not in.
and with ‘No’, if the
implication is:
What you have
said is wrong. John is in.
3
‘Is it/isn’t it?’ are the most frequently
used question tags:
You didn’t go,
is it?
You said so, isn’t it?
4 Many
speakers use ‘enjoy’ without a reflexive pronoun:
It’s a wonderful party. I’m
really enjoying.
See: African English, Kenyan English,
Southern African English, Ugandan English.
-ed forms
Often the term -ed form is used as a brief description
of past tense forms in the English verb. This is because many regular verbs
form their past tense by adding -ed:
arm armed book booked
brand branded
It will be noticed that the term is derived from spelling and pays no
attention to pronunciation in that the three endings above are pronounced /d/, /t/ and
respectively.
Like the verbs from which they derive, adjectives ending in -ed are
normally pronounced /d/ after a vowel or a voiced consonant:
freed (the freed hostages) heightened (heightened tension)
/t/ after a
voiceless consonant:
dressed
and 
after a d or a t:
raided rated
The 
pronunciation can sometimes seem
redundant. This may explain why verbs such as FIT and WET have lost their -ed endings in certain regions and why
many verbs ending in -t or -d (BET, BURST, CAST, COST, CUT, HIT,
HURT, LET, PUT, QUIT, SET, SHUT, SLIT, SPLIT, THRUST, UPSET, RID, SHED, SPREAD)
either do not take
-ed endings or are in the
process of losing them. A few other adjectives also have 
forms:
aged (an aged man) blessed
(that blessed day)
crooked (a crooked game) dogged (dogged
determination) jagged (a jagged outline) learned
(my learned friend)
naked (a naked infant) ragged (a ragged beggar) rugged (rugged
country) wicked
(a wicked plot) wretched (a wretched individual)
A number of
the forms above can be verbs:
He aged ten years in that one night.
He blessed the wine.
She crooked
her little finger. She learned easily.
and their -ed endings
are not pronounced
Our orthography
does not usually distinguish between the adjective crooked 
and the verb 
and this can sometimes lead to
unintentional ambiguity as when a correspondent to the Daily Mirror (27 June, 1984) wrote on the subject of the Queen’s
appearance:
The Queen’s
hats don’t upset me, either… It’s the large, old-fashioned handbag she always
carries on her crooked arm that irritates me.
The -ed
ending is sometimes given a stress in poetry to complete a metrical pattern:
Thy bosom is
endearéd with all hearts Which I by lacking have supposéd dead…
Shakespeare, Sonnet 31
It is possible
that the pronunciation of the -ed endings of certain adjectives may have been
reinforced by the set of adjectives which derive from Latin and end in -id.
Among such adjectives are:
acrid horrid lucid lurid morbid pallid rancid torrid
A
number of adverbs
also have the -ed pronounced as The most widely used of these
are:
allegedly
assuredly supposedly resignedly resolvedly
See: accent marks, -ed/-t forms, -en forms.
-ed, -t forms
In US English, a number of verbs including
BURN, DREAM, LEAN, LEAP, LEARN, SMELL, SPELL, SPILL and SPOIL are treated as
regular, forming their past tense and past participle forms by adding -ed:
Don’t burn yourself.
He burned his
finger.
He has burned his finger.
In UK and
UK-influenced English this usage is gaining in popularity but it is still
correct to have:
He burnt his finger.
He has burnt his finger.
and a number of
users distinguish between the forms, using burned
for the past tense and burnt for
the past participle. It is likely that the US usage which treats the verb as
regular will gradually be accepted internationally.
In
contemporary usage, the following system prevails:
UK and
UK-influenced US and US-influenced dream/dreamt~dreamed/dreamt
dream/dreamed/dreamed lean/leant~leaned/leant lean/leaned/leaned
learn/learnt~learned/learnt learn/learned/learned
smell/smelt/smelt smell/smelled/smelled
spell/spelt~spelled/spelt spell/spelled/spelled
spill/spilt~spilled/spilt spill/spilled/spilled
spoil/spoiled~spoilt/spoilt spoil/spoiled/spoiled
There is a
tendency in UK-influenced usage to select the -t endings when the verb is to be taken literally:
I dreamt all night.
I leant against the post.
and the -ed endings when the verb is used
metaphorically:
He dreamed of peace and
brotherhood. He leaned on me to
repay the money.
See: -ed forms, irregular verb, UK and US grammar.
education
Many of the
descriptive terms used in education in the UK and the USA differ, often in ways
which can cause confusion to outsiders. The differences may be found at all
levels so that a pupil at a playschool in the UK may be a student at a nursery school in the USA. The main differences are:
UK USA
class, form grade
primary school grade
school
public
school private school secondary school high school state school public school technical college junior
college
university college/university 1st year undergraduate freshman
2nd year
undergraduate sophomore 3rd year undergraduate junior
4th year
undergraduate senior postgraduate graduate
staff faculty
lecturer assistant professor
senior lecturer associate professor
reader associate professor
professor senior/full professor curriculum vitae/C.V.
résumé, C.V.
essay paper, report, essay
homework assignment
long essay, paper thesis
maths math
supervisor adviser, mentor thesis/dissertation dissertation/thesis
See: Americanism,
Anglicism, graduate, UK and US words, UK English, US English.
effective, effectual, efficacious, efficient
As with many words with related
forms and overlapping meanings, there is sometimes confusion regarding the use
of these four adjectives. All relate to effect
or result.
Effective is applied to someone or
something that can produce a satisfactory result or solve a problem:
He’s our most effective teacher.
All his students do well.
Her technique for preventing rust is very effective.
Effectual is applied to an action that fulfils its purpose or to a
person capable of producing a desired effect:
The talks were effectual
in ending the strike.
He could hardly be described as effectual:
he had wonderful ideas but never achieved anything.
Efficacious is applied to something
(usually a medicine) sure to produce a desired effect:
It is not well
known that pepper in warm milk is an efficacious
remedy for hay fever.
Efficient is applied to people and instruments that function well:
She is highly efficient: she knows exactly where
every file is and what is in it.
This particular engine does
not make efficient use of oil.
See: problem pairs.
Egyptian English
Throughout the
nineteenth century, France and the UK vied for power in Egypt, especially after
the building of the Suez Canal in 1869. UK influence increased in Egypt
throughout the last quarter of the nineteenth century and Egypt was declared a
British Protectorate in 1914. Egypt became a sovereign state again in 1922 but
the English language continued to be used as an important medium in commerce,
education, government and the media. The prestige of the English language
diminished in 1956, when for a short time the UK and Egypt were at war, but the
value of English as an international lingua
franca has ensured that, after Arabic, English is the most widely taught
language in the country, whose population is just under 45 million.
See: North African English.
