acronym

Abbreviations that are pronounced as if they were words are called acronyms, the word deriving from Greek acr(o)=topmost point, beginning+onyma=name. Thus IATA (International Air Transport Association) is an acronym and the UN (United Nations) is not. Acronyms are formed by selecting the initial letters of all words necessary to produce a pronounceable word, even if this means including a preposition:

AFASE—Association for Applied Solar Energy

ASH—Action on Smoking and Health

laser—Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation Occasionally, to aid pronunciation, two letters or a syllable will be selected:

LASSO—Laser Search and Secure Observer

radar—Radio Detecting and Ranging

quango—Quasi-autonomous non-goveramental organisation

and, as radar and quango illustrate, they are written with lower case letters when they are adopted into the language as meaningful words in their own right.

A large number of acronyms, perhaps the majority, relate to the military or to national security:

NATO—North Atlantic Treaty Organisation SAM—Surface-to-Air Missile START—Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

but a number are also deliberately lighthearted:

POPE—People Opposing Papal Edicts

POSSLQ—Person of opposite sex sharing living quarters

Acronyms are usually regarded as proper nouns and where they are written with upper case letters they are used without articles. The more widely used they are the more likely are they to become indistinguishable in their use from ordinary common nouns.

The distinction between acronyms and abbreviations is not clear cut. There is no infallible means of determining what is a set of letters and what is a word, although pronunciation is the most reliable guide. Often, too, an abbreviation can become an acronym. UFO (Unidentified Flying Object), for example, is often regarded as an abbreviation but UFO enthusiasts pronounce it ‘yufo’, possibly analogising from ‘info’, and have coined the term ‘ufology’ (the study of unidentified flying objects). Because most acronyms are also coinages, their status as words often depends on analogy with an existing word whose pronunciation they mimic.

See: abbreviations, clipping, coinage, word formation.

active voice

In traditional grammars, English verbs were classified according to tense, voice and

mood, largely because such distinctions were relevant to Latin verbs. The sentences:

Julie arrived.

and:

Julie fed the chickens.

are described as active and:

The chickens were fed (by Julie).

as passive.

Active voice is thus the term used to categorise sentences, clauses and verb phrases where the subject of the sentence is the agent or instigator of the action. It is thus frequently associated with the pattern:

actor/agent NP₁+action VP+(goal/recipient NP₂)

whereas passive sentences have the structure: NP₂+form of BE+past participle of V+(by+NP₁)

where ‘by+NP₁’ is optional.

The pattern of active constructions is closely related to the basic sentence order of English:

Subject+Predicate+(Object)+(Complement)+(Adjunct)

as in:

They elected him president yesterday.

and is most frequently found in speech and in contexts where the emphasis is on the agent. They are called active because the subject of the verb usually performs the action. We can contrast the different emphases in the following:

John broke the plates.

The plates were broken (by John). The plates broke.

Although all English verbs can occur in an active construction:

John wrote that book.

and also:

John arrived.

John died.

John resembled his father.

only the first sentence can be transformed into the passive:

That book was written by John.

This is because arrive and die do not take objects and are thus barred from a transformation which involves transferring the object to the subject position. Resemble is barred for a different reason. ‘John’ is not an agent in the sentence:

John resembled his father.

in the sense that no action of his brought about the resemblance.

Traditional treatments of active and passive voice suggest that all transitive verbs (i.e. verbs which can take an object) can be passivised, but the example of resemble above shows that this generalisation does not always apply. It is true that intransitive verbs cannot occur in the passive but many transitive verbs (including endure, enjoy and suffer) often seem to be barred semantically from occurring in passive transformations.

The simplest generalisation we can make about active voice is a formal one: all sentences which are not of the form:

NP+BE+past participle of V (+ by NP) are active.

See: case grammar, ergative, passive voice, transformations, verb phrase.

address and reference

The linguistic forms by which we address and refer to one another are not simply conventional but also reveal our attitudes towards the people concerned. Most Indo- European languages preserve second person pronominal distinctions (usually referred to as T and V from Latin tu=you singular and vos=you plural), allowing the users to imply such attitudes as respect, intimacy, formality or condescension. Such distinctions still existed in the pronouns of Middle English, enabling Chaucer to use thou and you in a variety of contexts. Thou could be used as a means of addressing:

1 one person

2 an addressee who was socially inferior 3 an intimate friend

4 a person normally addressed politely but for whom the speaker wished to indicate a loss of respect.

Complementing the T forms, you could be used in addressing: 1 more than one person

2 a single addressee who was socially superior

3 a fellow member of the upper classes with whom one was not intimate.

These patterns continued into the seventeenth century and were often used by dramatists to reveal the attitudes of their characters. In Shakespeare’s Othello, for example, Emilia switches from respectful ‘you’ to contemptuous ‘thou’ when she learns that Othello has murdered Desdemona:

I do beseech you that I may speak with you. O good my Lord… Do thy worst!

This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven Than thou wast worthy her.

Act 5 Scene 2

A misused T form could be extremely insulting and this point is made explicit in Twelfth Night when Sir Andrew Aguecheek is given specific instructions by Sir Toby Belch on how to ensure a duel with Cesario:

Go, write in a martial hand; be curst and brief… taunt him with the licence of ink: if thou thou’st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss.

Act 3 Scene 2

The only Modern English pronominal remnant of the pattern is the use of thou in poetic, regional or religious language. The function of expressing social attitudes and role relationships has shifted from pronominal usage to address terms. This shift has occurred because modern Standard English has the invariable you to indicate singularity, plurality, intimacy and respect.

Today, in the English-speaking world, the commonest forms of address and reference are: first name (e.g. John), endearment(s)+ first name (my dear John), last name (Brown), title+last name (Mr Brown) and terms of respect (sir, ma’am). Of these, the most frequently used are title+last name to express politeness, formality or respect (Dr Brown) and first name to express intimacy, equality, friendship or power. An employer, for example, might call an employee by his first name but would expect a title and last name back. It is rare for terms of address (i.e. the terms we use in person-to-person contact) to match terms of reference (i.e. the terms used in speaking about rather than to an individual).

Although the above generalisations apply to most parts of the English-speaking world, some local and national customs cut across them. For example, the term love is normally expected to be an endearment, but it occurs commonly in Yorkshire speech as an apparent expression of solidarity with no distinction of sex. It is not unusual to hear one Yorkshireman address another as ‘love’. Expressions such as buddy, cobber or flower may be heard in other parts of the world, but they tend to be more limited in application than love. In the trade union movement terms such as brother and comrade are used specifically to stress solidarity. Certain terms of respect are also culturally or geographically specific. For example, in many African societies respect for one’s elders is expressed in titles. Thus a woman who has children or a woman of some other special status is respectfully addressed as Mama or Ma even by those not related to her.

Newspapers have evolved a style of their own with regard to courtesy titles. In general, they advise:

1 titles should not be used for the first reference to a person. First and last names are preferred: Hilary Adams, Michael Little.

2 ‘Mr’ should only be used when combined with ‘Mrs’: Mr and Mrs Green.

3 the first reference to a married woman should be first and last name: Penelope Jones. Subsequent references may be to Mrs Jones. The use of Mrs Michael Jones should be avoided unless it is preferred by Mrs Jones. The second reference to an unmarried woman should involve the last name prefaced by Miss or Ms, depending on the individual’s preference. If a woman prefers the title Ms, then reference to her marital status should be avoided unless it is essential to the story.

Most newspapers follow such guidelines but may vary this style if someone specifically asks to be referred to in a different way. A Nigerian woman, for example, who prefers Mallama to Mrs, will be referred to in the way she specifies.

addresses

The conventions for writing addresses are designed for quick interpretation and minimal ambiguity. Practices tend to vary slightly from one country or language to another, but international communication is reducing the differences.

1 The format for an address represents a progress from personal (and small) to impersonal (and large) thus:

title+first name/initial(s)+surname

(number of office/flat/apartment+name of building) number of building/house+name of street

name of town+post/zip code (name of county)

(name of country)

A comma may be used at the end of each line except the last, which is given a full stop (where punctuation marks are used). Increasingly, the practice is to omit all unnecessary punctuation:

Mr Brian Smith Ms Mary Smith

52 Otley Road 1234 Sunset Boulevard Leeds LS16 4BT Pasadena

West Yorkshire California 91124 England United States of America

2 On envelopes, the name and address are usually written with each line beginning at an arbitrary left-hand margin. Occasionally, although much less frequently, the lines may be indented, each starting between two and five letter spaces to the right of the line above. In letters, the address of the sender is given at the top right-hand corner of the first page. The lines are usually directly below each other although they too may be indented,

usually two spaces for each line. If the name and address of the recipient are given they should begin one space below the writer’s details, with each new line beginning at the left-hand margin.

See: dates, letters.

adjective

Adjectives are descriptive words that: 1 modify nouns and pronouns:

a tall man He is tall.

2 can have comparative and superlative forms:

big bigger biggest

hateful more hateful most hateful

3 can be modified by an adverb:

a very tall man He is very tall.

Adjectives can occur in two positions. When they occur before a noun as in:

a lovely girl happy children

they are called attributive adjectives. When they occur after a copula verb such as BE and SEEM as in:

The boy was cheerful.

They seem intelligent.

they are called predicative adjectives. Many adjectives can occur in both positions:

a happy child

The child appeared happy.

but some adjectives tend to occur in one position only. Elder, mere and utter, for example, are found in attributive position whereas a-words, ill and well are more likely

to be used predicatively. It is perhaps worth stressing the flexibility of English at this point. While ill and well are frequently used predicatively they can occur in constructions such as:

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.

He’s not a well man.

Adjectives normally precede the nouns they modify but in a number of fixed expressions, all of them borrowed from other languages, the adjective immediately follows the noun:

attorney general court martial secretary general whisky galore

Most adjectives are regular with regard to forming comparatives and superlatives. Monosyllabic adjectives, frequently occurring disyllabic adjectives and all disyllabic adjectives ending in -y form the comparative by adding -er and the superlative by adding

-est. When an adjective ends in one vowel+one consonant, e.g. big, fat, the consonant is doubled before -er/-est. All other adjectives form their comparatives and superlatives by using more/most before the base form:

green greener greenest yellow yellower yellowest lively livelier liveliest thin thinner thinnest

When two nouns are compared, the comparative form of the adjective must be selected:

John and Bill are both strong athletes but Bill is the stronger.

Often, in colloquial speech, the superlative form is incorrectly selected.

When adjectives co-occur, they tend to do so in a fixed order which usually involves such a pattern as:

…+5+4+3+2+1+noun

In position 1 we tend to find nouns used adjectivally to indicate purpose:

a fish bowl

In position 2 we often find nouns indicating materials:

a glass fish bowl

In position 3 we sometimes have an indication of origin:

a Wexford glass fish bowl

In position 4 we often have colour:

a blue Wexford glass fish bowl

and in position 5 we find the possibility of adjectives of intensification, size, age, shape and temperature:

a huge blue Wexford glass fish bowl

Such adjectives also appear in a fixed order:

a great big old square building a small round ice-cold object

We rarely find lists of more than four adjectives but when five or more co-occur they are usually in the above order and they are usually separated by commas. There is no comma between the adjective in position 1 and the noun.

Adjectives can also co-occur after copula verbs:

He was short, old and ugly.

the two final adjectives usually being linked by and.

Occasionally, adjectives can be used as nominals. This happens in two main ways: 1 adjectives are used with the definite article to indicate a group:

Their aim was to help the poor, the sick and the ignorant. The unemployed have the same needs as the employed.

2 adjectives are often used when the noun to which they refer is contextually apparent:

How do you like it—white or black? (when offering coffee)

Is it fully automatic? (of a washing machine) and when superlative forms are selected:

I want the cheapest even if it isn’t the best.

A number of adjectives are related to causative verbs:

Brand X makes your whole wash white/whitens your whole wash.

Brand Y makes your skin soft/softens your skin.

Often the verbal equivalent is preferred in advertising because it can imply both the base form of the adjective and its comparative:

Brand Y softens your skin.

Here ‘softens’ can imply ‘makes it soft’ and ‘makes it softer’, the second being a much weaker claim than the first.

Other adjectives are related to noun phrase and preposition phrase complements:

John is cheerful.

John is a cheerful person. John is in a cheerful mood.

The preposition phrases in such related groups often involve such nouns as disposition, mood or nature. When adjectives are related to nouns as, for example:

powerful power silent silence

then they can often be paired with preposition phrases containing the noun:

He became powerful. He came into power. He went silent. He lapsed into silence.

COME is often used when the complement is positive or pleasant and GO when it is not:

He came into money. It went out of control. It came right/good. It went wrong/bad.

Adjective phrases and clauses function like adjectives in that they modify nouns. With the exception of rank-shifted phrases and clauses used mainly for journalistic or humorous purposes:

an off-the-cuff remark

There she was with her I-couldn’t-care-less expression.

noun phrases and clauses tend to follow the nouns they modify:

The man in the white suit comes from France.

The man who was wearing a white suit suddenly went out.