On the Vagaries of American English

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On the Vagaries of American English

• Johanna E. Katchen (???)National Tsing Hua
  University
• (?????????)katchen_at_mx.nthu.edu.tw
• http//mx.nthu.edu.tw/katchen/

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The Teachers Role

• We teach General American English, but we cannot
  teach everything
• We teach grammar but speakers sometimes speak
  ungrammatically
• New vocabulary comes into a language every day
• Best we can do is teach strategies for coping

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New Concepts, New Words

• English has more than three times as many words
  as most other languages
• Synonyms for many shades of meaning
• Prostitute is a general term for the occupation.
  What about call girl (high class, expensive),
  hooker (Neg. low class, solicits publicly or in
  red light district), whore (Neg. sex with many,
  maybe for money)
• Male prostitute, gigolo for males

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Sources of Vocabulary

• Our most common words are from Germanic family
  members, numbers, body parts, ordinary nouns
  (e.g., door, water) and verbs (e.g., eat, drink,
  sleep)
• The grammar of English is also Germanic
• Almost all functions words (pronouns,
  auxiliaries, conjunctions, adverbs) are Germanic

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• English has borrowed from the Scandinavian
  languages (the Viking Age) common words like
  window, sky, skin, anger, take, give
• As a result of the Norman Conquest, English
  borrowed from French words from many fields, from
  law (e.g., arson, adultery, coroner) through
  fashion (e.g., blue, sapphire, veil)

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• Blame the French for giving us totally different
  words for the meat on the table compared with the
  live animal, e.g., Germanic cow, swine, sheep,
  deer but from French beef, pork, mutton, venison
• Baugh and Cable claim that as many as 10,000
  words entered English between 1066 and 1500, and
  about three-quarters of the words remain.

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• English has used Latin as a source al through its
  history, especially for more abstract terms.
• Greek has been the basis for much scientific
  terminology (e.g., pneumonia, thermometer).
• Other words from all over the world have become
  English words, among them in recent decades
  apartheid (Afrikaans, South Africa) and tsunami
  (Japanese).

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• When explorers going to new lands found new
  plants and animals and geographical features
• Often they took the word the local people used
  and changed it to fit their own language, e.g.,
  guava, banana, kangaroo.
• New cultural artifacts, such as American Indian
  wigwam, papoose.

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• The Christianization of England brought in
  hundreds of words from Latin, both for concrete
  (e.g., candle, chalice) and abstract (e.g.,
  creed) nouns and verbs such as pray
• Also the formation of new words on native
  Germanic roots (e.g., gospel, Easter, Holy
  Ghost).

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• During the Renaissance, English borrowed Italian
  words for aspects of art, architecture and music.
  
• More recently, wars and conflict have caused
  English to borrow words (e.g., burqa/burkha, an
  outer garment worn by Muslim women to cover the
  body completely) or make new words from
  native sources, (e.g., ethnic cleansing).

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• Peaks of technology contribute to growth of
  vocabulary, current computer and digital age,
  e.g., digit has been around for some time, but
  digital has just come into general use in the
  past few years with digital cameras
• New words wi-fi, sim card, YouTube

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• When new names are created, ordinary spaces
  between words may be eliminated PowerPoint,
  FrontPage, YouTube.
• Change the category of a word the company
  Google, now the verb to google, meaning to use
  Google to search for a person or thing.

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Additional Meanings

• Words like cell and mobile have been in English
  with other meanings (e.g., skin cell, prison
  cell, upwardly mobile) for a long time, but now
  they also refer to phones.
• Words like windows and mouse have become more
  common in their computer contexts than in their
  household contexts.

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An Example of Additional Meanings

• You have just arrived in the USA and are having a
  great time with your host family. The mother
  asks you to stop off on your way home to pick up
  two pounds of hamburger. Where would you go to
  complete this errand? Would you go to McDonalds
  or to a supermarket?

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• To many people hamburgers are sandwichesmeat
  with bread
• To many housewives hamburgers mean just the
  cooked meat patties, and this is why supermarkets
  also sell hamburger bunsthe bread that goes
  around a hamburger.
• Hamburger as a mass noun, as in two pounds of
  hamburger, refers to ground beef (in some
  varieties minced beef)

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• We usually tell students that dry and wet are
  antonyms
• What about dry wine, dry toast, dry wit, and the
  idiom cut and dried?
• One can have instead (as antonyms) sweet wine and
  buttered toast

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• A synonym for dry wit might be sardonic wit
• Cut and dried may have described a stage in
  tobacco production (opposite of wet), but the
  total idiom means decided beforehand

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Jargon

• All languages have jargon specific to certain
  contexts.
• English teachers talk about communicative
  competence, task-based instruction, the affective
  filter, i 1
• Most of us are not familiar with specialized
  vocabulary outside our own professions and
  interests even in our first language,

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• We might pick up jargon of other fields through
  spouses and friendsor editing scientific English
  and teaching ESP.
• We expand our vocabulary into these fields when
  we need it, and even just a basic foundation in a
  language allows us to add and use new vocabulary.

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Examples of JargonHousehold Items

• Do you know all these English words?
• Screwdriver
• Wrench
• Pliers
• Plunger
• Wheelbarrow

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• Whats the difference between dough and batter?
• Whats the difference between a spice and an
  herb?
• When might you need to use a snake (its not the
  animal)?

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Match the words with the food with which they are
most usually associated.

• Colander a. cake batter
• Strainer b. noodles
• Spatula c. adding flour to dough or
• batter
• Wisk d. adding flour or corn starch to
• hot liquid or beating
  eggs
• Sifter e. lemons or oranges to make
• juice

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Kitchen Utensils
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How do we learn these words in L1?

• Boys learn from fathers, girls from mothers.
• We learn these words in the old apprentice waywe
  watch and observe.
• Eventually, we may be given some simple task and,
  if we show promise and have interest, we may
  become masters.

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How do we learn these words in L2?

• If one goes to France to study cooking, one works
  in the kitchen and hears the French of the
  kitchen.
• Talk and interact with L2 speakers, cook
  together, talk about motorcycles, etc.
• For the rest of us, specialized ELT dictionaries,
  often with pictures.

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Acronyms

• Do you have ESP? To most Americans this means
  extra sensory perception, the ability to see or
  sense what is unseen to most people.
• It is our acronym jargon that has ELT, ESL, EFL,
  EAP, GEPT, TOEIC and organizations like ETA,
  PALT, MELTA, FEELTA

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• The English language is full of acronyms, with
  more coming in every day.
• In Taiwan even those with minimal English know
  USA, IBM, MIT, and TSMC.
• If they have an interest in politics or business,
  they may belong to the KMT or DPP and have
  discussions on the WTO, UN, and WHO, and may even
  aspire to become a CEO and own a BMW.

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• If they have cable TV, Papa may watch an NBA game
  on ESPN, followed by the news on CNN
• Junior watches CSI on AXN and then MTV
• Mama likes to watch movies on HBO
• If all that is boring, they can watch a DVD.

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• Computer users worry about the cost of ADSL and
  whether they have enough CPU.
• Teachers worry about the latest decision of the
  MOE while their students have sleepless nights
  over the TOEFL.
• What is a CD? If you listen to music, it is a
  compact disk, but if you are an investor, it is a
  certificate of deposit.

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Acronym Jargon

• As with jargon, each profession or area of
  interest has its acronyms.
• We may know IAEA (International Atomic Energy
  Agency)
• Many of the general guidelines it follows were
  formulated by IRPA (the International Radiation
  Protection Association)

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• Most of us are not familiar with the acronym IRPA
  or other from the field
• When new nuclear facilities are built, in order
  to minimize the potential danger to the public,
  they calculate radiation dose rates following the
  ALARA principle (as low as reasonably
  achievable).
• As with other jargon, we learn it when we need it.

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Words from Immigrant GroupsFood Words

• What kind of cheese goes on pizza?
• What kind goes on pasta dishes (spaghetti)?
• Whats the difference among these kinds of pasta
  spaghetti, fettucini, macaroni, penne, and
  rotini?
• You go to the market or a restaurant, see
  something new, try it and find out.

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• Italian food has been popular in the USA, so many
  food terms are used, such as words for many kinds
  of cheeses, pasta, salamiand coffee.
• Thanks to the marketing of Starbucks and their
  competitors, terms like expresso, capucchino, and
  latte have spread around the world. And we all
  know pizza and lasagne.

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• Often food words are also regional.
• For example, in the US South one is more likely
  to find various sorts of Mexican food on offer,
  as well as more Spanish words for all sorts of
  things.
• The greater the number of people who speak a
  language in a region, the more likely their words
  will come into more general use.
• Mexican restaurants (many not all that authentic)
  can be found all over the US, and virtually all
  Americans know what burritos, tacos, nachos, and
  enchiladas are.

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• In Pennsylvania nearly everyone is familiar with
  halupkies (ground beef/pork with rice and spices
  wrapped in cabbage leaves and steamed in tomato
  sauce)
• We also know pierogies (similar to Chinese
  dumplings but filled most often with mashed
  potatoes or grated cabbage and then heated with
  butter and fried onions)
• We even have pierogi/pirohy sales at the local
  church on Fridays.

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• In other regions of the USA as well as in other
  parts of the world, one would find different
  combinations of foods, both indigenous and from
  immigrant groups.
• You might find sushi, tiramisu, tofu, moussaka,
  baklava, feta, hommus, tabbouli, kolbasa,
  knockwurst, sauerkraut, jambalaya

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Levels of Formality

• All languages can express ranges of formality.
• In Chinese, saying????is more polite that saying
  ???.
• English has a rest room where one doesnt rest, a
  bathroom where one does not always take a bath,
  and the more direct but slightly less polite
  toilet, which can also refer to the fixture
  itself.

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• There are additional terms appropriate for
  medical usage to the doctor or in polite company
  one talks about a bowel movement
• The toddler makes poo poo or kaka in primary
  school the process may be called Number Two
• The working class man takes a shit

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Taboo and Euphemism

• All languages have their taboo words.
• For English one must be careful with words for
  sexual activities, toilet activities, and aspects
  of religion.
• The most vulgar words in the language, those used
  for cursing, or swearing oaths in the case of
  religion, come from these three areas.

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• Death is another area which, though not actually
  being taboo, often requires politeness to
  grieving relatives.
• Ordinarily, we might mention that someone died,
  but in newspaper obituaries we read that Mrs.
  Smith passed away and is referred to as the
  deceased.
• Instead of bury, we may read laid to rest.

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• Coffin, a simple box, is replaced by casket, a
  more elegant and more expensive box.
• Perhaps in order to mock death, people have made
  up all sorts of idioms for to die (e.g., kick the
  bucket, bite the dust) or be dead (e.g., pushing
  up daisies, six feet under).

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Idiomatic Expressions

• Idiomatic expressions have more uses than just
  euphemism.
• Some may be proverbs or famous quotations Let
  sleeping dogs lie A fool and his money are soon
  parted.
• There are so many possibilities and so many books
  explaining idioms already written.
• These expressions are also among the most
  creative and amusing aspects of a language.

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Example describing someone not very intelligent

• At the beginning of the first Shrek movie, there
  is a song, and within the song we hear aint the
  brightest light on the Christmas tree, aint the
  sharpest knife in the drawer.
• Both bright and sharp can mean intelligent, and
  the idioms work on the double meanings.

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• Other idioms refer to something lacking two
  sandwiches short of a picnic nobody home
  upstairs
• A crazy person might be described as nuts, not
  all there, got a screw loose.
• Someone who is drunk might be described thus
  hes three sheets to the wind, he tied one on, he
  got a snoot full.

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Variation in Pronunciation

• Taiwan students have difficulty understanding
  spoken English because they learn how to
  pronounce individual words
• They have little practice listening to how
  ordinary peoplenot the careful speakers making
  ELT materialselide their speech in ordinary
  conversation.
• Elision often happens with auxiliary words, which
  are often contracted even in more careful speech.

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• dincha didn't you Dincha ever hear that one
  before?
• hafta have to I hafta get up town ta play da
  number before 7 o'clock!
• gonna going to Youre gonna get it!
• We also hear amina I am going to kupula a
  couple of and even some more idiosyncratic
  elisions like gradz garage.

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• Many speakers of English who use nonstandard
  varieties may not pronounce th but instead use
  t and d and in I tink so, dis an dat.
• Final consonants or consonant clusters may be
  eliminated or reduced, fast becoming fas.
• Regional accents can, of course, cause
  difficulties, especially if the persons accent
  is rather strong.

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• Most educated speakers switch their regional
  accent to something closer to Standard English
  when speaking to people from outside their region
  or when speaking in contexts where their regional
  accent would be less appropriate.
• Our students are more likely to encounter
  speakers who speak in a more standard way
• An exchange student may hear more Standard
  English from his teachers but hear something
  incomprehensible from cafeteria staff.

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• Stress and intonation can also contribute to
  comprehension problems.
• In the American South the stress on the word
  police may be put on the first syllable.
• We are taught that the tone of a declarative
  sentence should drop
• at the end, and yet the feature of rising
  intonation continues to spread.

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• In some areas, pitch range is narrower, giving an
  almost monotone effect, while in other areas
  pitch range is broader and sounds more musical.
• Example from Eastern Pennsylvania
• Notice the non-standard pronunciation,
  intonation, acronyms, idiomatic expressions, etc.

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Non-standard Grammar

• While we so not want to teach students to use
  nonstandard grammar, they will encounter it and
  should recognize it.
• Some common nonstandard features include the use
  of the participial form for the past tense I
  seen it He done it
• The use of double negatives I dont want none.

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• What is the plural form of you?
• a. You
• b. Yuns
• c. Youz
• d. Yall
• e. You lot

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• Not all use of nonstandard grammar is a mistake
  of a mark of an uneducated speaker.
• A wise salesman speaks like his customers, like
  one of us.
• Standard language is not always appropriate when
  one is with classmates or family.

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• However, if one speaks only a nonstandard
  variety, he may have trouble communicating
  outside his groups of nonstandard speakers

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Language Learning is Messy!

• Lots of vocabulary from historical and cultural
  sources.
• Lots of variation in vocabulary usage, multiple
  meanings of words and phrases
• Use of nonstandard forms
• It is not possible to teach everything
• Students will have to learn on their own to
  fulfill their needs