Imperial english: the language of science?

1. Werner Heisenberg learned Latin, Greek and French when he was a gymnasium student in Munich. Later he tackled English and Danish. This is not the kind of anecdote we associate with today's science majors in the US, that resolutely monolingual lot. Science students here are rarely to be found in a school language lab, much less a spontaneous one, and when they do speak another language it is usually because of family background, not classroom instruction. Then they graduate, attend a conference with colleagues from other countries and discover their linguistic incompetence.

2. We are the people who can no longer be both­ered to learn another language. To be sure, we really haven't had to since the 1960s, for in the years since World War II English has gradually but inexorably become the lingua franca of sci­ence. Today it is the universal currency of interna­tional publications as well as of meetings. Those of us who need to keep up with, need not worry about mastering German; we can leave it to the journal's staff, whose English is no doubt immaculate, to provide us with a convenient international edition published in English.

3. It wasn't always this way. For the 200 years before World War II, most scientific work was reported in German, French or English, in that order of importance. People who wanted to keep up with a specialization had to learn the domi­nant language of the field. For example, scientists who wished to understand quantum mechanics in the 1920s had to learn German. Sir Nevill Mott comments, "Apart from Dirac, I don't think any­one in Cambridge understood (quantum mechanics) very well; there were no lectures on it, and so the only thing to do was to learn German and read the original papers, particularly those of Schrodinger and Born's "Wave Mechanics of Collision Processes"."

4. German, French and English were the customary languages of meetings, too. At Niels Bohr's institute in Copenhagen, for example, John A. Wheeler recalls that most seminars were held in German, occasional­ly in English. Bohr, who spoke English and German with equal ease, fluctuated between them, adding Danish as counterpoint. No one had to learn French, though, for Bohr's knowledge of it was limited.

5. After World War II, the linguistic balance of power shifted. US scientists flocked to confer­ences, bringing their language with them; US sci­entific publications burgeoned, and their huge readerships made them highly desirable to scien­tists throughout the world who realized English was a medium through which they could be wide­ly read and cited.

Professor Anne Eisenberg

8. Look through the list of words and phrases and check if you know their Ukrainian equivalents. Use the Mini-Dictionary (UNIT 2) if necessary.

   to tackle English	to shift
   to attend	to burgeon
   family background	linguistic incompetence
   the lingua franca of science	to keep up with
   to master German	immaculate
   apart from	the customary languages
   with equal ease	to fluctuate between them
   the linguistic balance of power	to flock to confer­ences
   the universal currency	readership

9. Explain the meaning of the words and phrases.

resolutely monolingual lot, to tackle, to attend, linguistic incompetence, the lingua franca of science, to learn the dominant language of the field, to keep up with a specialization, balance, to shift, to limit, the customary languages of meetings

10. Cross the odd word out.

1. convenient, appropriate, favourable, traditional;

2. adoring, principal, dominant, leading;

3. fluctuate, shift, circulate, oscillate;

4. attend, attempt, appear, be at;

5. burgeon, grow, increase, burrow.

11. Match the words and phrases with their definitions.

    1	apart from	a	to remain in contact with
    2	to shift	b	to go in large numbers
    3	to keep up with	c	besides
    4	to flock	d	to accept as a challenge
    5	to tackle	e	to move or transfer from one place or position to another
    6	language	f	to link or connect in the mind or imagination
    7	spontaneous	g	lack of physical or intellectual ability or qualifications
    8	to associate	h	happening or arising without apparent external cause
    9	incompetence	i	general acceptance or use
    10	currency	j	communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols

12. Fill in the word from the list below. Use each word only once. Translate the collocations into Ukrainian.

inexorably, quantum, associate, readerships, incompetence, importance, currency, monolingual, customary, learn

1	to ........ with today's science	6	to be both­ered to ........
2	the universal ........ of interna­tional publications	7	gradually but .......
3	....................... mechanics	8	huge ......
4	......... languages of meetings	9	resolutely ........
5	to discover their linguistic .....	10	in that order of ......

13. Arrange the following words according to similar meaning.

dominant, incompetent, authentic, irregularly, spontaneous, immaculate, leading, attend, occasionally, limit, unpremeditated, original, popular, unskilful, be present, perfect, restrict, desirable

14. Match the word(s) with their Ukrainian equivalents.

    1	resolutely	a	невблаганно
    2	to master	b	рішуче
    3	to recall	c	оволодівати
    4	inexorably	d	провести
    5	to hold	e	згадувати
    6	to attend	f	переміщати
    7	to shift	g	бездоганний
    8	immaculate	h	стікатися
    9	to flock	i	відвідувати

15. Fill the cells in the table with the words derived from the given ones.

    Verb	Noun	Adjective
    ....................	........................	associational
    ...................	.........................	graduated
    attend	.........................., attendant	attendant
    add	..........................	...................
    .......................	dominant, ......................	dominant
    .........................	limit, .................., limiter	limited, limiting

16. Fill each gap with an appropriate word from the list below.

language, limits, investigate, science, artificial, improvements, lost, English, natural