Unit 1. English in the World Part 1. Standards & Experiences Lead in
«English is by no
means an easy language to learn. There is the problem of spelling, of
the large number of exceptions to any rule, it is very idiomatic and
the prepositions are daunting! English is one of those languages
which for many seems easy in the beginning, but then the bridge
between the basic knowledge and mastery takes a long time to cross,
and many people give up».
Do
you find the English language challenging? Do you agree with the
quotation?
Identify
and share which aspects of English you find the hardest. The list
below might be helpful.
Spelling
|
Pronunciation
|
Polysemy
& polyonymy
|
Phrasal
verbs & prepositions
|
Idiomacy
|
Syntax
|
Super
syntactical struct.
|
Punctuation
|
Fluency
|
Oral
comprehension
|
Creative
writing
|
Reading
comprehension
|
Lexicology
|
Social
English
|
Styles
|
Technical
areas
|
Y
ou
will now hear a text entitled "English is a Crazy Language".
It is a humorous essay with a lot of play on words. The narrator
will mention a number of non-existent words. Jot them down as you
listen, and then explain why the author has invented them.
e. g. "fing". The author
suggests that once writers write, fingers should "fing".
Refer
to the Tapescript Section at the end of the book and look at the
text in more detail. Where in the text does it say that:
parts that make
up the word don’t reflect the word’s ultimate meaning?
inflections
aren’t uniformly used for all similar words?
words may have a
number of meanings which make comprehension difficult?
the same
inflections may suggest totally different meanings?
words may lose
their original meaning and may be equally used in expressions
denoting opposite things?
Reading
Read
the newspaper article below and match the listed headings with
appropriate paragraphs in the text. Study the language of the
article for further exercises and discussions.
-
New Name in
Publishing Elite
|
Lapses
|
Spread
of English Today
|
British and
American Distinctions
|
Encyclopaedic
References
|
Pioneering
Publication
|
Akin
to Globalisation
|
Political
Correctness
|
Global
Language
|
Dictionary's
Winning Features
|
The Dictionary
Robert McCrum,
Observer, August 1, 1999, abridged
Consider
the astounding facts of global English. Most estimates agree that
there are some 375 million native speakers, a further 375 million
second-language speakers and a staggering one billion learners of the
English language at large in the world today.
What's
more, 90 per cent of
the world's computers linked to the Internet are based in
English-speaking countries.
Whatever
the totals (and
they'll always be disputed), there's
no arguing with the fact
that English is now more widely scattered, more widely spoken and
written than any other language has ever been. I
could go on, but the
point is made - by
every conceivable indicator,
English is the world's first truly global language.
Next
to the facts, the
phenomenon of global English is even more remarkable. Global English
is represented on every continent in the interconnected worlds of
business, travel, computing, science and academia, radio and
television broadcasting, telecommunications, film production, sport
and international defence. It is also the language of air travel and
outer space.
In a
profound sense, it
underpins the fashionable concept of 'globalisation' and gives that
idea a substance it might otherwise lack.
Strange
to relate, no one has
yet thought to supply a dictionary of this language, to provide a
guide through the thickets of potential global misunderstanding. No
one, that is, until Bloomsbury had the bright idea of going into
partnership with Microsoft and commissioning a brand new dictionary
of global English. This week, the fruits of this collaboration are
available for inspection with the publication of The Encarta World
English Dictionary (pp 2,175). Encarta is the registered trademark of
Bill Gates's immensely successful electronic encyclopaedia, and one
of this book's unique selling points is that it is the first
dictionary to be written with print and electronic publication in
mind.
This
hefty, well-produced volume marks a milestone in the history of the
language; it is also a significant moment for one of London's newer
publishers. Publishing is often described as a business when, in many
respects, it resembles a cottage industry. But when you publish a
brand-new dictionary with your name on it, you join some venerable
figures at the top table of the book business: Collins, Chambers,
Longman, Oxford, Webster and Random House. Publish novels and
biographies (as Bloomsbury has done for about a decade) and you will
live from hand to
mouth. Publish a
dictionary of global English that's any good and you transform an
essentially
shoestring
operation into a
seriously bankable concern.
So, is The
Encarta World English Dictionary any good? It's certainly global,
almost belligerently so, and it's bursting with novelties designed to
appeal to the MTV generation. There are line drawings, photographs
and technical illustrations on every page. There are lexical items
(i.e. words) from the Englishes of Australia, New Zealand, Canada,
South Africa, India, South Asia and Hawaii. There are citations from
every conceivable pop cultural source. There are definitions of
"ferntickles" (freckles), "gravy rings" (Irish
doughnuts) and "voops" (a wild uncontrolled swing at the
ball by a Caribbean batsman).
Despite
these much-trumpeted innovations, it is
at
heart a conservative
volume. Its chief source is the 50 million word Corpus of World
English and it has been written in both British and American English.
Thus, to cite two obvious examples, 'sidewalk' is cross-referenced to
'pavement', while the American "aluminum" stands adjacent
to the British "aluminium".
As you'd
expect of a dictionary conceived and written during the age of
political correctness, it defines a word like 'democracy' with a
citation from former President Jimmy Carter addressing the Indian
parliament in 1978, where the Oxford definition is more traditionally
Eurocentric. Its definitions in areas of what it calls "cultural
sensitivity" are on the whole prudent. "Nigger",
"cretin", "crone" and "yid" are all
identified as "offensive" terms. Unlike traditional
dictionaries, it eschews the international phonetic alphabet and
adopts its own "easy to understand" system based on English
spelling conventions.
Bloomsbury's
dictionary's 'Cultural Notes' range from Plato to modern
blockbusters. There are entries on Bill Clinton, Iris Murdoch and
King Hussein of Jordan. These give the dictionary a Look-and-Learn
feel that's slightly off-putting. Readers raised on the Oxford model
will not immediately warm to Encarta.
Like all
the best dictionaries, it has some amusing howlers. I suspect that
the great Australian choreographer Merce Cunningham will not thank
the design team for placing his majestically posed photograph in the
middle of an exemplary definition of the famous English four-letter
word beginning with C.