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Cliches – how to recognise them

August 31, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Cliches – definition

Cliches are hackneyed phrases or expressions.

The phrases might once have been fresh or striking, but they have become tired through over-use.

Examples

“He was over the moon about that goal.”
“Yes please. I don’t mind if I do.”
“Far be it from me…”
“I would be the last person to cast aspersions.”
We will leave leave no stone unturned in our search.

Use

Clichés are often used unconsciously in casual speech.

They usually suggest mental laziness or the lack of original thought.

They should be avoided in writing.

NB! Beware. Cliché may sometimes be used consciously for ironic effect.

Clichés circulate in the spoken language very readily, because they save people having to think.

When written down, they appear even more tired and vacuous than when spoken.

Traditional examples are expressions such as it takes the biscuit, back to square one and a taste of his own medicine.

Current favourites (in the UK) include the bottom line is …, a whole different ball game, living in the real world, a level playing field, and moving the goalposts.

Clichés present a temptation, because they often seem to be just what is required to make an effect. They do the trick. They hit the nail on the head. They are just what the doctor ordered. [See what I mean?]

Here is a stunning compilation, taken from a provincial newspaper. The example is genuine, but the names have been changed to protect the innocent. [That’s a deliberate example!]

By their very nature cabarets tend to be a bit of a hit and miss affair. And Manchester’s own ‘Downtown Cabaret’ is ample proof of that. When it was good it was very good, and when it was bad it was awful. Holding this curate’s egg together was John Beswick acting as compere and keeping the hotchpotch of sketches and songs running along smoothly. And his professionalism shone through as he kept his hand on the tiller and steered the shown through a difficult audience with his own brand of witticism. Local playwright Alan Chivers had previously worked like a Trojan and managed to marshal the talents of a bevy of Manchester’s rising stars.

It isn’t always easy to see where an idiomatic expression ends and a cliché begins.

The essential difference between them is that an idiom is not being offered as original thought. We say ‘fish and chips’ because people do not normally say ‘chips and fish’ (because it’s more difficult to say). But anybody who says he’s ‘over the moon’ about something has chosen the expression, no doubt thinking that it’s impressive.

A vogue word is very close to the cliché. This is an item of vocabulary whose meaning is becoming blurred, distorted, or inflated [that is, emptied] through over-use.

The term ‘vogue’ implies that the word is currently fashionable.

That’s a fantastic dress! [very nice]
We’re in a war situation. [at war]
It’s a brilliant novel. [interesting]
She’ll get paranoid about it. [become worried]
What a fabulous car! [remarkable]

The use of these terms is very common in everyday speech. They should be avoided in formal writing.

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Colons – how to use them

August 31, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Colons – definition

Colons are used to introduce strong pauses within sentences.

The colon is the longest pause short of a full stop.

Examples

Colons are used to introduce lists:

The car has a number of optional extras: sun roof, tinted windows, rear seat belts, and electrically operated wing mirrors.

The colon separates two clauses which could stand alone as separate sentences, but which are linked by some relationship in meaning:

My brother likes oranges: my sister hates them.

The colon is also used before a long quotation or a speech:

Speaking at Caesar’s funeral, Anthony addresses the crowd: “Friends, Romans, countrymen …”

It is also used before a clause which explains the previous statement:

The school is highly regarded: academic standards are high, the staff are pleasant, and the students enjoy going there.

Use

The colon can be used to provide emphasis, or to create dramatic effect:

There can be only one reason for this problem: his total incompetence.

It is also used at the end of a statement which is followed by an illustration:

The vase contains beautiful flowers: roses, tulips, and daffodils.

NB! The colon followed by a dash (: —) is never necessary. The colon alone is sufficient, even before a list.

Notice that the items which follow a list are punctuated with commas if they are a succession of individual words.

You will need four ingredients: flour, butter, milk, and sugar.

If the items in the list contain clauses or phrases these may be punctuated with semicolons:

You will need the following materials: some scrap paper; a pen, preferably blue or black; some envelopes; and some good, white, unlined writing paper.

The colon requires careful handling. If you are in any doubt, use separate sentences.

The colon is also used between the title and the sub-title of a book:

Magical Realism: Latin-American fiction today.

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Colons in essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Colons in essays are marks of punctuation used to introduce a strong pause within a sentence. They separates two clauses which could stand alone as separate sentences but which are linked by some relationship in their meaning.

2. A colon is used to introduce a list:

The car has a number of optional extras: sun roof, tinted windows, rear seat belts, and electrically operated wing mirrors.

3. It normally precedes a long quotation or a speech:

Speaking at Caesar’s funeral, Anthony addresses the crowd: “Friends, Romans, countrymen …”

4. It is used before a clause which explains (often by way of illustration) the previous statement. It suggests the sense of ‘That is to say’ or ‘Namely’:

The school is highly regarded: academic standards are high, the staff are pleasant, and the students enjoy going there.

5. It is used to indicate a sharp contrast:

My brother likes oranges: my sister hates them.

6. Note that the colon followed by a dash (:—) is never necessary. Some people put these before a list, but the colon alone is sufficient.

7. The colon is also used between the title and the sub-title of a book:

Magical Realism: Latin-American fiction today.

8. Notice that the items which follow a list are punctuated with commas if they are a succession of individual words.

You will need four ingredients: flour, butter, milk, and sugar.

9. If the items in the list contain clauses or phrases these may be punctuated with semicolons:

You will need the following materials: some scrap paper; a pen, preferably blue or black; some envelopes; and some good, white, unlined writing paper.

10. The colon requires careful handling. If you are in any doubt, use separate sentences.

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Commas – how to use them

August 31, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Commas – definition

Commas are used to show slight pauses in a sentence.

Commas are the lightest marks of punctuation.

Examples

He will never do it, whatever he says.
She bought some butter, a pint of milk, and some jam.
Cars should turn left here, whilst vans should turn right.

Use

The comma is used to separate words, clauses, or phrases in a sentence.

It is used to help clarify the sense of statements and to prevent ambiguity.
It is also used to separate the items in lists.

NB! Use commas to clarify meaning. Don’t scatter them around like confetti.

The comma is used to separate two clauses when the first is not closely associated with the second:

She is a famous singer, whilst her husband remains unknown.

It is used to introduce a pause where the eye might otherwise continue and mistake the sense of what is written:

In the valley below, the villages looked small.

It is used to separate a sequence of adjectives which qualify a noun:

He was an arrogant, pompous fellow.

However, when the adjectives are of a different order or type, no comma is necessary:

He was a distinguished foreign visitor.

The comma is used to mark the start and finish of a parenthetical phrase within a sentence:

I am quite sure, despite my reservations, that he’s the best man for the job.

A very common use for the comma is to separate the items in a list:

The box contained a book, some pencils, and a knife.

Opinions differ on the need for the final comma in such examples. If the items are all of the same kind, it can usually be omitted. If they are not, it is usually safer to retain the comma.

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Commas in essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Commas in essays are the least emphatic pause in normal punctuation. They mark a light hesitation or interruption in the sentence. The comma is used in a number of different grammatical instances.

2. To separate two clauses when the first is not closely associated with the second:

Cars should turn left here, whilst foot passengers should continue towards the exit.

3. To introduce a pause where the eye might otherwise continue and momentarily mistake the sense of what was written:

In the beautiful valley below, the villages looked very small.

4. To separate a sequence of adjectives which qualify a noun in the same manner:

He was an arrogant, loquacious man.

5. However, when the adjectives are of a different order or type, no comma is necessary:

He was a distinguished foreign visitor.

6. To separate items in a long list:

The box contained an old leather-bound book, a bottle, some pencils, and a gun.

7. Opinions vary on the necessity of the final comma in such examples. If the items are all of the same kind, there is probably little chance of ambiguity. If they are not, it is usually safer to retain the comma.

8. To mark the beginning and end of a parenthetical phrase within a sentence:

I am quite sure, despite all my reservations on the matter, that he is doing the right thing.

9. Confusion is sometimes sown by the insertion of commas where they are not really necessary. This is an example of bad usage:

The strangest of all these new sensations, was the onset of profound happiness.

10. Commas should not be used to connect separate sentences as a casual substitute for the full stop:

A party has been arranged, it will not take place until next week.

11. This is weak writing. The statement should be made either as two separate sentences, or if they are brought together because of their natural connection, a conjunction is required:

A party has been arranged, but it will not take place until next week.

12. Even though in some cases a comma may not be absolutely necessary for retaining grammatical coherence (as in the previous example), it may still be useful in order to clarify the meaning for a reader. Here’s another bad example.

Each night you stay at a Roberts-Plaza Moat Houses UK hotel at the fully published or corporate rate you are entitled to a special discount voucher.

13. This poorly phrased statement would be improved by the insertion of a comma after the word ‘rate’.

14. What follows is an example of an entire paragraph which has been punctuated using only the comma and the full stop. [It also illustrates, rather deftly, the function of the ‘topic sentence’.]

The central thought or main controlling idea of a paragraph is usually conveyed in what is called a topic sentence. This important sentence which states, summarises or clearly expresses the main theme, is the keystone of a well-built paragraph. The topic sentence may come anywhere in the paragraph, though most logically and in most cases it is the first sentence. This immediately tells readers what is coming, and leaves them in no doubt about the overall controlling idea. In a very long paragraph, the initial topic sentence may even be restated or given a more significant emphasis in its conclusion.

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Conjunctions – how to understand them

August 31, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Conjunctions – definition

There are two main types of conjunctions:

Co-ordinating conjunctions join together parts of a sentence which are of equal status.
Subordinating conjunctions join together parts of a sentence which have a complex relationship.

Examples

There are five co-ordinating conjunctions in English:

and or nor but for

There are many more subordinating conjunctions:

whereas, where, if, because, while, as, when, since

Use

Co-ordinating conjunctions are used in the following statements:

Jim and Sally are going to the concert.
Give me that gun or I’ll call the police.
Neither a lender nor a borrower be.
We have no lemons but we do have some limes.

NB! It is possible for a word to be a conjunction in one sentence and a different part of speech in another.

The words and, or, nor, but, for are all co-ordinating conjunctions.

They are conjunctions because they usually join together parts of a sentence.

They are co-ordinating because the parts they join are of equal rank. For example:

We have no limes but we do have some lemons.

Conjunctions should not be confused with adverbs such as:

moreover, besides, so, consequently, however, also

Take the following statement:

The weather was bad last Tuesday so we stayed at home.

Here the word so links the two parts, but it creates a sequence and a sense of cause and effect — rather than the joining of two equal statements.

The conjunction may not always be placed between the words being linked. It can appear elsewhere:

Because I was tired, I went to bed early.

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Consonants – how to understand them

August 31, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Consonants – definition

The terms vowels and consonants refer to the sounds which make up the spoken language.

Vowels are open sounds and consonants are relatively closed.

The idea that English has five vowels – a, e, i, o, and u – is slightly misleading. This statement refers to those letters of the alphabet which can be used to represent some of the many open sounds of the language.

Examples

Here are some examples of words which end with a vowel:

agenda, bar, go, queue, tea, empty

Here are some examples of words which end with a consonant:

brick, hat, grab, tap, plum, fuss, does, which, belong

Use

The terms vowel and consonant are fairly loose terms for the vast variety of sounds which make up any language.

Most people are comfortable with words which are spoken as

vowel-consonant-vowel-consonant

This sequence of sounds is easy to articulate – as in potato.

Consumer products are given such terms because they are easily repeated and memorised:

There are approximately forty-two vowel sounds and fifty consonant sounds in English.

The written code which attempts to represent all known sounds in all known languages is the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The symbols comprising the code are used in dictionaries to indicate the pronunciation of a word:

hat = /hæt/

The code can be useful to non-native students of any language as a guide to pronunciation — provided they understand the code.

If the code has been learned, a speaker can—in theory!— read out a paragraph in any language without understanding its meaning. [Accomplished actors have been known to use this technique.]

Phonology is a complex and detailed study of language sounds in which the smallest unit of sound is known as a phoneme – one single sound which cannot be split up into anything smaller as part of a particular language.

English spelling and English pronunciation have an extremely loose connection. This is a product of the history of the language, the wide-ranging mixture of speakers, and the important fact that speech and writing in any language are two separate systems.

Linguists regard speech as primary and writing as secondary.

We acquire speech naturally, just as we grow taller or get a second set of teeth. Writing on the other hand has to be learned – in the same way as we learn to drive a car.

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Dialect – how to understand it

August 31, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Dialect – definition

The term dialect refers to any variety of a language used by a group of speakers.

It refers to the content of the utterance rather than the pronunciation.

Examples

There are two main types of dialect in English:

Regional varieties of speech which relate to a particular geographical area.
Standard English which is used by speakers and writers in any area.

Use

The term dialect used to refer to deviations from Standard English which were used by groups of speakers.

Political awareness has now given us the current concept of dialect as any developed speech system.

Standard English itself is therefore now considered to be a dialect of English — equal in status with regional dialects such as Scottish or social dialects such as Black English.

The concept of dialect embraces all aspects of a language from grammar to vocabulary.

NB! Dialect is not the same thing as accent.

Linguists take a descriptive view of all language phenomena. They do not promote the notion of the superiority of Standard English.

This is not to say that Standard English and Received Pronunciation are considered equal to other forms by the majority of speakers, but certainly attitudes are becoming more liberal.

This may be as a result of the increase in mass media in Britain and the exposure this provides to varieties of English such as American English and Australian English.

The past participle ‘gotten’ as in ‘he had gotten into his car’ is Standard American English — whereas it would be an aberration if used by a native British speaker.

The concept of a dialect used to be applied to a deviant form of the standard which had no written version. This is no longer the case. The written form of Standard English is now considered as a dialect. Thus we may write in a variety of dialects — one of which is the Standard English which most of us employ.

Dialect poetry has become popular recently, along with the shift in perception which political correctness has demanded.

Writers have for centuries attempted to represent dialect utterances in their work. Shakespeare often gave his yokels such items. Snout the tinker in A Midsummer Night’s Dream says “By’r lakin, a parlous fear.”

The novelist D.H.Lawrence represented the Nottinghamshire dialect in many of his novels by interspersing Standard English with utterances such as “Come into th’ut” spoken by Mellors in Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Perhaps the most interesting factor here is that the writer needs to use the English alphabet in the attempt to write dialect terms. This is not always possible, and so one of the skills a dialect writer needs is the ability to select those words which lend themselves to representation by means of the orthodox alphabet.

Some contemporary regional dialect forms are ones which have remained as such after being eliminated from what is now Standard English. An example of this is the Scottish ‘kirtle’ which was replaced in Standard English during the Old English period by ‘skirt’.

Some of the terms used to command the sheep dogs in Cumbria and Northumbria are unrecognizable in any dialect. They have remained intact since Old English or Middle English times.

This is an interesting phenomenon and explicable when one considers that the utterance is necessarily one-way, with the dog as the listener! For this same reason, we can’t accurately define this set of commands as a contemporary dialect.

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Eats, Shoots and Leaves

October 20, 2009 by Roy Johnson

a radical defense of traditional punctuation rules

Who would have thought it! A book on punctuation at the top of the best-seller lists. The title refers to joke about a panda who goes into a cafe, orders a sandwich, then pulls out a gun and fires it. The panda had read an encyclopedia entry on itself which contained the unnecessary comma in Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Lynn Truss’s attitude to punctuation is enthusiastic, robust, and uncompromising, as her subtitle makes clear.

She wants you to become angry at the misuse of apostrophes and indignant at misplaced commas. She teaches via anecdote, which is probably why the book is so popular. There are no stuffy grammar lessons here, just accounts of bad punctuation, explanations of why they are wrong, and exhortations to keep up standards.

She likens punctuation to good manners – something which should be almost invisible, but which eases the way for readers. And in fact for all her slightly tongue-in-cheek militancy, she takes a non-pedantic line where there are areas of doubt or where punctuation becomes a matter of taste and style.

She takes you on a lively and entertaining tour of the comma, the semicolon, the apostrophe, the colon, and the full stop. Then it’s on to the piquancies of the exclamation and the question mark.

There are several interesting but mercifully brief detours into the history of punctuation – and I couldn’t help smiling when she confessed that her admiration for Aldus Manutius the elder (1450-1515) ran to being prepared to have his children.

Her style is very amusing and, appropriately enough for a book on language, quite linguistically inventive. She knows how to get close to you as a reader and isn’t scared to take risks.

For all her vigilance however, I think she misunderstands one example of the apostrophe – and the point of the joke it is making. A cartoon showing a building with the sign Illiterate’s Entrance could be using the term ‘illiterate’ as a collective singular. She thinks it should read Illiterates’. But we won’t quibble.

She ends by looking at the chaos of random punctuation which now predominates much of email messaging – and feels apprehensive. But I don’t think she needs to worry. For every hyphen or ellipsis to punctuate a gap in thought and sense, there is a new word or a new linguistic invention to compensate. Language may well be a self-compensating and even self-correcting system after all.

Anyone who is unsure about the basics of punctuation will learn some valuable lessons here, and those who already care will have their feelings and understanding confirmed in a very entertaining manner.

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Lynn Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, London: Profile Books, 2009, pp.209, ISBN: 0007329067

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English language terms – a glossary

September 15, 2009 by Roy Johnson

terms used in the study of English language

This glossary of English Language terms contains the vocabulary and the jargon you will need in any analysis of language and its use. These terms are needed in a number of different subjects: language and linguistics, communication skills, the analysis of prose and poetry, and even certain aspects of philosophy. Click on the links for further explanations and examples.

Abbreviations
letter(s) or shortened word used instead of a full word or phrase

Accent
the features of pronunciation which indicate the regional or the social identity of a speaker

Acquisition
the process by which language skills are developed – particularly in infancy

Adjectives
a word which modifies a noun or a pronoun

Adverbs
a word which modifies a verb, an adverb, or an adjective

Agreement
the grammatical logic and coherence between parts of a sentence

Alliteration
the repetition of consonant sounds – usually at the beginning of words

Apostrophes
a raised comma used to denote either possession or contraction

Articles
a word that specifies whether a noun is definite or indefinite

Assonance
the repetition of vowel sounds

Audience
the person or persons receiving a speech or piece of writing

Brackets
Curved or square punctuation marks enclosing words inserted into a text

Capitals
Upper-case letters used to indicate names, titles, and important words

Clauses
a structural unit of language which is smaller than the sentence but larger than phrases or words, and which contains a finite verb

Cliché
an over-used phrase or expression

Colons
a punctuation mark indicating a pause ranking between a semicolon and a full stop

Commas
a punctuation mark indicating a short pause in a sentence

Conjunction
a word which connects words or other constructions

Consonant
an alphabetic element other than a vowel

Dialect
a form of speech peculiar to a district, class, or person

Figure of speech
expressive use language in non-literal form to produce striking effect

Form
the outward appearance or structure of language, as opposed to its function, meaning, or social use

Full stop
a punctuation mark indicating the end of a sentence

Function
the role language plays to express ideas or attitudes

Grammar
the study of sentence structure, especially with reference to syntax and semantics

Graphology
the study of writing systems

Homonyms
words with the same spelling but with different meanings

Hyphen
a short horizontal mark used to connect words or syllables, or to divide words into parts

Idiom
a sequence of words which forms a whole unit of meaning

Irony
saying [or writing] one thing, whilst meaning the opposite

Jargon
the technical language of an occupation or group

Language change
the development and changes in a language

Lexis
the vocabulary of a language, especially in dictionary form

Metaphor
a figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another

Metonymy
a figure of speech in which an attribute is substituted for the whole

Morphology
a branch of grammar which studies the structure of words

Noun
a word which names an object

Onomatopoeia
a word that sounds like the thing it describes

Oxymoron
a figure of speech which yokes two contradictory terms

Paradox
a figure of speech in which an apparent contradiction contains a truth

Paragraph
a distinct passage of writing which is unified by an idea or a topic

Participle
a word derived from a verb and used as an adjective or a noun

Phonetics
the study of the production, transmission, and reception of speech sounds

Phrase
a group of words, smaller than a clause, which forms a grammatical unit

Point of view
a term from literary studies which describes the perspective or source of a piece of writing

Preposition
a word which governs and typically precedes a noun or a pronoun

Pronoun
a word that can substitute for a noun or a noun phrase

Punctuation
a system of marks used to introduce pauses and interruption into writing

Received pronunciation
the regionally neutral, prestige accent of British English

Semantics
the study of linguistic meaning

Semicolon
a punctuation mark which indicates a pause longer than a comma, but shorter than a colon

Sentence
a set of words which form a grammatically complete statement, usually containing a subject, verb, and object

Simile
a figure of speech in which one thing is directly likened to another

Slang
informal, non-standard vocabulary

Speech
the oral medium of transmission for language

Spelling
the convention governing the representation of words by letters in writing systems

Standard English
a dialect representing English speech and writing comprehensible to most users

Structure
the arrangement of parts or ideas in a piece of writing

Style
aspects of writing (or speech) which have an identifiable character generally used in a positive sense to indicate ‘pleasing effects’

Stylistic analysis
the study of stylistic effects in writing

Symbol
an object which represents something other than its self

Synonym
a word which means (almost) the same as another

Syntax
the arrangement of words to show relationships of meaning within a sentence

Tense
the form taken by a verb to indicate time (as in past-present-future)

Text
any piece of writing or object being studied

Tone
an author’s or speaker’s attitude, as revealed in ‘quality of voice’ or ‘selection of language’

Verb
a term expressing an action or a state of being

Vocabulary
the particular selection or types of words chosen in speech or writing

Writing
the use of visual symbols to represent words which act as a code for communication

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free pages from our English Language software program

Cliches – definition

Examples

Use

free pages from our English Language software program

Colons – definition

Examples

Use

sample from HTML program and PDF book

free pages from our English Language software program

Commas – definition

Examples

Use

sample from HTML program and PDF book

free pages from our English Language software program

Conjunctions – definition

Examples

Use

free pages from our English Language software program

Consonants – definition

Examples

Use

free pages from our English Language software program

Dialect – definition

Examples

Use

a radical defense of traditional punctuation rules

terms used in the study of English language

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