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Verbs – how to understand them

September 14, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Verbs – definition

A verb expresses an action or a state of being.

Most statements in speech and writing have a main verb.

Examples

The following verbs are expressed in their infinitive form:

to sing to eat to run

to travel to be to have

to intend to feel to paint

Use

Verbs are traditionally expressed along with the appropriate pronouns as follows:

Singular Plural

I run We run

You run You run

He runs They run

She runs —

It runs —

Singular	Plural
I run	We run
You run	You run
He runs	They run
She runs	—
It runs	—

This is the conjugation of the verb ‘to run’.

Verbs are expressed in tenses which place the statement in a point in time. Broadly speaking these are are the past, present, and future tense:

PAST I ran [yesterday]

PRESENT I run [today]

FUTURE I shall run [tomorrow]

The verbs ‘to be’ and ‘to have’ are the most commonly used auxiliary verbs and they work alongside the main verbs in any statement.

NB! English is the only European language which doesn’t have a future tense. It uses an auxiliary verb (‘shall’) to indicate the future.

Traditionally, children are taught that verbs are doing words. This is a very simplistic definition, although it is valid for most normal purposes:

John went to the bank.
My mother arrives on Saturday.
Simple Simon met a pieman.

The verb is a very important part of the sentence. It is a necessary part of every fully expressed predicate – the part of the sentence which normally follows the subject.

The verb is the grammatical instrument which gives us information about the person or thing which is the subject.

Consider the following sentence:

Jane grasped the neckace with joy and placed it in the carved wooden box.

We are given essential information here by means of two verbs – ‘grasped’ and ‘placed’. They express the subject’s physical and psychological attitude, and they also place the action in a temporal context by the fact that they are verbs in the past tense.

These verbs in this context are lexical items, even though they are also doing essential grammatical work. They are lexical in the sense that they are giving detailed information regarding the actions of the subject.

In other contexts, the verb does take a more mechanically grammatical role, as in the following sentence:

James is absolutely sure that Alice is the right choice for the executive post..

Here the verb ‘to be’ is used twice to express the information. The verb’s function here is almost entirely grammatical rather than lexical. The lexical information is given by means of the two adverbs ‘absolutely’ and ‘sure’, the adverbial phrase ‘right choice’, and the phrase ‘executive post’.

The verb ‘is’ puts the information in the present tense and facilitates the expression of James’ state of mind.

Advertisers trade on the grammatical dynamism of the verb when space is at a premium. The following slogans all use the verb in a lexical mode, which places the focus on the action.

It’s good to talk British Telecom

Makes the going easy British Rail slogan

Wash and go shampoo ad

Pick up a Penguin chocolate biscuits

The listening bank Midland Bank ad

Road signs also need to be succinct, so verbs play a crucial part in the best known:

Keep left Stop Give way

All of these are strong imperatives. The recent ‘Kill your speed’ is not only imperative but emotive by the use of the word ‘kill’, here applied as a metaphor.

Verbs are employed to critical effect by poets. The following well known extracts show the powerful effect of the lexical verb.

My heart aches and a drowsy numbness pains my sense
As though of hemlock I had drunk one moment past
And Lethewards had sunk.

[John Keats]

Here ‘aches’ and ‘pains’ both in the present tense are strongly evocative of a listless state of being. The next active verb ‘drunk’ acts as a clear connection between the state of being and the possible cause, at the same time as shifting the action from the present to the hypothetical past. ‘Sunk’ completes the sequence by suggesting physical movement as a result of all the preceding verbal information.

Verbs can also be transformed into other grammatical functions and in many cases this results in an increased dynamism.

Adverbs ‘Thats nice’ he said mockingly, as she tried her best to pick up the broken vase.

Adjectives The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.

Nouns He always insisted on doing all his own washing.

Conversely, other parts of speech can be used as verbs. American English is replete with such usages, some of which have been assimilated into British English.

Young people now go ‘clubbing’ on Saturday evenings. ‘Parenting’ has now become the term for child-rearing. A recent court case in America revealed that the defendent had been ‘incested’.

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Virginia Woolf and the Politics of Language

July 27, 2010 by Roy Johnson

Woolf as essayist, feminist, and anti-militarist

The Virgina Woolf industry continues at full capacity on both sides of the Atlantic, and this slim monograph Virginia Woolf and the Politics of Language comes to us from the University of Pennsylvania, courtesy of Edinburgh University Press. Using the link between Virginia Woolf and Montaigne as essayists for her springboard, Judith Allen uses it as an excuse to write about contemporary political concerns, ranging from ‘extraordinary rendition’ and ‘collateral damage’, to ‘Abu Ghraib’ and anything else on the spectrum of abuses which have been the subject of lies, propaganda and deception by the press and the political class. One applauds the political sentiments of course, but one often searches in vain for a connection with Virginia Woolf.

Her basic argument is that the essay is an exploration of a topic or an idea, and because it looks at issues from a variety of perspectives, it is the enemy of totalising theories and systems. That seems quite reasonable, and it is true that both Woolf and Montaigne use the essay forms as a means of opening up and exploring ideas, comparing one thing with another, and discovering unexpected links between the past and the present.

The only other coherent argument that emerges is that Virginia Woolf uses images and metaphors of growth, change, flux, and mutability in her work – which Allen assumes are feminine strategies of writing, deliberately designed to challenge a masculine attempt to establish stasis, fixity, and permanence. This too might be a persuasive argument if it were supported by more in the way of evidence.

The problem is that her presentation suffers from some of the common weaknesses of academic writing produced to gain status or tenure – over-reliance on quotations from other fashionable academic writers, raising questions that masquerade as insights, and excessive signposting (‘this chapter wil look at …’). No sooner is a proposition launched than it is called cautiously into question. This is offered as a critical dialectic when it is not much more than a form of thinking aloud. There is also the bizarre practice of signposting the intention to consider a topic which is already under consideration. This represents a failure to control structure for which even an undergraduate essay would be marked down. She is also not averse to self-congratulatory asides:

Although no one has made any direct link between Bakhtin and Montaigne’s writings, Bakhtin’s dissertation on Rabelais, one of Montaigne’s contemporaries, entitled Rabelais and the World, quotes several of Montaigne’s essays, and my examination of their ideas regarding the relationship between reader and writer is quite illuminating

The discussion ranges from one essay to another, from essay to novel, from one critic to another critic’s view of the first and back again. The critics engaged to support her arguments are what might be called the usual suspects – Bakhtin, Deleuze, and Guattari. And the whole production has about it the spirit of a composition with one primary motivating factor – the quest for academic promotion. In terms of its style, nothing could be further from the clarity, simplicity, and authenticity of the writers she is discussing – Woolf and Montaigne.

A whole chapter is devoted to the fact that Woolf often changed the titles of her works, with accompanying large claims made for the significance of this practice – ignoring the fact that many writers do the same thing.

Judith Allen also has a curious habit of referring to the ‘narrators’ of Woolf’s essays, when there is in fact little or no evidence to support the notion of a fictional construct. The essays come to us quite simply as the thoughts and writing of Woolf herself. Her opinions are often offered in a playful, oblique, and metaphoric manner – but that’s her style: there is no constructed intermediary delivering her opinions.

The last parts of the book are largely devoted to a critique of US and UK policy in the war on Iraq. However much one might share her sentiments on this barbaric, illegal, and counter-productive invasion, they tell us nothing about Virginia Woolf except that she was a vehement critic of imperialism and also a pacifist – something I think we already knew.

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Judith Allen, Virginia Woolf and the Politics of Language, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010, pp.133, ISBN: 0748636757

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Vocabulary – how to use it correctly

September 14, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Vocabulary – definition

Vocabulary is a general term to describe the particular selection or type of words chosen in speech or writing.

It refers to individual items of content such as words.

Stylistic analysis picks out specific vocabulary items and analyses them as distinct from the grammar of the statement.

Examples

Here is a statement [from the world of computer technology] with certain vocabulary items selected for analysis.

“JavaScript is not a standalone programming language, and JavaScript programs cannot run outside the context of a Web browser.”

JavaScript technical jargon and the proper name for a programming language

standalone a recent coinage used as an adjective describing the nature of the programming language

program an American borrowing, useful as it distinguishes it from the English ‘programme’ which is now kept for reference to theatrical or TV content lists

Web more technical jargon, and the [abbreviated] proper name of the World Wide Web

browser the name of software for exploring the Web [a very recent coinage]

Use

Every individual has a collection of vocabulary items stored up in memory for use in speech and writing.

This collection can be referred to as a person’s lexicon.

The lexicon of any group is the sum-total of its word-stock.

This public lexicon is recorded in dictionaries — which have to be kept up to date as word meanings change and new items of vocabulary are created.

Vocabulary (or ‘lexis’) is usefully distinguished from grammar in textual analysis. The grammar of any utterance is the underlying structure. The vocabulary or the lexical level is the immediate content or subject-matter of a statement.

The passage which follows contains a normal mixture of grammatical items and vocabulary items.

Bananas are cheap and plentiful and can be used in many interesting ways, either as desserts or in main meals.

With the grammatical items removed, the sentence still makes some sense.

Bananas cheap plentiful used many interesting ways either desserts main meals.

Without the lexical items however, the grammar words mean nothing as a sequence.

are and can be in as or in

As part of the language acquisition process, children build up a vocabulary which is like a personal archive of words or utterances. These may be called on as part of the natural act of speaking.

Much research has been carried out to assess the volume of a child’s vocabulary at a young age. It has been impossible to gain accurate results in this field because a child utters only a fraction of its total vocabulary.

Saussure applied the terms langue and parole to this phenomenon. Langue referred to the total individual vocabulary comprising the words learnt and understood (but not necessarily uttered). Parole referred to the vocabulary actually spoken.

There is an added complexity surrounding this topic. That is the definition of ‘knowing’ a vocabulary item. A person could utter a word or a phrase without knowing its meaning. Moreover, the quality of understanding is not always easy to assess, especially in children.

Vocabulary is one level of stylistic analysis, along with graphology, phonology, grammar and semantics.

In anylysing the vocabulary of a text or a speech, patterns of usage would be the subject of comment. For instance, the frequent occurrence of technical terms in car repair manual, or of emotive terms in a tabloid newspaper article.

Aberrant usage would also be of interest. In advertising for instance, words are sometimes spelt deviantly as in Beanz meanz Heinz. Coinages are also used, as is rhyme and onomatopoeia. All these features become issues of vocabulary in stylistics.

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Word Myths

July 25, 2009 by Roy Johnson

debunking linguistic urban legends and false etymologies

You know that the term posh comes from an acronym formed from the expression ‘port out, starboard home’? And that ‘the whole nine yards’ comes from the amount of fabric needed to make a kilt? Well you’re wrong: they don’t. This is a study of word myths and linguistic urban legends – why they arise, what they mean, who tells them, why they are told, and what they tell us about ourselves in terms of language and common usage. What David Wilton does is subject a series of ‘explanations’ for well known expressions and sayings to close historical scruitiny.

As a result he demonstrates that ‘Ring-a-ring o’ roses’ is not about the plague, and that Eskimos – sorry! Inuit – do not have 500 words for snow, where we have only one. The truth is that we have lots, and so do they, but they make compound single words, where we use expressions such as pack ice. The outcome of his scholarship corresponds roughly with that of Michael Quinion, whose Port Out, Starboard Home explores similar territory. The main lesson to be learned seems to be that the more attractive and anecdotally interesting the explanation, the less likely it is to be true.

Disproving legends does sometimes become a little repetitively negative, but along the way there’s a lot of interesting socio-linguistics, language etymology, comparative linguistics, and cultural history. He even includes an instructive note on how to use dictionaries for language searches.

There are also some interesting detours into the realms of acronyms, back-formations, bogus history, ‘Elizabethan emails’, and many other justifications for completely false explanations of the origins of words and expressions.

He gives his opponents the benefit of the doubt from time to time, but takes quite a stringent line throughout:

Another factor in the popularity of the [pre 20th century] AWOL tale is the fact that the Civil War is a topic much loved by hobbyists and amateur historians. Any topic that excites the passions of hobbyists and fans tends to generate false etymologies.

He is certainly very well informed, and evidence for his claims is meticulously sourced. Disputes over the origins of the word jazz occupy several pages. And he deals as well with acronyms, backronyms, and eponyms – ascribing abbreviations, initial letters, or people’s names as the putative origin of a word, as well as the false etymology and political correctness in terms such as picnic, Indian, and gay.

You might think that so much effort in debunking what are often attractive anecdotes would be a dispiriting reading experience – but somehow it isn’t. In fact the opposite is true: it enhances one’s respect for good scholarship and the love of language.

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David Wilton, Word Myths, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp.240, ISBN: 0195375572

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Word Origins

May 21, 2009 by Roy Johnson

The hidden histories of English words from A to Z

The average contemporary English speaker knows about 50,000 words. A large proportion of this total will actually be derived from Greek, Latin, French, and the Germanic languages. It is also estimated that every year, eight hundred neologisms are added to the English language. These include acronyms (nimby, from ‘not in my back yard’); blended words (motel, from motor + hotel); and those taken from foreign languages (savoir-faire). The entries in John Ayto’s Word Origins run from aardvark to zombie, laid out in an A-Z format with detailed cross references, and written in a style that is both authoritative and accessible.

This is a valuable historical guide to the English language, aimed at students, general readers, and anybody who has an interest in words. For a full understanding, it helps to have at least a smattering of language history, which he provides in an amazingly compressed introduction. For instance, he gives as an amazing example the linguistic connection between the two apparently dissimilar terms bishop and spy. Indeed, his entries on individual words offer interesting potted histories

bishop [OE] Bishop originally had no ecclesiastical connections; its Greek source, episkopos, at first meant simply ‘overseer’ from epi- ‘around’ and skopein ‘look’ (antecedent of English scope, and related to spy). From the general sense, it came to be applied as the term for various government officials, and was waiting to be called into service for a ‘church officer’ as Christianity came into being and grew. The Greek word was borrowed into ecclesiastical Latin as episcopus (source of French éveque) and in more popular parlance lost its e-, giving *biscopus, which was acquired by English in the 9th century.
> SCOPE, SPY

Of course a great deal of our vocabulary is borrowed from or based on Greek and Latin, but a huge variety of other languages have contributed to our current lexicon of around a million and a quarter words.

This richly mixed heritage helps to explain not only why the lexicon is the world’s biggest, but also why so many words are difficult to spell, and why there are so many different terms for the same thing.

One of the benefits of a book like this is that its explanations are all sourced in a scholarly fashion, which lends credence to them. And at the same time they are offered in a very entertaining manner. I’ll certainly be more careful about using the term gobbledegook in future.

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John Ayto, Word Origins, London: A and C Black, 2nd edn, 2005, pp.554, ISBN: 0713674989

Words (language skills)

July 17, 2009 by Roy Johnson

beginner’s guide to language skills

Did you know that there are between one and two million words in the English Language. It’s the biggest stockpile in any language, mainly because English has been forged from many other languages – including Latin, Greek, Anglo-Saxon, French and German. Most people know between 25,000—75,000 words, and John Seely’s advice in this lively and accessible guide is that we should become aware of the distinctions between words. Word power is not just a case of learning more and more words, but using them with more care. He shows how words should be selected according to the situation in which they are going to be used. For instance, there is no point using specialist jargon if you are writing for a general audience.

He gives advice on using a dictionary, and he offers a good account of what information dictionaries contain, and how to choose one to suit your purposes. There’s an interesting chapter on judging your audience and choosing the appropriate vocabulary for your purpose in writing. This deals with the connotations, the range and tone of words, ranging from formal, informal, and jargon, to slang and even taboo words.

He offers a brief account of the history of the English language, showing how it has been and continues to be built from words borrowed from other languages. It’s also particularly good for coining new terms from existing words – such as cybercafe and velcroid.

The second part of the book gives a humane collection of information about word classes, word structure – nouns, verbs, adjectives, prefixes, suffixes, and so on. This also includes lists of words which are commonly confused, such as adduce/deduce – and he ends with a detailed glossary.

This might all sound rather dry, but I have to say that the more I read on, the more interesting the book became. It’s suitable for anybody who wishes to perform more successfully in the workplace or in studying, and it will tell you all you need to know in order to develop or improve your word building and vocabulary.

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John Seely, Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp.128, ISBN: 0198662823

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Words Words Words

June 13, 2009 by Roy Johnson

how language arises, changes, is recorded, and used

David Crystal is a world-famous authority on language development, lexicography, linguistics, and anything else which concerns the words human beings use to speak and write. Words Words Words is the latest of his many books – an easy-to-read primer in which he attempts to convey his enthusiasm for all aspects of the subject. His intention is to explore the common fascination with all aspects of language and to answer some of the questions we ask about it. How many words are there in the English language for instance?

He shows why it’s so difficult to answer this question accurately, but settles for ‘over a million’. He also tries to dispel myths. Does the Sun newspaper really use a lexicon of only 500 words? That’s a much easier problem. The answer is no. A sample he took showed the total was nearer to 7,000. He describes how dictionaries are compiled; the origins and history of words; how words are borrowed (stolen in fact) from other languages and rapidly adopted as our own – despite complaints from conservatives; how new words are created by blending (heliport) lengthening (chewing gum) shortening (demo) or simply changing the use of an existing word (gay).

He traces the history of English spelling and explains why it is so complex and irregular. His discussion of accents and pronunciation covers the way the language is spoken, and his argument is that things are changing all the time. It’s no use writing to the Times complaining that the BBC now pronounces controversy with the stress in the middle of the word, because that’s the way it is going.

He’s very good at conveying his enthusiasm for language. He writes warmly and tolerantly on slang, jargon, and even has a good word to say for cliché, and he is more tolerant of children swearing than I am:

In Caernarfon, in North Wales, you hear people calling each other cunt all the time, quite unconcernedly. It just means ‘mate’.

That might be true in Caernarfon, but it would get you a thick ear if you tried it on in Stockport. He finishes with a series of practical suggestions for those people who would like to take the subject further. He recommends dictionaries (buy two); shows you how to find the meaning of names; how to estimate the size of your vocabulary; lists dialect societies to join; and even encourages you to contribute to dictionary building.

All the points he makes are illustrated with examples from both language history and contemporary usage. He throws in lots of amusing anecdotes, and the pages are decorated with side panels showing how to take each topic further. This approach really brings his subject to life and makes the study of language sound very attractive – and certainly within the grasp of the average reader.

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David Crystal, Words Words Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, new edition 2007, pp.224, ISBN: 0199210772

Writing – how to understand it

September 14, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Writing – definition

Writing is the use of visual symbols which act as a code for communication between individuals or groups.

Writing and speech are the two main language varieties.

Examples

Writing is a material form of communication which can comprise:

handwriting on paper
carving on wood, stone, or metal
electronic writing on screen or disk
printed lettering on public signs

Use

Writing and speech should usefully be regarded as two entirely separate systems.

Writing has to be acquired as a skill in the same way as driving, sewing and cooking are learnt.

Speech is acquired by means of innate programming, in the same way as we grow taller or acquire a second set of teeth.

The code of written language consists of letter-forms [the alphabet] used to form a visual approximation of spoken words.

These words are formed in accordance with the conventions of spelling, then combined using the rules of grammar and syntax to form meaningful statements.

Writing is a code or a set of symbols which serve to produce material forms of communication.

It is interesting to consider the differences between speech and writing:

Writing can be preserved indefinitely, whereas speech is transient unless it is deliberately recorded.

Writing is usually a solitary act of communication, whereas speech is a social act.

Writing expects a delay in reply, whereas speech usually solicits an immediate response.

Writing does not contain non-verbal gesture, whereas speech employs non-verbal gesture constantly.

Writing is often drafted, so that the audience receives an edited version. With speech, the audience hears the first attempt with all its faulty starts, hesitations, contradictions and corrections.

Writing is pre-planned, whereas speech is usually spontaneous.

Writing and speech have discrete functions in society. Speech is more appropriate for some purposes, whereas writing is more appropriate for others.

a lengthy shopping list is better written down
a job interview is better conducted verbally, but accompanied by written notes
a wedding invitation is usually written because it contains lots of factual details

No language can have an exact correlationship in terms of its speech and its writing. English is no exception to this principle.

It is important to appreciate [and worth repeating] that writing is an arbitrary code and as such is learnt separately from speech.

A competent literate person usually has little difficulty in reading, comprehension, or pronunciation.

One important reason for the disparity between pronunciation and spelling is the fact that written language stays relatively fixed, whereas the spoken language is always developing rapidly.

The spoken language is alive, and therefore grows and develops from moment to moment. Pronunciation styles alter and shift, as does the lexicon of the language. Terms and idioms are imported from various societies whose pronunciation differs greatly from our own.

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Verbs – definition

Examples

Use

Woolf as essayist, feminist, and anti-militarist

free pages from our English Language software program

Vocabulary – definition

Examples

Use

debunking linguistic urban legends and false etymologies

The hidden histories of English words from A to Z

beginner’s guide to language skills

how language arises, changes, is recorded, and used

sample page – English Language software

Writing – definition

Examples

Use

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