Where chaos stops and more chaos ensues. Where Filia plays the electric keyboard.
Where anything goes.
-//o_O\\7 *Home of the Awful, Mediocre and Pathetic* -//u_u\\7
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Where chaos stops and more chaos ensues. Where Filia plays the electric keyboard. Where anything goes. -//o_O\\7 *Home of the Awful, Mediocre and Pathetic* -//u_u\\7 |
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Monday, May 24, 2004 It is rare that I commend a publication so profoundly mediocre as the Straits Times (at least I read it ...) but I would like to highlight to everyone a particularly interesting article which caught my attention, found at the one of the last pages of today's "Home" section, under the "Education" header. It discusses the difference between British English, which is the roightful Queen's English which you should be writing and speaking, and American English, which leaves much to be despised, unless you yourself are American, in which case you leave much to be despised. Featuring a perpetually relevant quote by George Bernard Shaw, it notes how British English and the spinoff American dialect which gradually began to find worldwide usage due to the rampant spread of those proliferent breakaway separatists have gradually grown more similar throughout the years. While significant differences are still maintained, such as the difference in spelling, the writer notes how many 'Americanisms' have gradually become assimilated into the English language, such they are often considered acceptable in British English by less pedantic dilettantes in language such as myself and yourself. The news paper provides the examples of 'reckon', 'transpire' and 'placate'. While I wasn't able to find any information on 'placate', with the aid of the Microsoft Encarta Dictionary/Thesaurus/Wotchamacalit/Thingamajig (which I use rather shamelessly due to its convenience, and it saves rifling through a massive linguistic compendium in print), I was able to clear my doubts over the 'American' nature and usage of the other two words. 'Reckon', in its original sense, refers to calculation and deduction, for example the 'Day of Reckoning' where one's virtues and sins are tabulated and assessed. However, under American influence, it has come to refer to simply guesswork or assumption, such as 'Arr, I reckon there be gold in them thar hills!', probably arising (in my opinion) from a contraction of the word 'recognise' where laid-back hillbilly Americans were too lazy to pronounce the whole word and simply shortened it to 'reckon' (as you would pronounce 'recogn', you reckon?). On the other hand, the official meaning of 'transpire' is to passively come about or arise, and is often used to refer to events some time past (rather than immediately past), for example, 'It transpired that Charlotte was actually talking nonsense all the while'. However, the Americans have warped the meaning of the word such that it now refers to both the active and the passive sense, the former exemplified by 'What transpired that caused Charlotte to talk such nonsense?'. While I cannot think of a reason for the misuse of the word other than simple convenience (not that I ever use the word, for that matter), the problem can be solved with the use of a synonym, such as 'happened'. Needless to say, I shall be paying further attention to the use of these words from now on. I reckon that I will be able to use these words carefully and with their original intent in mind, whatever may transpire. And, of course, any speaker of British English would be implacable at the use of American slang and jargon, because it's like, you know, so totally uncool. I'll get myself an antidote to this morphological madness momentarily. *greenn!* Oh Lord. posted by Charlotte | 4:36 pm
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Disclaimer : The Slayers and Filia Ul Copt and all images thereof are the property of Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. I don't own any of them, although if I had a choice I would want Filia ... ~//n_n\\7 |
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