INTRODUCTION

English is generally acknowledged to be the world’s most important language. It

is perhaps worth glancing briefly at the basis of its evolution for that evaluation. There

are thousands of different languages in the world, and each will seem uniquely important

to those who speak it as their native language, the language they acquired at their

mother’s knee. But there are more objective standards of relative importance.

One criterion is the number of speakers of the respective language. A second is

the extent to which a language is geographically dispersed: in how many continents it is

used or is knowledge of it necessary? A third is its functional load: how extensive is the

range of purposes manifestations such as a science or a literature? A fourth is the

economic and political influence of the native speakers of the language.

If we restrict the first criterion to native speakers of the language, the number of

speakers of English is more than 300 million, and English ranks well below Chinese

(which has over three times that number of speakers). The second criterion, the

geographical dispersal of the language, invites comparison with (for example) Hebrew,

Latin, and Arabic as languages used in major world religions, though only Arabic has a

substantial number of speakers. But the spread of English over most of the world as an

international language is a unique phenomenon in the world’s history: about 1500 million

people – over a third of the world’s population – live in countries where English has

some official status or is one of the native languages, if not the dominant native language.

By the third criterion, the great literatures of the Orient spring to mind, not to mention the

languages of Tolstoy, Goethe, Cervantes and Racine. But in addition to bring the

language of the still more distinguished Shakespeare, English leads as the primary

medium for twentieth century science and technology. The fourth criterion invokes

Japanese, Russian and German, for example, as languages of powerful, productive, and

influential nations. But English is the language of the United States, whose gross

domestic product in 1980 was more than double that of its nearest competitor, Japan. (R.

Quirk, 1997:3)

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No claim has been made for the importance of English on the grounds of its

quality as a language (the size of its vocabulary, its relative lack of inflections, the

alleged flexibility of its syntax). The choice of an international language, or lingua franca,

is never based on linguistic or aesthetic criteria but always on political, economic, and

demographic ones. (R. Quirk, 1997:3)

It is necessary to study the history of English in order to understand certain

lexical, phonetic and grammatical phenomena of the contemporary language.

A study of the history of the English language will also help us to go deeper into

the general principles of linguistics, such as the interdependence of linguistic phenomena,

the gradual, uninterrupted evolution of language, its passing from insignificant and

scarcely perceptible quantitative changes to obvious, fundamental qualitative changes,

etc.

Written documents constitute the main material and the most important means to

be resorted to for studying the language of ancient times. They give us a clear idea of the

vocabulary, of the morphology and the syntax of the respective period. They are not of

great help as concerns the pronunciation, because one and the same letter may represent

different sounds and, on the other hand, spelling is rather conservative and does not

always reflect phonetic changes. The orthography of old documents often corresponds to

the pronunciation of an anterior period. Letters and diaries written by less educated

people, who have a tendency to writhe phonetically, sometimes give us clearer idea about

pronunciation than the literature and the works of specialists of the respective time do. (E.

Iarovici, 1973:5) The latter were often concerned with how words ought to be

pronounced rather than with how they were actually pronounced.

The study of English language has been a main concern of linguists. The history

of English language has been analyzed by many authors which: Hogg (2006), Farrar

(2005), Gramley (1992). All works present the origins of the English language and the

different varieties existing in English language: Knowels (1998), Iarovici (1973).

The registers of English language were analyzed by Agna (2001), Croitoru

(1999), Herbert (1965).

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The work consists of four chapters. The first chapter, English through the Ages,

presents the history of English language taking also into consideration the events in

history that changed the language. The second chapter, Linguistic Approaches to the

English Language, deals with different varieties of any language can be described,

interrelated, and studied is one of the prime concerns of the branch of language study

called sociolinguistics. This subject is far from having achieved complete answers, and

all attempts are, in some degree, over simplifications.

A speaker of English has a repertoire of varieties according to field and switches

to the appropriate one as occasion requires. The number of varieties that speakers

command depends upon their profession, training and interests.

The only varieties according to medium that we need to consider those

conditioned by speaking and writing respectively. Since speech is the primary medium

for linguistic communication, it is reasonable to focus on the differences imposed on

language when it has to be expressed in a graphic (and normally visual) medium instead.

The third chapter, Registers of the English Language, introduces some of the

basic notions needed for the study of the words related to register presenting some

characteristics of technical and scientific language.

The latest development in IT and the increasing number of computer and internet

users require an analysis of the computing terminology generically termed computerese.

The last chapter, Computerese, was conceived of as an overlook on the computing

terminology with an emphasis on internationalized words which have also been adopted

by the Romanian language.

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CHAPTER I

ENGLISH THROUGH THE AGES

1.1. Early Beginnings

It is necessary to study the history of English in order to understand certain

lexical, phonetic and grammatical phenomena of the contemporary language. Thus, in the

field of vocabulary, we are stuck by the similarity between a large number of English and

German words; e.g. brother – Bruder, mother – Mutter, house – Haus, finger – Finger,

hand – Hand, winter – Winter, and, on the other hand, between some English and French

words; e.g. cousin – cousin, face – face, table – table, colour – couleur. It is only by

studying history of the English language that we can understand the relations between

pronunciation and spelling in contemporary English. It thus becomes clear to us why

certain letters have no corresponding sounds in words, or why certain letters are

pronounced in different ways. (E. Iarovici, 1973:5) Among the grammatical phenomena

which become clear only when they are examined from the point of view of their origin,

there are, for instance, irregular plurals like men, feet geese, mice, or nouns like deer and

sheep, which have the same form in the plural as in the singular, or verbs like can, may,

must, which take no –s in the 3rd person singular present indicative.

The history of the English language will also help us to go deeper into the general

principles of linguistics, such as the interdependence of linguistic phenomena, the

gradual, uninterrupted evolution of language, its passing from insignificant and scarcely

perceptible quantitative changes to obvious, fundamental qualitative changes, etc.

The history of the English language is not only a useful and interesting branch in

itself, helping us to understand contemporary English as a result of a complicated process

of development and reciprocal influence of different factors and to establish its place

among the other languages. It is also of great help to us when studying the history of

England and the history of English literature. (Knowles G., 1998:9)

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Many of the changes that occur in a language reflect the changes taking place in

the minds of the people who speak that language, under the influence of their economic,

social, political and cultural life.

A study of the history of the English language will also make us fully realize the

richness and the differentiations of English synonymy. This will help us to understand the

value id stylistic synonyms and, therefore, to improve our style, especially when doing

translation work.

Although the earliest inhabitants of Britain were not of German origin, English

belongs to the Germanic languages, which in their turn belong to the large Indo-European

family of languages. The latter comes from a common ancestor – the hypothetical

language now referred to as Indo-European – which must have been spoken by a people

or peoples living in a relatively limited geographical area. (E. Iarovici, 1973:6) For a long

time, this area was believed to have been in Asia, but in our century, linguistic,

archeological and anthropological research work has infirmed this idea, tending to prove

that the Indo-European home was in Europe, probably in its central or south-eastern part.

As far as the linguistic evidence is concerned, a number of words that are similar

in form and meaning in the various Indo-European languages denote the climate, fauna

and flora of the temperate zone.

The Indo-European family is composed of the following main branches of

languages: Indian, Iranian, Slavic (or Slavonic), Baltic, Germanic, Celtic, Italic, Hellenic,

Albanian, Armenian, Hittite, and Tocharian. Most of them have a number of

subdivisions, generally referred to as groups of languages. (F.O.Emerson, 2005:6-7)

They have two main common characteristics: an inflexional structure, i.e. a

grammatical system based on changes in the forms of words by means of endings and

vowel modifications, for indicating case, number, mood, tense, etc., although not all

inflected languages are Indo-European, and a common work-stock, i.e. words that

resemble one another in form and meaning (e.g. Greek nuktos, Latin noctis, French nuit,

Italian note, Spanish noche, Romanian noapte, German nacht, English night, etc.).

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(F.O.Emerson, 2005:7) This common word-stock includes the names of parts of the body,

natural phenomena, animals, plants, the numerals from one to ten, etc.

The Germanic languages fall into three groups: East Germanic, North Germanic,

and West Germanic. They must have originated in a language generally called Common

or Primitive Germanic, which is not preserved in any document.

The chief representative of the East Germanic languages is Gothic. At the

beginning of our era the Goths occupied the region of the Lower Vistula. Then they went

in a south-easterly direction and reached the Black Sea in the 3rd century. Gothic has been

preserved in a translation of large parts of the bible, made by a bishop of the Visigoths

called Wulfila or Ulfilas – a name meaning “little wolf” – in Dacia, in the second half of

the 4th century. It is the only important monument of Gothic – and of East Germanic

languages in general – that has come down to us. It is three centuries older than any Old

English document and four centuries older than any Old High German document, thus

forming the nearest approach one can have to Common Germanic. Burgundian and

Vandalic, two other East German languages, disappeared a long time ago, leaving no

traces except a few proper names. Gothic was still spoken in the Crimea in the 17 th

century. The little that is still known about this variety of Gothic is due to the fact that a

Fleming, Ogier Ghislain van Busbecq, Charles V’s envoy from the Low Countries to

Constantinople, wrote down a list of about 60 words, which he published in Paris in

1589.

The oldest North Germanic documents (some runic inscriptions dating from the

3rd or 4th century) are in Old Norse, which split up into West Norse (now Icelandic and

Norwegian) and East Norse (now Danish and Swedish). The Scandinavian languages are

important to those who study English because of the parallel between Old Icelandic and

Old English literature and because of the linguistic consequences of the Scandinavian

invasions in England.

The West Germanic languages were divided into two branches – High and Low

German, according to their geographic situation in southern uplands or northern

lowlands. High German, which is subdivided chronologically into Old High German

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(before 1100), Middle High German (1100-1500) and Modern High German (since

1500), is now represented solely by what is known as German – the literary language of

Germany, also spoken in Austria and a large part of Switzerland. The Low German

tongues were Old Saxon, Old Low Franconian, Old Frisian and Old English. Old Saxon

has become the main component of modern Low German or Plattdeutsch; Old Low

Franconian, together with some Frisian and Saxon elements, is the basis of modern Dutch

and Flemish; Frisian survives in the Dutch province of Friesland, in a small part of

Schleswing, in certain islands, etc. (E. Iarovici, 1973:8)

Old English therefore belonged to the Low German tongues, which were part of

the group of West Germanic languages. It was the result of a mixture of several Germanic

dialects, brought over by the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes.

We know nothing at all about the languages that were spoken in Britain during the

Stone Age. The earliest inhabitants of Britain about whose language we have reliable

information are the Celts. Their remarkable literature was to exert a very lasting and

important influence on English literature.

There were two main branches of Celts: the Cymric or Britannic Celts, who lived

in Britain, and the Goidelic or Gaelic Celts, who lived at first in Ireland and then spread

to the East and South-East.

The language of the Cymric or Britonnic Celts is now represented in Britain by

Welsh, still spoken by about one million people; in 1931 only 3% of the population in

Wales did not know English. Cornish, which had the same origin as Welsh, died out as a

spoken language towards the close of the 18th century.

The language of the Goidelic or Gaelic Celts is now represented by Irish, Scotch

Gaelic (not to be mixed up with Gallic, which was spoken in Gaul) and Manx (in the Isle

of Man). (C. Barber, 2000:83) Irish is spoken less than half a million people, of whom

only 20,000 do not know English. Scotch Gaelic (not be mixed with Gaelic, which was

spoken in Gaul) is spoken by about 150,000 people, of whom less than 10,000 do not

know English. Manx (in the Isle of Man) is almost extinct; in 1931 it was known only to

536 persons, who knew English as well, the total population of the island being 49,300. A

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third branch of Celts, the Belgae, came from Northern Gaul about the year 100 before our

era. (R. Hogg, 2002:4) They settled in the South, practised extensive agriculture, and

built a number of towns. From the linguistic point of view, this Celtic wave is not

important.

The first Indo-European tongue to be spoken in Britain was, therefore, Celtic. The

second one was Latin, which was introduced after the Roman Conquest of 43 of our era

and was spoken for about four centuries. But it did not replace Celtic as it did in Gaul. It

was known to the upper classes, which were completely romanized; it was the language

of civil administration, the army, trade, the Christian religion and, to a large extent, the

inhabitants of the cities and towns. (C. Barber, 2000:84)

Its use began to decrease after the Roman troops were withdrawn at the beginning

of the 5th century, and it did not survive the Germanic invasions, leaving comparatively

few traces, which will be dealt with later.

The spiritual life of Britain does not seem to have been a very much developed

one. There were no Roman writers born there. Very few traces of Roman culture

subsisted, except in a number of towns which, according to their names, had certainly

existed before the Germanic occupation, e.g. London (Londinium – a latinized form of

the Celtic name of the town – later Lundinium), Dorchester (Dornawaraceaster –

Durnovaria), Gloucester (Gleawceaster – Glevum), etc.

As early as 350, the unconquered Picts and Scouts (Godelic Celts who lived in

Scotland and Ireland) began a series of attacks which swept Britain right up to the walls

of London, burning and pillaging many villas and towns. The first Saxon raids took place

at about the same time and, after the departure of the Roman troops in 407, the situation

of the Britons grew even worse for, when a new enemy, the Anglian and Saxon tribes

from the German coast who had already made themselves feared as daring raiders,

appeared about 450 as intending conquerors and settlers they found much of the work of

the Romans undone already. The richest and most civilised part of the island, in which

their landings were made, had been laid waste before their arrival. Centralised

government had disappeared and in its place was a welter of petty principalities under the

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control of local landlords-or magnates at the head of armed bands that were almost as

ruinous to the people as the enemies from whom they claimed to provide protection. (R.

Hogg, 2002:4) It was largely for this reason that the traces of Roman rule in Britain are so

few and the English conquest so complete.

The oldest historical sources – such as Gildas, born about the year 500 – name the

Germanic tribes that settled in Britain in the 5 th and 6th centuries Saxones. Pope Gregory

the Great calls them Angli (about the middle of the 6th century). In his “Historia

ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum”, completed in 731, Bede tells us that the Germanic tribes

that conquered Britain were Saxones, Angli and Iutae. He refers to their language as

“sermo Anglicus”. Paulus Diaconus (second half of the 8th century) was the first to use

the double name Angli Saxones or Saxones Angli. It was not used frequently, although

King Alfred’s biographer, Asser, referred to him as Rex Angulsaxonum. It was meant to

distinguish the Saxons who had come to Britain from those who had remained on the

Continent and who were called Vetuli Saxones by Bebe and Ealdseaxnan by King Alfred.

We find the name again in mediaeval Latin texts, written in one word: Anglosaxones.

Certainly the 17th century writers took it up and translated it into Anglosaxons. It is often

used now to designate the Germanic tribes which settled in Britain in the 5 th and 6th

centuries. It also refers to people of English descent, although the settlers were, as a

matter of fact, Angles, Saxons, Jutes and, perhaps, Frisians, their dialects were all called

Englisc (English) and the land and its people Angelcynn (“Angle-kin” – race of the

Angles). After the year 1000, the country began to be referred to as Engla-land (“land of

the Angles”) and later England. (E. Iarovici, 1973:12)

The Jutes, who were probably a Frankish tribe from the lower Rhineland, came to

assist the Celts to drive out the invading Picts and Scots. They liked the country, decided

to stay, arid began to settle in Kent, Southern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight about the

year 450, in spite of the Britons’ resistance.

The Saxons seem to have come from the country north of the Elbe (now called

Holstein) between the middle and the end of the 5th century. They occupied the whole

part of Britain, south of the Thames except for the Jutish territories and Cornwall; north

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of the Thames they settled in the regions which later became Essex and Middlesex. (E.

Iarovici, 1973:13)

The Angles were closely akin to the Saxons in speech and customs. They came from

territories now belonging to Schleswig and Denmark and took what was left: the greatest

part of what is now England and Lowland Scotland as far as the Firth of Forth, with the

exception of the west coast. Their name is probably derived from that of the district in

Schleswig still called Anglen (presumably meaning “corner”, “angular region”).

About 500 there was a pause, when the cultivators probably began to parcel out

the land and leave the warriors to carry on the fighting alone. (R. Hogg, 2002:5) But later

in the 6th century the advance towards the West was resumed, and the Britons were soon

cut off into three sections: Devon and Cornwall, Wales, Cumberland.

By this time the gradual change from clans to feudalism had begun and the

English had settled down into a number of small kingdoms. There were seven at the end

of the 6th century – often referred to as “the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy”: Northumbria

(formed of two parts: Deira and Bernicia, the former corresponding to Yorkshire and the

latter lying between Tees and Forth), East Anglia (corresponding to Norfolk, Suffolk and

part of Cambridgeshire), Essex, Kent, Sussex, Wessex and Mercia.

The relations between the invaders and the conquered Celts have been much

debated by historians, some of whom thought that the former had almost exterminated the

latter, others that quite a small body of invaders had settled among masses of natives. A.

L. Morton points out a few facts that seem to infirm both hypotheses: there was a

catastrophic fall in the total population, the towns were destroyed, the area of cultivation

was greatly diminished. Morton adds that “it is reasonable to suppose that the

displacement of the British rural population either by slaughter or migration must have

been correspondingly great”. (E. Iarovici, 1973:14) Passing to the evidence of language,

Morton rightly says that it contradicts the view that the invaders settled down in a small

minority, for Celtic words and place-names are few in England except in the West. And

he concludes that “in the East, at any rate, the bulk of the population was English, and

that such Britons as survived in these parts were enslaved. The further west we go the

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greater becomes the proportion of Britons in the population… For the most part,

however, the Britons who survived would be those of the lower classes, and villagers

rather than town dwellers. (E. Iarovici, 1973:14) This was just the sections who were the

least Romanized and between and the English the narrowest cultural gap existed.”

At first there were probably hardly any cultural relations between the British

population and the Germanic settlers, who found in their new country the same kind of

economic relations they had known on the Continent, and had nothing to learn from the

British peasants. This lack of cultural relations helps us to understand why there are so

few Celtic words in English.

After the first clashes of the conquest, the relations between the two populations

improved little by little. Intermarriage seems to have been quite frequent, judging by the

comparatively numerous inhabitants of Germanic origin having Celtic names. The fusion

of the two populations was probably furthered by the struggle between the various

kingdoms: Kent was the first to gain supremacy owing to the cultural superiority of its

invaders and to its continuous contact with the Continent. Northumbria took the lead at

the beginning of the 7th century, but in the 8th century, political and cultural leadership

passed to Mercia, possibly because of the growth of a large and rich population in the

Midland plains. (F.O. Emerson, 2005:35) Towards the end of the century, Wessex, which

had fertile lands and good natural frontiers, finally gained political and cultural

supremacy.

The linguistic consequences of the Germanic conquest were extremely important,

for a new language superseded Celtic and Latin – a Germanic language (except in the

Scotch Highlands, Strathclyde, Cumberland, Wales, and Cornwall). It resulted from the

fusion of the dialects spoken by the Germanic tribes which had come from the Continent.

The speech of the Angles cannot have differed very much from that of the Saxons or that

of the Jutes, but those differences that did exist must certainly largely account for the

various English dialects.

The changes in the evolution of any language cannot be other than gradual and

continuous. The English language has been growing and changing for the past 1500

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years. In its uninterrupted evolution, it has been passing from insignificant – sometimes

almost imperceptible – quantitative changes to obvious, fundamental qualitative changes.

Each period merges by very slight gradations into another. Although there are many

words like corn, lamb, ram, bed, wind, storm, nest, hand, blind, gold, spell, is, under, in

which have not suffered any modifications since the 7th century, contemporary English is

very different from the earliest forms of the English language, and many Englishmen

would find it more difficult to learn Old English that to learn a foreign language. (F.O.

Emerson, 2005:37) Indeed, the spelling and the pronunciation of English greatly differ

from what they were; the vocabulary has changed – many words disappearing, others

entering the language, others changing their meaning; there are numerous modifications

among grammatical forms and inflexions.

Within the steady development of English, three main periods are to be

distinguished, each of them having certain broad characteristics. Naturally, the transition

from the first to the second and from the second to the third was a very slow one, but

certain conventional dividing lines had to be adopted, and certain approximate dates

agreed upon. They are the following: 1. Old English – from about 450 (the first

Germanic invasions) or, according to certain linguistics, 700 (the approximate date of the

first available texts) to about 1100. It may be subdivided into Early Old English and Late

Old English. 2. Middle English – from about 1100 to about 1500. It may be subdivided

into Early Middle English and Late Middle English. 3. Modern English – from about

1500 to the present time. It may be subdivided into Early Modern English and Later

Modern English. (E. Iarovici, 1973:16)

Certain specialists refer to Old English and Middle English as Early English and

they call Modern English as New English.

Old English is generally referred to as the period of full endings or full inflexions,

Middle English as the period of leveled endings or leveled inflexions, and Modern

English as the period of lost endings or lost inflexions. As a matter of fact, these

designations are not quite accurate. It is true that the noun, the adjective, the pronoun, the

verb were highly inflected throughout the greatest part of the Old English period, but they

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were less so than they had been in Gothic. In Late Old English a new process of leveling

began and it increased very rapidly during the Middle English period.

1.2. The English language in the Middle Ages

The English language in the Middle Ages, or Middle English was stil an interval

in the transformation of the language on its way to standardization and refinement.

Consequently, many transformations and alterations still occurred, be they at the

phonetical, lexical or morphological level. Thus, phonologically, in final unstressed

syllables, the vowels a, o, u all merged into e. Thus, O.E. “leornian” became in M.E.

“lernen”, “mona” became “mone”, “sunu” became “sune” (“son”), “stonas” became

“stones”. The process went on in Early Modern English. The loss of endings and

inflexions began in Late Middle English and continued in Early Modern English.

“Lernen” became “learn”, “mone” – “moon”, “sune” – “son”, “stones” – “stones” (the

last one preserving the vowel of its inflexion in writing, but not in pronunciation,

therefore losing a syllable). (F.O. Emerson, 2005:38) It would be more adequate to call

Old English the period of numerous endings and inflexions, Middle English the period of

leveling endings and inflexions, and Modern English the period of few endings and

inflexions.

The evolutions of the inflexional system in English entitles us to say that Old

English was a synthetical language (i.e. one in which the relations between words are

expressed by inflexions), whereas Modern English is an analytical language (i.e. one in

which such relations are expressed by form words and word order).

It must be pointed out that, in the course of its development, English has

simplified its inflexional system to a larger extent than all the other Germanic languages,

even the Scandinavian ones. Nevertheless, it did not become poorer in means of

expression, because the simplification consisted in replacing rare forms by frequent ones

and in rendering the relations between words by other means than inflexions whenever

this was necessary, viz. form-words and word-order. The decay of inflexions does not

imply a corresponding decay of the language as a whole. It is possible to express even the

most abstract and subtle thoughts in English, both by lexical and by grammatical means.

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On the other hand, this does not mean that analytical languages are superior to synthetical

ones. What is important is that language should be an adequate means of communication,

of expressing man’s thought – irrespective of the fact that this is achieved analytically or

synthetically. (E. Iarovici, 1973:16)

The history of English language can be studied through different sources: written

documents constitute the main material and the most important means to be resorted to

for studying the language of ancient times. They give us a clear idea of vocabulary, of the

morphology and the syntax of the respective period. They neither are nor of great help as

concerns the pronunciation, because one and the same letter may represent different

sounds and, on the other hand, spelling is rather conservative and does not always reflect

phonetic changes. The orthography of old documents often corresponds to the

pronunciation of an anterior period. Letters and diaries written by less educated people,

who have a tendency to write phonetically, sometimes give us a clearer idea about

pronunciation than the literature and the works of specialists of the respective time do. (E.

Iarovici, 1973:17) The latter were often concerned with how words ought to be

pronounced rather than with how they were actually pronounced.

Rhymes – especially in Middle English and Modern English – help us to establish

the way in which some sounds were uttered, if the respective poet was careful and

consistent in his use of them. But sometimes their spelling is misleading because of cases

of poetic license or of the so-called “rhymes to the eye” or “eye rhymes” – words similar

in spelling, but different in sound.

English grammars, written by Englishmen and by foreigners in the 16 th, 17th, 18th

centuries, are useful, although not always very scientific, especially when dealing with

the description of sounds. (B. Fennel,l 2001:34) Their authors were often to intent on

proscribing what seemed wrong to them. They frequently condemned certain

pronunciations which, as a matter of fact marked new tendencies.

The study of other Germanic languages and even of Latin and French is also of

great help. When studying the history of a language, it is necessary to combine the

method of analysis with that of synthesis. One has to examine the evolution of the

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respective language from the phonetic, lexical and grammatical points of view but, after

having separated these various aspects, one must often bring them together, in order to

see their interaction, which is always at play. Thus, the leveling and loss of inflexions is

an aspect of morphology, but it had a phonetic cause in the fact that these inflexions were

unstressed. It was also linked with syntax, because of certain devices like prepositions

and auxiliary verbs, which began to replace the old inflexions. Besides, it was connected

with semantics, for these prepositions and auxiliary verbs had already existed in the

language, but with different meanings and values.

All these important events have exerted a certain influence upon the development

of the English language, namely on its vocabulary, the volume and the character of the

vocabulary are determined by the social – economic and cultural history of the people

speaking the language. Social, political and cultural changes in human society cause

changes in the vocabulary of the language. When a new product, a new conception comes

into the thought of a people, it inevitably finds a name in their language. (E. Iarovici,

1973:229) The rapid advances which are being made in scientific knowledge, the

extension of sciences and arts to many new purposes and objects create a continual

demand for the formation of new words to express new ideas, new agencies and new

wants.

In the past century and a half, and especially in the past decades, production has

been developing at a remarkable quick rate, and numberless new terms have appeared in

every field of science and technology. Most of them are known only to specialists, but a

comparatively large number have passed into general use.

As far as the ways of expanding the word stock are concerned, we find that they

are generally the same as those resorted to during the previous periods of development of

the English language, i.e. formation of new words, change of meaning of existing words

and borrowing of words from other languages. (B. Fennell, 2001:35)

New words were mainly formed by means of affixation, conversion, composition,

shortening, blends and back-formation.

15

Affixation is still productive, especially certain Greek and Romance affixes like

anti-, counter-, de-, extra-, post-, pre-, re-, semi-, super-, ultra-, -ism, -ist, -ette, etc.

Nowadays the most productive affixes are of Greek origin: anti-, archi-, dia-, hyper-,

meta-, neo-, proto-, pseudo-, -ic, -ism, -ist, -istic, -it is, etc. They are used especially for

creating scientific and technical terms. Germanic affixes have become less and less

productive.

Conversion now seems to be the most frequently used method of forming new

words. Many nouns have become verbs. In contemporary English, especially in the

United States, quite a number of rather long and awkward nouns tend to be converted into

technical and occupational verbs. A borrowed noun is frequently converted into a verb

very soon after it has been adopted. A comparatively large number of verbs (with or

without an adverbial element) have been converted into nouns. Nouns converted from

verbs sometimes have a rather colloquial or even slangy colouring. A number of

adjectives have become nouns, and most nouns can be used attributively, thus becoming

the equivalents of adjectives. (E. Iarovici, 1973:231)

There are more and more frequent cases of conversion. Such cases of conversion

are very numerous, probably because the nouns thus obtained are concise and expressive.

Composition is another widely used means of forming new words in English, a

language in which various parts of speech may be combined very freely, although the

proportion of compounds to the mass of the vocabulary is far smaller than it was in Old

English; many compounds have been created in every period of the language, but a large

number of them have gone out of use, being replaced by a loan-word or a derivative.

Nevertheless, there are certain types of compounds that are still very productive: the type

noun plus noun; the type of adjective formed of a noun followed by an adjective or a

principle, or vice versa; the very frequent type adjective plus noun plus –ed. (C. Barber,

2000:263) There are also other types of compounds that help the enrichment of the

English language.

Conversion often combines with affixation or with composition or with both.

16

Shortening (or clipping, or reduction, or abbreviation) is not so much a method of

building new words as of modifying old ones without changing their meaning.

Blends or portmanteau words combine parts of two words into one new words,

preserving and blending the meaning of both original words. There are several types of

words blending: 1. One or two syllables of an initial word plus a complete second word.

2. A complete initial word plus a part of a second word. 3. The initial part of a first word

plus the final part of a second word.

Back-formation is the formation of words which are mistakenly supposed to be

derived from them.

Change of meaning implies four principles tendencies, which do not always

operate independently of one another: extension of meaning (or generalization),

narrowing of meaning (or specialization), elevation of meaning (or amelioration),

degradation of meaning (or degeneration). They sometimes combine with figures of

speech such a metaphor, metonymy, euphemism, etc. The four types of semantic changes

are generally due to the development of society, to the ever-growing need of

denominations for new objects, phenomena, and abstract notions, etc.

Extension of meaning still occurs very frequently. The extent of word-

generalization can be best realized by a comparison between the primary functions of

certain of our oldest words with those which they perform in modern English. It is

perhaps the rule rather than the exception that an ancient noun of Anglo-Saxon origin

should have acquired a figurative or transferred meaning besides its literal sense. (C.

Barber, 2000:264) There are numerous cases of extension of meaning in the field of

science and technology, e.g. film, enlargement, focus, photo, picture, reel, screen, shutter

in photography and cinematography. There are numberless instances of extension of

meaning among the words denoting new socialist notions, e.g. assignment, brigade,

norm, quota, target, etc.

Narrowing of meaning, which implies that a word acquires a specialized, more

limited sense, does not occur so often as it did. Garage used to designate any safe place.

Hangar once meant “shed”. An engine was “anything used to do something”. Artillery

17

used to designate catapults, slings, arbalests, bows, whereas it now means “mounted

guns”.

Elevation of meaning is frequently to be seen with words denoting new socialist

notions, e.g. agitator, competition, comrade, toiler, etc.

Degradation of meaning occurred with words (or one of the meanings of words)

like to appease (after Munich: “to sacrifice moral principles in order to avoid

aggression”), collaborator (in World War II: “person who collaborates with enemy”),

fellow-traveller, etc. A large number of occupational names used euphemistically in the

United States have actually been degraded in meaning, e.g. expert in words like hog-

expert, engineer in words like sanitary-engineer (“garbage-man”), manager in aisle

manager (“floor-walker”), artist in tonsorial artist (barbers sometimes thus call

themselves), etc. (E. Iarovici, 1973:236)

Most of the above-mentioned cases of semantic change are based on metaphor,

e.g. the eye of a needle. Others are based on metonymy, e.g. big business for “the big

businessmen”, the Big Four for “the heads of the four great powers”, a Quisling for “a

traitor”, the White House for “the U.S. Government”. Some are based on euphemism or

other figures of style. We still use many words which existed in Old English, and quite a

number of them have been subjected to successive changes of meaning during different

periods of development of the English language. Thus the adjective sad had the sense of

“satiated, fully satisfied”. In Chaucer’s works we find it with the meaning of “calm,

serious, trustworthy”. Shakespeare often uses it in the sense of “serious” in opposition to

“trifling” or “merry”; e.g. “A jest with a sad brow” or “in good sadness”, but since the

17th century the meaning of the words sad has been restricted to the sphere of the notions

represented by “mournful”.

After having meant “shining, bright”, the adjective glad acquired the sense of

‘cheerful” or “joyous”, and later its meaning was narrowed: unlike “cheerful”, “joyous”,

“joyful”, “happy”, glad denotes the state of feeling pleasure for a certain specific cause.

(E. Iarovici, 1973:237) The evolution of certain words is quite surprising.

18

Thus, a governor was a “steersman”, a marshal – a “horse-servant”, a constable –

a “companion of the stable”, a companion – “one who eats with another”, a fellow – “one

who lays down money”, a comrade – a “chamber-fellow” etc. To eat humble pie comes

from humble pie (made of humbles or entrails). Humble bee actually stands for humble

bee (a bee that hums all the time). In such cases change of meaning is actually due to folk

etymology.

Some words have even come to assume opposite senses. Thus, after having

simply meant “firm”, “immovable”, the adjective fast soon began to indicate also

strength, persistence in movement, acquiring quite easily the modern sense “rapidly”.

That is why we now find one and the same word meaning both “immovable” and

“moving rapidly”. Sometimes a word has been so frequently used ironically that its

meaning has changed completely. Thus, the O.E. smli^ used to mean “blessed”, “happy”

or “holly”. In Middle English it was often used with mock envy or admiration and it

came to mean “helpless, defenceless” that is how it finally acquired the present

disparaging sense of Modern English “silly”. (E. Iarovici, 1973:237-238)

All these important events have exerted a certain influence upon the development

of the English language, namely on its vocabulary, the volume and the character of the

vocabulary are determined by the social-economic and cultural history of the people

speaking the language. Social, political and cultural changes in human society cause

changes in the vocabulary of the language. When a new product, a new conception comes

into the thought of a people, it inevitably finds a name in their language.

1.3. The English Language Today

English is generally acknowledged to be the world’s most important language. It

is perhaps worth glancing briefly at the basis for that evaluation. There are, after all,

thousands of different languages in the world, and each will seem uniquely important to

those who speak it as their native language, the language they acquired at their mother’s

knee. But there are more objective standards of relative importance.

19

One criterion is the number of speakers of the language. A second is the extent to

which a language is geographically dispersed: in how many continents and countries is it

used or is knowledge of it necessary? A third is its functional load: how extensive is the

range of purposes for which it is used? In particular, to what extent is it the medium for

highly values cultural manifestations such as a science or a literature? A fourth is the

economic and political influence of the native speakers of the language. (B. Fennell,

2001:167)

If we restrict the first criterion to native speakers of the language, the number of

speakers of English is more than 300 million, and English ranks well below Chinese

(which has over three times that number of speakers). The second criterion, the

geographical dispersal of the language, invites comparison with (for example) Hebrew,

Latin, and Arabic as languages used in major world religions, though only Arabic has a

substantial number of speakers. But the spread of English over most of the world as an

international language is a unique phenomenon in the world’s history: about 1500 million

people – over a third of the world’s population – live in countries where English has

some official status or is one of the native languages, if not the dominant native language.

By the third criterion, the great literatures of the Orient spring to mind, not to mention the

language of Tolstoy, Goethe, Cervantes, and Racine. But in addition to being the

language of the still more distinguished Shakespeare, English leads as the primary

medium for 20th century science and technology. The fourth criterion invokes Japanese,

Russian, and German, for example, as languages of powerful, productive, and influential

nations. But English is the language of the United States, whose gross domestic product

in 1980 was more than double that of its nearest competitor, Japan.

No claim has here been made for the importance of English on the grounds of its

quality as a language (the size of its vocabulary, its relative lack of inflections, the

alleged flexibility of its syntax). (R. Quirk, 1997:3) The choice of an international

language, or lingua franca, is never based on linguistic or aesthetic criteria but always on

political, economic, and demographic ones.

English is the world’s most widely used language. A distinction is often made that

depends on how the language is learned: as a native language (or mother tongue),

20

acquired when the speaker is a young child (generally in the home), or as a nonnative

language, acquired at some subsequent period. Overlapping with this distinction is that

between its use as first language, the primary language of the speaker, and as an

additional language. In some countries (particularly of course where it is the dominant

native language), English is used principally for internal purposes as an international

language, for speakers to communicate with other speakers of the same country; in others

it serves chiefly as an international language, the medium of communication with

speakers from other countries.

One well-established categorization makes a three-way distinction between a

native language, a second language, and a foreign language. As a foreign language

English is used for international communication, but as a second language it is used

chiefly for international purposes. We can distinguish five types of function for which

English characteristically serves as a medium when it is a second language: 1.

instrumental, for formal education; 2. regulative, for government administration and the

law courts; 3. communicative, for interpersonal communication between individuals

speaking different native languages; 4. occupational, both intranationally and

internationally for commerce and for science and technology; 5. creative, for

nontechnical writings, such as fiction and political works. (C. Barber, 2000:273)

English is spoken as a native language by more than 300 million people, most of

them living in North America, the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean,

and South Africa. In several of these countries, English is not the sole language: the

Quebec province of Canada is French-speaking, most South Africans speak Afrikaans or

Bantu languages, and many Irish and Welsh people speak Celtic languages. But those

whose native language is not English will have English as their second language for

certain governmental, commercial, social, or educational activities within their own

country.

English is also a second language in many countries where only a small

proportion of the people have English as their native language. In about twenty-five

countries English has been legally designed as an official language: in about ten (such as

Nigeria) it is the sole official language, and in some fifteen others (such as India) it shares

21

that status with one or more other languages. Most of these countries are former British

territories. (R. Quirk, 1997:3) Despite the association of the English language with the

former colonial rulers, it has been retained for pragmatic reasons: where no one native

language is generally acceptable, English is a neutral language that is politically

acceptable, at least at the national level, for administrative and legal functions; and as an

international language for science and technology it is desirable for higher education.

English is an official language in countries of such divergent backgrounds as India,

Nigeria, and Liberia, while in numerous other countries (Burma, Thailand, South Korea,

and some Middle Eastern countries) it is used in some higher education. In Sri Lanka,

English at one time lost its official status, while retaining its social, cultural, and

economic importance, but it has been reestablished as an official language; indeed, as a

result of the increase in secondary education more people today learn English there than

at any time during the colonial period. It has been estimated that English is a second

language for well over 300 million people: the number of second-language speakers may

soon exceed the number of native speakers, if it has not done so already. (F.O. Emerson,

2005:85)

By foreign language we mean a language used by persons for communication

across frontiers or with others who are not from their country: listening to broadcasts,

reading books or newspapers, engaging in commerce or travel, for example, no language

is more widely studied or used as a foreign language thank English. The desire to learn it

is at the present time immense and apparently insatiable. American organizations such as

the United States Information Agency (USIA) and the Voice of America have played a

notable role in recent years, in close and amicable liaison with the British Council, which

provides support for English teaching both in the Commonwealth and in other countries

throughout the world. The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), like the USIA, has

notable radio and television facilities devoted to this purpose. Other English-speaking

countries such as Australia also assume heavy responsibilities for teaching English as a

foreign language. We shall look more closely in the next sections at the kind and degree

of demand, but meantime the reasons for the demand have surely become clear. To put it

bluntly, English is a top requirement of those seeking good jobs, and is often the

language in which much of the business of good jobs is conducted. It is needed for access

22

to at least half of the world’s scientific literature, and the most important scientific

journals as in English. It is thus intimately associated with technological and economic

development and it is the principal language of international aid. The great manufacturing

countries Germany and Japan use English as their principal advertising and sales

medium; it is the language of automation and computer technology. Not only is it the

universal language of international aviation, shipping, and sport, it is to a considerable

degree the universal language of literacy and public communication. (B. Fennell,

2001:168) It is the major language of diplomacy, and is the most frequently used

language both in the debates in the United Nations and in the general conduct of UN

business.

The role of chief foreign language that French occupied for two centuries from

about 1700 has been assumed by English – except of course in the English-speaking

countries themselves, where French or (in the United States) Spanish is the foreign

language most widely studied. Although patriotism obliges international organizations to

devote far more resources to translation and interpreter services than reason would

dictate, no senior post would be offered to a candidate deficient in English. The general

equivalent of the nineteenth century European “finishing school” in French is perhaps the

English-medium school organized through the state education system, and such

institutions seem to be even more numerous in the Soviet Union and other East European

countries than in countries to the West. There are also innumerable commercial

institutions that teach English at all levels and to all ages, both in non-English-speaking

countries and in English-speaking countries. Most language learning, of course, takes

place in the ordinary schools of the state educational system.

The extent to which English is studied at the school level is shown in one analysis

of the educational statistics for 112 countries where English is not a native language, but

is either a foreign language as a second language. The study estimates that over 46

million primary school students and over 71 million secondary school students were in

English classes in the early 1970s. These figures represent over 15% of the primary

school population and over 76% of the secondary school population for those countries. It

is significant that English was the medium of instruction for 30% of the primary school

23

students nearly 16% of the secondary school students. Estimated figures would have been

far higher if statistics for all non-English-speaking countries had been included. (A

notable exclusion from the study was the People’s Republic of China). (R. Quirk, 1997:6)

Since the secondary school population is increasing at a rapid rate in the developing

countries, we can expect that the number of English learners at the secondary level has

increased very considerably since the early 1970s.

Outside the primary and secondary schools, there are large numbers of students in

institutions of higher and further education who are learning English for a variety of

purposes: as the medium of the literature and culture of English-speaking countries; for

access to scholarly and technological publications; to qualify as English teachers,

translators, or interpreters; to improve their chances of employment or promotion in such

areas as the tourist trade, international commerce, or international programs for economic

or military aid. (B. Fennell, 2001:168) In countries where it is a second language, English

is commonly used as the medium for higher education, at least for scientific and

technological subjects, even when it is not so used at the primary or secondary levels.

Many students come from abroad for their higher and further education to

English-speaking countries, where English is of course the medium for their studies. In

1979, there were 286 340 foreign students enrolled at the post-secondary level of

education in the United States, 56 877 in the United Kingdom, and 32 148 in Canada

(where some will have studied in French-speaking institutions), apart from smaller

numbers in other English-speaking countries. The country with the next highest figure

after the United States was France, which had 112 042 foreign students in the same year.

In countries where English is predominantly the native language, the form of

written English taught in the schools is normally the standard variety, the variety

associated with the educated users of the language in that country. However, it is now

less usual than in the past for teachers to attempt to make the local spoken variety

conform with some educated spoken norm.

In countries where English is a nonnative language, the major models for both

writing and speech have generally been the standard varieties of British and American

24

English. The choice between them has depended on various factors: whether the country

was formerly a British or a US colony; its proximity to Britain of the United States;

which of the two had most influenced its economic, cultural, or scientific development;

and current commercial or political relations. (B. Fennell, 2001:258) In some countries

both American and British standard varieties are taught, sometimes in different

institutions, sometimes in the same institution.

The situation has been changing in those countries where English is a second

language, used extensively for international purposes in the absence of a commonly

accepted national language. In countries such as India and Nigeria indigenous educated

varieties are becoming institutionalized and are acquiring social acceptability. In the

meantime, teachers in those countries are uncertain, or vary, about the norms to which

their teaching should be geared: to those of the evolving local standard or to those of

some external standard. Such uncertainties are analogous to the uncertainties among

teachers in native-English countries over divided usages or prescriptive norms that differ

from their own usage.

Where English is a foreign language, we may expect the American and British

standard varieties to continue to be the major models, competing increasingly with the

standard varieties of other countries such as Australia, in regions that are within the

sphere of influence of those countries.

English is preeminently the most international of languages. Though the name of

the language may at once remind us of England, or we may associate the language with

the United States, one of the world’s superpowers, English carries less implication of

political or cultural specificity than any other living tongue (Spanish and French being

also notable in this respect). At one and the same time, English serves the daily purposes

of republics such as the United States and South Africa, sharply different in size,

population, climate, economy, and national philosophy; and it serves an ancient realm

such as the United Kingdom, as well as her widely scattered Commonwealth partners,

themselves as different from each other as they are from Britain herself. (C. Barber,

2000:276)

25

But the cultural neutrality of English must not be pressed too far. The literal or

metaphorical use of such expressions as case law throughout the English-speaking world

reflects a common heritage in the legal system; and allusions to or quotations from

Shakespeare, the Authorized (or King James) Version of the Bible, Gray’s Elegy, mark

Twain, a sea shanty, a Negro spiritual, or a pop song – wittingly or not – testify similarly

to a shared culture. The Continent can have its British meaning of ‘continental Europe’ in

the United States and even in Australia and New Zealand. At other times, English equally

reflects the independence and distinct culture of one or other of the English-speaking

communities. When an Australian speaks of fossicking something out (‘searching for

something’), the metaphor looks back to the desperate activity of reworking the diggings

of someone else in the hope of finding gold that had been overlooked. When an American

speaks of not getting to first base (‘not achieving even initial success’), the metaphor

concerns an equally culture-specific activity – the game of baseball. And when an

Englishman says that something is not cricket (‘unfair’), the allusion is also to a game

that is by no means universal in the English-speaking countries. (R. Quirk, 1997:8)

Predictions – often gloomy – have been about the future of English. It is worth

considering the bases for such predictions with respect to the various uses of English.

A single international language has long been thought to be the ideal for

international communication. Artificially-constructed languages have never acquired

sufficiently large numbers of adherents, although in principle such languages have the

obvious advantage that they put all learners on the same footing (all are nonnative

speakers), thereby not giving an advantage to speakers of any particular language. During

the last few decades English has come closest to being the single international language,

having achieved a greater world spread than any other language in recorded history. Yet

in recent years doubts have arisen it will ever reach the ideal of the single international

language or, indeed, whether its use as an international language will continue at the

present level.

One reason for the doubts has been the fear that national varieties of English are

rapidly growing further apart and will finally separate into mutually incomprehensible

languages. Fears have also been expressed that justifiable sensitivity to the child’s right to

26

use his native dialect (regional, socio-economic, or ethnic) within a national variety might

lead to the abandonment of a national standard dialect and hence to the further

disintegration of English. (B. Fennell, 2001:169) The diversity in English is greatest in

countries where English is a second language and therefore has to be taught. Since in

those countries students are usually taught by teachers who are themselves not native

speakers of English and who have inevitably acquired the language to varying degrees of

adequacy, it is not surprising that the standards of achievement are variable and subject to

change. Some express concern about the excessive internal variability and the ill acquired

control of the language in such situations. Some fear the divisive effect of the emerging

institutionalized varieties, which no longer look to native varieties for standards of

acceptability.

While fears for the disintegration of English cannot be dismissed summarily,

powerful forces are operating to preserve the unity of the language. Despite considerable

dialectal differences within each national variety, the education systems have preserved

the essential similarity of the national standards. The traditional spelling system generally

ignores both the changes in pronunciation over time and the variations in pronunciation

through space; despite its notorious vagaries, it is a unifying force in world English.

Many factors are conductive to making differences in national varieties familiar and

comprehensible: there is the influence of newspapers, magazines, and books on the

written medium and of radio, television, and film on the spoken medium. Teachers and

students can be made sensitive to, and tolerant of, language variation, and national

examination systems can be made flexible enough to take account of variation. Despite a

growing tolerance of nonstandard variation in speech, standard forms remain the norm

for written English.

The future of English as an international language has also been said to rest on the

practicability of teaching the language, especially on a mass scale, to the level required

for international usefulness, given the enormous expenditures required for the purpose. It

is possible that as developing countries become richer they will be able to increase their

expenditure on the teaching of English and raise the levels of teacher and student

proficiency. At all events, programmes have been devised to restrict the goals of

27

language learning, thereby allowing a more realistic deployment of educational resources,

as in the Teaching of English for Specific Purposes, for example for business or scientific

communication. Following earlier attempts (such as ‘Basic English’) that were largely

lexical, a proposal has also recently been made for constructing a simplified form of

English (termed ‘Nuclear English’) that would contain a subset of the features of natural

English; for example, modal auxiliaries such as can and may would be replaced by such

paraphrases as be able to and be allowed to. (R. Quirk, 1997:9)

The simplified form would be intelligible to speakers of any major national

variety and could be expanded for specific purposes, for example, for international

maritime communication.

The long-range continuance of English as a second language is also questionable

in some countries. The eagerness for rapid technological advancement conflicts with the

demands for the establishment of authentic links with past native traditions: objections to

an official status for English and calls for its replacement by native languages are

expressions of national pride and independence. Since a good command of English is

usually restricted to elite, we may except political resentment against a minority second

language that brings benefits to those proficient in it. English is likely to be retained as an

official language as long as no specific native language is politically acceptable to all, but

we can expect that in at least some countries indigenous languages will become

sufficiently dominant to acquire sole official status and eventually to displace English.

(R. Quirk, 1997:10) In such cases English will gradually become recognized as a foreign

language. However, irrespective of the degree of world influence exercised by the

English-speaking countries themselves, English is likely to be retained generally as the

medium for higher education as long as the major English-speaking countries retain their

economic and political status.

Complaints by native speakers that English is deteriorating or being corrupted

reflect in the main a conservative resistance to change. Some language changes result in

the loss of distinctions, but if a distinction is needed the loss will be compensated for. For

example, in some regional varieties the distinction between the singular and plural

meanings of you has been retained by the use of such expressions as you-all or you guys

28

for the plural meanings. The introduction of specific new words or expressions (such as

prioritize or interface) sometimes provokes violent indignation, often conveyed in ethical

terms. Usually the objections to the innovations (or supposed innovations) reflect

objections to their typical users. Some of the complaints relate to variants that are in

divided usage among speakers of the standard variety; for example, graduated from and

was graduated from in American English or different from and different to in British

English. In yet either instance the forms are clearly recognized as unacceptable in the

standard variety (such as the multiple negative in ‘I don’t want no money from no one.’),

though they may be acceptable in some nonstandard varieties. Relatively few points are

at issue. (C. Barber, 2000:278) They do not justify generalizations about the state of

language as a whole.

Some native speakers claim that the use of the language is deteriorating. One

charge is ethical: people are said to be abusing the language, more so than in the past,

with intent to conceal, mislead, or deceive, generally through euphemism or obscure

language. Usually, the accusation is directed principally against politicians, bureaucrats,

and advertisers, but the abuse is felt to have an adverse effect on the language as such.

Certainly, the contemporary mass media facilitate the rapid and widespread

dissemination of such language abuses. The other charge is aesthetic or functional:

people are said to be using the language less elegantly or less efficiently than in the recent

past, a charge that is commonly directed against young people. Many variables inhibit the

feasibility of making valid and reliable comparisons with earlier periods: for example, the

phenomenal growth of the literate population and of the use of the written language.

29

CHAPTER II

LINGUISTIC APPROACHES TO THE ENGLISH

LANGUAGE

Having indicated how we may speak of different types of linguistic organization

such as phonology, lexicology, and grammar, we may now return to the point we had

reached at the beginning. What are the varieties of English whose differing properties are

realized through the several types of linguistic organization?

Formulating a theoretical basis on which the varieties of any language can be

described, interrelated, and studied is one of the prime concerns of the branch of language

study called sociolinguistics. This discipline is far from having achieved complete

answers, and all attempts are in some degree oversimplifications.

We shall first consider five major types of variation. Any use of language

necessarily involves variation within all five types, although for purposes of analysis e

may abstract individual varieties (a related set of variation within one type). 1. region; 2.

social group; 3. field of discourse; 4. medium; 5. attitude. (R. Quirk, 1997:15)

The first two types of variation relate primarily to the language user. People use a

regional variety because they live in a region or have once lived in that region. Similarly,

people use a social variety because of their affiliation with a social group. These varieties

are relatively permanent for language user. At the same time, we should be aware that

many people can communicate in more than one regional or social variety and can

therefore (consciously or unconsciously) switch varieties according to the situation. And

of course people move to other regions or change their social affiliations, and may they

adopt a new regional or social variety.

The last three types of variation relate to language use. People select the varieties

according to the situation and the purpose of the communication. The field of discourse

30

relates to the activity in which they are engaged; the medium may be spoken or written,

generally depending on the proximity of the participants in the communication; and the

attitude expressed through language is conditioned by the relationship of the participants

in the particular situation. A common core or nucleus is present in all varieties so that,

however esoteric a variety may be, it has running through it a set of grammatical and

other characteristics that are present in all the others. It is this fact that justifies the

application of the name ‘English’ to all the varieties.

2.1. Regional variation

Varieties according to region have a well-established label both in popular and

technical use: dialects. Geographical dispersion is in fact the classic basis for linguistic

variation, and in the course of time, with poor-communications and relative remoteness,

such dispersion results in dialects becoming so distinct that we regard them as different

languages. This latter stage was long ago reached with the Germanic dialects that are now

Dutch, English, German, Swedish, etc., but it has not been reached (and may not

necessarily ever be reached, given the modern ease and range of communication) with the

dialects of English that have resulted from the regional separation of communities within

the British Isles and (since the voyages of exploration and settlement in Shakespeare’s

time) elsewhere in the world. (R. Quirk, 1997:16)

Regional variation seems to be realized predominantly in phonology. That is, we

generally recognize a different dialect from a speaker’s pronunciation or accent before we

notice that the vocabulary (or lexicon) is also distinctive. Grammatical variation tends to

be less extensive and certainly less obtrusive. But all types of linguistic organization can

readily enough be involved. A Lancashire man may be recognized by a Yorkshire man

because he pronounces an –r after vowels as in stir or hurt. A middy is an Australian

measure for beer – but it refers to a considerably bigger measure in Sydney than it does in

Perth. Instead of ‘I saw it’, a New Englander might say ‘I see it’, a Pennsylvanian ‘I seen

it’, and a Virginian either ‘I seen it’ or ‘I seed it’, if they were speaking the rural

31

nonstandard dialect of their locality, and the same forms characterize certain dialects

within Britain too.

It is pointless to ask how many dialects of English there are: there are indefinitely

many, depending on how detailed we wish to be in our observations. But they are of

course more obviously numerous in long-settled Britain than in areas more recently

settled by Europeans, such as North America or, still more recently, Australia and New

Zealand. The degree of generality in our observation depends crucially upon our

standpoint as well as upon our experience. An Englishman will hear an American

Southerner primarily as an American and only as a Southerner in addition if further

subclassification is called for and if his experience of American English dialects enables

him to make it. To an American the same speaker will be heard first as a Southerner and

then (subject to similar conditions) as, a Virginian, and then perhaps as a Piedmont

Virginian. One might suggest some broad dialectal divisions which are rather generally

recognized. Within North America, most people would be able to distinguish Canadian,

Northern, Midland, and Southern varieties of English. Within the British Isles, Irish,

Scots, Northern, Midland, welsh, Southwestern, and London varieties would be

recognized with similar generality. Some of these – the English of Ireland and Scotland

for example – would be recognized as such by many Americans and Australians too,

while in Britain many people could make subdivisions: Ulster and Southern might be

distinguished within Irish English, for example, and Yorkshire picked out as an important

subdivision of Northern speech. British people can also, of course, distinguish North

Americans from all others (thought not usually Canadians from Americans), South

Africans from Australians and New Zealanders (though mistakes are frequent), but not

usually Australians from New Zealanders. (R. Quirk, 1997:9) (S. Gramley, 1992:17)

2.2. Social variation

Within each of the dialects there is considerable variation in speech according to

education, socio-economic group, and ethnic group. Some differences correlate with age

and sex. Much (if not most) of the variation does not involve categorical distinctions;

rather it is a matter of the frequency with which certain linguistic features are found in the

groups.

32

There is an important polarity between uneducated and educated speech in which

the former can be identified with the nonstandard regional dialect most completely and

the latter moves away from regional usage to a form of English that cuts across regional

boundaries. To revert to an example given in a previous section, an outsider (who was not

a skilled dialectologist) might not readily find a New Englander who said see for saw, a

Pennsylvanian who said seen, and a Virginian who said seed. These are forms that tend to

be replaced by saw with schooling, and in speaking to a stranger a dialect speaker would

tend to use ‘school’ forms. On the other hand, there is no simple equation of regional and

uneducated English. Just as educated English, ‘I saw’, cuts across regional boundaries, so

do many features of uneducated use: a prominent example is the double negative as in

e.g. ‘I don’t want no cake’, which has been outlawed from all educated English by the

prescriptive grammar tradition for over two hundred years but which continues to thrive

as an emphatic form in uneducated speech wherever English is spoken.

Educated English naturally tends to be given the additional prestige of

government agencies, the professions, the political parties, the press, the law court, and

the pulpit – any institution which must attempt to address itself to a public beyond the

smallest dialectal community. It is codified in dictionaries, grammars, and guides to

usage, and it is taught in the school system at all levels. It is almost exclusively the

language of printed matter. Because educated English is thus accorded implicit social and

political sanction, it comes to be referred to as Standard English, and provided we

remember that this does not mean an English that has been formally standardized by

official action, as weights and measures are standardized, the term is useful and

appropriate. (S. Gramley, 1992:330) In contrast with Standard English, forms that are

especially associated with uneducated (rather that dialectal) use are generally called

nonstandard.

The degree of acceptance of a single standard of English throughout the world,

across a multiplicity of political and social systems, is a truly remarkable phenomenon:

the more so since the extent of the uniformity involved has, if anything, increased in the

present century. Uniformity is greatest in orthography, which is from most viewpoints the

least important type of linguistic organization. Although printing houses in all English-

33

speaking countries retain a tiny element of individual decision (e.g. realize/realise,

judgement/judgment), there is basically a single spelling and punctuation system

throughout: with two minor subsystems. The one is the subsystem with British

orientation (used in most English-speaking countries other than the United States), with

distinctive forms in only a small class of words, colour, centre, levelled, etc. The other is

the American subsystem, color, center, leveled, etc. Canadian spelling draws on both

systems and is open to considerable variation. Learned or formal publications, such as

academic journals and school textbooks, prefer British spellings, while popular

publications, such as newspapers, prefer American spelling. Individuals may use both

variants according to situation, but sometimes randomly. One difference between the

American and British subsystems of punctuation is that the general American practice is

to put a period or comma insider closing quotation marks, which are usually double in

American usage for the primary set: the sign said “No smoking”. A further orthography

point may cause Anglo-American misunderstanding: the numerical form of the dates. (R.

Quirk, 1997:19) In British (and European) practice 2/10/85 means ‘2 October 1985’, but

in American practice it means ‘February 10, 1985’.

In grammar and vocabulary, Standard English presents somewhat less of a

monolithic character, but even so the world-wide agreement is extraordinary and – as has

been suggested earlier – seems actually to be increasing under the impact of closer world

communication and the spread of identical material and nonmaterial culture. The

uniformity is especially close in neutral or formal styles of written English on subject

matter not of obviously localized interest: in such circumstances one can frequently go on

for page after page without encountering a feature which would identify the English as

belonging to one of the national standards.

What we are calling national standards should be seem as distinct from the

standard English which we have been discussing and which we should think of as being

supranational, embracing what is common to all. Again, as with orthography, there are

two national standards that are overwhelmingly predominant both in the number of

distinctive usages and in the degree to which these distinctions are institutionalized:

American English <AmE> and British English <BrE>. Grammatical differences are few

34

and the most conspicuous are known to many users of both national standards: the fact

the AmE has two past participle for ‘get’ and BrE only one for example, and that in BrE

either a singular or a plural verb may be used with a singular collective noun.

Lexical examples are far from numerous, but many of these are familiar to users

of both standards, for example, railway <BrE>, railroad <AmE>; tin <BrE>, can

<AmE>; petrol <BrE>, gas(oline) <AmE> . Some items may confuse most speakers of

the other standard because they are unfamiliar, at least in the relevant meaning: boot

<BrE>, trunk <AmE>; rubber <BrE>, eraser <AmE>; drawing pin <BrE>, thumbtack

<AmE>. Public schooling AmE is a school maintained by public funds, but in BrE it

applies to certain fee-paying schools. Cider (unless further specified, as in hard cider) is

usually nonalcoholic in AmE, bat (unless further specified as sweet cider), it is alcoholic

in BrE. School in “I’m going to school” includes colleges and universities in AmE, but

excludes them in BrE. Floors are numbers from ground to level in AmE, so that first floor

is generally level with the ground, but in BrE it is above the ground floor. In some

instances an item that is normal in one standard is used in the other in restricted contexts:

BrE shop (AmE store), is used in AmE for a small and specialized store, e.g.: barber

shop, show-repair shop, and sometimes for a high-class establishment or one that has

pretensions to be so considered, e.g.: clothing shop I store, jewelry shop I store; BrE

chips (esp. AmE French fries) now occurs in AmE, as a recent borrowing from BrE, in

the combination fish and chips. (R. Quirk, 1997:20)

More recent innovations in either are tend to spread rapidly to the other. Thus,

while radio sets have had valves in BrE but tubes in AmE, television sets have tubes in

both, and transistors and computer software are likewise used in both standards. (S.

Gramley, 1992:332) Mass communication neutralizes differences; the pop music culture,

uses a ‘mid-Atlantic’ dialect that levels differences even in pronunciation.

The United States and Britain have been separate political entities for two

centuries; for generations, thousands of books have been appearing annually; there is a

long tradition of publishing descriptions of both AmE and BrE. These are important

factors in establishing and institutionalized the two national standards, and in the relative

35

absence of such conditions other national standards are both less distinct (being more

open to the influence of either AmE or BrE) and less institutionalized.

One attitudinal phenomenon in the United States is of sociolinguistic interest. In

affirming the students’ right to their own varieties of language, many American

educationalists have declared that Standard American English is a myth, some asserting

the independent status (for example) of Black English. At the same time they have

acknowledged the existence of a written standard dialect, sometimes termed ‘Edited

American English’.

Scots, with ancient national and educational institutions, is perhaps nearest to the

self-confident independence of BrE and AmE, though the differences in grammar and

vocabulary are rather few. There is the preposition outwith (‘except’) and some other

grammatical features, and such lexical items as advocate is the sense ‘practising lawyer’

or bailie (‘municipal magistrate’) and several others which, like this last, refer to Scottish

affairs. Orthography is identical with BrE, though burgh corresponds closely to ‘borough’

in meaning and might almost be regarded as a spelling variant. On the other hand, the

‘Lallans’ Scots, which has some currency for literary purposes, has a highly independent

set of lexical, grammatical, phonological, and orthographical conventions, all of which

make it seem more like a separate language than a regional dialect.

Hiberno-English, or Irish English, may also be considered as a national standard;

for though we lack descriptions of this longstanding variety of English it is consciously

and explicitly regarded as independent of BrE by educational and broadcasting services.

The proximity of Great Britain, the easy movement of population, the pervasive influence

of AmE, and like factors mean however that there is little room for the assertion and

development of a separate grammar and vocabulary. (R. Quirk, 1997:21)

Canadian English is in a similar position in relation to AmE. Close economic,

social, and intellectual links along a 4000 mile frontier have naturally caused the larger

community to have an enormous influence on the smaller, not least in language. Though

in many respects (zed instead of zee, for example, as the name of the letter ‘z’), Canadian

English follows British rather than United States practice, and has a modest area of

36

independent lexical use, e.g. pogey (‘welfare payment’), riding (‘parliamentary

constituency’), muskeg (‘kind of bog’); in many other respects it has approximated to

AmE, and in the absence of strong institutionalizing forces it would continue in this

direction. However, counteracting this tendency in language as in other matter is the

tendency for Canadians to resist the influence of their powerful neighbour in their

assertion of an independent national identity.

South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand are in a very different position, remote

from the direct day-today impact of either BrE or AmE. While in orthography and

grammar the South African English in educated use is virtually identical with BrE, rather

considerable differences in vocabulary have developed, largely under the influence of the

other official language of the country, Afrikaans; for example, veld (‘open country’),

kopje or koppie (‘hillock’), dorp (‘village’). Because of the remoteness from Britain or

America, few of these words have spread: an exception is trek (‘journey’).

New Zealand English is more like BrE than any other non-European variety,

though it has adopted quite a number of words from the indigenous Maoris (for example

whare ‘hut’ and of course kiwi and other names for fauna and flora) and over the past

half century has come under the powerful influence of Australia and to a considerable

extent of the United States.

Australian English is undoubtedly the dominant form of English in the antipodes

and by reason of Australia’s increased wealth, population, and influence in world affairs,

this national standard (though still by no means fully institutionalized) is exerting an

influence in the northern hemisphere, particularly in Britain. Much of what is distinctive

in Australian English is confined to familiar use. This is especially so of grammatical

features like adverbial but or the use of the feminine pronoun both anaphorically for an

inanimate noun (Job … her) and also impersonally and non-referentially for ‘things in

general’.

But there are many lexical items that are to be regarded as fully standard: not

merely the special fauna and flora (such as kangaroo, gumtree, wattle), but special

Australian uses of familiar words (for example paddock as a general word for ‘field’,

37

crook(‘ill’), station (‘sheep farm’), banker (‘river full to its banks’)) and special

Australian words (for example bowyang (‘a trouser strap’), waddy (‘a bludgeon’)). (R.

Quirk, 1997:22)

The list of words that we enumerated does not exhaust the regional or national

variants that approximate to the status of a standard. Beside the widespread Creole in the

Caribbean, for example, there is the increasing recognition that the language of

government and other agencies observes an indigenous standard that can be referred to as

Caribbean English. Nor have we discussed the emerging standards in countries where

English is spoken as a second language. However, all the variants are remarkable

primarily in the tiny extent to which even the most firmly established, BrE and AmE,

differ from each other in vocabulary, grammar, and orthography. We have been careful,

however, not to mention pronunciation in this connection. Pronunciation is a special case

for several reasons. In the first place, it is the type of linguistic organization which

distinguishes one national standard from another most immediately and completely and

which links in a most obvious way the national standards to the regional varieties.

Secondly (with an important exception to be noted), it is the least institutionalized aspect

of standard English, in the sense that, provided our grammar and lexical items conform to

the appropriate national standard, it matters less that our pronunciation follows closely

our individual regional pattern. This is doubtless because pronunciation is essentially

gradient, a matter of ‘more or less’ rather than the discrete ‘this or that’ features of

grammar and lexicon. Thirdly, norms of pronunciation are subject less to educational and

national constraints than to social ones: this means, in effect, that some regional accents

are less acceptable than others. (R. Quirk, 1997:9) (S. Gramley, 1992:22-23)

But there is an exception, noted above, to the generalization that regional

pronunciation can be used without stigma. In BrE, one type of pronunciation comes close

to enjoying the status of ‘standard’: it is the accent associated with older schools and

universities of England, ‘Received Pronunciation’ or ‘RP’. Because this has traditionally

been transmitted through a private education system based upon boarding schools

insulted from the locality in which they happen to be situated, it is nonregional, and this –

together with the obvious prestige that the social importance of its speakers has conferred

38

on it – has been one of its strengths as a widely-favoured spoken form of the language.

But RP no longer has the unique authority it had in the first half of the twentieth century.

It is now only one among several accents commonly used on the BBC and takes its place

along with others which carry the unmistakable mark of regional origin – not least, an

Australian or North American or Caribbean origin. Thus the rule that a specific type of

pronunciation is relatively unimportant seems to be in the process of losing the notable

exception that RP has constituted. Nevertheless, RP remains the standard for teaching the

British variety of English as a foreign language, as can be easily seen from dictionaries

and textbooks intended for countries that teach British English.

RP also shares a distinction with a variety of Midland American pronunciation

known as ‘network English’. BBC newsreaders are virtually all RP speakers, just as

newsreaders on the national radio and television networks in the United States all speak

with the “network English’ pronunciation. (R. Quirk, 1997:23)

We do not attempt to represent the range of variation in pronunciation associated

with different national standards. We do, however, record the major differences between

RP and network English.

2.3. Varieties according to field of discourse

The field of discourse is the type of activity engaged in through language. A

speaker of English has a repertoire of varieties according to field and switches to the

appropriate one as occasion requires. The number of varieties that speakers command

depends upon their profession, training, and interests.

Typically the switch involves nothing more than turning to the particular set of

lexical items habitually used for handling the field in questions. Thus, in connection with

repairing a machine: nut, bolt, wrench, thread, lever, finger-tight, balance, adjust, bearing,

axle, pinion, split-pin, and the like. But there are grammatical correlates to field variety as

well. To take a simple example, the imperatives in cooking recipes: Pour the liquid into a

bowl, not You should or You might care to, still less The cook should … Or the omission

39

of direct objects that is common in instructional language in general: Bake at 450°; Open

(the box at) this end; keep (this bottle) away from children. More complex grammatical

correlates are to be found in the language of technical and scientific description: the

passive is common and clauses ore often ‘nominalized’; thus not usually.

More radical grammatical differences are found in the language of legal

documents.

The type of language required by choice of field is broadly independent from the

variables (dialect, national standard) already discussed. Some obvious contingent

constraints are however emerging: the use of a specific variety of one class frequently

presupposes the use of a specific variety of another. (R. Quirk, 1997:23) The use of a

well-formed legal sentence, for example, presupposes an educated variety of English.

We shall have occasion in this book to refer to variations in grammar according to

the field of discourse with self-explanatory labels. Literature is of course a long-

established field, but literary English extends to other fields, for example nontechnical

essays on humanistic topics and biographies. Some fields have certain characteristics in

common; for example, legal and religious English have numerous forms peculiar to their

respective fields, but both may include usages that are otherwise, archaic, though there is

a trend away from such archaic in these fields. (R. Quirk, 1997:9) (S. Gramley, 1992:24)

Poetry has too traditionally used archaic features. Indeed, poetry may deviate from the

norms of the language in other respects, particularly in word order. Literary English is

sometimes described as poetic if it displays features that are rare in prose.

As with dialects, there are indefinitely many fields depending on how detailed we

wish our discussion to be. Learned (or scholarly) language covers a wide range of subject

matter (psychology, literary criticism, history, physics, medicine), each of which could be

regarded as a separate field, though we shall need to distinguish only the field of

scientific discourse. Applications of technology are reflected in instructional writing,

itself included within technical language. But instructional language may range from

cooking recipes to instructions for playing games. When learned or technical language is

used too obtrusively or (to all appearances) unnecessarily, it is often pejoratively referred

40

to as jargon. Jargon may include obtrusive language from other discourse fields, for

example journalistic and (in particular) bureaucratic writing. Journalism in its widest

sense includes reporting on radio and television, each of which may be distinguished

from newspaper reporting. Some features of newspapers call for special consideration, in

particular headlines, the language of newspaper headlines.

We have by no means exhausted the fields that have developed their own

linguistic expression. Among others we refer to, we may mention advertising and

business.

2.4. Varieties according to medium

The only varieties according to medium that we need to consider are those

conditioned by speaking and writing respectively. Since speech is the primary or natural

medium for linguistic communication, it is reasonable to focus on the differences

imposed on language when it has to be expressed in a graphic (and normally visual)

medium instead. Most of these differences arise from two sources. One is situational: the

use of a written medium normally presumes the absence of the person(s) to whom the

piece of language is addressed. This imposes the necessity of a far greater explicitness:

the careful and precise completion of a sentence, rather than the casual expression

supported by gesture and terminating when speakers are assured by word or look that

their hearers have understood. (R. Quirk, 1997:9) (S. Gramley, 1992:25) as a corollary,

since the written sentence can be read and reread, slowly and critically 9whereas the

spoken sentence is evanescent), writers tend to anticipate criticism by writing more

concisely as well as more carefully and elegantly than they may choose to speak.

The second source of difference is that many of the devices we use to transmit

language by speech (stress, rhythm, intonation, tempo, for example) are impossible to

represent with the relatively limited repertoire of conventional orthography. They are

difficult enough to represent even with a special prosodic notation. As a consequence

writers often have to reformulate their sentences to convey fully and successfully what

they want to express within the orthographic system. Thus instead of spoken sentence

41

with a particular intonation nucleus, one might have to rephrase the sentence in writing to

convey the intended focus.

The advantages are not all on one side, however, the written medium has the

valuable distinctions of paragraphs, italics, quotation marks, etc.., which have no clear

analogue in speech.

As with varieties according to field, we are here dealing with two varieties that

are in principle at the disposal of any users of English as occasion may demand,

irrespective of the variety of English the use as a result of origin and education. But again

there are contingent constraints: we do not expect speakers with little formal education to

compose in written English with the facility that educated speakers acquire. This indeed

is that a great deal of education is about.

There are contingent constraints of another kind. Some field varieties of English

(legal statues especially) are difficult to compose except in writing and difficult to

understand except by reading. Other varieties are comparably restricted to speech: a radio

commentary on a football match will be phrased very differently from a newspaper report

of the same game.

2.5. Varieties according to attitude

Varieties according to attitude constitute, like field and medium varieties, a range

of English any section of which is in principle available at will to any individual speaker

of English, irrespective of the regional variant or national standard he may habitually use.

This present class of varieties is often called ‘stylistic’, but “style’ like ‘register’ is a term

which is used with several different meanings. We are here concerned with the choice of

linguistic form that proceeds from our attitude to the hearer (or reader), to the topic, and

to the purpose of our communication. We recognize a gradient in attitude between

‘format’ (relatively stiff, cold, polite, impersonal) on the one hand and ‘informal’

(relatively relaxed, warm, rude, friendly) on the other hand. The corresponding linguistic

contrasts involve both grammar and vocabulary.

42

While many sentences like the foregoing can be rated ‘more formal’ or ‘more

informal’ in relation to each other, it is useful to pursue the notion of the common core

here, so that we can acknowledge a median or unmarked variety of English, bearing no

obvious colouring that has been induced by attitude. (R. Quirk, 1997:26)

On each side of this neutral (and normal) English, we may usefully distinguish

sentences containing features that are markedly formal or informal. In the present work,

we shall for the most part confine ourselves to this three-term distinction, leaving the

middle one unlabelled and specifying only usages that are relatively formal or informal. It

should be realized that the neutral term often covers items in one or the other extreme as

well. For example, contractions such as “didn’t” are appropriate in both informal and

neutral English; (S. Gramley, 1992:332) they are excluded from formal English.

Mastery of such a range of attitudinal varieties seems a normal achievement for

educated adults, but it is an acquisition that is not inevitable or even easy for either the

native or the foreign learner of a language. It appears to require maturity, tact, sensitivity,

and adaptability – personality features which enable the individual to observe and imitate

what others do, and to search the language’s resources to find an expression to suit his

attitude. Young native speakers at the age of five or six have, broadly speaking, one form

of English that is made to server all purposes, whether they are talking to their mother,

their pets, their friends, or an aged neighbour. And although this invariant language can

cause parents twinges of embarrassment it is generally recognized that it is a limitation

that the child will grow out of.

Foreign learners are in a somewhat similar position. Until their skill in the

language is really very advanced, it is attitudinally invariant, though the particular variety

is much less predictable than that of the native child. If much of their practice in English

has been obtained through textbooks specializing in commercial training, their habitual

variety will be very different from that of the learner who has done vacation work helping

on a farm. More usually, either an invariant literary (sometimes even an archaic) flavour

or an invariant excessively informal flavour occurs in the speech of foreign students.

43

The three-way contrast of formal-neutral-informal is not of course adequate to

describe the full range of linguistic varieties that are evoked by differences of attitude.

We should add at least one category at each end of the scale. On the one hand, we need to

account for the extremely distant, rigid (or ‘frozen’) variety of English sometimes found

in written instructions. For example: ‘Distinguished patrons are requested to ascend to the

second floor’.

But we must account also for the intimate, casual, or hearty – often slangy –

language used between very close friends (especially of a similar age) or members of a

family, or used when speakers feel for any other reason that they do not need to bother

about what the listener (or reader) thinks of their choice of language . (R. Quirk, 1997:26)

As we said above, we chiefly employ the labels ‘formal’ and ‘informal’, leaving

unmarked the ‘neutral’ normal style; but we sometimes designate language as ‘very

formal’ or ‘very informal’, occasionally replacing ‘very informal’ by ‘casual’ or

‘familiar’ as appropriate. The term ‘colloquial’ is also used for the very informal range,

but particularly for the spoken language. (R. Quirk, 1997:9) (S. Gramley, 1992:27) A

further term ‘slang’ is needed to denote the frequently vivid or playful lexical usage

typical of casual discourse, indicating membership in a particular social group, which

involves a social and cultural trend adopted by users of the respective way of wording

their ideas..

As with the English dictated by field and medium, there are contingency

constraints in normal selection of attitudinal variety, which depends upon the topic in

discussion. Just as statue drafting (field) normally presupposes writing (medium), it also

presupposes a particular attitude variety: in this case ‘very formal’. Similarly, it would be

hard to imagine an appropriate football commentary on the radio being other than

informal, or a radio commentary on the funeral of a head of state being other than formal,

though both are in the same medium (speech).

44

2.6. Varieties according to interference

A very different type of variation applies to speakers of English as a second

language or foreign language. The variation is caused by interference from another

language. The Frenchman who says ‘I am here since Thursday’ is imposing a French

grammatical usage on English; the Russian who says ‘There are four assistants in our

chair of mathematics’ is imposing a Russian lexico0semantic usage on the English word

‘chair’. Most obviously, we always tend to impose our native phonological pattern on any

foreign language we learn. The practiced linguistic is able to detect the language

background of students, and this has obvious implications for language teaching in that

students can be helped with the problems that give them the greatest difficulty.

At the opposite extreme are interference varieties that are so widespread in a

community and of such long standing that some believe them stable and adequate enough

to be institutionalized and hence to be regarded as varieties of English in their own right

rather than stages on the way to a more native-like English. There is active debate on

these issues in India, Pakistan, and several African countries, where efficient and fairly

stable varieties of English are prominent in educated use at the highest political and

professional level and may possibly acquire the status of national standards. The new

cultural settings for the use of English have produced considerable changes: different

notions of appropriate style and rhetoric, and an influx of loan words, changes of

meanings, and new expressions.

We can also recognize regional supranational varieties such as South Asian

English (the English of the Indian subcontinent), East African English, and West African

English, and these in turn may share characteristic. For example, in African English, and

to some extent in South Asian English, yes is commonly used in a negative reply that

confirms the speaker’s assumption in a negative question: “isn’t she in bed?” “Yes (she

isn’t)” African and South Asian English very frequently use “isn’t it?” as a universal tag,

“They’re late, isn’t it?” and often omit articles required in the major standard varieties,

“They gave us hard time”. (R. Quirk, 1997:28)

45

At an extreme of a different kind, there are the interference varieties known as

creole and pidgin. It is a matter of debate, and to some extent politics, whether these

should be regarded as falling within the orbit of the English language. Since, however,

the expressions ‘creole English’ and ‘pidgin English’ are in common occurrence; we

should say something about them, although they will not be described in this book. They

have traditionally been used chiefly by the less prosperous and privileged sections of a

community but have also been stable over several generations.

Pidgin is technically distinguished from Creole by being essentially a second

language used to replace a native language for restricted public (especially commercial)

purposes rather than to conduct family affairs and talk to one’s children. On the other

hand, a creole is a native language. It is usually more varied than a pidgin, but it tends to

be restricted to local, practical, and family matters. Political, educational, and

sociolinguistic thought vacillates as to whether such creolized forms of English (as in

Sierra Leone or the Caribbean) should be given official status or not. Would creole

speakers benefit from the self-assurance this might give, or (since the elite in their society

would still learn more international English in addition) would the danger be that this

would tend to perpetuate their underprivileged status? Creole is normally the principal or

sole language of its speakers, being transmitted from parent to child like any other native

language. Moreover, for all its evidence of interference from other languages, a creolized

form of English is usually more like ordinary English than a Pidgin English is, and it

gives less impression of being merely a drastic reduction of ordinary English. (R. Quirk,

1997:28)

The definitions we have given may suggest an unjustified dichotomy between

Creoles and pidgins, and may also suggest that they are stable autonomous language

systems. We should rather consider Creoles and pidgins as not discrete stages in a

changing process. On the one hand, trough repidginization a creole comes to be used as a

second language by neighbouring peoples who have little contact with the European

language on which the creole is based. On the other hand, through decreolization a creole

tends to merge with the European language when the creole speakers and the European

language speakers are in frequent contact. Moreover, both creoles and pidgins may admit

46

a very large amount of variation. A pidgin in its early stages of development, such as the

English-based Hawaiian Pidgin, is highly unstable; we similarly find considerable

instability in a repidginized creole, as in the second language use of the English-based

Krio. When a creole is undergoing decreolization, as was the case with the English-based

Guyanese Creole, it can best be analyzed as a continuum of varieties on a scale of least to

most different from the European language. By contrast, Tok Pisin, which began as

Pidgin English in Papua New Guinea, has become highly institutionalized through use in

education, government, and the media, and may already have some currency as a native

language. (R. Quirk 1997:29)

2.7. Relationships among variety types

Varieties within each type of variation may be viewed in principle as independent

from each other. Users of English may retain recognizable features of any regional

variety in their use of a national standard; within that standard, they can discourse in

English that is appropriate to their particular occupation or hobbies; they can handle these

topics in English appropriate to either speech or writing; in either medium, they can

adjust their discourse on any of the topics according to the respect, friendliness, or

intimacy they feel for their hearers or readers. And all of this would apply equally if they

are proficient in English as a foreign or second language and their use of English is

affected by interference from their native tongue.

At the same time, the variation is to a large extent interdependent. We have drawn

attention to several contingent constraints and we now consider the types of

interdependence as they affect the varieties system as a whole.

Regional variation has been explicitly connected with the educational varieties: a

person educated in Ohio will adopt standard AmE, not BrE. Similarly, for speakers of an

interference variety: someone learning English in Europe or India is likely to approach a

standard with BrE orientation: in Mexico or the Philippines, with an AmE orientation.

47

Next are varieties relating to fields of discourse. Certain fields of activity (farming

and shipbuilding, for example) are associated with specific regions; clearly, it is in the

dialect of these regions that the language of daily discourse on such activities is fully

developed. In other fields (medicine, nuclear physics, philosophy) we expect to find little

use of nonstandard English or of regionally distinctive English. On the other hand, we

expect AmE to predominate in discussions of baseball and BrE in discussions of cricket.

Since writing is an educated art, we normally expect the educated English of one

or other national standard in this medium. Indeed, when we occasionally try to represent

uneducated English in writing, we realize acutely how narrowly geared to Standard

English are our graphic conventions. For the same reason there are subjects (for example,

coaching a football team) that can scarcely be handled in writing and others (for example,

legal statues) that can scarcely be handled in speech.

Attitudinal varieties have a great deal of independence in relation to other

varieties: it is possible to be formal or informal on biochemistry or politics in AmE or

BrE, for example. But informal or casual language across an ‘authority gap’ or ‘seniority

gap’ (a student talking to an archbishop) presents difficulties, and on certain topics

(funerals) it would be considered distasteful. And very formal language when the subject

is courtship or football would seem comic.

Finally, the interference varieties, at the extremes of Creole and pidgin there is

especial interdependence between the form of the language and its functions. Indeed,

pidgins tend to be restricted to a few practical matters, though we have noted the

expansion of functions in Tok Pisin. (R. Quirk, 1997:30)

As to English taught at an advanced level as a second or foreign language, it is to

be hoped that enough proficiency is achieved to allow the users the flexibility they need

in handling (let us say) public administration, a learned profession such as medicine with

its supporting medical journals, and informal conversation. Students are likely to be

handicapped if they are taught English at the formal or informal levels only, or the

spoken or written language only, or are restricted to the English necessary for a particular

occupation (‘English for engineers’, for example).

48

We need to make two final points about variation in the use of English. First, the

various conditioning factors (region, medium, attitude, for example) each constitute a

continuum rather than a discrete category.

Secondly, we may not able to account always for the choice of one rather than

another linguistic form; we sometimes find ‘divided usage’, a choice between variants,

the conditions for which cannot be attributed to the variety distinctions discussed in this

chapter.

Neither member of such pairs is necessarily linked to any of the varieties that we

have specified. Attempts have been made to find a basis for at least some of this

seemingly random variation (often called ‘free variation’). (R. Quirk 1997:31) For

example, it has been claimed that certain language varieties (termed ‘randomly

distributed dialects’) define groups of speakers who are not associated regionally or

sociologically, the groups being characterized by linguistic features that are related

systematically.

Language change is constantly occurring in all languages and in all varieties of

language with the result that older and newer variants always coexist; and some members

of a society will be temperamentally disposed to use the new (perhaps by their youth)

while others are comparably inclined to the old (perhaps by their age). But many will not

be consistent wither in their choice or in their temperamental disposition. Perhaps English

may give rise to such fluctuation more than some other languages because of its patently

mixed nature: a basic Germanic wordstock, stress pattern, word-formation, inflection, and

syntax overlaid with a classical and Romance wordstock, stress pattern, word-formation

and even inflection and syntax. (S. Gramley, 1992:334)

At various places in this chapter we have had occasion to refer to language

attitudes; for example, the official acceptance of English as a neutral second language and

the views on the present state of the language expressed by native speakers. As we have

said the current preeminence of English as an international language reflects its practical

values, not some assumed aesthetic or linguistic qualities. The growing local acceptance

of second language educated varieties as standards derives from demands for national

49

autonomy, an autonomy that was achieved long ago by transplanted varieties in native

English-speaking countries, notably the United States of America. Increasing tolerance

(by no means universal) for second language varieties and for local nonstandard varieties

reflects views that each speech community has a right to its own language and that no

variety is intrinsically superior.

Standard varieties continue to enjoy general prestige. They are mode

differentiated, especially lexically, entering into a wider range of functions and

situational domains. (R. Quirk, 1997:32) The prestige of these varieties and their official

maintenance ensure, at least for the written medium, a neutral comprehensible language

within particular English-speaking countries and (to a major extent) internationally.

Certain regional or social varieties are generally held in higher esteem than others

because they are associated with more prestigious groups. Justification for the higher

esteem is sometimes sought in claims that they are more logical or closer to some pristine

state of the language. For similar reasons, some language features are more highly

regarded that their variants. Language attitudes and language behavior do not necessarily

coincide. Despite their acceptance of commonly-held evaluations, many continue using

stigmatized varieties or variants because they feel more comfortable with what they are

used to, or because they want to retain their membership of a particular speech

community. Those who re competent to do so may adjust their variety to suit their

audience, particularly in the spoken medium, and are likely to monitor their language in

the direction of standard varieties in the written medium, especially in formal style. On

the other hand, some may retain stigmatized varieties or variants because they reject the

evaluations of other.

50

CHAPTER III

REGISTERS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The term ‘register’ was defined as ‘a particular configuration of meanings that

are typically associated with a particular situational configuration of field, mode and

tenor’. (Glenn F. Stillar, 1998:141) Register may be seen as “sublanguages” that are

“characteristic of particular activities in which language is used, defined by systematic

differences in probabilities of various grammatical and semantic features”.

Registers have a socially distributed existence over populations of speakers

because all speakers of a given language do not acquire competence in all of its registers

during the normal course of language socialization. In the case of registers of scientific

discourse, competence in the use and interpretation of technical terminologies requires

several years of specialized formal study. In the case of registers associated with

particular venues of commercial activity (e.g. the stock change, the publishing house, the

advertising firm), proficiency in specialized terms is typically attained through

socialization in the workplace. (A. Duranti, 2001:213)

Since in ordinary language a speaker’s choice may be governed by any of the

three main elements in the situation, that is by his own role, by the number and status of

his hearers, or by the particular circumstances which direct him to speak or write, we

have three main ranges of variation in register according to which of these elements is

dominant. The first defines a range of technicality, the second range of formality and the

third determines whether speaker and hearer are within audible range or whether some

other kind of message must be sent. A ‘variety’ can be identified by more than one range

of variation at a time: a legal document is formal, technical and written a conversation

between scientists might be informal technical and spoken. These ranges, like the time-

scale or dialect areas, can be infinitely, subdivided (G. W. Turner, 1984:168). Technical

English includes as subvarieties the language: of chemistry, botany, or linguistic. (In

51

practice, subdivisions: cease: to be very interesting or useful where nothing varies but a

few technical terms.)

Two members of a language community may both be required with a lexical

register, but not have the same degree of competence in its use. Many speakers can

recognize certain registers of their language but cannot fully use or interpret them. The

existence of registers therefore results not just in the interlinkage of linguistic repertoires

and social practices but in the creation of social boundaries within society, partitioning

off language users into distinct groups through differential access to particular registers

and to the social practices that they mediate; through the ascription of social worth or

stigma to particular registers, their usage, or their users; and through the creation and

maintenance of asymmetries of poser, privilege, and rank, as effects dependent on the

above processes.

The term register is applied to linguistic usage only recently. It was first recorded

in this acceptation by B.W. Reid in 1956. It is based on the classical notion of decorum,

whereby certain levels of usage are considered appropriate to particular topics or social

situations. (G. Hughes, 1990:47)

According to R.A. Hudson (1980:48-49), the term register is widely used in

sociolinguistic to refer to varieties according to use, in contrast with dialects, defined as

varieties according to user. When we compare dialects we usually compare entirely

different linguistic situations; speaker, hearer and circumstances all differ from one

dialect to another. When we compare different ‘registers’ we compare partially

overlapping situations. The registers are identified by taking the speaker as invariable

element in overlapping situation, and discussing how he adjusts his language to a

situation.

M. Stubbs (1986:18) wrote about two main types of variation within English:

dialectal variation and diatypic variation (register). Individual speakers can change their

language according to who they are talking about, where they are, etc. Speakers can

acquire competence in more diatypes throughout their laives nd use then according to

topic (field), style (tenor) and mode of discourse (written or spoken). According to P.

52

Robinson “a register of the language is identified and described, and then referred to as a

discrete set of linguistic choices, seen as quite separate from the rest of the language.

Thus, we can talk of ‘the language of science’, ‘the language of medicine’”.

In the process of translating a text the translator must pay attention to the

constituent components of register: field, mode, tenor.

The field is concerned with the purpose and the subject-matter of communication.

Within the various technical fields, there is a division between the general and the

specialist term: ‘general – specialist’; ‘hole – orifice/cavity’; ‘velocity – speed’; ‘mad –

insane’.

Mode refers to the means by which communication takes place (speech or

writing). Spoken English is considered to be basic in that it is learned before the written

language and is more frequently used. Written English has a special prestige and place in

the formal educational system. Spoken English is more variable than written English;

most written language is formal and public, whereas spoken language is private and

almost all languages published are planned, whereas most spoken language is

spontaneous. Both spoken and written language show stylistic variation from formal to

informal. Spoken language shows more variation than the written one, ranging from the

formal language of lectures and speeches to casual and intimate conversation between

friends. However, the written and the spoken language scales overlap, i.e. the more

formal spoken language is more similar to the written language.

Tenor refers to the formality and social relation between participants: formal,

casual or intimate English. An intimate situation is reflected in language by a relaxed

pronunciation marked in English by assimilation and reduced from and by less carefully

precise grammar than that of formal writing.

Translators must be aware of certain patterns that are frequent only in technical

writing. For example, it is not usual to add the name of the agent to passive sentences, if

the agent is a person. But very often the agent is not a person, and it may be necessary to

add it. (e.g. Large quantities of stem are required by modern industry.)

53

The use of passive voice, with elimination of the active subject is favoured in ESP

due to the demand for personality. The impersonality of modern science rest not only on

a frequent use of passive but also requires even more stylistic skill than to use passives,

since whereas a passive deletes an active subject from an underlying competence

statement, an abstract noun may omit a subject and up to two subjects. ESP makes use of

compound nouns, verbs of Latin origin: to ignite, to add, to extinguish, to inspissate,

substract, theorize, etc. (Marinela Burada, 202) However, the verbs of Latin origin are

more formal and likely to be used in writings whereas in speaking are used phrasal verbs.

Scientists often prefer a more formal verb, either for dignity or precision. There is

generally no need for a following adverb, because the formal verb includes the adverbial

idea in its prefix (ab-, arc-, com-, cor-, de-, ex-, pre-, per-, re-, sus-, trans-, etc). (A.J.

Herbert, 1965:75)

The acute attention given to the composition of words and phrases, defining

exactly the use of the suffixes –ide, -ite and –ate in chemistry, for instance, or avoiding in

medical language a popular use of ‘get better’ which can have a total meaning: ‘recover’,

different from ‘improve’.

The impersonality of modern science rests not only on a frequent use of passive

but also of abstract nouns. To use such words requires even more stylistic skill than to

use passives, since whereas a passive deletes an active subject from an underlying

complete statement, an abstract noun may omit a subject and up to two objects (direct and

indirect). (G.W. Turner, 1984:181)

As the scientists and engineers are very largely concerned with phenomena and

processes, and in all technical writing the noun and naming word has a major function. In

particular, the abstract noun or generalizing word is very important in scientific style.

Apart from highly technical terms, there is a large number of abstract nouns formed from

adjectives, verbs or other nouns: vaporize - vaporization, purify - purification, withdraw –

withdrawal, etc. (A.J. Herbert, 1965:75).

Simple NPs are to be found in informal speech, whereas the complex NPs are

specific to technical and scientific writing. In the complex NPs the nominal and adjectival

54

premodifiers signify permanent characteristics, while temporary characteristics are

associated with –ing and –ed premodifiers. As for post modification, prepositional

phrases are most frequent postmodifiers for technical texts. (Elena Croitoru, 2004:83)

Additionally, postmodification appears mostly under the form of verb phrases

with –ed and –ing and to be+infinitive, relative clauses, and adverbial phrases (especially

position and direction).

About a third of all scientific statements have the verb to be as the main verb.

This causes some difficulties for Romanian students, because in Romanian, it not always

necessary to use a verb like, but the verb ‘a avea’ is used in most Romanian sentences of

this type: (e.g. ‘Avem sase ateliere in aceasta uzina.’; ‘there are six workshops in this

plant.’).

Many phrasal verbs tend to be used when speaking about technical things, but

when writing about technical things, scientist often prefer a more formal verb, either for

dignity or for precision.

Some phrasal verbs are commonly used both in speech and in writing in most of

the cases there is no formal verb which can readily be substitute: “A film of oil is put

between the metal surfaces, so that they do not bear on each other. The terminal voltage

off as the local increases.”

But some phrasal verbs have a formal verb equivalent, which is commonly used

in technical and scientific writing: take in – absorb, draw out of – extract from. (A.J.

Herbert, 1965:151) The interpreter and the translator must choose the most dignified,

accurate or convenient form of a certain verb: to construct instead of to build, to

argument instead of to increase, to evaporate instead of to turn into vapor.

In technical English, besides collocations in which the restrictions are not very

different from the meanings of the words taken separately, e.g. feed rod (mas) – ax al

avansurilor, (text) bara de alimentare, skip bucket (la furnale) – galeata a schipiului, cupa

basculanta, etc., collocational restrictions are very different: e.g. eye nu (mas) – piulita cu

inel, eye pit (min) – jompde put, eye plate (nav) – ochi de punte cu placa, etc. None of the

55

components can be replaced, and the collocational restrictions do not take into account

the meanings of the words taken separately.

Differences in collocational patterning among languages are not a question of

using a different verb with a certain noun, but they can involve totally different ways of

describing something. For example, requirements and demands are met in English, but in

Romanian they are observed, fulfilled.

In the special vocabulary of technical registers two contrary tendencies are found.

One is a specialization of vocabulary so that distinctions neglected in non-technical

languages can be made. For example a less modern but not basically different set of

distinctive terms in the farmer’s ewe, ram, whether, hogget instead of the townsman’s

less precise sheep.

The opposite tendency in technical language is toward general terms to represent

more inclusive concepts than those of ordinary language. A zoologist not only multiplies

names for what a plain man calls collectively shellfish, but also gathers up shellfish with

slugs and snails into a wider concept of mollusks. (G.W. Turner, 1984:173)

There is something of the initiation ceremony in the training of apprentices and

scientists. The student of geometry is never to draw anything: he may describe circles,

construct a triangle, produce its side and drop a perpendicular, so that geometry is in part

the learning of new collocations of words special to the subject. The student goes on the

chemistry and learns to discuss milky limewater in terms of white precipitate or crackling

as decrepitation. (G.W. Turner, 1984:173)

The interpreters and translators must be aware of the type of situation, which will

facilitate effective communication. They hate to realize the tenor of discourse (official,

semi-official or non-official). He has to know if it is an authoritative view, or an

investigation account.

For example, if we compare the communicative purposes of lectures

(introductions) with that of research articles (introductions, we find significant

differences related to the different character of their audience). That is, the research

56

article writer needs to convince a potentially hostile readership of peers and superiors in

the research that his research is quite interesting and valuable. In contrast, the lecturer

needs to create a frame work to support his uncritical audience in comprehending the

topic of the lecture.

The lecture can be associated with the textbook genre. Like the textbook, the

lecture represents the culmination of a process within the academic discourse community

of reaching a consensus on facts and theories. The text book differs from the research

article. The former is a kind of a framework for the writer’s pedagogic aims, while the

latter may be perceived as being structured for a more persuasive purpose.

The textbooks also provide a survey of established knowledge rather than make

new claims, as research articles do.

Consequently, the lecture displays a set of common communicative purposes

which are different from those of other genres; it also a clear rhetorical structure which

moves through a sequence of communicative steps. There is greater freedom of rhetorical

movement with lectures or conferences as compared with written genres, due to the

variation specific to spoken genres: there may be spontaneous decisions about “what to

put where”, leading to changes in the planned order.

Tenor is relevant in translating when two languages are culturally different from

each other. The translator and interpreter must be attentive to the changes in tenor from

polite to colloquial or even intimate, or from casual to deferential. The interpreter must be

more persuasive in spoken language (conference paper) and neutral in written language

(scientific or technical text). The speaker’s linguistic competence enables him to

distinguish between what is formal and informal: intoxicated-drunk-wasted, dejected-sad-

bummed, exhausted-sad-bummed, etc., are only few examples of the different lexical

items having the same meaning in different styles: formal-informal-domestic.

It enables him to see that some words are ordinary, where as others are rare,

specialized, etc.

57

It is possible to be intimate, with an audience and yet respectful to a subject and

so use formal language; conversely it is possible, to be flippant about a serious subject,

without necessarily coming closer to an audience, in informal language.

There is close connection between tenor and mode. Mode is the manifestation of

the nature of the language code being used. In Halliday’s opinion, mode includes the

rhetorical concepts such as expository, didactic, persuasive, descriptive, etc.

In translating a text, field may become a problem especially with a SL such as

English language, because English has developed a scientific and technical basis just like

other languages spoken in the developed countries. The translator/interpreter would find

sometimes it difficult and sometimes even impossible to give an accurate translation of

some new expressions in some field, simply because he does not know the apparatus, or

technology which is new to him. There are cases when he may use new expressions.

Technical terms, like dialect words, may pass into the general language. When

this happens, a word used by a restricted group of people in a restricted situation becomes

used more widely by more people and the reference will tend to be less concentrated or

precise. We say that a word usually widens its meaning when it becomes a general word.

We see this strikingly with a fashionable word like allergic but it is also true of more

stable words like insanity, once a legal and medical term, but now capable of loose or

metaphoric use as we.

Register proves very important from the linguistic point of view and from that of

interpretation and translation, because it provides an ideal link between context and text

structure.

58

CHAPTER IV

COMPUTERESE

The progress of science, technology and commerce has made English become

the accepted international language. English has also become subject to the wishes, needs

and demands of people other than language teachers. Thus, there has been an ever

growing demand for English courses aiming at specific needs, designed for specific

groups of learners.

In language studies, there has been a shift of attention from defining the formal

features of language usage to discovering the ways in which language is actually used in

real communication. The idea has become prevalent that language varies considerably

from one situation of use to another, from one context to another. This should help us

determine the features of specific situations and make these features the basis of the

learners’ courses.

The increasing demand for English to suit particular needs and interests has

brought about the growth of ESP. This had an important influence on the learners’

motivation as well as on the effectiveness of their learning. Consequently, the courses

were designed on the basis of ‘relevance’ to the learners’ needs and interests. That is to

say, the English needed by a particular group of learners could be identified by analyzing

the linguistic characteristics of their specialized are of work or study. Thus texts were

chosen from the learners’ particular domain. All this led to a guiding principle of English

for Specific Purposes (ESP): “Tell me what you need English for and I will tell you the

English that you need.” (E. Croitoru, 1996:62)

Formerly, the term ESP stood for English for Special Purposes. It changed its

signification, during the 1970s. As J. Munby and P. Robinson point out, English for

Specific Purposes is thought to suggest special languages, that is, restricted languages,

which for many people is only a small part of ESP, whereas English for Specific

Purposes, the term now used by an increasing number of scholars, practitioners and

institutions, focuses attention on the purpose of the learner and refers to the whole range

59

of language resources. As far as the area covered by ESP is concerned, R. Mackay

considers that it is generally used to refer to the teaching/learning of a foreign language

for a clearly utilitarian purpose of which there is no doubt. Thus, ESP is the

teaching/learning of English as an essential means to a clearly identifiable goal. Perren

suggests that language teaching for special purposes is not very satisfactory as a blanket

term to a cover a variety of vocational and professional reasons for learning or teaching

languages. (Perren, 1982:14) P. Robinson (1982:12) considers that it is not easy to

characterize the “clearly utilitarian” purposes for which students learn ESP. Mackay and

Mountford (1978:2) suggest three kinds of purposes: occupational requirements, e.g. for

international telephone operators, civil airline pilots, etc.; vocational training

programmes, e.g. for hotel and catering staff, technical trades, etc.; academic or

professional study, e.g. engineering, medicine, law, etc. (E. Croitoru 1996:65)

EST – English for Science and Technology, is, as R. Mackay and A. Mountford,

among others suggest, a major subdivision of ESP. Their opinion resembles L. Trimble’s,

in that EST covers the areas of English written for academic and professional purposes

and of English written for occupational (and vocational) purposes, including the often

informally written discourse found in trade journals and in scientific and technical

materials written for the layman.

C. Kennedy and R. Bolitho (1984), consider EST an important aspect of ESP

programmes. In their opinion, the term EST presupposes a stock of vocabulary items,

grammatical forms, and functions which are common to the study of science and

technology. They also consider it easy to gain the impression that the two terms, EST and

ESP, are synonymous. However, this is not true “since EST is simply an important

branch of ESP, dealing with scientific content […] EST is too general if the needs of the

learner are to be fully taken into account”. (E. Croitoru, 1996:68)

This is because the scientist’s specialism may be any one of the wide range of

disciplines within EST, and each of these situations will demand a different language

skill and a different range of communicative abilities. For example, a scientist may need

English in different situations: to present paper at a conference, exchange views either

60

formally or informally at social gathering, read literature on his subject, or write a paper.

The scientist’s particular domain is also added to all this.

According to P. Robinson, EST would seem to be both an occupational and an

educational use of English: occupational when we are considering the needs of oil-field

workers, engineers, computer programmers, etc.; educational when we consider school

and university students around the world studying physics, chemistry, maths and

engineering through the medium of English (E. Croitoru, 1996:67)

She also considers that EST does not fit into either of the two diagrams referring

to ESP, which we think right. This is on account of the fact that EST refers to subject

matter rather than to activity: whether occupational or educational. Coming to this

statement means completing the definition of ESP with the element of purpose for which

the learner is studying that is special or specific, not the language.

In what concerning difficulties in translating EST to some linguistics, difficulty

and difference are synonymous. This is by no means self-evident, because what is often

identified as a difference and predicted as a difficulty often turns on not to be so. A

particular feature of the TL which is different from the SL is not necessarily difficult to

translate. (E. Croitoru 1996:133) Considers that in learning a foreign language, difficulty

is “clearly a psycholinguistic matter, whereas difference is linguistic”. We consider that

in translating and interpreting, difficulty is at least both a psycholinguistic and a linguistic

matter, if not linguistic to a much greater extent.

Any stretch of language may offer one type of difficulty or another, if not more. It

is almost impossible to work out hard and fast rules for translation covering all subtleties

and difficulties, but an evaluation can be made, as A. Bantas puts it, from a “conscious,

global thoroughgoing contextual analysis to a realistic translation”. (A. Bantas, 1994:84)

Translation difficulties involve the difficulties of learning to use a language both

receptively and productively, which is rooted, in the distinction between productive

(encoding) and receptive (decoding) linguistic performance and competence.

61

The translator may be taken in by some surface similarity between languages in

contact in cases where there is none, e.g. where cognates occurring in both languages are

not translation equivalents – the so-called false friends.

It is obvious that the goal of semantics is to explain how the sentences of a

language are understood, interpreted and related to states, processes and objects in the

universe. Of the two necessary orientations to the description and explanation of

meaning, i.e. 1) an understanding of the relationship of form to form within the code and

2) an understanding of the formal structures of the code to the communicative context of

use, the translator particularly needs the latter.

The translator has to operate with lexical items and grammatical structures at

various stages in the translating process. Phraseology and the collocational and

grammatical patterning of the target version must conform to the target-language norms,

on condition the translation does not sound foreign or clumsy, and the meaning is

preserved.

Of course, even easier than combining or blending existing words is simply to

find new ways of using words that already exist. The widespread use of computers and

the Internet has been a major breeding ground for this process, with new senses for words

such as window, mouse, bug, virus, surf, net and web now being part of everyday

English. Some words can continue to accumulate new sense over a long period of time,

especially if their meaning particularly lends itself to figurative extension. For instance,

the word zombie started life in the late 19th century as a description of a dead person

revived by voodoo witchcraft. By the 1940s, the word was in use with its familiar sense

of a lifeless, apathetic person, (the idea being that such an individual resembled a revived

corpse).

Many new words have been formed in the area of computing in the past few

years. The Information Superhighway and the Internet allow computer users to connect

with computers all over the world, and use electronic mail. Another starting point is the

World Wide Web – a system linking documents and pictures into an information

database stored in computers around the world which can be accessed with a single

62

programme. This is often abbreviated to ‘www’ or ‘Web’. These terms were all virtually

unknown three years ago. The development of computers and of the World Wide Web

has led to a large number of new words. (B. Fennell, 2001:241)

The register of English associated with computer technology and electronic

communication, for both professional and other purposes, such as: the creation, use and

maintenance of equipment; recreation, such as video games and electronic bulletin

boards; the writing and transmission of electronic email; the promotion of products; word

processing, desktop publishing and electronic publishing; and informal usage, including

slang. Such usage has both lexical and syntactic aspects, including word-formation,

semantic change, and distinctive prose styles. Word-formation (1) Compounds, such as

‘database’ an organized store of information, ‘light pen’ a light-sensitive rod for

‘drawing’ on screens or for reading data. (2) Fixed phrases such as high-level language

an algebraic code with elements of natural language for operating computers, mainframe

a very large computer system. (3) Abbreviations such as ASCII (pronounced ‘Askee’) for

‘American Standard Code for Information Interchange’, CD-ROM for ‘compact disk

read-only memory’, GIGO for ‘garbage in, garbage out’, WYSIWYG or wysiwyg for

‘what you see us what you get’ (that is, a precise correspondence between what is on

screen and what is printed out). (4) Blends, such as the programming languages

FORTRAN, fusing ‘formula’ and ‘translator’, and LISP, fusing ‘list’ and ‘processing’.

(5) Eponyms, such as non Von Neumann architecture, any architecture basically different

from the style of computer specified by the US mathematician John von Neumann, and

Turing machine, an imaginary computer with characteristics as stated by the UK

computing pioneer Alan Turing. (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article.html)

Semantic change the adaptation of meanings and uses from the language at large

into computer usage (new uses for old words), from computer usage to the language at

large (public uses for private ‘jargon’), and from one register to another (such as from

medicine to computer usage): specialization. New uses for old words: ‘architecture’ the

arrangement of complex hardware and software, ‘chip’ a tiny wafer of silicon on which is

engraved a minute circuit, ‘compiler’ a program which translates computer languages

into machine language, ‘document’ as a verb, meaning ‘write’, ‘interface’ (noun) a

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connection between devices which cannot otherwise communicate with each other, (verb)

to provide or have such a connection, ‘library’ a set of programs for common tasks,

‘mouse’ (plural sometimes ‘mouses’) an electrical pointing device like a remote control

used to move elements on the screen of a personal computer: generalization. Extended

uses for ‘computer jargon’: ‘input’ and ‘output’ as nouns, as in “I didn’t like his input to

the meeting’, and verbs, as in ‘Can you input that again? – I didn’t understand’ as in ‘to

network’ (to call around one’s friends and colleagues), ‘transfer’. The term ‘virus’ has

been transferred from medical to computer usage, to mean a planted program that copies

itself from machine to machine, causing trouble along the way by using up memory or

corrupting or deleting files. Before this term became established, such a program was

briefly known as a ‘Trojan horse’ or ‘Trojan’.

Given the extraordinary growth of – computer terminology, it is not enough these

days to take pride in avoiding redundant expressions like RAM (memory) or DOS

(operating system); no longer a source of linguistic competence to realize that MIPS

(Millions of Instructions Per Second) is not the plural of USP. It is even old hat to have

mastered the meaning of RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer microprocessor, that

speedy microchip that simplified hardware and shifted many complex operations to the

software, thereby earning the alternative name of Relegate Interesting Stuff to the

Compiler. (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article.html)

That was just the prelude. Now MPPs (Massively Parallel Processors) are on the

horizon. Those of us who absorbed, however imperfectly, there or four generations of

computer terminology on the fast trip from Trash 80 (an affectionate name for the old

Tandy TRS computer) to Teraflops must meet the challenge. We are going to have to

learn to debate the relative merits of SIMD (Single-Instructions, Multiple-Data) and

MIMD (Multiple-instruction, Multiple-Data) machines. Then we shall know about

MIMD MPPs.

We will have to learn about MPP topologies (the way the processors are

interconnected, including “fat trees” in which processors are grouped into clusters, or

even clusters of clusters, and “meshes” in which processors are usually attached in a two-

dimensional grid. We will have to conquer the distinction between the “boudoir’ with its

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coupled processor and memory, and the “dance hall”, which has processors on one side

and memories on the other.

The Tera taxonomy, the classification of massively parallel machines that will

soon achieve processing rates of a trillion floating-point operations per second, is, after

all, but the latest addition to a dictionary that shows no signs of slowing down. Subduing

this lexicon is probably going to be a lifetime task, but gives the exuberant nature of the

language, it also promises to be a lively one.

Those beginning the job quickly find out that whatever new expressions they are

encountering will promptly hatch its own linguistic family. For instance, ‘fuzzy’ –

initially an adjective in fuzzy logic (the modeling of computer reasoning on the kind of

imprecision found in human reasoning), fuzzy representation and fuzzy systems-soon

appeared as a verb, “fuzzify” with its nominalization of “fuzzification” leading to the

negative form “defuzzify” (to convert to crisp values) and its noun, “defuzzification”.

The novice confronting this linguistic richness is soon parsing sentences such as “A

conventional fuzzy system normalises and converts its inputs into fuzzy form, executes

the rules relevant to the inputs and defuzzifies the resultant output fuzzy sets.” And the

novice dealing with “compress/decompress” soon discovers that the software of the vivid

phrase ‘lossy compression techniques”.

Aspirants to language mastering must also cope with many of its abbreviations,

usually acronyms (RAM) or initialisms (CPU). In line with the ruling ethos of computer

terminology-liveliness these categories often merge, giving Troff (Typeset RunOFF,

pronounced “tee-roff”), say, or DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory, pronounced

“dee-ram”). Capitalization in these acronyms comes and goes. Most commonly seen are

all capitals (DRAM, but many who find a string of capital letters unsightly, or even

distracting, have opted instead of capitalise only the initial letters of longer acronyms.

The difference of opinion has led to Fortran (a portmanteau from FORmula

TRANslation) for some, FORTRAN for others). Inevitably, a linguistic area this

rambunctious has given rise to three or even four versions of the plus Floating-point

Operations per Second).

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The flexibility – some might even call it abandon – of computer terminology

extends to its cheerful trashing of whatever outdated distinctions remained between

nouns and verbs. Consider that classic verb “write”, which is computer talk routinely

transforms itself into a noun. As the Communications of the Association for computing

Machinery (ACM) says, “Granularity is the property of memory writes on multiprocessor

systems such that independent writers to adjacent aligned data produce consistent

results”. The fearless interchange of noun and verb frequently leads to what

computational linguists call a garden-path sentence guaranteed to be parsed incorrectly

on first reading – for example, “The second processor will observe the writers out of

order”. The popularity of back-to-back nouns in computer talk, with the first one or two

nouns used as adjectives (“write latency”, “memory write request”), adds to the garden-

path effect, because many of the attributive nouns are, of course, ex-verbs. A beginner as

write latency (it is the time between the memory write request and the storage of the

data).

Dictionaries of computer terms available in print and on-line provides convincing

evidence that terminology is irreverent, upbeat and, above all, changing. So far it seems

to be satisfying its expansionist tendencies in the main either by coining words or by

wreaking havoc on traditional definitions. It has, however, occasionally preserved the

historical meaning of some its terms, though not for long. “Virtual”, for instance, defined

by the Oxford English Dictionary as “admitting of being called by the name so far as the

effect or result is concerned”, retained its earlier meaning (in ‘optics’, ‘virtual focus’,

‘virtual image’) even when a few centuries later it became attached to ‘circuit’, ‘memory’

and ‘disk’. Such restraint was probably too much, though, for a language this spirited –

and somewhere between memory and disk, and certainly by reality, virtual began to

derail into virtuality. Recently, it landed on the cover of Time magazine for a story on

“the dark edges of the computer ages”, a clear indication that it is time for a virtual

replacement. When it arrives, that entertaining reference the Hacker’s Dictionary is sure

to chronicle it. If interested in looking up a new word on-line, do as experts in the

computer science department advise us – grab it off the net.

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CONCLUSIONS

The paper offers an overall presentation of the English language, focusing only on

the enrichment of the vocabulary during the history. Important events have exerted a

certain influence upon the development of the English language, namely on its

vocabulary, the volume and the character of the vocabulary are determined by the social,

economic and cultural history of the people speaking the language. Social, political and

cultural changes in human society cause changes in the vocabulary of the language.

When a new product, a new conception comes into the thought of a people, it inevitably

finds a name in their language.

Communications is an essential part of human interaction. The benefits of

communication are many and obvious as they enhance all aspects of our personal and

professional lives. English is generally the world’s most important language. It is perhaps

the only language that is spoken as a native language by more than 300 million people.

Those whose native language is not English will have English as their second language

for certain governmental, commercial, social, or educational activities within their own

country. And if their second language is not English, they have to use it when deals with

a computer system.

The work concentrates upon the varieties that exist in English language, and

makes a short presentation of register, in order to deal with the terminology related to

computers. This domain has a large interest nowadays because of the development of

technology. Standard varieties continue to enjoy general prestige. They are more

differentiated, especially lexically, entering into a wider range of functions and

situational domains. The prestige of these varieties and their official maintenance ensure,

at least for the written medium, a neutral comprehensible language within particular

English-speaking countries and (to a major extent) internationally.

Register is very important because of its use for computer technology and

electronic communication, for both professional and other purposes, such as: the creation,

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use, and maintenance of equipment; recreation, such as video games and electronic

bulletin boards; the writing and transmission of electronic mail; the promotion of

products; word processing, desktop publishing and electronic publishing; and informal

usage, including slang.

The analyses of language and especially of the computer terminology, provides

convincing evidence that the terminology is irreverent, upbeat and, above all, changing.

So far it seems to be satisfying its expansionist tendencies in the main either by coining

(Ecash, Eform, Emoticon, Netiquette, Netlag, Netnews, Shareware) words or by

wreaking havoc on traditional definitions. It has, however, occasionally preserved the

historical meaning of some of its terms, though not for long. Many new words have been

formed in the area of computing in the past few years and are used all over the world.

They become internationalized especially those from electronic computer or internet. If

someone is interested in looking up a new in computer language, do as experts in the

computer science department advise us, grab it off the net because this is the future of the

computer language new words appear constantly and other changes their meaning or gets

a new one.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

DICTIONARIES

Dictionary of Computer and Internet Words: An A to Z Guide to hardware, Software and

Cyberspace, Houghton Mifflin Company,2001, Boston;

Ionescu-Crutanu Nicolae, Dictionar de calculatoare Englez-Roman, Editura Teora, 1999,

Bucuresti;

Levitchi Leon, Bantas Andrei, Dictionar Englez-Roman, Editura Teora, 1999, Bucuresti;

Collin, Simon M.H., Dictionary of computing, 1998, Peter Collin, Middlesex;

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Hornby SA, 1995, Oxford University Press;

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman Group Ltd, Edinburg Gate,

2000, England;

Dinu, Cristian, Dictionar IT, Editura Cartea de Buzunar, Bucuresti;

Gabriel, Florian, Dictionar explicative IT&C, Editura All, 2008, Bucuresti.

WORKS

Andone, Corina, Gita, Anca, English for Computer Users, Editura Academica, 2001,

Galati;

Asif Agna “Register’ in Alessandro Duranti, Key terms in Language and Culture,

Blackwell Publishers, 2001, New York;

Bantas, Andre, Croitoru Elena, Didactica Traducerii, Editura Teora, 1999, Bucuresti;

Barber, Charles, The English Language. A Historical Introduction, 2000, Cambridge

University Press;

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Blandu Mihaela, Limba Engleza automatic si calculatoare, Editura Didactica si

Pedagogica, 1992, Bucuresti;

Burada, Marinela, Locul si elemntul latin in istoria limbii engleze, Editura C2 Design,

2002, Brasov;

Croitoru, Elena, Interpretetion and Translation, Editura Porto-Franco, 1996, Galati;

Dimitriu, Rodica, Theories and Practice of Translation, Editura Institutul European,

2002, Bucuresti;

Emerson Farrar, Oliver, The History of English Language, Editura Adamant Media

Corporation, 2005;

Fennell, Barbara A., A History of English: A Sociolinguistic Approach, Blackwell

Publishing, 2001, U.K.;

Gramley Stephan, Patzlod Kurt-Michael, A Survey of Modern English, Routledge

Publishing, 1992, New York;

Herbert, A.J., The Structure of Technical English, Longman Publishing House, 1965,

London;

Hogg, Richard M., An Introduction to Old English, Oxford University Press, 2002, New

York;

Ianovici, Edith, A History of English Language, Editura Didactica si Pedagogica, 1973,

Bucuresti;

Johansson Stig, Stenstrom Anna-Brita, English Computer Corpora, Selected Papers and

Reasearch Guide, Published Walter de Gruyter, 1991;

Knowles, Gerry, A Cultural History of English Language, Oxford University Press, 1998,

New York;

Pizzarello, Antonio, Development and Maintenance of Large Software Systems, Lifetime

Learning Publications, 1984, California;

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Stillar, Glenn F., Analyzing Everyday Texts. Rhetoric and Society, Sage Publications,

1998;

Turner, G.W., Stylistics, Penguin Books Ltd, 1984, London;

Quirk Radolph, Greenbaum Sidney, Leech Geoffrey, Svartivik Jan, A Comprehensive

Grammar of the English Language, Longman Publishing House, 1997, London.

WEB SOURCES

http://www.zerocut.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.google.ro

http://www.yahoo.com

http://www.aalocums.co.uk/basicterms.pdf

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article.html

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APPENDIX

1. BASIC COMPUTER TERMINOLOGY

access time - The performance of a hard drive or other storage device - how long it takes to locate a file.

active program or window - The application or window at the front (foreground) on the monitor.

alert (alert box) - a message that appears on screen, usually to tell you something went wrong.

alias - an icon that points to a file, folder or application (System 7).

apple menu - on the left side of the screen header. System 6 = desk accessories System 7 = up to 50 items.

application - a program in which you do your work.

application menu - on the right side of the screen header. Lists running applications.

ASCII (pronounced ask-key ) - American Standard Code for Information Interchange. a commonly used data format for exchanging information between computers or programs.

background - part of the multitasking capability. A program can run and perform tasks in the background while another program is being used in the foreground.

bit - the smallest piece of information used by the computer. Derived from "binary digit". In computer language, either a one (1) or a zero (0).

backup - a copy of a file or disk you make for archiving purposes.

boot - to start up a computer.

bug - a programming error that causes a program to behave in an unexpected way.

bus - an electronic pathway through which data is transmitted between components in a computer.

byte - a piece of computer information made up of eight bits.

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card - a printed circuit board that adds some feature to a computer.

cartridge drive - a storage device, like a hard drive, in which the medium is a cartridge that can be removed.

CD-ROM - an acronym for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory.

Chooser - A desk accessory used to select a printer, or other external device, or to log onto a network.

Clipboard - A portion of memory where the Mac temporarily stores information. Called a Copy Buffer in many PC applications because it is used to hold information which is to be moved, as in word processing where text is "cut" and then "pasted".

Clock Rate (MHz) - The instruction processing speed of a computer measured in millions of cycles per second (i.e., 200 MHz).

command - the act of giving an instruction to your Mac either by menu choice or keystroke.

command (apple) key - a modifier key, the Command key used in conjunction with another keystroke to active some function on the Mac.

compiler - a program the converts programming code into a form that can be used by a computer.

compression - a technique that reduces the size of a saved file by elimination or encoding redundancies (i.e., JPEG, MPEG, LZW, etc.)

control key - seldom used modifier key on the Mac.

control panel - a program that allows you to change settings in a program or change the way a Mac looks and/or behaves.

CPU - the Central Processing Unit. The processing chip that is the "brains" of a computer.

crash - a system malfunction in which the computer stops working and has to be restarted.

cursor - The pointer, usually arrow or cross shaped, which is controlled by the mouse.

daisy chaining - the act of stringing devices together in a series (such as SCSI).

database - an electronic list of information that can be sorted and/or searched.

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data - (the plural of datum) information processed by a computer.

defragment - (also - optimize) to concatenate fragments of data into contiguous blocks in memory or on a hard drive.

desktop - 1. the finder. 2. the shaded or colored backdrop of the screen.

desktop file - an invisible file in which the Finder stores a database of information about files and icons.

dialog box - an on-screen message box that appears when the Mac requires additional information before completing a command.

digitize - to convert linear, or analog, data into digital data which can be used by the computer.

disk - a spinning platter made of magnetic or optically etched material on which data can be stored.

disk drive - the machinery that writes the data from a disk and/or writes data to a disk.

disk window - the window that displays the contents or directory of a disk.

document - a file you create, as opposed to the application which created it.

DOS - acronym for Disk Operating System - used in IBM PCs.

DPI - acronym for Dots Per Inch - a gauge of visual clarity on the printed page or on the computer screen.

download - to transfer data from one computer to another. (If you are on the receiving end, you are downloading. If you are on the sending end, you are uploading ).

drag - to move the mouse while its button is being depressed.

drag and drop - a feature on the Mac which allows one to drag the icon for a document on top of the icon for an application, thereby launching the application and opening the document.

driver - a file on a computer which tells it how to communicate with an add-on piece of equipment (like a printer).

Ethernet - a protocol for fast communication and file transfer across a network.

expansion slot - a connector inside the computer which allows one to plug in a printed circuit board that provides new or enhanced features.

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extension - a startup program that runs when you start the Mac and then enhances its function.

fibre channel - as applied to data storage and network topology - link to FC Glossary.

file - the generic word for an application, document, control panel or other computer data.

finder - The cornerstone or home-base application in the Mac environment. The finder regulates the file management functions of the Mac (copying, renaming, deleting...)

floppy - a 3.5 inch square rigid disk which holds data. (so named for the earlier 5.25 and 8 inch disks that were flexible).

folder - an electronic subdirectory which contains files.

font - a typeface that contains the characters of an alphabet or some other letterforms.

footprint - The surface area of a desk or table which is occupied by a piece of equipment.

fragmentation - The breaking up of a file into many separate locations in memory or on a disk.

freeze - a system error which causes the cursor to lock in place.

get info - a Finder File menu command that presents an information window for a selected file icon.

gig - a gigabyte = 1024 megabytes.

hard drive - a large capacity storage device made of multiple disks housed in a rigid case.

head crash - a hard disk crash caused by the heads coming in contact with the spinning disk(s).

high density disk - a 1.4 MB floppy disk.

highlight - to select by clicking once on an icon or by highlighting text in a document.

icon - a graphic symbol for an application, file or folder.

initialize - to format a disk for use in the computer; creates a new directory and arranges the tracks for the recording of data.

insertion point - in word processing, the short flashing marker which indicates where your next typing will begin.

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installer - software used to install a program on your hard drive.

interrupt button - a tool used by programmers to enter the debugging mode. The button is usually next to the reset button.

K - short for kilobyte.

keyboard shortcut - a combination of keystrokes that performs some function otherwise found in a pulldown menu.

kilobyte - 1024 bytes.

landscape - in printing from a computer, to print sideways on the page.

launch - start an application.

Measurements (summary) - *a bit = one binary digit (1 or 0) *"bit" is derived from the contraction b'it (binary digit) -> 8 bits = one byte*1024 bytes = one kilobyte*K = kilobyte*Kb = kilobit*MB = megabyte*Mb = megabit*MB/s = megabytes per second*Mb/s = megabits per second*bps = bits per secondi.e., 155 Mb/s = 19.38 MB/s

MB - short for megabyte.

megabyte - 1024 kilobytes.

memory - the temporary holding area where data is stored while it is being used or changed; the amount of RAM a computer has installed.

menu - a list of program commands listed by topic.

menu bar - the horizontal bar across the top of the Mac¹s screen that lists the menus.

multi finder - a component of System 6 that allows the Mac to multi task.

multi tasking - running more than one application in memory at the same time.

nanosecond - one billionth of a second. ( or, the time between the theatrical release of a Dudley Moore film and the moment it begins to play on airplanes).

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native mode - using the computers original operating system; most commonly used when talking about the PowerPC can run software written for either the 80x0 systems, or the PowerPC¹s RISC code.

NuBus - expansion slots on the Mac which accept intelligent, self-configuring boards. NuBus is a different bus achitecture than the newer PCI bus and the boards are not interchangable.

operating system - the system software that controls the computer.

optical disk - a high-capacity storage medium that is read by a laser light.

palette - a small floating window that contains tools used in a given application.

partition - a subdivision of a hard drives surface that is defined and used as a separate drive.

paste - to insert text, or other material, from the clipboard or copy buffer.

PC - acronym for personal computer, commonly used to refer to an IBM or IBM clone computer which uses DOS.

PCI - acronym for Peripheral Component Interchange - the newer, faster bus achitecture.

peripheral - an add-on component to your computer.

point - (1/72") 12 points = one pica in printing.

pop-up menu - any menu that does not appear at the top of the screen in the menu bar. (may pop up or down)

port - a connection socket, or jack on the Mac.

Power PC - a processing chip designed by Apple, IBM and Motorola (RISC based).

Power Mac - a family of Macs built around the PowerPC chip.

print spooler - a program that stores documents to be printed on the hard drive, thereby freeing the memory up and allowing other functions to be performed while printing goes on in the background.

QuickTime - the Apple system extension that gives one the ability to compress, edit and play animation, movies and sound on the Mac.

RAM - acronym for Random-Access Memory.

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reset switch - a switch on the Mac that restarts the computer in the event of a crash or freeze.

resize box - the small square at the lower right corner of a window which, when dragged, resizes the window.

RISC - acronym for Reduced Instruction Set Computing; the smaller set of commands used by the PowerPC and Power Mac.

ROM - acronym for Read Only Memory; memory that can only be read from and not written to.

root directory - the main hard drive window.

save - to write a file onto a disk.

save as - (a File menu item) to save a previously saved file in a new location and/or with a new name.

scroll - to shift the contents of a window to bring hidden items into view.

scroll bar - a bar at the bottom or right side of a window that contains the scroll box and allows scrolling.

scroll box - the box in a scroll bar that is used to navigate through a window.

SCSI - acronym for Small Computer System Interface.

SCSI address - a number between zero and seven that must be unique to each device in a SCSI chain. Fast and Wide SCSI devices will allow up to 15 SCSI Ids (hexidecimal); however, the length restriction (3 meters) is such that it is virtually impossible to link 15 devices together.

SCSI port - a 25 pin connector on the back of a Mac (native SCSI port); used to connect SCSI devices to the CPU. Some SCSI cards (like the ATTO) have a 68 pin connector.

SCSI terminator - a device placed at the end of a SCSI chain to complete the circuit. (some SCSI devices are self-terminating, or have active termination and do not require this plug).

serial port - a port that allows data to be transmitted in a series (one after the other), such as the printer and modem ports on a Mac.

server - a central computer dedicated to sending and receiving data from other computers (on a network).

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shut down - the command from the Special menu that shuts down the Mac safely.

software - files on disk that contain instructions for a computer.

spreadsheet - a program designed to look like an electronic ledger.

start up disk - the disk containing system software and is designated to be used to start the computer.

surge suppressor - a power strip that has circuits designed to reduce the effects of surge in electrical power. (not the same as a UPS)

System file - a file in the System folder that allows your Mac to start and run.

System folder - an all-important folder that contains at least the System file and the Finder.

32 bit addressing - a feature that allows the Mac to recognize and use more than 8MB of memory.

title bar - the horizontal bar at the top of a window which has the name of the file or folder it represents.

upload - to send a file from one computer to another through a network.

Uninterruptible Power Source (UPS)- a constantly charging battery pack which powers the computer. A UPS should have enough charge to power your computer for several minutes in the event of a total power failure, giving you time to save your work and safely shut down.

UPS - acronym for Uninterruptible Power Source.

vaporware - "software" advertised, and sometimes sold, that does not yet exist in a releasable for.

virtual memory - using part of your hard drive as though it were "RAM".

WORM - acronym for Write Once-Read Many; an optical disk that can only be written to once (like a CD-ROM).

zoom box - a small square in the upper right corner of a window which, when clicked, will expand the window to fill the whole screen

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2. BASIC INTERNET TERMINOLOGY

AVI - (Audio Video Interleaved) A Microsoft Corporation multimedia video format.  It  uses waveform audio and digital  video frames (bitmaps) to compress animation.

Bandwidth - The capacity of an electronic line, such as a communications network or computer channel, to transmit bits per second (bps).

Bitmap - A representation, consisting of rows and columns of dots, of a graphics image in computer memory. The value of each dot (whether it is filled in or not) is stored in one or more bits of data. For simple monochrome images, one bit is sufficient to represent each dot, but for colors and shades of gray, each dot requires more than one bit of data. See more graphics formats

Bits and bytes - 

Bit stands for binary digit: 0 or 1 A byte is made up of 8 bits It takes 1 byte to store one ASCII character ASCII stands for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange The combination of bits (which makes up one byte) below represents the letters below A 0100 0001 B 0100 0010 C 0100 0011

K stands for kilo and = 1024 (2 to the tenth power)  M stands for mega. A MB, megabyte is about a million bytes (1024x1024)  G  stands for giga. A GB, gigabyte is about a billion bytes (1024x1024x1024)  T stands for tera. A TB, terabyte is about a trillion!  RAM is usually measured in MB Hard disk spaces is usually measured in gigabytes

Blog - A blog is information that is instantly published to a Web site.  Blog scripting allows someone to automatically post information to a Web site. The information first goes to a blogger Web site.  Then the information is automatically inserted into a template tailored for your Web site.

Bookmark - a way of storing your favorite sites on the Internet. Browsers like Netscape or Internet Explorer let you to categorize your bookmarks into folders. 

Boolean logic - a type of logic (using AND, OR, NOT operators, for example) used by search engines to find information on the Internet and in electronic databases. (For

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example, to find computer viruses instead of human viruses, you might try the keywords "computers and viruses.") 

Browser - A software program that allows users to access the Internet.  Examples: 

Non-graphical

a user interface for computers which allows you to read plain text, not pictures, sound, or video, on the Internet. It is strictly text based, non-Windows, and does not place high memory demands on your computer. An example is lynx .(http://lynx.browser.org/)

Graphical a user interface for computers which enables people to see color, graphics, and hear sound and see video, available on Internet sites. These features are usually designated by underlined text, a change of color, or other distinguishing feature; sometimes the link is not obvious, for example, a picture with no designated characteristic. Examples are Netscape and Internet Explorer.

CGI (Common Gateway Interface script) - a specificiation for transferring information between a Web server and a CGI program, designed to receive and and return data. The script can use a variety of languages such as C, Perl, Java, or Visual Basic. Many html pages that contain forms use a cgi program to process the data submitted by users/clients.

Chat - real-time, synchronous, text-based communication via computer. 

Cookie - Information (in this case URLs, Web addresses) created by a Web server and stored on a user's computer. This information lets Web sites the user visits to keep of a user's browsing pattterns and preferences.  People can set up their browsers to accept or not accept cookies. 

Cyberculture - "a collection of cultures and cultural products that exist on and/or are made possible by the Internet, along  with the stories told about these cultures and cultural  products." David Silver,  "Introducing Cyberculture," Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies: http://www.com.washington.edu/rccs/ [last accessed11/24/2001]. 

Digit - A single character in a numbering system. In decimal, digits are 0 through 9. In binary, digits are 0 and 1. The os and 1s equate to "on and off functions. Digitization allows for perfect copying. When text, music, voice and video are in digitized, they can be electronically manipulated, preserved and regenerated without degredation of quality at high speed. Each copy of a computer file is exactly the same as the original. See more comprehensive definitions. 

Domain Name - A method of identifying computer addresses. Your e-mail address has a domain address. If you have an "edu" at the end of your e-mail address that means your account is affiliated with an educational institution. A "com" extension means you have a business account. A government account has a .gov suffix. 

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dpi - (dots per inch) the way the resolution of display and printing is measured. 

FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions. A list of questions and answers to explain products and troubleshoot problems. 

Firewall - The name "firewall" derives from the term for a barrier that prevents fires from spreading.  A computer "firewall" is a barrier between your computer and the outside world.  Just like a fire is most likely to  spread through open doors in a building,  your computer is most vulnerable at its ports (the doors).  Without ports you could not go on the Internet or let Internet traffic enter your computer. 

An effective software firewall isolates your computer from the Internet using a code that sets up a blockade to inspect each packet of data, from or to your computer — to determine whether it should be allowed to pass or be blocked. 

Firewall software operates in various ways: Packet filters block traffic from IP addresses and/or port numbers.  Proxy servers can break the connection between two networks. NATs (Network Address Translators) hides the IP addresses of client stations by presenting one IP address to the "outside" world.  Stateful inspection verifies inbound and outbound traffic to be sure the destination and the source are correct.  Firewall software can allow your computer to operate in stealth mode, so that its IP address is not visible. 

Flash - Animation software used to develop interactive graphics for Web sites as well as desktop presentations and games (Windows and Mac) by the company Macromedia. Flash on the Web is displayed by a browser plug-in. Non-Web presentations are run by a Flash player, included on a floppy or CD-ROM. Flashcan be used to create vector-based graphics in one or more timelines that provide a sequential path for actions. 

FTP - Using file transfer protocol software to receive from upload) or send to (download) files (text, pictures, spreadsheets, etc.) from one computer/server to another. 

.gif - (graphic interchange format) the usual format for a graphic that is not a photo. Animated gif files are embedded with coding that creates movement when the graphic is activated. See more graphics formats

Home page - Generally the first page retrieved when accessing a Web site. Usually a "home" page acts as the starting point for a user to access information on the site. The "home" page usually has some type of table of contents for the rest of the site information or other materials.  When creating Web pages, the "home" page has the filename "index.html," which is the default name.  The "index" page automatically opens up as the "home" page.  

HTML - A type of text code in Hypertext Markup Language which, when embedded in a document, allows that document to be read and distributed across the Internet. 

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HTTP - The hypertext transfer protocol (http) that enables html documents to be read on the Internet. 

Hypertext - Text that is non-sequential, produced by writing in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) language. This HTML coding allows the information (text, graphics, sound, video) to be accessed using HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). 

Hyperlink - Text, images, graphics that, when clicked with a mouse (or activated by keystrokes) will connect the user to a new Web site. The link is usually obvious, such as underlined text or a "button" of some type, but not always. 

Instant Messaging (IM) - a text-based computer conference over the Internet between two or more people who must be online at the same time. When you send an IM the receiver is instantly notified that she/he has a message.

Interlaced - A graphics formatting technique that causes an image to gradually appear on your screen instead of appearing all at once. The image appears blurry at first and is replaced by successive waves of bit streams that gradually fill in the missing lines until the image fully appears in full resolution. This gradually rendering of the image is helpful for Web users who have slow modems and connections, since this technique allows the viewer to see enough of the image to decide whether or not to continue loading it.  For fast connections, there is no discernible difference.

Internet - A global network of thousands of computer networks linked by data lines and wireless systems. 

[Background history on the Internet -The Internet, originally the ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency network), began as a military computer network in 1969. Other government agencies and universities created internal networks based on the ARPAnet model. The catalyst for the Internet today was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Rather than have a physical communications connection from each institution to a supercomputing center, the NSF began a "chain" of connections in which institutions would be connected to their "neighbor" computing centers, which all tied into central supercomputing centers. This beginning expanded to a global network of computer networks, which allows computers all over the world to communicate with one another and share information stored at various computer "servers," either on a local computer or a computer located anywhere in the world. The Internet is not governed by any official body, but there are organizations which work to make the Internet more accessible and useful.] 

IP Address - (Internet Protocol) The number or name of the computer from which you send and receive information on the Internet. 

JAVA - a computer language, developed by Sun Microsystems, that lets you encode applications, such as animated objects or computer programs, on the Internet 

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Javascript - A Web scripting language developed by Netscape.  It was developed independently of the full JAVA language and is an "open" language, free for anyone to use and adapt.  For example,  The Java Script Source has many scripts people can adapt for their own purposes.

.jpg (or jpeg)- (joint photographic expert group) a file format for photographs on Web pages. The "jpg" format compresses large photo files so they don't take up as many kilobytes of memory. See more graphics formats

Listserv - An e-mail list of e-mail addresses of people with common interests. Software enables people who belong to a list to send messages to the group without typing a series of addresses into the message header. Usually members of the group in the listserv have to subscribe to the mailing list. 

Modem - A device that connects your computer to the Internet, when you are not connected via a LAN (local area network, such as at work or on a campus.) Most people connect to a modem when using a home computer. The modem translates computer signals to analog signals which are sent via phone lines. The telephone "speaks" to the computer/server which provides your Internet access. 

MPEG - (Short for: Moving Picture Experts Group)   

MPEG-1 Format for compressing video with audio for playback from storage media with low data transfer rates such as CDROMs or over the network at VHS quality.

MPEG-2  Format for compressing video with audio at broadcast quality resolution for playback in higher data transfer rate environments. Usually used for real-time encoding in the professional market, satellite digital television (DirecTV, USSB), and for DVDs and other types of video CDs.

MP3

MPEG Layer 3

Format for compressing audio only defined in both MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. Commonly used for digital music played on personal computers (MP3 songs) but also targeted at applications such as digital phones and new hardware MP3 players intended as discman or car CD player replacements.

Multimedia - The Web's integration of audio, video, graphics and text. 

Newsgroup - An Internet "site" centered around a specific topic or course. Some newsreader software can "thread" discussion so there can be various topics centered around a central theme. An advantage over e-mail is that the messages are archived and don't reside in your e-mail account, taking up your memory, unless you set up a "sent

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mail" or "carbon copy" option. The messages can often be threaded according to a particular discussion.

PHP - (Hypertext Preprocessor) open source, server-side HTML scripting languaage used to create dynamic Web pages. PHP is embedded within tags, so the author authorr can move between HTML and PHP instead of  using large amounts of code. Because PHP is executed on the server, the viewer cannot see the code.  PHP can perform the same tasks as a CGI program can do and is compatible with many different kinds of databases.

Portal - A Web site "gateway" that provides multiple services, which could include Web searching capability, news, free-email, discussion groups, online shopping, references and other services.  A more recent trend is to use the same term for sites that offer services to customers of particular industries, such as a Web-based bank "portal," on which customers can access their checking, savings and investment accounts.

RSS -  (Rich Site Summary or  RDF [Resource Description Framework] Site Summary).  An  XML format for sharing content among different Web sites such as news items. How does it work? A Web site can allow other sites to publish some of its content by creating an RSS document and registers the document with an RSS publisher. A web publisher can post a link to the rss feed so users can read  the distributed content on his/her site. Syndicated contentcan can include news feeds,  listings of events, stories, headlines, etc.

Search Engine - specialized software, such as AltaVista and Yahoo, that lets WWW browser users search for information on the Web by using keywords, phrases, and boolean logic. Different search engines have different ways of categorizing and indexing information. Search engines are accessed by typing in the URL of that engine or using a browser's compilation of search engines in its Internet search function. 

Shockwave - A three dimensional (3D) animation technology/format creataed by the Macromedia company. Macromedia Director producess Shockwave files, which can be viewed through a Shockwave player, a  browser"plug-in" computer program or other multimedia applications that access the player.  Shockwave can be used to create more sophisticated animations than the Macromedia Flash format. Shockwave uses the .dir  file extension for source files and .dcr extension for Shockwave "movies."    Telnet - The command to log on to another computer on the Internet. 

URL - A universal resource locator (a computer address) that identifies the location and type of resource on the Web. A URL generally starts with "http."

Vector - A line in computer graphics designated by its end points (x-y or x-y-z coordinates). A vector layer does not use pixels for storing image information. Instead, it stores a vector object as a set of properties that describe its attributes, dimensions, and position in the image. Each time an image is opened, these properties are used as instructions for drawing the objects. Because the objects are independent elements, you can move them without affecting the rest of the image. 

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Virtual Community - a term commonly used to describe a group of people who exchange ideas through computer networks, listservs, newsgroups, and Web-based bulletin boards. They might not ever meet face-to-face. Generally these people meet over the long-term, on a regular basis, and share their ideas about a variety of subjects, depending upon their special interest. The discussions could relate to hobbies, music, health, self help issues, and professional and scholarly activities. 

Virus - a computer program usually hidden in an existing program.  Once the existing program is executed, the virus program is activated and can attach itself to other programs or files. Viruses can range from benign activities such as attaching a harmless message to performing malicious activities such as destroying all the data on a computer hard drive. Viruses are commonly distributed as e-mail attachments which activate when the attachment is opened. Virus protection software, updated regularly with the latest virus definitions, can help protect computers from viruses.

Web Bot - A term that applies to programs/applets (macros and intelligent agents) used on the Internet. Such bots perform a repetitive function, such as posting messages to multiple newsgroups or doing searches for information. 

Wide World Web (WWW) - A hypermedia information storage system which links computer-based resources around the world. Computer programs called Browsers enable words or icons called hyperlinks to display, text, video, graphics and sound on a computer screen. The source of the material is at a different location - a different file in the same directory, a file in another computer, which can be located anywhere in the world.

WORM - A destructive computer program that replicates itself throughout your computer's hard drive and and memory.  Worms use up the computers resources and pull the system down.  Worms can be spread in mass-e-mailing if the user opens an attachment.

(2) A program that moves through a network and deposits information at each node for diagnostic purposes or causes idle computers to share some of the processing workload.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) - is a less robust variety of SGML, a system for organizing and tagging elements of a document so that the document can be transmitted and interpreted between applications and organizations. Human readable XML tags defines "what it is," and HTML defines "how it looks." XML allows designers to create their own tags.  For example:  

HTML

<font size="2">Jane Doe</font> <b>March 27, 1975</b>

XML

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<firstName>Jane</firstName> <lastName>Doe</lastName> <dateBirth>03-27-75</dateBirth>

In the HTML version the tags identify formatting options, such as font size and bold. In the XML example, the tags identify the content. 

Because XML can support business-to-business transactions by making the transmission and interpretation of data easier, it has the potential to become the standard for the exchange of data over the Internet.

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