Words in Use

1. Vocabularies• When we pick up an English dictionary, we

imagine that we hold in our hands a representative collection of the words that exist in the English language, the vocabulary of an educated speaker of the language.

• When we open the dictionary and look more carefully at the entries, we see that quite a number of them are marked with labels of one kind or another, e.g. botanical, baseball, slang, American English, etc. These indicate that the word is restricted in its use, and taken together, they indicate that there are a number of sets of words with a restricted use.

Core and special vocabulary

Dimensions of variation

• Historical, geographical

• Occupational: daily work or leisure interest, scientific, religious, legal, political, journalistic, sports, hobbies, … jargon

• Social, cultural: slang, youth, criminal, Internet, … subculture

• Formality of context: formal vs. informal

• Medium: spoken vs. written

2. National and regional vocabulary

• Native language (Mother tongue)

• Second language

• Foreign language

Kachru’s three circles

• McArthur’s ‘circle of world Englishes’

British & American English

• 70% of mother-tongue speakers

• US : UK = 4 : 1

• AmE dominant variety: political, cultural and economic dominance of USA, + American movies, television and pop music

• Many words formerly restricted to US now well understood in UK, esp young people

Lexical differences

• Cultural differences, no equivalent: Ivy League, Groundhog Day (US), Honours Degree, Value Added Tax (UK)

• Variety-specific, with equivalent: baggage room (US) = left luggage office (UK), potato chips (US) = crisps (UK)

• Words that have at least one sense used in World English (WE) with an additional sense or senses specific to either or both varieties: caravan ‘a company of traders or other travellers journeying together, often with a train of camels, through the desert’ (WE); ‘a large enclosed vehicle capable of being pulled by a car or lorry and equipped to be lived in’ (UK) = trailer (US).

• Words that have single sense in WE and have an equivalent word in either UK or US: ball-point pen = biro (UK); filling station = gas station (US), petrol station (UK)

• Words that have no WE meaning, but have different specific meanings in the two varieties: flyover, ‘a ceremonial flight of aircraft over a given area’ (US) = flypast (UK); ‘an intersection of two roads at which one is carried over the other by a bridge’ (UK) = overpass (US)

US UK

• candy• cot• diaper• freeway• grab bag• kerosene• wrench• zip code

• sweets• camp bed• nappy• motorway• lucky dip• paraffin• spanner• post code

US (WE) UK

• can• crepe• eraser• French fries• intermission• leash• stroller• zero

• tin• pancake• rubber• chips• interval• lead• pushchair• nought

US UK (WE)

• ash can• bathtub• casket• drapes• fall• faucet• line• pantyhose

• dustbin• bath• coffin• curtains• autumn• tap• queue• tights

US (WE) UK (WE)

• administration• antenna• baggage• dry goods• nightgown• mail• sweater

• government• aerial• luggage• drapery• nightdress• post• jumper

Canadian English

• Cross-border contact with USA

• Continuous flow of immigration from UK

• Bilingual influence of French in Quebec

• Contact with native American languages in Canada

Canadian English

• Vehicles and parts are US: truck, hood, fender, trunk, station wagon

• UK and US coexist for different regions: fry pan (US), frying pan (UK); silverware (US), cutlery (UK)

• From French: bateau, brulé, habitant

• Native: bogan, mowitch, hooch

Australian English

• First immigrants to Australia, end of 18th c., were deported convicts from overcrowded British jail. A. continued to be used as a penal colony well into the 19th c.

• AusE has some 10,000 distinctive words drawn from a variety of sources.

Australian English

• From British dialects and slang: cobber (friend), dinkum (genuine), larrikin (hooligan), shake (steal)

• From aboriginal languages for flora, fauna and geographical features: dingo, brolga (bird), morwong (fish), billabong (stagnant pool in a stream), dillybag, outback, backblocks

Australian English

• Sheep or cattle farming: stockman, squatter (sheep or cattle farmer), rouseabout (unskilled labourer), sundowner (tramp, seeking shelter at sundown)

New Zealand English

• 3-4,000 distinctive words or senses

• From native Maori dialects: kowhai & totara (trees), kumara (sweet potato), takahe (bird), katipo (spider), tuatara (lizard)

• From Maori culture: ariki (chief), haka (war dance), pa (village), tangi (ceremonial funeral), wahine (woman/wife)

South African English

• Afrikaans WE : aardvark, apartheid, eland, trek, veld

• Restricted to SA: bakkie (basin/container), lekker (nice/enjoyable), voorkamer (front room)

• African languages SAE: gogga (insect), indaba (matter of concern), muti (medicine), tsotsi (violent young criminal)

West and East African English

• West: official language in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Cameroon, Liberia; second language in others

• East: used by educated people in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia & Zimbabwe. Additional language for most speakers apart from Swahili.

Indian English

• From Portuguese

• From local languages

• From Arabic and Persian via local languages

Other varieties

• Far east: HK, Malaysia, Singapore

• The Caribbean: inc. creole varieties

3. Jargon

• Specialist vocabularies associated with ‘occupations’ that people engage in, either as a mode of employment or as a leisure pursuit or for some other purpose.

• Often has a pejorative connotation.

Occupational jargons

• Neoclassical compounds:

• -ology: angiology, enterology, haematology, psychology

• -iatry/-iatrics: geriatrics, paediatrics, podiatry, psychiatry

• -gram/-graph: angiogram, audiogram, cardiogram, electrocardiograph, encephelograph, mammograph

Occupational jargons

• Computing: central processing unit, disk drive, read only memory, virtual reality, word processor; chip, file, icon, monitor, keyboard, printer, scroll, setup, terminal, window

Sports jargons -- cricket

• General: wicket, stumps, bails, bat, crease, boundary, slightscreen, innings, follow-on, declare, over, maiden over, opening batsman, middle order, tailender, nightwatchman

• Field positions: leg side, off side, slip, gully, cover, point, square leg, silly, long, wicket keeper

Religious language

• Anglo-Saxon: holy, ghost, sin, forgive, gospel, believe, heaven, worship

• Latin (OE): abbot, altar, cowl, mass, monk, nun, priest

• Latin (ME): chapel, cloister, compline, convent, eucharist, offertory, office, prior, rule, tonsure

‘Green’ jargon

• ‘environment’: acid rain, additive, alternative energy/technology/fuel, biodegradable, bio-diversity, bottle bank, CFC, deforestation, desertification, dumping, Earth Summit, eco-friendly, eco-tourism, ecology, E number, lead-free, global warming, greenhouse, organic, ozone, recycling, sustainable,

4. Style

• Formal words: occident, orient, carnivore, herbivore, philatelist (stamp collector), horticulture (gardening), ornithologist (bird watcher), troglodyte (cave dweller)

• Colloquial and slang words: bellyache, booze (alcoholic drink), beanfeast/beano (party), bitch/beef (complain), brolly (umbrella), bigwig (important person), doddle (easy thing), awesome (excellent)