This week: action words become documents describing all the action? Why? We look into it. Then some word news, some regular news, and a couple of footnotes to close us out. Here we go.
Action words fascinate me because they become nouns for collections of words. Think about the difference between "declare" and "declaration." Declare, like many old words, has grown more specialized over time. When it entered English in the 14th century, it meant one of several related things: to explain, to interpret, to reveal, to disclose, and to announce. While it hasn't really lost any of these meanings, or, at least, you could use it to mean any of these things, these days it most often means to proclaim.
Which is where declaration comes in. Because let's be honest, you never use that word in a sentence unless you're discussing some grand ideal or, possibly, if you're American, a specific document related to the formation of our country. Here's a definition from Dictionary.com to illustrate what I mean:
a positive, explicit, or formal statement; proclamation
something that is announced, avowed, or proclaimed
Even the synonyms are eyebrow-raising, big dollar words - proclamation, avowed - these are the kinds of words that English as a Second Language students hate because they show up on all kinds of literacy and proficiency tests but not all that often in real life. This overly rich tapestry of words you (arguably) need to know even though you'll never actually use it is one of English's great strengths.
I mean, let's reduce our definitions of declare and declaration down to their basest level: respectively, they mean "to speak" and "a collection of words." Now, think of the full breadth of nuance contained in the many, many, many synonyms that can fit those broad definitions. Every overly-specific bit of jargon, every barely comprehensible instance of slang, every facet of arcane vernacular molds and shapes English to fit its specific needs.
Let's start with "to speak." Thesaurus.com gives 53 synonyms for the verb. On the first page. Change the form a bit (speaking, spoken, etc.) or narrow the definitions (from "talk" to "address") and you get yet more results. It's a bit daunting. But, for this essay, we only want ones that have acquired a noun form. Here's a short list:
argument
assertion
chat
conversation
declaration
pitch
proclamation
pronouncement
sermon
statement
Now, imagine being handed some papers. They've got official stamps and seals all over them. The person that hands them to you says, "This is the ____." The question is, do these ten words feel the same, or do they feel like the document would be different in some, or all, cases? It's the latter for me. And this is what I tell students when they complain about the number of words in English. Each of these words forms a different picture in my mind based on my experiences as an English speaker; over a lifetime of using English, each word has acquired a specific sheen of meaning that is defaulted to when I hear or see or use the word in question.
My argument here is not that we need to cram the full million-plus1 words of the English lexicon into our students' heads. No, my argument is that having words for an incredible number of specific situations2 and instances is one of English's specialties. And we need better ways of teaching them. And, this is not really a controversial stance and yet, teaching vocabulary is the bane of my job. It's so important and yet so hard because, as a language learner, you don't know what words you need until you need them. If only there were a word for that.
Stay curious,
J
Linguistic News
From Gizmodo comes the story that dogs can tell when you're speaking to them in a foreign language. Which both makes sense and is also very cool. Cool, because, well, I talk to my dog in three languages on a regular basis. She knows her commands in both English and Japanese, which developed accidentally between both my wife and myself teaching her tricks when she was a puppy, but she also responds really well to me in Spanish, which is a language I barely speak, but like to use when we play. This drives my daughter nuts, so, you know, bonus.
From Reddit comes an interesting discussion on why we can say, in English, "I'm home" but not "I am work." It basically comes down to grammar and habit, but it's an interesting trawl through one of those things that English speakers know intuitively, but have a very hard time explaining. And, because it's Reddit, the side conversations and rabbit holes are endless.
Other News
Okay, this is just to put two very cool things on your radar if you're not already aware of them even though they're not directly linguistics or teaching related:
NASA has a website tracking the James Webb Space Telescope that shows you exactly where it is and what it's doing. This is science done interactively and engagingly and it needs all the public support it can get.
Public Domain Day 2022 has come and with it, a whole bunch of classic movies, books, and music is making its way into copyright-free public use, including a certain yellow bear from the Hundred-Acre Wood.
It really depends on how you count, but, you know, it's a flex.
German is kind of the go-to joke for having the ability to string a dozen words together to make a new word that exactly describes a given situation, but I'm describing something a little different, I think. And to be clear, I'm not hating on German. Besides being one of English's closest cousin/parent languages, it's an incredibly fun language to learn and play with.