My favorite lessons…
…are with students whose English is way too good for their grade level. They always ask the best questions, like, "How do I use the word baby?"
Because, on the one hand, that's the easiest word in the world, right? It's a more casual word for an infant, that's all. Only, we all know that's not what the student was asking.
They were asking, how did we reach the point where we use the same word to describe an infant, your new puppy, that pretty person over there, the research project that has been your sister's main focus for the past ten years, your bestie's new sports car, your bestie, tiny carrots, how I act when I have a cold, and, oh baby, let's not forget using it when the hot sauce is saucier than expected.
How did all that happen? How do you sort all that out? And, finally, how can they use the word baby correctly, in a variety of contexts, and without inadvertently offending anyone?
Let's start with the basics. From Etymonline:
late 14c., babi, "infant of either sex," diminutive of babe (q.v.) with -y (3).
In a separate entry, babe, Etymonline has this to say:
late 14c., "infant, young child of either sex," short for baban (early 13c.), which probably is imitative of baby talk
In other words, newborn infants make sounds. These sounds are labelled babble, which is then shortened to babe, which is then made more affectionate by adding the ~y sound1, changing the word to baby. Cool. Now, how about all those other meanings?
In short, semantic shift and grammatical conversion.
Semantics is the study of how words acquire meanings over time. So, what starts as a term for an infant acquires different contexts. Thus, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins:
A person's lover or spouse has been their baby since the middle of the 19th century. The sense 'someone's creation or special concern' is from later in that century
Conversion, meanwhile, is when a word changes word class without changing its shape. As the Babel Lexicon of Language puts it:
This is a word formation process that involves taking an existing word and using it as a different part of speech.
So, baby, the noun, becomes baby the adjective and is suddenly used to describe small things like steps or pianos.
Both of these somewhat high-and-mighty linguistic functions are more familiar to us as slang. And the why's and wherefores of slang are very hard to pin down. As an example, Green's Dictionary of Slang enumerates 17 different definitions of baby, none of which include the original usage.
However, and painting with a broad brush, what all these different usages have in common is that they indicate innocence or preciousness. In other words, phrases like "a babe in the woods" indicates that someone is too innocent to know what to do in a given situation while a metaphor like, "The one ring is my baby," shows how precious the item is to the owner.
But the metaphors are not always so positive. Merriam-Webster's list of synonyms for baby as a verb is telling:
INDULGE, PAMPER, HUMOR, SPOIL, BABY, MOLLYCODDLE mean to show undue favor to a person's desires and feelings.
But what about that last usage in my big list from the introduction, the intensifier? Let's head over to the Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar for just a moment, just to remind ourselves what an intensifier is:
have a heightening (amplifying) or lowering (downtoning) effect on the meaning of a word, phrase, etc.
So, when the sauce is too hot and you shout out, "Baby, that's hot!" and you are not actually addressing anyone named or nicknamed Baby, you have amplified the word hot thereby intensifying your meaning.
All of which begs the question, how do you explain this to second language learners? As always, I have the answer and, as always, that answer is...I dunno. In language learning and teaching there is rarely, if ever, a single way to teach vocabulary and all its accompanying shenanigans. There is only what works for your student in that learning situation.
That said, I use music.
You probably know three dozen songs that use baby somewhere in their lyrics off the top of your head2. As an example, take The Ronettes 1963 classic, "Be My Baby," which makes it clear from the outset that the song is entreating a romantic interest to become the singer's boyfriend. Similar examples abound. But for something a little more advanced, try getting self-referential.
In both Lana Del Rey's “Brooklyn Baby” and Lou Reed's “Coney Island Baby3” the singers refer to themselves as baby, as a way of showing how connected they are to a place and time; it's where their roots lay.
But in truth, it doesn't really matter what songs you pick. The vast majority of them use baby to refer to a lover - potential, long-lost, evil, heart-broken, wicked, goodtime, or otherwise - and that's the real answer to my student's question. You use baby to refer to an infant or to a romantic interest. Everything else is just context.
That's all for now, babies, I'll catch you next week.
The Pitch
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What We’re Reading, er, Listening to:
Normally, this is where I’d mention a book I’m reading or interested in, but, uhh, I’m behind in my reading. So, until I get caught up, maybe next month, maybe in ten years, I’m going to take a different tack and recommend some more of my favorite baby tunes, starting with one I mentioned above:
Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby
LCD Soundsystem - Oh Baby
Janis Joplin - Cry Baby
Pixies - No. 13 Baby
Puppy, kitty, Johnny, etc.
And even if you didn't, Google sure does.
Everyone on the internet will get in line to tell you that Lou Reed's best album is Transformer. They're all wrong. Coney Island Baby is the best song Lou ever wrote and I will die on this hill.