The Over-Adjectivalization of English?

"Yet when it comes to race, Obama's first year has shown us again and again that race does not matter in America the way it used to. We've come more than a mere long way - we're almost there" ~ John McWhorter

Greetings Grammophiles!

From the quote above, you might think this post is about race. Well, it is only in a roundabout way. Rather, this post is about the words we use when discussing tricky, complicated subjects. Does any phrase strike you as odd in the above quote? Perhaps a word string that requires a second glance just to make sure you read it right? If you selected "mere long way," you and I have a similar filter for grammatical oddities. Here we have two adjectives followed by a noun (mere + long + way), or is it one adjective followed by a noun phrase (mere + long way)? Either the way is long and mere or the long way is mere. To be fair to Mr. McWhorter, who writes for a living (while I just write for a hobby), the contrasting, multi-functional phrase achieves its desired effect. It makes the reader stop and think how exactly far have Americans come in terms of race? What words best describe our progress?

Race is one of those subjects that does not lend itself to simple explanations. It is a tricky, complicated idea that involves biology, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and politics--just to name a few. As a consequence, simple phrases and sentence constructions never quite seem adequate. Complicated subjects require complicated expressions. In this way, "mere long way" seems more poetic than descriptive, but poetry can sometimes create more confusion than understanding. Just ask Ovid, who found himself banished to Tomis on the Black Sea for a few lines about love.

There is a grammar lesson in all of this, I swear. How many adjectives can be strung together and still be "grammatical"? Well, as many as you like, provided that they are all "coordinate" (have relatively similar meanings, for more on this idea see here). Here's an example:

Mr. Q was the biggest, fastest, strongest, smartest, most excellent human being on the planet.

Every adjective relates to Mr. Q's superlative nature in some way. But throw in the word "weakest" anywhere, and we start asking questions. How can he be the fastest but also the weakest? The same principle applies to "long" and "mere," two contrasting expressions, in the same adjective string. How can the way be "mere" but also "long?" Can a "long way" be "mere?"

To his credit, Mr. McWhorter's poetry seems to be catching on. Frank Gardner used the same expression to describe the progress being made by Afghanistan's fledgling army (see here). However, the expression does appear in the same sentence with the phrase, "like a newborn calf struggling to stand up on its feet." Ahh, and they say English majors do nothing but sit and read poetry all day! Well, someone has to figure out these crazy, convoluted simple concepts.

As always,
Brady Spangenberg

Counting Nouns

Greetings Grammophiles!

In theory, the number aspect of subject-verb agreement seems like a very easy task. Just make sure that if you have more than one subject, a plural subject, you use a plural verb. All you need to do is decide between "one" versus "more than one" and you have your answer.

But some nouns do not allow themselves to be counted (non-countable nouns), while others function as plurals even though there is really only one thing. One of my favorite examples is "homework." Back in college, I had a German friend who always said "homeworks," which works great in German (Hausaufgaben) but is rather jarring to the English ear. Homework, it seems, always functions as a singular subject, no matter how much of it there is. In this respect, homework is like weather, water, sand, and coffee. You can fill an entire beach with sand or a large pot with coffee, but they are generally still singular in usage.

This rule seems simple enough. But what about the "sands of time" or the "coffees of South America" or Keats's "moving waters at their priest-like task"? This is where the confusion begins. Many nouns have both countable and non-countable senses, so it isn't enough to say that one can never use "sands" or "waters."

However, some noun-countable nouns do seem more resistant to pluralization than others. "Homework" would be one. Yet other nouns, such as "experience," seem perfectly at home in either the non-countable or countable camps. "In my experience" expresses an idea almost identical to "from my experiences I can tell you." How can we know how much or how many experience(s) we have had? Here is a list of certain "problem" plurals a best-guess recommendation for usage. As always, I welcome any additions, suggestions, or amendments to my list.

experience: a toss-up. Just try to consider whether you want to discuss your experience as a collective whole or individual experiences over time.

homework: non-countable. It is possible to have homeworks (my spell-checker flags this word by the way), but usually these are expressed in phrases like "pieces of homework."

time: both. As an abstract concept, like in "time flies," it is non-countable. As shorthand for various points in time, it is countable. An example would be a singer discussing his performance "times" or a track runner referring to the "times" she ran in a previous meet.

water: generally non-countable. I have only really seen "waters" in poetic or proverbial contexts (the waters of the ocean blue). For general usage, stick with "water," and if you must pluralize, go with phrases such as "bottles of water."

weather: always non-countable. I can imagine saying "the weathers have been terrible," but I have never heard or read such a thing. Stick with the singular.

In closing I just want to point out that there are also certain nouns that are always expressed in the plural even though they represent a single object. The three most common are "glasses," "scissors," and "jeans/pants/shorts." Just as my German friend had a little trouble with "homeworks," I too had some trouble in Germany when I kept referring to my jeans in the plural. If it's a pair of jeans, then that means there are two, right?

Best Regards,
Brady Spangenberg

Help Nest Feature 1: Mind your p's and q's

Hi D.T.
This was your comment: Is it P's and Q's or Ps and Qs or p's and q's or ps and qs? What about this one? Ben wanted to yell Help but he was ashamed. Is it Help, "help," help, or what?

Those are interesting questions. I don't know about the US, but in Australia we have a helpful Commonwealth of Australia Style Manual, with lots of information for grammar geeks like me. The latest edition (2002, p. 88) says that the form p's and q's is the best one. Italics and no apostrophes are possible (ps and qs), but not so clear. In general, letters of the alphabet should take an apostrophe in the plural. Decades, however, have no apostrophe, so that the decade of the nineties is referred to as the 1990s. The Style Manual also says that 'most shortened words and phrases are made plural simply by adding s, without a preceding apostrophe' (pp. 152-153). That means we have MPs, TVs and CDs. By the way, we don't need to use full stops (periods) with contractions and acronyms, so that we have Mr (not Mr.) and NATO (not N.A.T.O.). We do have full stops when an abbreviation consists of only the first letter of a word, such as p. (page) or fig. (figure).
That also reminds me of the difference between ed. (editor) and edn (edition), where ed. takes a full stop because 'd' is not the last letter, but end has no full stop because 'n' is the last letter of the word!
Some Latin short forms seem to keep the full stop: e.g., et al., etc., but not MS (manuscript), NB (take note) or PS (postscript), all of which are written in capitals. How does that sound? As clear as mud? (That's a British English expression whose meaning you can probably guess!)
In regard to the second question about yelling 'help', I think I'd say:
Ben wanted to yell 'Help!', but he was ashamed. This is similar to the example in the Style Manual (p. 116): He heard the Speaker call 'Order!'
In that case it's a direct quote, so you can use quotation marks.
Have fun writing, and don't forget to dot your i's and cross your t's!
Julia

Announcing the Owl & Possum Help Nest

Greetings Grammophiles,

Beginning June 1st, this blog will become the new electronic home for the retiring print version of the Purdue OWL Help Nest. In the past, the Help Nest served as a forum for discussing difficult questions about grammar, style, and usage. But because the Help Nest appeared as a regular component of the monthly Purdue OWL Newsletter, it became increasingly difficult to address all of our users' questions in a timely fashion. In short, the Help Nest needs to move into the digital age.

Secondarily, the Help Nest's audience has largely been limited to newsletter subscribers. It is time for the Help Nest to expand its reach beyond what the OWL editorial team can fit into the newsletter's currently limited size and scope.

What better way to achieve both of these objectives than to move the Help Nest over to The Grammar Gang blog? Thanks to the Grammar Gang's international team of coordinators as well as its global audience, we believe the Help Nest will definitely be able to expand its reach. We also hope that the Help Nest will become more discussion-oriented and have less of a dictatorial, top-down feel (no more: this is the right answer because we said so!).

How will it all work? We invite any and all questions about grammar, style, or usage to this thread (or any other for that matter). In turn, the editorial team will select one or more questions for a more detailed biweekly "write-up." Particularly thorny questions will also be taken from the Purdue OWL's email service.

As we have noted in previous posts, we do not claim to have all the answers, and especially not the definitive right answer to grammatical dilemmas. We will, however, try to put these issues in some sort of rhetorical context. Grammar questions often do not hinge on "correct or incorrect" but rather "right time and wrong time." So the next time someone scolds you for splitting your infinitives, you can say, "Ah, yes but I read on the Help Nest that to never split infinitives is like never saying 'gonna.'" There's always an exception.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

The Owl and Possum Help Nest

A cup of coffee or: I'll have a super supremo grande please!

Have you ever noticed how confusing the names of coffee cup sizes are?

Long gone is the logical small medium or large - there is a whole new world of coffee sizes out there.

Starbucks is calling its coffee cups: ''Tall'' (meaning ''not tall,'' or ''small''), ''Grande'' (meaning ''medium'') and ''Venti'' (meaning, just guessing here "smallish').

One of our own possums Andrea has just ordered a "medium" coffee and received a "large" while she actually inspired one coffee shop to call its largest size ''jumbo'' because they were constantly giving her a medium coffee instead of the tallest one which is what she thought she was ordering.

But I think that Brady's comment takes the prize. He writes: As per the ordering size chaos that is infecting every shop in the US ... if you ever happen to visit a Coldstone Creamery (fancy ice cream shop), the sizes are "Like It / Love It / Gotta Have It." I just say "small please."

Our most trendy coffee shop chain here in Australia, Cibo, call their coffee "small", "grande" and "alto" and look at you sideways if you try to order anything else!

Share your coffee cup size confusion! Why is this happening?

Susanna.

Dictionaries are fun!

It's true. Dictionaries are great. They can give us so much information. Did you know that you can use a dictionary for lots more than spelling and definitions? Try some of the following links to check out the word 'blog', for instance. The first three are British English, with American variations, while the Merriam-Webster's is an American dictionary. They are all designed specifically for advanced learners of English, but are great for native speakers too.
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Macmillan English Dictionary
Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary
What did you find when you looked up 'blog'? The definition, pronunciation (UK or American variants, but not Australian, unfortunately), grammatical information (it's a countable noun, which means you can make it plural), related words and example sentences. How's that for help with your English? If you look up other words you'll find additional information, such as labels that tell you when to use the words (eg formal, engineering, legal etc) and collocations (words that go before or after it, such as prepositions like 'on' or 'in'). That means you can work out how to use the word appropriately in a sentence. Now try 'possum'. You'll find slight variations in most of the dictionaries, giving you a different perspective on the animal.
Of course, dictionaries come in paper format too, and some are available as applications for mobile phones, or in pocket translators. What dictionaries do you have? Check your pocket translator - you might be surprised at what you find there!

One word I've been asked about recently is the term 'boyfriend'. Is this only appropriate for younger people? How old can a boyfriend be? Could two people in their fifties describe each other as boyfriend and girlfriend? There seems to be no real agreement on this, so I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, whatever age you are. Somehow, 'girlfriend' seems more acceptable for women, whatever their age, while 'boyfriend' sounds a bit young. It's a complicated issue though, like the question 'How many hairs does a bald man have?'. A man can have three hairs, say, and still be described as bald. Or 25 hairs. Or 50 hairs. Or . . . When does he cease to be bald? So at what age, if any, are the labels 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' inappropriate? And is there an alternative word? One friend prefers 'partner', but that seems to imply the two people live at the same address, whereas the boyfriend/girlfriend label suggests that the person is not there permanently. Another friend suggested an acronym, such as POOR (Person in an Ongoing Optimal Relationship). Can you imagine that in introductions though? 'This is my poor friend James/Mary . . .' Hm. Maybe not. What are your thoughts on this?

To round things off, I thought I'd go to a completely different topic, for a laugh. Have you ever found going to school a bit of a drag? This young girl in Ireland did. She seems to delight in prank phone calls. I'm not entirely convinced that it's spontaneous though, as there are various language features that suggest it may be scripted. See what you think. She's also keen to find a boyfriend - presumably a youngish one, since she's only 8 years old. Now that's a case where 'boyfriend' would be the appropriate term.

Don't forget to add your thoughts to the blog. If we can come up with new terms for boyfriend/girlfriend they could even appear in a dictionary!

Dungeonate and Snuggify

Greetings Grammophiles!

The spring semester starts next week here at Purdue, so I have one more week to fool around until the "real work" begins again. As you may have heard, the Midwest was blasted with a series of blizzards, which led to a moderate case of cabin fever for everyone involved. With lots of down time and feverish complexions, my brother and I took to one of our favorite pastimes, tossing around new words in an effort to decorate our otherwise uneventful lives.

My brother noted that two of his college friends live in a basement. Whenever these two wordsmiths aren't studying or attending class, which apparently is most of the time, they spend their time relaxing down in the depths. In short, they "dungeonate." This sounds like a close relative of "marinate," one of the favorite expressions among my old soccer club mates. What are you up to today? Nothing, just a little dungeonatin' and marinatin'.

Even though it is vacation, my scholarly interests have not completely vanished, so I googled dungeonate to see what I could find. Incidentally, "to google" is one of the more famous "new" additions to the English language, named Word of the Year in 1998 by the New Oxford English Dictionary. Dungeonate, however, seems relatively unused, though one gamer posted that he will "be able to dungeonate" over the weekend (i.e. hang out in dungeons). For now, only college kids from Iowa spend their time dungeonating in basements.

The same, however, cannot be said for my latest creation, "Snuggify." Like any other good American who didn't know what to get his relatives for Christmas, I picked out a leopard-print Snuggie® for my brother (let me know if the Snuggie® craze has taken over other parts of the world yet). But saying "sitting around wearing my Snuggie®" is way too cumbersome; there had to be a better way to describe this most cabin feverish of actions. So, "snuggify" was born (def: to sit around in a Snuggie®), and from my googling, it seems like many other Americans have come up with the same idea, such as blogger Cassandra Lotus in "Snuggify Your Life".

As for what the scholars say, the word "snuggify" even appears in a 1972 article on "Latin-English Hybrids" in The Classical Journal! The author, J. D. Sadler, claims that "Latin can appear in English in every possible form of hybridization." Sadler includes "snuggify" in a list with "happify" and "typsify" as examples of Latinate hybrids that have not gained widespread acceptance. If only Dr. Sadler could have foreseen the cultural impact of the Snuggie®!

So, I'd like to hear what new words have worked their way into your vocabulary over the holidays or any other time for that matter. I especially want to hear from our friends Down Under. Good luck in the New Year and all the best.

Brady Spangenberg

All Too General

Greetings Grammophiles!

After a semi-hiatus due to hip surgery and the birth of my first child (a son!), I have found my way back to the wild world of English grammar. Today's post has less to do with grammar proper and more to do with word choice and style. Stringing words together in an acceptable order is one thing, but it is quite another to know which words create the best sentences and, ultimately, the best arguments. As a general rule, the more general a word is, the less meaning it conveys. "Many" does not have the same mathematical force as "hundreds," nor does "have" express as much as emotional attachment as "possess."

General words exist in all parts of speech, and it's nearly impossible to avoid them all the time (nor should you). There are general verbs, adjectives, and even nouns. Here, I am not advocating that you spice up your prose by using obscure synonyms from a dictionary. The meaning of "manifold" is just as general as "many." The purpose of this post is to remind you to do some thinking about what exactly you are trying to say and then to think about how to say it in the most concrete, non-abstract way possible.

Verbs
In earlier posts, I have already discussed ways to avoid general verbs. The main culprits are "do-everything" verbs such as "to be," "to do," and "to have." Another verb that writers often overlook is "to talk." Using "talk" in reference to what someone says does little to express how the person said it. Think of the phrases, "talk is cheap"; "just talking"; and "talk, talk, talk." All of these phrases suggest that whatever is being said is relatively insignificant. If you are looking for verbs to express human speech, focus on what the speaker is doing with his or her words rather than the fact that he or she is speaking. One example may be: "In her History lesson, Mrs. Ferguson connected America's founding history with Rome's."

Adjectives
I have already touched on the perils of using "many." As an instructor, I often see "many"-based sentence in introductory paragraphs. Sentences such as, "Many believe that oranges taste better in warm weather," provide little support to an overall argument. In fact, such general sentences often lead readers to ask more questions about the merits of the argument. How "many" believers are there, and how did this writer discover their opinions? In short, any time you can quantify, itemize, or categorize who or what you are talking about, you are well on your way to avoiding the trap of generality. This is why "hundreds" is so much better than "many." Here is a list of other general adjectives that are worth avoiding:

many, few, some, other, any, all, every

Nouns
When thinking about style, writers often overlook the negative impact that general nouns have on their writing. In this sense, using "something" is as good as saying nothing at all, because "something" specifically expresses an unknown quantity. I often see generalities appear in reference to people or groups of people. Even the word, "people," identifies absolutely no one in particular. Instead of "people," try to be more specific about your subjects. These "people" might actually be university students, coffee drinkers, or SUV drivers. Think about exactly who it is you want to write about and leave the people alone. Other examples include

persons, everyone, no one, these, kids, individuals, persons

Happy writing!
Brady Spangenberg

The anatomy of an essay (Part 6): Winning ways with referencing

Hi Grammophiles!

Special greetings to all those bloggers who have recently joined our community.

A well-referenced piece of academic writing will definitely win extra marks. Without a variety of good references your work can look stream-of-consciousness, unplanned and unresearched.

Here are a few ideas:

• Refer to Brady's post on evaluating sources


• Quantity does matter (as well as quality). If you are writing a 2000 word paper (which is roughly 10 pages) think of the way three references in your reference list appears to your marker, as opposed to 10. The more references used, the more scholarly (or well-rounded) the work appears


• Use a well-recognised and approved referencing system and learn to use this consistently. Often, your university or course will insist on you using a particular style of referencing. For example, at Purdue University, you might be required to use the APA (American Psychological Association) style. At UniSA, the Harvard (Author Date) style is more common


• This has probably been said before on this blog, but it's worth mentioning it again. Use a variety of viewpoints (Duff, 2007; Hussin, 2008 p. 39; Carter, 2009a, p. 149). If you can show a 'club' of writers, this will help your case


• If your referencing system allows, consider using 'author prominence' to create strong arguments. Use 'information prominence' to acknowledge facts or ideas:
  Author Prominence: Duff (2009) highlights how using authors in this way can add weight to the argument you are attempting to drive home.
  Information Prominence: This is often (but not exclusively) used in scientific writing where data is used to illustrate a point (Carter, 2007 p. 3).


• Try and interpret the paraphrase or quote for your reader within the context of your argument. 'This means...' 'This is important because...' 'This differs from Carter's (2006) view because...' 'An example of this is where...' In the example below, 'your voice' is in red.

Of course, as we said in an earlier post, sometimes you are required to write a piece of 'reflective' writing, which means you are providing a sometimes more emotional account of your observations and experiences.

At your university, you might have some variations to these 'rules' or some other ways to use referencing effectively. Please do chip in to the conversations on this blog - we'd love to hear from you.

Andrea Duff
Learning Adviser
University of South Australia

The language of argument in essay writing (Anatomy series part 5)

Dear Grammar Gangers,

I want to pick up on a question Andrea asked when she wrote: 'Is your case well supported?' and another that appeared on Susanna's mind-blowing mind-map, 'What is your argument'? Both of these points assume that 1. You have taken a position on an essay topic and 2. You are arguing your case throughout your essay. Of course, this is exactly what you need to do!

An essay presents a point of view formulated by critically assessing the information or ideas relevant to the essay topic, that is, an essay IS an argument. The word 'argument' does not have to be written anywhere in your essay for it to be an important part of your task. Your lecturers may assume that you know this and thus may not explain the importance of arguments to you in class.

Academic arguments are used for a range of purposes such as:
1. Supporting something we think has merit – a position, a point of view, a program, an object.
2. Persuading someone that something would be beneficial to do (or not to do) – a particular course of action.
3. Showing someone the problems or difficulties with something – a theory, an approach, a course of action.

An essay requires a thesis statement - this is your concise response to the essay questions which takes the form of an argumentative assertion that states the point of view or claim that the essay will go on to support.

Be aware though, that statements of fact are not thesis statements as they do not tell the reader what the author thinks about the topic. Have a look at the paragraphs below. Can you tell which is a series of facts and which contains a thesis statement?

PARAGRAPH 1
The Black Death (otherwise known as the Bubonic Plague) first appeared in Europe in the 1340s. Spread by rodents and fleas. the infection is said to have 'carried off' a third of Europe's population. Plague causes fever and a painful swelling of the lymph glands called buboes. The disease also causes spots on the skin that are red at first and then turn black.

PARAGRAPH 2
The Black Death of 1348 coincided with fundamental changes in the social framework of the later Middle Ages. However, the disease alone was not responsible for these changes. Rather, it is necessary to consider a number of economic, agricultural and health factors in assessing the transformation of late medieval society.

Topic sentences should clearly signal to your reader the main idea in the paragraph. In the body section of a good essay, you should be able to get a sense of the overall argument by reading only the topic sentences!

Don't forget though, that the argument should also form a cohesive whole so this means that the paragraphs need to be logically ordered and connections made between the points presented in those paragraphs.

As you write, you need to draw out the implications of the information you are including by explaining to the reader why you have used evidence and how it serves your argument. Have a look at the following essay extract and note how the student writer is using signposting language (e.g. this argument) and linking words to show what she is doing in her writing.


ESSAY TOPIC: Discuss the argument that it makes financial sense for employers to make the workplace safer so that they can reduce their payroll expenses and save money.

This argument also relies on the idea that companies use financial sense exclusively to make decisions about improving the work environment. However, this is not always the case. Companies look at other considerations such as the negative social ramifications of high on-job injuries. For example,Toyota spends large amounts of money improving its environment because, while its goal is to be profitable, it also prides itself on high employee morale and an almost perfectly safe work environment (Matsuki & Fewick 2002). Therefore, Toyota finds that it can do both, as by improving employee health and employee relations they are guaranteed a more motivated staff, and hence a more efficient staff. This guarantees more money for the business as well as more safety for the employees (Grieves et al. 2004).

Happy arguing!
Virginia