Posted on 05/29/2012 5:14:15 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The future of written English will owe more to Hollywood films than Dickens or Shakespeare, if the findings of a study into children’s writing are anything to go by.
The analysis of 74,000 short stories found that their written work was littered with Americanisms, exclamation marks and references to celebrities.
Researchers who looked at the entries to a national competition found they were increasingly using American words such as garbage, trash can, sidewalk, candy, sneakers, soda, cranky and flashlight.
The stories, written by pupils aged seven to 13, show how fairy cakes are referred to as cupcakes and a dinner jacket has become a tuxedo.
‘Smart’ is now often used for ‘clever’ and ‘cranky’ for ‘irritable’.
Celebrity culture also has a powerful influence on children’s work, with Simon Cowell and Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi among the famous names cropping up repeatedly.
But pupils are let down by basic spelling, punctuation and grammar, according to the study by Oxford University Press, which looked at the entries to BBC Radio 2’s ‘500 Words’ competition.
Children stumbled over simple spellings such as ‘does’ and ‘clothes’ and struggled to use the past tense correctly, often saying ‘rised’ instead of ‘rose’ or ‘thinked’ instead of ‘thought’.
Researchers also found that punctuation was underused, especially semi-colons and speech marks. Some did not know how to use capital letters.
However, exclamation marks were overused. Researchers found 35,171 examples in total, with some young writers using five at a time.
The study of more than 31million words will be compared with future research to see how written language evolves. Popular US fiction such as the Twilight vampire novels and films is thought to be fuelling the increasing use of American vocabulary and spelling.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
It might also refer to some blasphemous imitation of the bleeding Christ, or to a Protestant skepticism about the literal presence of the blood of Christ in communion. And when we talk about bleeding heart liberals nobody religious gets bent out of shape about it.
I notice in online English English, frequency of “your” for “you’re” and “to” for “too” seems to be approaching that for American English.
Pity the fools.
Top-tips Freepers, if your[sic] sending in a resumé, don’t make to[sic] many of these errors. Prospective employers will toss you’re[sic] submission into there[sic] bin.
It personally irritates me when Americans talk of ‘writing someone’ instead of writing TO someone. Having said that, Britons in the 18th century apparently spoke and wrote more like contemporary Americans than contemporary Brits, so all the Americans have really done is preserve a manner of speaking and writing that disappeared in Britain sometime during the 19th century. Words like ‘chore’ instead of ‘errand’ and ‘Fall’ instead of ‘Autumn’ are examples of archaic English words that were re-imported to Britain after falling out of use in their native land...
It personally irritates me when Americans talk of ‘writing someone’ instead of writing TO someone. Having said that, Britons in the 18th century apparently spoke and wrote more like contemporary Americans than contemporary Brits, so all the Americans have really done is preserve a manner of speaking and writing that disappeared in Britain sometime during the 19th century. Words like ‘chore’ instead of ‘errand’ and ‘Fall’ instead of ‘Autumn’ are examples of archaic English words that were re-imported to Britain after falling out of use in their native land...
2 great things. One British and one German. It works here. If it weren’t for TG, I would have probably never head of Sabine. I don’t pay attention to the racing world at all.
Sabine isn’t exceedingly good looking or anything but she makes up for it in personality. Apparently she’s from one of the wealthiest families in Europe.
I don’t know much about her racing career but I do know that she’s done more laps around the Nürburgring track than any other person. She’s done some 30,000 miles on that track alone.
Used in Harry Potter and bound to show up in American school kids writing: torch, dustbin, trainers, sweets.
Of course.
Sabine has from what I have seen on TG a great and fun personality. I have no complaints on the looks either.
Definite articles eh?
Do you go to church, or the church? :)
Shot glass, photo shot, "I'm shot" (I'm exhausted), the air conditioner is shot (it's broken)--"shot" has plenty of non-violent connotations. But jab--there is nothing non-violent about the word--I don't want a measles jab under any circumstances! But I'll be glad to get a measles shot. ;-)
Definite articles eh?
Do you go to church, or the church? :)
Using or not using the article causes a change in meaning. Without the article, you aren't going to a specific place; you're going to a facility that has a stereotypical activity or function associated with it, and the stress is on the activity rather than the physical structure. With the article, you're stressing the physical structure rather than a stereotypical activity.
For example, my uncle went to prison when I was a teen. I have never been to prison myself, but I have been to the prison on numerous times to visit.
A hospital does not, to my knowledge, have a single stereotypical activity associated with it. It's a place where many activities happen, so it's more appropriate to use the article.
I get a sense that the definite article is omitted when the place being gone to, or stayed in, is viewed as a broad social institution, rather than a place of personal choosing.
Can you find anything that contradicts this principle?
Not even “church” / “the church” really belies it. It depends on how particular one is about the congregation being visited. If I was willing only to go to, say, a Baptist church, then in a strange city I would report going to “the church” if I found a suitable congregation and went to its religious service. But if at home and everyone ought to know what church I attend, I go to “church.”
I guess you're really serious about how much it irritates you, since you took the time to tell me about it twice! (You double posted.)
I think we both write people, and write to people. Those phrases are not grammatical equivalents.
That's as good a way as putting it as any. The word "hospital" just doesn't have the same kind of connotation as "school", "jail", or "church".
All US origin usage. Shows how much part of American thought patterns it is.
Languages are not static. They grow and develop (or regress, depending on your point of view). If anything, English is developing faster in Britain than it is in the US (a rather odd phenomena - I would certainly have thought it would have been the other way round). For example, many of these “americanisms” that the report mentions are perfectly respectable English words that have fallen out of use in the mother country, but have now been reintroduced from the US.
The real problem is the steady decline in the standard of basic literacy, spelling, grammar and vocabulary that exists amongst the youth of both Britain and the US.
zzzzzzz
WOW!! I wasn't aware that the Brits got the exclamation mark from the Americans!!
Nice car, but to be safe, always carry a torch in your boot.
As a Brit, if I said I was going to the hospital, I would be referring to the local one. If I just said hospital, I would mean some medical facility generally.
WOW! The statement doesn’t say they did! It says Americanisms, exclamations marks and references to celebrities! The comma after Americanisms stands for ‘and’ in a list! Read the damn sentence properly!!!!
Me, too!
I often describe things I don’t like as “rubbish.”
Top Gear UK is my favorite TV show.
In perfect English, your comment should be "Read the bloody sentence properly!!!!"
The problem with this crossing over of idioms is that the context in which they are used is not also transposed accurately. “Bloody” is quite high on the British curse word totem. Higher than “damn” anyway.
Typically, if I were in such dire need of medical care, I'd want to be going to the closest hospital.
I remember learning about that when I took a linguistics course many eons ago. It seems to be a characteristic of languages that usage evolves more quickly in the "core" language group than in groups that split off from the core. It seems to have something to do with psychology; groups that split off from the core linguistic group aren't as confident of their language, and that lack of confidence leads them to resist language change, for fear they'll corrupt the language. The core group has no fear that they'll mess up the grammar or whatever, and so they don't resist change.
No, sorry, I dont buy this explanation of the use of definite articles. Not in this context anyway.
Perhaps it's related to the US having such heavy immigration from non-English speaking populations. On the one hand, it introduces some extra words (Gesundheit, guy) but on the other, it encourages the local English speakers to resist change like you say.
No, sorry, I dont buy this explanation of the use of definite articles. Not in this context anyway.
I think HiTech RedNeck had a better explanation of the difference back in post #63: "I get a sense that the definite article is omitted when the place being gone to, or stayed in, is viewed as a broad social institution, rather than a place of personal choosing." We Americans don't think of hospitals as representing a broad social institution. Those are places where various physical/mental ailments are treated, and where some research takes place (at least at larger hospitals). The activities at a hospital are too varied to be lumped together as a social institution (to the American mind, anyway).
Here in the US, clinics specialize. A clinic can be a stand-alone operation, or can operate within a hospital facility. Hospitals typically house a variety of clinics. A hospital can specialize in a certain type of care, e.g. cancer care, but the way hospitals are classified is on the level of care available at the emergency room. Level 1 trauma care is the best available.
“Some did not know how to use capital letters.
However, exclamation marks were overused.”
Sounds like the influence of email—I bet we’ve got the same situation here.
“I cringe whenever I read or hear about someone getting their ‘flu jab’.”
Me too...flu jabs are downright dangerous to one’s health and cause flu more than is prevented.
“If the English speaking work cannot depend upon the Brits to uphold the standards of the English language...”
Hmmm, from my experience across the pond, the ‘King’s English’ and/or the ‘Queen’s English’ is better spoken in Dublin than it is in London.
The problem is American English is coming closer to ebonics with each passing day.
“American preference for “flu shot” explains the high level of firearms violence in their society.”
Total BS...the ‘high level of firearms violence’ only occurs in cities that ban firearms...Washington DC, New York City, Chicago. Even your ‘Bobbies’ carry guns now because of the high level of firearms violence in GB...where firearms are banned! And over on that side of the pond some would just as soon blow up the place with bombs. In the late 70’s I could walk right up to the front door at #10 Downing Street, and I have. Now a person can’t even set foot anywhere on Downing Street...car bombs, you know...
That may be true of any jab (ouch!). However, the flu vaccine contains no live virus, and therefore, cannot cause the flu.
I do not remember ever having had the flu. I've been getting a flu shot every year for the past 8 years (military personnel have no choice about it).
That may be true of any jab (ouch!). However, the flu vaccine contains no live virus, and therefore, cannot cause the flu.
I do not remember ever having had the flu. I've been getting a flu shot every year for the past 8 years (military personnel have no choice about it).
“...the flu vaccine contains no live virus, and therefore, cannot cause the flu...”
The nasal flu vaccine, FluMist, is made with weakened live virus.
Conclusive link now admitted: swine flu vaccine causes chronic nervous system disorders
Saturday, October 08, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com
The nation of Finland has now openly admitted that the swine flu vaccine “conclusively” causes narcolepsy, a chronic nervous system disorder that makes people uncontrollably fall asleep. The Finnish government, in acknowledging this link, says it will pay for “lifetime medical care” for 79 children who have been irreparably damaged by the swine flu vaccine. (http://news.yahoo.com/finland-vows-care-narcolepsy-kids-had-swine-flu...)
Narcolepsy isn’t the only side effect now admitted to be caused by swine flu vaccines: 76 of the 79 children also suffered hallucinations and “paralyzing physical collapses,” say Finnish researchers.
Remarkably, even though the link between swine flu vaccines and permanent neurological damage in children is now openly admitted by the Finnish government, there is absolutely no talk about halting the utterly unscientific ritual of injecting children with flu vaccines in the first place. Not only are flu vaccines harmful to children (as is now admitted), but flu vaccines don’t even work! A simple daily dose of vitamin D would do far more to halt influenza than any vaccine.
The U.S. government, of course, still refuses to admit vaccines cause any harm whatsoever. Both the government and the vaccine industry continue to push the fabricated fairy tale that “vaccines are safe and effective,” meaning they harm no one but help everyone. Yet the truth is practically the polar opposite: Vaccines harm countless millions of children each year in ways that are usually never linked to vaccines (mild mental retardation, suppressed immune function, learning disabilities, etc.). At the same time, vaccines are all but worthless at preventing infections. Even the vaccine industry’s own research shows that flu shots only work on 1 out of 100 people, meaning they’re completely useless for 99 percent of those who take them.
Instead of admitting the truth that vaccines cause autism, the U.S. government has conspired with vaccine manufacturers to create a Vaccine Injury Compensation Program which essentially pays “hush money” to parents of permanently harmed children to make sure they cannot bring their claims of harm to federal courts
Even worse, the medical establishment — which is heavily influenced if not downright dominated by pharmaceutical interests — absolutely refuses to advocate vitamin D as a flu prevention nutrient. Vitamin D is safe, effective and affordable. It’s available without a prescription and could save literally billions of dollars in national health care costs for just pennies per day per person. So why won’t the medical establishment promote vitamin D? Precisely because it would cost the industry billions of dollars in lost profits from all the sickness and degenerative disease that is prevented by vitamin D.
“As much as I watch Top Gear I’m starting to think in british.”
LOL
Same here.
Just be careful you don’t start driving on the left side of the road!
I think you’re bleedin’ off your rocker.
That ain’t just Texas; it’s Southern.
My favorite coke is coke, actually!
I’m well aware of how FluMist is made.
I wouldn’t trust Mike Adams as far as I can throw him.
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