Riassunto esame Inglese monografico 2, prof. Taylor, libro consigliato: Business Vocabulary in Use, Mascull

Inglese monografico (Prof. Taylor)

Today English is used by about a billion people (not even half speaking it as a first language). It’s the most widely spoken and written language global language – thanks to the power of the people who speak it and the ability of the language to borrow and lend words from other languages. It has a special role because it’s spoken by a lot of people (as a first language/as a second language/as a foreign language), it’s made ‘official’ or ‘semi-official’ (medium of communication in government, law and school) in countries like India or Pakistan, or it has a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching. English is the most hybrid language.

Story of English

1. Old English

Three main languages: Anglo-Saxon (before them there were the Celts), Latin (Christian missionaries), and Danish (Vikings). Each invasion was followed by a period of social changes, which left their mark in the language, especially in the vocabulary. 1066 – Normans invasion – Middle English.

2. Middle English (middle of 12th century/middle of the 15th century)

Main influence: French (accession of William of Normandy). By about 1425, English was universally used in England, in writing as well as speech. A lot of French words came into English (especially vocabulary that had to do with law, medicine, art, religion, military, etc.), duplicating words that already existed in English from the Anglo-Saxon times. Two main outcomes: 1. Only one survived; 2. Both words co-existed but with slightly different meanings or stylistic effects.

During the 14th and the 15th century, Latin words entered into English. The Old English word is often the more popular, the French more literary, and the Latin more academic – in fact, English has thousands of words which are almost synonymous.

The main dialect divisions of Middle English were slightly different from those of Old English: West Saxon – ‘Southern’; Kentish remained the same; Northumbrian – ‘Northern’; Mercian split into ‘East Midland’ and ‘West Midland’. The dialect of the East Midlands produced modern standard English. There was London, Oxford, and Cambridge there and Craxton set up his printing press in Westminster and chose to use the speech of the London area as the basis for his translations and spelling, in this way a standard form of spelling and punctuation developed.

3. Modern English

Renewed interest in the classical languages and literatures, and developing fields of science, medicine, and art – Renaissance. New words to talk about the new concepts, techniques, and inventions were needed (main focus = vocabulary), plus foreign words from Latin and Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, etc. Vocabulary expanding also by adding prefixes (mainly from Latin and Greek) and suffixes (mainly from French) or by compounding.

Big influence of Shakespeare, King James Bible, Johnson’s dictionary. Discovery of America and other parts of the world – colonization by English-speaking people – the ‘Englishes’ or ‘varieties of English’.

Englishes around the world

Development of other standard varieties of English as a first language: in Scotland, then also Ireland (beginning of the 1800’s – Ireland became part of the UK – linguistic consequences: development use of English and decline in the use of Gaelic).

The most significant step in the progress of English towards its ‘global status’ (last decades of the 16th century): Jamestown and Puritans in New England. An enormous number of words and phrases were introduced based on elements which reflected the social and cultural developments in American history – differences between ‘American English’ and ‘British English’ (distinctive vocabulary, features in grammar, pronunciation, and spelling).

17th century – distinctive form of English began to develop with the slave trade. ‘New’ English developed – English of the Indian subcontinent.

Lexical dimension

Abbreviations

Used in science, technology, armed forces, and media. Reasons: speed of communication, it helps to convey a sense of social identity. Examples include ROM, RAM, BBC, NATO, USA.

• Initialisms: Items spoken as individual letters with capital letters. Ex: BBC, EU. Not all use only the first letter of the word(s): PhD, TV (television).
• Acronyms: Initialisms pronounced as single words. Ex: NATO, UNESCO, AIDS. Here there is no punctuation between the letters (in contrast to initialism, where there are sometimes periods separating letters).
• Clipping: Part of the word which serves for the whole. Types: 1. The first part of the word is kept (AD – advertising); 2. The second part of the word is kept (PHONE – telephone); 3. The middle part is kept (FRIDGE – refrigerator). ‘Adaptations’ with clipped words – FRIES (French fried potatoes).
• Blending: Two words together make a new word – enough of each word is kept so that the elements are recognizable. The second part controls the meaning of the whole (BRUCH is a kind of lunch, not breakfast). Popular in commercial and advertising contexts + scientific terms. Ex: Motor + hotel = motel.

Conversion

Words change their word class without the addition of an ‘affix’. Not all the senses of the word are usually carried through into the derived form. It mainly produces nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

Compounding

Unit of vocabulary which consists of more than one lexical item but with the parts functioning as a single item (which has its own meaning and grammar).

• Vernacular compounds: Formed on the principles of the Germanic languages – written in solid or open forms or with hyphens. Ex: teapot, blackbird.
• Classical compounds: Based on compounding patterns of Greek and Latin – written in solid form. Ex: biography, agriculture.

In speech, most two-word compounds have a falling intonation and are stressed on the first word (TEApot) – this helps to distinguish compounds from expressions which typically have equal stress on both elements. When the compound is formed by more words (Ex: car factory strike committee) it becomes more complex because two words are stressed.

Compound families: Sets of compounds based on the same word – the second element is generic, but its relationship with each member of its set is likely to be different. Ex: gunboat, riverboat, steamboat.

Anglo-compound-o-matics: These forms are usually classical in origin and are linked to the other element of the compound by a linking vowel (o, a, i). Used in science and technology, but also commerce and advertising. Ex: bio+data, micro+chip, work+aholic (such forms might well be analysed as affixes, but for the fact that their meaning is much more like that of an element in a compound).

Collocation

Two or more words that often go together and they just sound ‘right’ (ex: fast train, fast food, quick shower, quick meal). Some cases are predictable: blue sky, customer care, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty. The patterns of collocation in one language are not often mirrored in another.

Neologism

Most neologisms in English belong to the following categories:

• Compounding (couch potato)
• Abbreviation (GIGO)
• Blending (orature)
• Borrowing (nouvelle cuisine)
• Derivation (yuppie)
• Shifting-meaning (spin)

New words are often the subject of disdain but are part of the normal change in language. With frequent use and the passing of time, they enter everyday English.

Jargon

‘The technical vocabulary or idiom of a special activity or group’. We all use it. All jobs present an element of jargon, which workers learn as they develop their expertise. All hobbies, sports, and games have their jargon. It shows professional awareness and social togetherness. Jargon can also be used to exclude as well as include.

Language netspeak features

A method of creating Internet neologisms is to combine two separate words to make a compound. Ex: mouse - mousepad or mouseover (phrasal verb); click - cost per click, double click; web - webcam, webcast; net - netnews. There are also blends: infonet, internaut.

To draw a line under = to finish something. The bottom line = the most important thing.

English in advertising and marketing

Purpose of advertising: to convince customers that a company’s services and products are the best; to improve the image of the company; to create a need for products and services, to draw new customers and to maintain existing ones.

Main objectives of advertising: gain attention; create interest in the product/service; achieve credibility; heighten desire for the product/service; stimulate action to buy the product/service; satisfaction. Do all of that with original and exceptional message and language, unusual and stylish words, short sentences (easy to repeat and remember). Brand names (every company has a particular brand, or more than one), slogans, catchphrases, rhythm and rhyme + music and sounds to catch the attention, alliteration and repetition (rule of three), onomatopoeia, clipping, morphological combination.

Copywriters write the body copy (the main text) + bottom line summary (the signature line). – playing with words, manipulating or distorting their meaning, using words out of context, making up new words.

When we choose a word, we also convey feelings about what we are describing – communicate feelings, associations, and attitudes. Use of figurative language to highlight comparisons between products, to create surprise or humour, to create a mental image. The choice of wording is also very important: language varieties or words borrowed from other languages can convey different meanings to different audiences; formal vs. informal. Words must be vivid (new), concrete (soft), positive (safe), and unreserved (best, perfect); conversational and idiomatic + figurative expressions and deviant graphology.

Simple colloquial and familiar language to suggest a friendly attitude. So, to make an ad effective you need to:

• Attract the target customer’s attention;
• Arouse interest in the product or service;
• Create a desire for the product;
• Induce action (to buy the product/service).

Brand names

The manufacturer has to give a product a distinctive name in a mass market. The name should do more than just label or identify the product, it should suggest associations which will help sell it. Ex: the names given to cosmetics frequently recall images of beauty. A speaker’s voice attracts attention too.

Slogans

Catchy statement/sentence which will convince people to buy a certain product or service. Frequent use of alliteration and rhyme. An advertisement and its slogan underline what is called the company’s unique selling proposition/point (USP): the features and benefits which make a company, product or service different from its competitors.

Use of a lot of adverbs and adjectives in advertisements – ‘trigger words’ = words that can stimulate envy, dreams, and desires by evoking looks, taste, smell, and sounds without actually misrepresenting the product (ex: good/better/best, new, fresh). There are also words that are coined for the occasion and have little value in ordinary English (‘flavoursome’). Wordplay is one of the main elements in advertising, for example adjectival compounds (ex: ‘stay-put’). Some words are made up with the product name incorporated. Advertising language is often standard and it attracts attention by being imaginative. Rhetorical language, especially metaphors + imagination and creativity. Advertising also has variations in sentence structure, it uses associative meanings and language varieties. To understand the language of advertising it is also important to know about the connections of language to social structures and culture.

Advertising and promotion are a part of marketing (= the action of promoting and selling products or services, including marketing research and advertising).

Marketing collocations: market research, market leader, market forces, market share. Information technology has given the marketeer new channels of communications as well as improved means of analysing marketing data. Since the Internet, companies have been exploiting its potential in order to reach new markets and make alliances. There are many online marketing agencies whose activities include:

• Search Engine Marketing: A mixture of technical and creative work. You often have to change the content and code of a site in order to make it more visible to other search engines.
• Email Marketing: It’s like direct mailing without the postage costs and it’s quicker and more efficient.
• Content Development: Writing for the web (different from writing for print).