Speech Practice

Twitter

on traditional texts

informal

language-user

spit

jingles

conjure

the "crumbling castle”

draw

Twitter feed

flamboyant

against

take

feathers

formal

wit

radio

devices

be boiled

intimacy

rhetorical

A-levels

caution

to share

not remotely

of registers

hold on to

setting

sit

feed

process

to be preserved

collision

apart words

monument

dry and juiceless

cite 

startle

come

of decay

1.

AFTER THE CONSTRUCTION there is /are, was, were,

e.g. There is a burglar in the house.

Most estimates agree that we can count some 375 million native speakers, a further 375 million second-language speakers and a staggering one billion learners of the English language at large in the world today.

Whatever the totals (and they'll always be disputed), we have no arguing with the fact that English is now more widely scattered, more widely spoken and written than any other language has ever been.

2.

AFTER NEGATION or partial negation (never, at no time, nowhere, seldom, no sooner, hardly, scarcely, rarely etc.)

e.g. Never have I heard such a silly story.

I could go on, but I don’t think we need further arguments.

The point is made. One doesn’t want any other indicators that English is the world's first truly global language.

Next to the facts, we don’t know where the phenomenon of global English is even more remarkable.

3.

after ONLY + an ADVERB OF TIME OR PLACE

e.g. Only in north-west Scotland have I seen such scenery as that.

Global English is not only represented on every continent in the interconnected worlds of business, travel, computing, science and academia, radio and television broadcasting, telecommunications, film production, sport and international defence, but it is also the language of air travel and outer space.

4.

IF THE SUBORDINATE CLAUSE IS INTRODUCED BY ''only '', the word order in the principa1 clause is inverted,

e.g. Only when I heard the man's story, did I realise that you in danger.

Strange to relate, there was an idea to supply a dictionary of this global language, to provide a guide through the thickets of potential misunderstanding throughout the world, when Bloomsbury had the bright idea of going into partnership with Microsoft and commissioning a brand new dictionary of global English.

When you publish a brand-new dictionary with your name on it, you join some venerable figures at the top table of the book business: Collins, Chambers, Longman, Oxford, Webster and Random House.

5.

after SO+ADJ or ADV

e.g. So important was the news that the messenger was taken instantly to the King.

This dictionary came out hefty and well-produced and it marked a milestone in the history of the language and transformed the shoestring operation of the publisher into a serious publishing business.

6.

in short answers after NEITHER (NOR),

e.g. Pedro can't speak Ukrainian, neither (nor) can Olaf.

So, is The Encarta World English Dictionary any good? It isn’t definitely traditional, and it doesn’t lack novelties designed to appeal to the MTV generation.

7.

in short answers after, as (so),

e.g. He works hard all week, as does he play hard.

You like alpine climbing, so does he.

There are line drawings, photographs as well as technical illustrations on every page.

There are lexical items from the Englishes of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, India, South Asia and Hawaii and citations from every conceivable pop cultural source.

8.

in author’s words in the Direct Speech,

e.g. ''That reminds me,'' said Hob, ''of a good story.''

The British publisher CEO proclaimed: "The reality is that the Queen's English is an outmoded and backward-looking project. English can no longer be said to be a British language."

9.

when the sentence is introduced by an adverb

e.g. Now comes my great news.

There goes our train.

Here comes the bride.

As you'd expect, we received a dictionary conceived and written during the age of political correctness.

10.

In conditional clauses of type I when the clause is joined to the main clause asyndetically;

e.g. Should anything change, you will return home.

Unlike traditional dictionaries, it eschews the international phonetic alphabet and adopts its own "easy to understand" system based on English spelling conventions. If you happen to start using it you will hardly warm to this innovation immediately.

11.

In conditional clauses of type II if we begin a sentence with were (Not *was*), in very formal contexts and could (no negative form);

e.g. Were the government to cut Value Added Tax, prices would fall. Could I help you, I'd do this for you.

Its definitions in areas of what it calls "cultural sensitivity" wouldn’t be prudent enough if the dictionary was less careful to identify "Nigger", "cretin", "crone" and "yid" as "offensive" terms.

12.

In conditional clauses of type III The form Had (he) is a formal variation of If (he) had (no negative form);

e.g. Had the management acted sooner, the strike wouldn’t have happened.

Like all the best dictionaries, it has some amusing howlers. I suspect that the great Australian choreographer Merce Cunningham would be more grateful to the design team if they had avoided placing his majestically posed photograph in the middle of an exemplary definition of the famous English four-letter word beginning with C.