Sunday, June 20, 2010
not quite linguistics
another new phase in life is abt to begin, this sounds strange, and i do, indeed, feel strange. with you gone, i really do feel out of sorts, a little unused to this newfound freedom. i know this is not exactly my first time going through one, but no matter how many times one undergoes a break up, i doubt one can ever get used to the feeling of being taken apart, yet again. it may sound old, but it's true that i give them a part of me, even relationships with platonic friends. I can do nothing but pray that God will guide me through this difficult time.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Colour me happy!

I'm not sure if any of you have noticed, but I have a certain fixation with painted nails. I am thus rather curious about when and by whom, certain terms are used, as I have become acquainted with both 'polish' and 'varnish' terms, to refer to the same material used to colour nails. Of course, one of the terms, 'polish' is more familiar to me, and as there were two main 'standards' of English varieties used relatively widely, I suspected that each term was primed for either the British community of English speakers, or the American community and their 'proponents'. I looked both terms up in the various online dictionaries and here are the results:
Merriam-Webster-
3 chiefly British : a liquid nail polish
Macmillan-
nail varnish
noun [countable/uncountable] Britisha shiny liquid that goes hard when it dries that women sometimes paint onto their nails
Oxford Learner's-
nail polish (BrE also
(BrE) Josie was sitting at her desk, varnishing her nails.
Merriam-Webster's Learner's-
Function:
nounMeaning:
Longman's-
As an added measure, I also Google-d both terms to find out if the websites which use the term 'polish' was non-British and whether only British sites used the term 'varnish' in place of 'polish'. However, I noticed that out of the top 20 search results, only 2 sites (both UK sites) used varnish in place of polish,
Under my umbrella ella ella...

I was just skype-ing with my friend in Notts, when she brought up how she was amused to no end by how the British refer to the umbrella as 'brolly'. Perhaps this is because us, Singaporeans are not lexically primed to use the word 'brolly' to refer to the device which provides us with shelter from the rain and sun. Yet, I was not unable to recognize the term, and so I wondered if it may be used by a select group of Singaporeans as well. Also, it made me wonder about the various other terms used to refer to the same device, like 'parasol'. I decided to conduct a miniature analysis of the terms through looking at the dictionaries at hand.
Brolly
OED:
colloq. 1. Clipped and altered form of
2. slang. A parachute. Also attrib. and Comb., as brolly-hop, a jump made with a parachute; so brolly-hopping vbl. n.
Merriam-Webster:
chiefly British : umbrella
As can be seen by the above lexical entries, it is quite unanimously primed for Br English speakers and is used informally.
Now for the term, 'parasol', which is also seen to be used to refer to the same device, but not quite in exactly the same manner. There is no entire overlap in meaning. My findings are below:
Parasol
OED:
1. Something that screens or protects as if from the rays of the sun.
2. Something that gives shade from the rays of the sun; spec. a screen or canopy, usually in the form of a small light umbrella, often ornamental or brightly coloured; (hence more generally) a sunshade, sun-umbrella.
Merriam-Webster:
: a lightweight umbrella used as a sunshade
Macmillan:
a type of umbrella designed to provide protection from the sun
Oxford Learner's:
para•sol /p
r
s
l; NAmE s
l; s
l/ noun
1 a type of light umbrella that women in the past carried to protect themselves from the sun
2 a large umbrella that is used for example on beaches or outside restaurants to protect people from hot sun—compare sunshade
Monday, March 15, 2010
Solid crab!

I ate at Mellben Seafood Restaurant recently and saw this sign, which involved the use of 'solid' as an adjective to describe food positively, this struck me as something distinctly Singaporean, or at most, Malaysian as well. However, upon referring to various online dictionaries, I realized that it was actually primed for other groups of English speakers like the Am, and Br English speakers too. I also Googled the term 'solid steak', and one of the top search results was of an American steak house, BLT Steak, which guaranteed a solid steak experience, as can be seen on the website, http://steakclub7.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/bltsteak/.
Here are the dictionary results which supported the use of 'solid' to describe food as 'good' were,
OED:
c. Of food or liquor.
Merriam-Webster:
4 : of good substantial quality or kind
Merriam-Webster's Learner's:
Longman:
good
British English informalCambridge:
However, some dictionaries stated that 'solid' be meant as something good and dependable and substantial, but not exceptionally special, which is probably not what the proprietors of Mellben intended for the meaning of 'solid'.
Oxford Advanced Learner's:
GOOD BUT NOT SPECIAL
5 definitely good and steady but perhaps not excellent or special: 2004 was a year of solid achievement.
Dictionary.com:
not flimsy, slight, or light, as buildings, furniture, fabrics, or food; substantial.
Please let me know your views regarding how the word 'solid' as an adjective to describe the quality of things is primed for you!(:
Please mind the gap!

Hello! I had a project meeting at Changi Airport 2 days ago and being a Westerner (I live at Buona Vista), I spent a relatively long amount of time in the MRT. This provided me with ample time to stare at various signs when I got bored of my music. the 'mind the platform gap' sign caught my attention as it brought to mind the 'watch the gap' sign used in New York's subway stations, for it again demonstrated the variation in lexical priming for different groups of English speakers, for they have different words for the same purposes. Here are pictures I took of Singapore's(second picture) MRT sign and one I found on the web of NY's.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Clean-n-Seat!

your costume is so fail!
E.g.)
'That costume is so fail!' (~adjective to describe the noun, 'costume'; an adjective as it can be preceded by a quantifying adverb, 'so')
'Why was your facial expression so off? You are an epic fail!' (~noun)
A search for 'fail' in the OED, Macmillan, Longman, Cambridge and Merriam-Webster did reveal that it could be used as a noun, but the phrasing of 'fail' in the dictionaries was different, with the noun mainly used in forms like Longman's:
without fail
Also, 'fail' was not used as an adjective in the dictionaries mentioned above. I feel that these new usages of 'fail' which I have adopted into my mental lexicon are a result of the recent websites like the Failblog.org, whereby instances of screw ups by people are posted on the blog, and labelled as a 'fail', or something to be ridiculed.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Doughnuts or Donuts? having the munchies!
Based on the Macmillan Dictionary and the Longman Dictionary, 'doughnut' was the generally more common variant whereas 'donut' was mainly used in American English. Here are the lexical entries.
Macmillan:
definition of
donut
noun [countable] mainly Americana doughnut(main entry)
Longman:
Most other dictionaries also agree that 'doughnut' was the more commonly used variant, for that was the main entry, with 'donut' listed as the variant.
Oxford English dictionary
1. A small spongy cake made of dough (usually sweetened and spiced), and fried or boiled in lard. Freq. made in the shape of a thick ring.
1 : a small usually ring-shaped cake fried in fat
2 : something (as a mathematical torus) that resembles a doughnut especially in shape
— dough·nut·like \-ˌlīk\ adjective
Encarta Dictonary:
| |||||||
|
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Toward(s)?
Having referred to a few online dictionaries, I can observe some patterns with regards to how subtle the affiliation between the British and American Englishes are, with 'towards' and 'toward', respectively.
The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary presented the lexical entry as such:
to•wards /tw
dz; NAmE t
rdz/ (also to•ward /t
w
d; NAmE t
rd/ especially in NAmE) prep.
1 in the direction of sb/sth: They were heading towards the German border. She had her back towards me.
2 getting closer to achieving sth: This is a first step towards political union.
3 close or closer to a point in time: towards the end of April
4 in relation to sb/sth: He was warm and tender towards her. our attitude towards death
5 with the aim of obtaining sth, or helping sb to obtain sth: The money will go towards a new school building (= will help pay for it).
The OED was more neutral, in that it had separate entries for both 'towards' and 'toward', even going to the extent of pointing out subtle differences in usage like how 'toward' had an additional word class of being used as an adjective, on top of the common usages of preposition and adverb, which are shared with 'towards'.
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary (Am EL) in turn, presented its entry as such:
1also to·wards \ˈtō-ərdz, ˈtȯ(-ə)rdz\ [Middle English towardes, from Old English tōweardes, preposition, toward, from tōweard, adjective] a : coming soon : imminent b : happening at the moment : afoot
2 a obsolete : quick to learn : apt b : propitious, favoring
The fact that NUS' Vision, 'Towards a Global Knowledge Enterprise'uses 'towards' also shows how 'towards' is primed as the word form of choice by our community, which officially follows the BrEL version.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
How many marks did you get?
Upon perusing the various online dictionaries, the Longman Web Dictionary provided me with the clearest explanation for the difference between 'marks' and 'grade', with 'marks', or 'mark' being used in this context mainly in British English (which Singaporeans are supposed to follow), and 'grade' being primed for the American English speakers to refer to the same meaning.
student's work
especially British Englishcheers, mate!
I decided to check out the various dictionaries to discover if 'cheers' could be found with the observed usage attributed to it.
The Oxford English Dictionary was the natural first choice as I had observed its usage most widely in the UK. However, the word was non-existent!
On the contrary, the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary possessed the term with all three meanings recorded. (http://www.oup.com/oald-bin/web_getald7index1a.pl)
cheers /t
1 a word that people say to each other as they lift up their glasses to drink
2 (BrE, informal) goodbye: Cheers then. See you later.
3 (BrE, informal) thank you
The Longman Web Dictionary also produced similar results, indicating that the term was used specifically in British English. (http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/cheers)
A search of the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary showed no results. I cannot explain why this term was found in one British English Learner Dictionary but not in another. Perhaps my dear readers can help me on this by commenting? I do think that it is not found in the more 'standard' Oxford English Dictionary and found in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, as it is an informal term that will probably not be used in formal speech but is still required for learners of the English Language to be acquainted with in order to possess sufficient Linguistic Capital to use the language effectively to communicate seamlessly with the native speakers.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Unrecyclables?
Bazaar employs people?

