In this video, linguist and English professor, Anne Curzan, starts off talking about her social life. That may sound a bit odd, I know, but she mentions how every time she meets a new person and they find out what her profession is, it gets a bit awkward. They either 1) say how they have to be careful of what they say because she'll probably catch all the mistakes they make and end up not talking to her, or 2) complain about everything wrong with the English language.
As the video continues, Curzan brings up the question that most people are asking, "What makes a word "real"?". She believes that when people say words aren't "real", they actually mean that they don't appear written in the dictionary, but then again, who even writes dictionaries? There are over 200 people that meet up every January at the American Dialect Society annual meeting. There, they vote for the word of the year. These people, dictionary editors, only add words that we, as a society, use. They monitor which words we use or write often, and the words they believe will stick in the language. Dictionaries also aren't always the same and they also don't all have the same exact meanings. Most of the time when the editors are considering adding a prominent word it's being overlapped because it is a word that others don't want added. That's the problem, some people are bothered by language change and some people find it fun or interesting.
Many of the words we use are actually used out of context or used loosely. For example, people often use the word "peruse" when talking about skimming over or quickly reading something, but in a standard dictionary, the first meaning would actually be something along the lines of "to read carefully". Although, as time goes on, words that are used incorrectly have become more accepted in our society. Overall, over time the English language will change and new words will be created and old words will fade or lose meaning.
I chose this video as my second because I really enjoy learning about the English language. Last year in eighth grade, my English teachers, Mrs. Jahn and Mrs. Kaa, made me do an assignment on the book "Night" by Elie Wiesel. For this assignment we had five different roles we had to do and that's when I discovered that I actually like thinking like a linguist and that what they study is actually very interesting. At the beginning of this year, I had the thought of growing up to be an English major and that's what I think I really want to do but I'm not quite sure yet.
Bye! -Devyn
As the video continues, Curzan brings up the question that most people are asking, "What makes a word "real"?". She believes that when people say words aren't "real", they actually mean that they don't appear written in the dictionary, but then again, who even writes dictionaries? There are over 200 people that meet up every January at the American Dialect Society annual meeting. There, they vote for the word of the year. These people, dictionary editors, only add words that we, as a society, use. They monitor which words we use or write often, and the words they believe will stick in the language. Dictionaries also aren't always the same and they also don't all have the same exact meanings. Most of the time when the editors are considering adding a prominent word it's being overlapped because it is a word that others don't want added. That's the problem, some people are bothered by language change and some people find it fun or interesting.
Many of the words we use are actually used out of context or used loosely. For example, people often use the word "peruse" when talking about skimming over or quickly reading something, but in a standard dictionary, the first meaning would actually be something along the lines of "to read carefully". Although, as time goes on, words that are used incorrectly have become more accepted in our society. Overall, over time the English language will change and new words will be created and old words will fade or lose meaning.
I chose this video as my second because I really enjoy learning about the English language. Last year in eighth grade, my English teachers, Mrs. Jahn and Mrs. Kaa, made me do an assignment on the book "Night" by Elie Wiesel. For this assignment we had five different roles we had to do and that's when I discovered that I actually like thinking like a linguist and that what they study is actually very interesting. At the beginning of this year, I had the thought of growing up to be an English major and that's what I think I really want to do but I'm not quite sure yet.
Bye! -Devyn