I keep telling my students – the English language changes constantly. What does it mean if I am" sore let and hindered"? What’s a kibosh? What would you do if you had one?
The English language strength is that it is flexible enough to incorporate new terms. But it does lead to problems from generation to generation, especially when reading classic literature and old manuscripts.In this country, television and radio once unified and stabilized the common speech, but now it also intensifies how fast the meaning of the words we use change. Due to rapid changing technology, the words we use and the common idioms evolve too rapidly. For example, a co-worker from an older generation used the phase, “She must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle.” to mean that person talked fast and constantly. I understood what he meant,but when I used the same phrase in front of my 12 year-old daughter, it took almost an hour to explain it to her. First I had to give her a history lesson to explain what a phonograph was and how it worked. Then I had to explain the rest to her. It wasn’t because of her having a low intelligence, but because she had never seen a phonograph or even a cassette tape player.
frerrick over 11 years ago
just as well he didn’t ask for a rubber — in UK he would have got an entirely different article altogether !!
Dani Rice over 11 years ago
I keep telling my students – the English language changes constantly. What does it mean if I am" sore let and hindered"? What’s a kibosh? What would you do if you had one?
w2lj over 11 years ago
Well, I’d take that kibosh and I’d put it on something I didn’t like.
kaecispopX over 11 years ago
The English language strength is that it is flexible enough to incorporate new terms. But it does lead to problems from generation to generation, especially when reading classic literature and old manuscripts.In this country, television and radio once unified and stabilized the common speech, but now it also intensifies how fast the meaning of the words we use change. Due to rapid changing technology, the words we use and the common idioms evolve too rapidly. For example, a co-worker from an older generation used the phase, “She must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle.” to mean that person talked fast and constantly. I understood what he meant,but when I used the same phrase in front of my 12 year-old daughter, it took almost an hour to explain it to her. First I had to give her a history lesson to explain what a phonograph was and how it worked. Then I had to explain the rest to her. It wasn’t because of her having a low intelligence, but because she had never seen a phonograph or even a cassette tape player.