Visual interference

The first time you listen to this video, just listen. Don't look. This is to convince yourself that it really is not English (it is purported to be German, but I can't confirm that), because once you do look, you'll only hear English.

xkcd

One of the funniest comics around has to be xkcd. Today's comic is titled "Simple" and references the simple English Wikipedia (be sure to mouse over to read the hidden text). I haven't done much editing on simple wikipeia, but I do a lot on simple wiktionary. Drop by and help out sometime.

Functions in the CGEL

One of the most useful and yet ignored principles in thinking about grammar is the consistent separation of categories and functions. When you can keep them distinct, analysis become much clearer. One grammar that is scrupulous in making the distinction is the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. It clearly sets out the various categories on pp. 22 & 23, which I've visualized in the first image below.
Unfortunately, there's no clear overview of all the functions. I've tried to bring them together in the following graphic. As usual, if you see anything wrong or missing, please let me know.

Wayback

From 1997 until 2003 I worked at Sakuragaoka Girls' Jr & Sr High School in Kita-ku, Tokyo. During the whole time I was there I put my lesson notes and plans online under the title "An EFL Teacher's Notebook". A number of sites still link to it though the server was taken offline years ago. Anyhow, if you're interested in seeing it, the Internet Archive has a copy of it. Probably best to check out the 2003 version.

Another in our irregular series of word lists. Today, all the irregular verbs that occur more than two times in the Corpus of Current American English. I believe that this list is complete, but if I've overlooked something, please let me know. The words are grouped by endings.

1. be
2. do
3. have
4. read
5. spread
6. lead
7. misread
8. tread
9. reread
10. re-read
11. plead
12. bleed
13. breed
14. feed
15. speed
16. shed
17. wed
18. forbid
19. bid
20. outbid
21. underbid
22. rid
23. build
24. rebuild
25. hold
26. uphold
27. withhold
28. behold
29. understand
30. stand
31. misunderstand
32. withstand
33. spend
34. send
35. bend
36. lend
37. unbend
38. find
39. bind
40. wind
41. grind
42. unwind
43. unbind
44. lade
45. hide
46. ride
47. slide
48. override
49. stride
50. flee
51. see
52. oversee
53. foresee
54. clothe
55. lie
56. underlie
57. make
58. take
59. undertake
60. shake
61. mistake
62. wake
63. overtake
64. forsake
65. remake
66. awake
67. partake
68. retake
69. re-make
70. betake
71. strike
72. come
73. become
74. overcome
75. shine
76. shoe
77. rise
78. arise
79. lose
80. choose
81. write
82. bite
83. rewrite
84. smite
85. underwrite
86. co-write
87. overwrite
88. re-write
89. leave
90. weave
91. interweave
92. heave
93. shave
94. give
95. drive
96. forgive
97. dive
98. strive
99. shrive
100. thrive
101. prove
102. freeze
103. dig
104. hang
105. overhang
106. bring
107. sing
108. string
109. swing
110. spring
111. cling
112. fling
113. sting
114. ring
115. sling
116. wring
117. teach
118. beseech
119. catch
120. break
121. speak
122. sneak
123. stick
124. seek
125. think
126. sink
127. drink
128. shrink
129. stink
130. slink
131. work
132. deal
133. steal
134. feel
135. kneel
136. spoil
137. fall
138. befall
139. tell
140. sell
141. swell
142. dwell
143. foretell
144. resell
145. spell
146. misspell
147. spill
148. dream
149. swim
150. mean
151. lean
152. begin
153. spin
154. win
155. learn
156. born
157. burn
158. run
159. overrun
160. outrun
161. re-run
162. over-run
163. undo
164. overdo
165. outdo
166. go
167. forego
168. forgo
169. undergo
170. leap
171. keep
172. sweep
173. sleep
174. creep
175. weep
176. hear
177. wear
178. tear
179. bear
180. swear
181. overhear
182. shear
183. forbear
184. beat
185. eat
186. bet
187. meet
188. get
189. forget
190. let
191. set
192. upset
193. offset
194. beset
195. reset
196. inset
197. preset
198. off-set
199. wet
200. fight
201. light
202. fit
203. hit
204. split
205. slit
206. knit
207. spit
208. sit
209. quit
210. shoot
211. overshoot
212. hurt
213. cast
214. broadcast
215. forecast
216. recast
217. typecast
218. telecast
219. newscast
220. miscast
221. rebroadcast
222. comcast
223. podcast
224. webcast
225. cablecast
226. re-cast
227. hoist
228. cost
229. burst
230. thrust
231. bust
232. cut
233. undercut
234. shut
235. put
236. input
237. output
238. draw
239. withdraw
240. redraw
241. re-draw
242. saw
243. shew
244. strew
245. sew
246. show
247. blow
248. mow
249. know
250. grow
251. throw
252. overthrow
253. overgrow
254. outgrow
255. regrow
256. over-grow
257. sow
258. lay
259. slay
260. overlay
261. waylay
262. underlay
263. mislay
264. pay
265. repay
266. underpay
267. overpay
268. say
269. unsay
270. gainsay
271. fly
272. buy

Thesaurusi (or how descriptivist can you go?)

Over the past month or so there has been an influx of new editors at the Simple English Wiktionary (and you're more than welcome to join us). One of them saw fit to add an entry for thesaurusi, after all, there was one on the English Wiktionary. I headed over there and sure enough, there it was.

You see how it got there don't you? If you look up thesaurus in a dictionary, it tells you that there are two possible plurals +es or +i. Now if you've never noticed that some English nouns that end in -us form their plurals by dropping the -us and replacing it with -i, it would make sense just to stick an -i on the end and voila!

I referred the obvious mistake for deletion, but lo and behold, thesaurusi is actually out there, and not just in the nescient scribblings of some teenage facebook adict.

• 1965, Pierre A. Rinfret, “Changing Population and Changing Demand”, Financial Analysts Journal, Vol. 17 No. 5, page 75: 

  In the closing weeks of 1959 and the early weeks of 1960, book dealers must have had a bonanza in selling thesaurusi.

• 1999, Lynn Tooma et al., Exploring the Bible, ISBN 0884894649, page 49:

  Gather a variety of dictionaries and thesaurusi written for middle-school students as well as adults.

• 2004, Vincent Mary, “MeSH and Specialized Terminologies”, in MedInfo 2004, ISBN 1586034448, page 530:

  UMLS is an integration of several thesaurusi.

A discussion ensued and it was decided to keep it with the following entry:

"(rare, considered nonstandard) Misconstruction of thesauruses, plural form of thesaurus."

At the SEWikt, we've put a redirect to thesauri and left it at that. But don't be surprised if one dark night, just when you least expect it, you stumble across alumnusi, stimulusi, fungusi, nucleusi, cactusi or one of their ilk and you find yourself running screaming down the street, your descriptivist sensibilities flapping behind you in tatters.

Countability and unmarked plurals

Recently, I've run into a few situations that have called for some clarification of what it means for a noun to be countable. You may be curious about just where I run into these things. Do people buttonhole me at parties? Grill me at conferences? Stop me on the street? Sadly, no. Most often these issues come up during some sort of net-mediated interactions.

Anyhow, one particularly observant and self-aware correspondent writes:

"One of the thrills of creating material for students is discovering new areas of my own lack of knowledge. When designing a worksheet on countable and uncountable terms, my examples didn't really work out right.

I had neatly laid out three zones on the sheet: countable, uncountable and those that can be either (like paper and hair), and assigned examples of each from the students' vocabulary lists.

The nouns 'sheep' and 'fish' are not given 's' or 'es' when applied to plural use (in North American English), so I've simply referred to them as 'uncountable' in the past, and placed them into the uncountable zone. But almost instantly, I realized they didn't fit the patterns I was trying to illustrate.

There might be 'many sheep' in the field, but there darn sure aren't 'very much sheep', to my ear anyhow. There are 'a few fish' in the tank, but not 'a little fish'. These seem to act stubbornly as countable categories.

Which tells me that some noun categories are countable, but their labels (like fish and sheep) just don't get a plural form adjustment.

What are the correct terms and categories for these items? What else am I missing?"

Of course, he's quite right that countability of nouns is best looked at by considering the determiners they will allow rather than their morphology. Nouns like sheep simply have a plural form that is identical in shape to their singular form. These are often referred to as unmarked plurals. An analogy with verbs would be something like put, for which the plain form, plain present tense, past tense, and past participle all share a shape. Most verbs have past tense forms and past participle forms that share a shape (shape here encompasses both spelling and pronunciation).

Another issue is that most nouns have both countable and uncountable senses, though typically one sense dominates. Almost all "uncountable" nouns have a plural sense indicating types (e.g., Belgium produces many fine beers.)

There are few nouns that are singular only. I once believed that equipment was one, but I was mistaken. The following are a few that I can think of, but feel free to prove me wrong:

• crockery, footwear, perseverance, nonsense
  
• italics, linguistics, mumps, news
  

There are also a few plural only nouns. I think I got these examples from the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, though I don't honestly recall.

• belongings, clothes, genitals, pants, remains
• cattle, police, vermin

In some language like Chinese, it is my understanding that no basic nouns are countable. All must be identified with a counter (e.g., two cups of water, one rod of pencil, three sheets of cookie).

Finally, it's interesting to note that even among languages that make a countable/uncountable distinction, there is little agreement on what is counted (again, examples may be from the CGEL or perhaps from Pinker's The Stuff of Thought).

• spaghetti: countable in Italian but not in English
• hair: countable in French but not in English
• peas: now countable in English, but previously uncountable pease
  

Indeed, we can look at almost anything both ways:

• opinions, advice
• stories, fiction
• facts, knowledge
• holes, space
• songs, music
• naps, sleep
• lies, bullshit