One Million and counting
News that the English language has grown to one million words has been greeted with a mixture of surprise from some quarters and skepticism from others. This milestone has been publicised by the Global Language Monitor who monitor the media for regularly used words and phrases. The problem is some of the “words” recognized by them aren’t really words at all and some will only be acknowledged for a limited time.
However the fact that we have anywhere hear one million is quite an achievement. It is said that the average person uses something like 2500 different words a day. This leaves quite a lot to get through. Scrabble connoisseurs will be happy at least.
An oxymoron?
I saw a quote about Tony Hawks. No not THAT Tony Hawks but the one who isn’t skateboarding champion or PC game. I’m talking about the one who hitched lifts around the coast of Ireland armed only with a fridge and later attempted (and succeeded) in beating the entire Moldovian football (aka soccer if you are anywhere west of Aberystwyth) team at tennis. Well if you are at a loss for something to do…! THIS Tony Hawks is a comedian, writer, singer, songwriter, broadcaster and philanthropist who books are absolutely hilarious and who once had a hit parodying the Beastie Boys called “Stutter Rap“.
The quote was, “the hit made us vaguely famous”. I fairly unremarkable quote for a very unremarkable (if satirical) song. I didn’t bat an eyelid until I sat back and thought about it. Can you be vaguely famous? Either way, check out his website, especially the skateboarding page!
The language of irony!
I came across a book in our communal kitchen area today. On it’s cover was a post it note with the words, “A good read, if anyone wants it.” The name of the book was “The Book Thief”!
Who's courting controversy?
As someone who has lived and worked in and around London most of his life I have a certain affection for this magical city. The history, the smells and the colors. Like any vibrant, capital city it excites me. Likewise as a Technical Writer language gets my juices going. Imagine then, a radio programme where a Professor of English at some university put forward the argument to do away with the much maligned apostrophe.
The argument was that there was little or no consistency in the apostrophe’s use. Moreover most people didn’t understand when to use it, particularly with proper nouns. For example, and for those of you unfamiliar with London’s geography bear with me, take Earls (without an apostrophe) Court. It is an area named after the court of an Earl sometime in the first millennia. As a single possessive, the correct grammar is Earl’s (with an apostrophe) Court. Trouble is, our Earl was about as educated as one of his serfs and the apostrophe wasn’t used. 800 years later just along the road, some Baron decided to get in on the act of instant immortality and held his court at his chosen spot. He must have been a stickler for the rules as it is called Baron’s (with an apostrophe) Court. Hurrah!
You can hardly ignore the fact that the apostrophe is widely misused. Look just about anywhere and you’ll see a multitude of misused apostrophies. But is this enough not to use them? To be fair, the Professor wasn’t planning to eradicate them completely. He suggested keeping them where they were used for contractions (e.g. I’m, you’re, they’re, etc.). All I’ll say is it is a good job our Earl and Barol only had one court or else we really would be in trouble 
