Target audience

• General public with an interest in English;

• English teachers looking to enhance their subject knowledge;

• Key KT word: “edutainment”

2013 attendance

Title of talk No. of participants

Pragmatics: How do we speak

appropriately and politely?

161

Dangerous English 146

From Ace to Zero: What’s so

attractive about an unconventional

English name?

121

Pop Culture English 143

Idioms: Revealing the Color of

English Expressions

120

Why Language Rules Rarely Work 107

Total 798

2014 attendance Title of talk No. of participants

English spelling really does make

cents sense

190

Accents in English 188

Is English pronunciation really so

difficult?

162

What’s in a word? History and

culture as reflected in English

vocabulary

134

Language learning and technology 71

Total 745 (2-year total= 1,543)

Public Lecture Series 2014

Evaluation Report

Budget 2014 General Expenses

Advertisement on Newspaper and website

1 $12,000

Coach Services (transportation from Kowloon Tong to Tai Po Campus)

12 $2000 per round trip

$24,000

Postal fee for promotion 1300 4.5 $5850

Stationery (letterhead and brown Envelope)

$2000

Total : $43850

Examples

• So, what is the English you didn’t learn in school?

Most difficult word

• What’s the most difficult word to pronounce in the English language?

Why is English sometimes so hard to pronounce?

• ⅓

• ⅕

• ⅚

• [sIksθs]

English spelling really does make cents sense

Paul Stapleton

March 1, 2014

Faculty of Humanities

How many words are misspelled?

1. It was a lovely occassion.

2. We have no accomodation.

3. I received a promotion from my boss.

4. Try to seperate the fighting boys.

5. This word is definitely mispelled.

6. It’s important to be consistant.

7. Do you have a 2014 calendar?

8. You need a good explaination.

How many words are misspelled?

1. It was a lovely occasion. ✖

2. We have no accommodation. ✖

3. I received a promotion from my boss. ✔

4. Try to separate the fighting boys. ✖

5. This word is definitely misspelled. ✔✖

6. It’s important to be consistent✖

7. Do you have a 2014 calendar? ✔

8. You need a good explanation. ✖

Why is English spelling difficult?

1. Many English words come from other languages and retain their original spelling.

2. English has 12 vowel sounds but only five letters (a, e, i, o, u).

A rather new addition

• Schadenfreude

• (幸災樂禍

English and the alphabet

• So English has 19 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds…

• …but there are only 26 letters…

• …and two of those letters are pretty useless…

– …q (sounds like a “k”)

– x sounds like a “ks”

Why is English spelling difficult?

3. And 24 consonant sounds but only 20 letters.

4. English is pronounced very differently according to where one comes from.

Why is English spelling difficult? Who’s accent?

They are …

This is…

How do you pronounce…

• …mandatory

Could there be some hidden logic to English spelling?

• Spelling helps to distinguish word meanings

• To, two too

• I, eye,

• Cue, kew, queue, Q,

5. Many homonyms

Homonym exceptions (Same spelling, different meaning)

• Can you think of two meanings for each of these words: – Check

– Book

– Fat

– Glass

– Fire

– Seal

– Watch

Hidden logic

• Some spellings help with meaning and pronunciation

• Insane (inseyn)

• Insanity (insanity)

• Column (silent ‘n’)

• Columnist (‘n’ is pronounced)

• Christ

• Christmas

Why didn’t Chinese…

• …develop an alphabet instead of characters?

㸃解

Hidden logic to Chinese too!

A middle

Chinese and Italian

• These two languages are at the two extremities of a continuous scale of spelling transparency:

• Italian has relatively few sounds so the alphabet suits it well.

• Chinese is made up of single syllables and homophones are therefore relatively frequent. – The alphabet is not suitable

• English occupies a middle position, (for short frequent sound spelling (“right” “write” “rite”)

Orthographic transparency (How clearly the writing system maps onto the sound system)

• Chinese

• French

• English

• German

• Finnish

• Spanish

• Italian

• Japanese* • *for hiragana and katagana only

Why didn’t English invent new letters?

• In English <th> sound is represented by two letters, but it has two different sounds

• θ think, without, both

• ð this, father, breathe

• þ (an old letter used for both forms of <th>)

• Why did these old letters disappear?

Answer

• θ ð þ were non-Latin

• Printing presses imported to England from the European continent did not have these letters.

• Also, ð was considered to close to “d” and would cause confusion.

Paul Stapleton

Idioms Revealing the Color of English Expressions

Hang up (the phone)

1930s 2013

Turn on/off/up/down

Idiomatic Language

Phrasal verbs Classifying idioms Metaphoric patterns Idiomatic themes Universal idioms Deceptive idioms Epistemic particles (in

Cantonese) Ironic expressions Agreeing/disagreeing

expressions

Reduplication Sophisticated idioms Understatement Humorous idioms Proverbs Inside language Conditions of life New idioms Politically Correct

language

Understatement Euphemism

• Often used to avoid saying unpleasant words.

• Expensive • A: Was the restaurant reasonable?

• B: It wasn’t the cheapest in the world. (negative + superlative)

• Stupid (negative + using stereotypes of smart people)

• He’s no genius/rocket scientist/brain surgeon.

• Ugly • She’s no Miss Universe.

Understatement

• I wasn’t born yesterday.

Humorous ways to say “stupid”

• His elevator doesn’t go to the top floor.

• A few cards short of a deck.

• Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

• http://dan.hersam.com/lists/not_bright.html

Eat your lunch slowly." Cultural patterns of communication and language miscues

Paul Stapleton

April 11, 2015

Faculty of Humanities

Kinship terms to the extreme

• older sister’s husband • younger sister’s husband • husband’s older brother • husband’s younger

brother • wife’s older brother

• wife’s younger brother

• 姐夫

• 妺夫

• 大伯

• 叔仔

• 大舅

• 舅仔

Task: Translate these kinship terms

• Mother's older sister's son

• Mother's older sister's daughter

• Mother's younger sister's son

• Mother's younger sister's daughter

• Mother's older brother's son

• Mother's older brother's daughter

• Mother's younger brother's son

• Mother's younger brother's daughter

• Father's older sister's son

• Father's older sister's daughter

• Father's younger sister's son

• Father's younger sister's daughter

• Father‘s older brother’s son

• Father‘s older brother’s daughter

• Father‘s younger brother's son

• Father's younger brother's daughter

Kinship terms • Mother‘s older sister’s son. （表哥，表弟） • Mother‘s older sister’s daughter. ( 表姊，表妹） • Mother‘s younger sister’s son. (表哥，表弟） • Mother‘s younger sister’s daughter （表姊，表妹） • Mother‘s older brother’s son （表哥，表弟） • Mother‘s older brother’s daughter （表姊、表妹） • Mother‘s older brother’s son （表哥，表弟） • Mother‘s older brother’s daughter （表姊、表妹） • Father‘s older sister’s son （表哥，表弟） • Father‘s older sister’s daughter (表姊，表妹） • Father‘s younger sister’s son (表哥、表弟） • Father‘s younger sister’s daughter（表姊、表妹） • Father‘s older brother’s son （堂阿哥，堂細佬） • Father‘s older brother’s daughter （堂家姊、堂細妹） • Father‘s younger brother's son（堂阿哥，堂細佬 • Father's younger brother's daughter （堂家姊、堂細妹）

But generally English has a very rich vocabulary

French influence

• Old English evolved out of Germanic languages after invasions in the 4th century.

• During the Norman occupation (1066), about 10,000 French words were adopted into English

• French vocabulary is found in every domain, from government and law to art and literature. More than one-third of all English words are derived directly or indirectly from French

• English speakers who have never studied French already know 15,000 French words.

Other examples (from Hinkel, 2000)

Anglo French

get obtain

make construct

be exist

see perceive

get there arrive

leave depart

cow beef

Food

Snail Escargot

Which one is higher class?

Kiosk Boutique

Spot the difference in communication styles: Manga vs. comics

Knowledge transfer