A Bogus Argument for Euro-English: The Case of Phrasal Verbs in EU Documents

Dr Otilia Paceaotiliapacea@yahoo.co.uk

11 May 2016

‘What can be said at all can be said clearly’ Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 –1951),

Austrian-British philosopher

1998 European Commission

translators language of the real world close the gap raise awareness FOG

Farrago Of Gallicisms Frequency Of Gobbledygook Full Of Garbage

lectures by writers, politicians, and clear language experts

free booklet on “How to Write Clearly”

courses on clear writing by Commission staff

a website with links to the lectures, reports

Why de-FOG? “Euro-jargon, Euro-waffle and plain bad

English in European Commission documents” = “demoralizing to translate”

To explain that the so-called fog is not caused by the translators themselves

Yet translators stay safe and ‘invisible’ as “to avoid imposing too much on the hard-pressed administrators who write EU texts”

Martin Cutts and Clarifying Legal Law (2001)

Factors that influence the FOG? Drafting by non-native speakers Growth of English and tolerance of defective

English Fear of brevity Euro-jargon

CFSP SANCO SLIC PECO

Consensus building

Euro-English or EU English World Englishes Kachru’s ‘three concentric circles’ model

(1992) Inner Circle (US, UK, Canada, Australia and

New Zealand) Outer Circle (Bangladesh, Ghana, India,

Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Zambia)

Expanding Circle (China, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and Russia)

Euro-English or EU English Berns (1995): European context for

English Inner circle (Great Britain and Ireland) Outer circle (Holland, Germany and

Luxemburg) Expanding circle (Belgium, Denmark,

France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain)

European variety of English research initiatives (Modiano 2001;

Seidlhofer 2001; Jenkins 2001) the emergence of a variety of European

English or ‘Euro-English’ diverse research projects in translation

studies and applied linguistics

Euro-English English as a lingua franca in Europe

used as a means of communication between native speakers of other languages (McArthur, 2003; Modiano, 2003; Seidlhofer, 2007)

Modiano (2003): non-native speakers of English into contact with other non-native speakers in Europe “equally if not more often than with the native-speaker collective”

2 lines of research on English in Europe corpus of spoken English as a lingua

franca (ELF) in Europe (Seidlhofer 2007) the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of

English (VOICE) the use of English in the documents of

the European institutions

EU English English as used in the documents of the

institutions of the European Union EU English = Legal English+ Business

English + Academic English + ….

To note Euro-English = non-native variety of

English

EU English = native variety of English

The problematic nature of phrasal verbs the structural, grammatical features of

phrasal verbs semantic features adequate strategies to recognize and

process

PVs defined as multi-word verbs in

comprehensive grammar books (Biber et al., 1999; Quirk et al., 1985)

distinguished between phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, phrasal–prepositional verbs, free combinations and other multi-word verb constructions (Biber et al. 1999)

no clear-cut distinction between multi-word verbs

Functional definition

Two-word items consisting of a lexical verb and an adverbial particle are to be considered as phrasal verbs

Previous corpus-based research on PV 100 most frequent PVs in the BNC (Gardner

and Davies 2007) major phrasal verb dictionary projects

Longman, Cambridge University Press or Oxford University Press English Phrasal Verbs in Use (McCarthy and

O’Dell 1998) Longman Phrasal Verbs Dictionary (2000)

Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (Biber et al., 1999) and its abridged Student Grammar Version (Biber et al., 2002)

PV and EU English Trebits 2009 200,000 tokens 1 PV in approx. 200 words

Corpus DesignEU Document Word

CountHealth and Food Audits and Analyses Programme 2016 9475

Study on the Gender Dimension of Trafficking in Human Beings 2016 3997

General Report on the Activities of the European Union 2015 32114

Antitrust Manual of Procedures 2012 112271

Communication and Visibility Manual for European Union External Actions 2010

15019

TOTAL WORD COUNT 172876

Research procedure Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count

(Pennebaker et al. 2015) Custom dictionary of the most

frequently used PV in EU documents Correlated previous results with corpus-

based findings

What I found comparable corpora (approx. 200,000 tokens) 1 PV every 200 words significant frequency overlapping Top 10 remained the same but different

distribution

EU 2009 EU 20161 set up set out2 set out carry out3 base on put forward4 carry out follow up5 draw up work on6 lay down set up7 put forward depend on8 open up build on9 depend on open up

10 make up make up

The case of Top 1 PV “set out”Collins set out1.to present, arrange, or display ⇒ he set the flowers out in the vase2.to give a full account of; explain exactly ⇒ he set out the matter in full3.to plan or lay out (a garden, etc)4.(intransitive) to begin or embark on an undertaking, esp. a journeyWebster set outa: to arrange and present graphically or systematicallyb: to mark out (as a design) : lay out the plan of to state, describe, or recite at length <distributed copies of a pamphlet setting out his ideas in full — S. F. Mason>to begin with a definite purpose : intend, undertake(intransitive) to start out on a course, a journey, or a career <set out across the country>

the European agenda

set out

how the EU contributes the agreement a global action plan domestic resources in the EU forest strategy Commission Vice-President in 2015 to visit all Member States the Commission further measures to reduce risks these measures had been in the report papers EU’s approach its conclusions actions this plan actions to prevent guidelines best practices the European Council further orientations goals a global framework the way in which the Commission operates is in the Rules of Procedures the Rules the various procedures views can be in writing the provisions in Article X the rules are in paragraph X to the exact legal nature the application should the procedures the Commission must its reasons the SO must the legal assessment a decision that does not in detail the factual background the commission needs to the considerations a request that does not the facts in a conclusive manner eligibility costs are under section X stages of the project cycle that are in the matrix

EU set out1. (transitive) to explain exactly, to

describe at length, to give a full account

2. (intransitive) to begin or embark on an undertaking, esp. a journey

In consideration of the grant of this Lease to the Tenant the Guarantor irrevocably and unconditionally guarantees to the Landlord that until such time as the Tenant is released pursuant to the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 the Rent and other sums due under this Lease will be duly and punctually paid and that all the other obligations of the Tenant under this Lease will be duly complied with and the Tenant will comply with the obligations it enters into in any authorised guarantee agreement entered into by it pursuant to the Lease in any case whether during or after the end of the Term.

You must hand in your application by Tuesday. You may also submit an application for this deadline to be postponed. Your application …

It is not uncommon for applications to be rejected, so do not complain unless you are sure you did not complete yours incorrectly.

As for reducing roaming charges, the Commission outlined several proposals.

The smoking in restaurants ban now seems likely to be implemented.

Complete institutional reform is advocated by the report in most cases.

The practice of growing perennials instead of annual crops can bring about an improvement of soil quality by effecting an increase in soil cover.

New guidelines have been laid down by the President in the hope that the length of documents submitted by DGs will be restricted to 15 pages.

A recommendation was made by the European Parliament that consideration be given by the Member States to a simplification of the procedure.