Comments on: Origins of Silly Words

By: Qjames

Qjames — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:38:51 +0000

‘to harry’ predates ‘to harrass’ (sic -to harass). So your suspicion would only fit for a time traveller with considerable influence on the English language.

By: Eileen Opiolka

Eileen Opiolka — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:41:58 +0000

I was interested in your comments on “near misses”. While editing a text recently, I changed the word “predominately” into “predominantly” . I have since discovered that “predominately” has a long history, but it still jars.
Am I being pedantic?

By: Helpfor Yourenglish

Helpfor Yourenglish — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:44:08 +0000

Hi Robert

I enjoyed reading this blog entry. I admire your inventiveness with “sticktoitiveness”. LOL

I found your comments on the words ‘hassle’ and ‘harrass’ interesting because when speaking I probably use ‘hassle’ as much as I use ‘harass’. Perhaps my choice of words depends on who I’m talking to and what I’m talking about.

In the UK, we have a few words to get us through times we can’t think of things or people’s names. The words are ‘thingamejig’ and ‘whatsisname’.

By: Robert Beard

Robert Beard — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 21:20:53 +0000

I suppose we should move the discussion to a higher level. I’ll admit I was thinking in terms of second-language learning, having taught a second language for 35 years. There is no question but that my statement holds for second-language learning.

However, the position of reading (and writing) in first-language learning isn’t the same for all languages. English speakers in the US go into college with a loose hold on spelling and reading. In Russia, however, writing is taught in kindergarten and reading skills progress much faster because of the closer relation of the spelling system to the spoken language.

The spoken language, basic grammar, that is, takes about 4-5 years to learn if you start at the age of 2, regardless of the language. How long it takes to read and write then depends on the proximity of the writing system to the language spoken.

By: J.A. Williams

J.A. Williams — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:39:10 +0000

Speech is not the most difficult mode of language processing. Research shows that all human beings will learn to speak without explicit instruction – see literature on child language acquisition – granted there are no physical or mental disabilities, or complete isolation.

Reading is the most difficult mode of language processing because it requires an individual to develop and utilize language-specific architecture in the brain. This architecture must be automatized for visual decoding as well as information encoding, storage, and retrieval. This requires a learner to map abstract phones to a segmented speech signal.