The Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage phần 6 pot

instructive or instructional early Mechanics Institutes to the present Institute of Actuaries or of Chartered Accountants, the word institute is more common. Among organisations for professional engineers, we do find the Institution of Engineers,ofChemical Engineers, and of Radio and Electronic Engineers, as well as the Institutes of: Automotive and Mechanical Engineers Electrical Engineers Electrical Inspectors Engineering and Mining Surveyors Hospital Engineers Industrial Engineers Marine Engineers The first set with Institution are older, and offshoots of British foundations, while the second and much larger group with Institute are relatively recent. Note also that for the titles of educational institutions, Institute is the word used. Again we might invoke the Mechanics Institute or “School of Arts” as they used to be in some Australian country towns, as well as the RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology), the former NSWIT and QIT, and other institutes of higher learning. Specialised research institutions are also called Institutes, witness those of Counselling, Drug Technology, Navigation and Psychoanalysis, to name at few. instructive or instructional We learn something from it, whether the medium referred to is instructive or instructional. But things instructional, such as instructional materials, are expressly designed to provide instruction; while those which prove instructive, such as an instructive interview, are ones which teach us something incidentally. We learn through our own insights from an instructive experience, whereas a formal process of education is implied in instructional. instrumental case In some languages there’s a way of marking words which express the instrument of an action. Modern English no longer has a special suffix for this, and instead we use a phrase beginning with with: They cut the window bars with a file. In Old English the instrumental case was identical with the dative case for nouns, but there were special instrumental forms for some of the pronouns, notably the demonstratives and the interrogative. In Latin the instrumental was identical with the ablative case of nouns. In Aboriginal languages it can be distinctive, or identical with the ergative or locative. See further under cases. insurance or assurance See assurance. insure or ensure In Australian and British English these words have different meanings. To ensure is simply to make sure of something, while insure is the business of arranging financial guarantees against loss, theft or damage to your property, or against loss of life and limb. (Cf. assurance or insurance.) But in American English insure covers both meanings, and ensure is simply a variant spelling for it. 414 inter- The use of the two spellings to distinguish the two meanings in Australia and Britain is only about a century old. For other cases of variation between en- and in-, see en-/in insurgence or insurgency See under -nce/-ncy. integral, integrate and integration To get the spelling right for any of these, think integrity. Its pronunciation helps to ensure you don’t write the first part of the others as inter The prefix inter- has no part in any of them. Rather they are all related to integer “a whole, or whole number”. intense or intensive These have rather different implications: intensive implies sustained and constant attention over a given period, while the word intense targets the keenness of that attention at a particular moment. A more important difference is that intensive is often associated with organised and institutional activity, as in intensive search and an intensive course; whereas intense is used to characterise individual behavior and attitudes, as in intense gaze and intense concentration. In intensive care we would of course hope to find that the patient is keenly watched by the nurse. But from the hospital’s point of view it’s a matter of ensuring the constancy of nursing attention, instead of periodic visits by the nurse, as in other wards. intensifiers An intensifier is a word or phrase which reinforces the impact of others. Some work by underscoring the writer’s/speaker’s conviction: actually certainly definitely really surely These are dubbed emphasisers in the Comprehensive Grammar of English (1985). They add to the interpersonal aspects of the text (see under that heading). Other intensifiers work in the referential domain and lend strength to descriptive verbs, adverbs or adjectives, either as boosters (e.g. greatly, highly), or as maximisers (altogether, completely, extremely, utterly). Apart from the standard repertoire of intensifiers, there are colloquial equivalents ranging from awfully, incredibly and terrifically,tobloody, damn(ed) and other swear words—suitable only for very informal styles of writing. In everyday speech, intensifiers serve to emphasise and pinpoint words, as well as to give the speaker a few more microseconds of time in which to develop an utterance. Both functions are reflected in the Kylie Mole speech pattern of talking about things being “roolly great”. Grammatically speaking, intensifiers are subjuncts: see further under adverbs. intensive or intense See intense. inter- This prefix meaning “between, among” is built into hundreds of ordinary words borrowed from Latin, of which the following are only a token: 415 inter alia intercept interfere interjection interlude intermediate interpolate interrupt interval It also forms new words in English, many of which are hybrid Latin-English: interact interchange interface interleave interlock intermarriage interplay intertwine interview New, purely Latin formations with inter- tend to be longish, academic and institutional words: intercontinental interdenominational interdependent intergalactic interinstitutional interpenetrate intertribal In a few cases inter- contrasts with intra-,asininternational/intranational, interstate/intrastate. See further under intra-/intro inter alia This handy phrase, borrowed from Latin, means “among other things”. It indicates that the set of items mentioned is not exhaustive: The figures showed inter alia how audience ratings were going up. Inter alia also serves to highlight an item as the most important of a possible set. Notice the more casual effect of using etc. instead: The figures showed how audience ratings were going up etc. There the same point about audience ratings is being made, but the use of etc. makes it just one thing indicated by the figure, not something particularly important. Because inter alia is a neuter plural in Latin, it strictly speaking applies to things rather than people. Parallel forms for referring to people are inter alios (again plural, for all-male or mixed groups) and inter alias (for an all-female group). None of these phrases is abbreviated, unlike other Latin tags such as e.g. or etc. Whether to italicise them is a matter of choice. See further under Latin abbreviations and italics. interdependence or interdependency Both these originate in the earlier nineteenth century, but interdependence is the more common and more generally useful of them. Fowler (1926) preferred it without giving his reasons, as if the meanings of the two words were indistinguishable. Yet Oxford Dictionary citations up to about 1900 show that interdependence was the more abstract of the two (as often), and interdependency was a countable noun, capable of taking a plural. The twentieth century found more uses for the abstract interdependence, by the evidence of English corpora in Australia, Britain and the US. See further under -nce/-ncy. interjections Grammars and usage books often give short shrift to interjections because they have no place in formal written English. Seen as “natural ejaculation[s] expressive of some feeling or emotion” (to use the Oxford Dictionary’s terms), or as the tangential comments hurled by an unsympathetic listener at a speaker, they do not seem to contribute significantly to the fabric of 416 international English discourse. They were however recognised by the earliest Greek grammarians as a special class of words, purelyemotiveinmeaning, which could stand as independent sentences. This ancient definition is echoed in many modern grammars and dictionaries, and the only examples offered are words such as Wow! Ouch! Great! Hell! Yet some modern grammars recognise other words in contemporary English which function as one-word sentences, and communicate an attitude or social orientation. The Comprehensive Grammar of English (1985) lists them as “formulae”, and includes: r reaction signals: Yes, No, Right, Okay and Thanks r expletives: damn, Jeez, shit r greetings and farewells: Hello, Hi, Cheers, Goodbye All these, and even pause-fillers such as Ah and Well, can be included in an enlarged category of interjections. In English interjections of more than one word also need to be recognised. Natural candidates are two-word greetings such as Good evening, as well as standardised expressions of emotion like Hear, hear!, Good lord! and Stone the crows! The latter have no referential content, and are therefore more like interjections than exclamations such as What a day!—though both are fragmentary sentences (see sentences section 2). Beyond the grammar of interjections, their role in interactive discourse is now beginning to be recognised. So whether it’s the collaborative Of course offered by one person to support another, or the skeptical Tell us another! designed to undermine a parliamentary speaker, interjections are an important element of communication. Even Hansard reporters try these days to capture them for the record. international or intranational See under inter international English The idea of “international English” has a lot of appeal to publishers and others who seek to market English language products to the world at large. It appeals also to teachers and learners of English as a second language, who are oftenconcerned that their Englishshould be neutral, without an Australian, American or British coloring. Any regional variety of English has a set of political, social and cultural connotations attached to it, even the so-called “standard” forms (see standard English). The regional associations can be quite distracting, witness the effect of translating an affirmative remark by the saintly Buddha as “Sure”! As that example shows, regional character can come through the printed word, though of course it’s usually much more muted there than in living speech. As soon as we start to converse, we reveal what part of the world is home. So the idea of a completely neutral form of English is something of a dream. Our best hopes of achieving it are in writing and the written medium. And if we take limited excerpts from English language newspapers printed in Canberra, New 417 International Phonetic Alphabet York, Singapore and London, they may not be distinguishable in their idiom— provided they do not refer to local institutions, and avoid any informal touches of style. International English exists only on the formal side of standard language, or in carefully controlled mediums such as “seaspeak” and the language of air-traffic control. See further under English or Englishes. International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alph- abet (IPA) is the only one in the world whose symbols have a single, unvarying relationship with particular sounds. This is because they are defined in articulatory terms, i.e. by the speech organs used in producing them. The IPA symbols are indispensable whether we are attempting to describe sounds in a foreign language, or to pinpoint pronunciations of English words. A chart of the symbols used for Australian English can be found in Appendix I. The symbols of the IPA are mostly drawn from the ordinary Roman alphabet, with permutated forms of them used to extend the inventory. A handful of others come from the Greek and Anglo-Saxon alphabets. Perhaps the most remarkable symbol of all is “schwa” represented by an upside-down, back-to-front e, which stands for the indeterminate vowel so often heard in English, and so variously written. See further under schwa. International System of Units The “International System of Units” is Australia’s way of referring to the Syst ` eme International d’Unit ´ es, and the official French title explains why we often refer to the units themselves as SI units. SI units have been the basis of the Australian metric system of measurements since 1970, and replaced the earlier imperial system. See further under imperial weights and measures, metrication and Appendix IV. internet or Internet This word began life in the 1970s without a capital letter, and lived without it until the 1990s when “the Internet” suddenly became a household expression. There’s no reason why it should be capitalised—any more than radio, telephone and other modes of communication—and the Australian Government Style Manual (2002) noted the trend towards lower case. The Macquarie Dictionary (2005) makes internet the primary form of the word. interpersonal Writers do not always think of themselves as setting up a relationship with their readers. They may not know who their readers are likely to be, and tend to forget about them when the subject itself becomes all-consuming. If the writing is technical or philosophical this may not matter, though the style may still seem rather “dry”. But for writing which is intended as individual or private communication, it’s much more of an issue. A shortage of interpersonal elements then seems not only dry but insensitive to the reader. It could undermine the very purpose of communicating. Many elements of English are in some way interpersonal, so writers do not have to look too far for ones which will contribute effectively but unobtrusively. 418 interrobang The interpersonal aspects of language or writing are all those elements which establish a particular relationship with the reader—as opposed to those which express information, or help to structure the text (the referential and textual aspects, respectively). The interpersonal effect is very strong and direct in the first and second person pronouns (I, we, you), and in grammatical structures such as questions, commands and exclamations. Both contribute to a sentence such as: You really won’t believe how brilliant the acting is! The interpersonal effect in that sentence also comes from the use of the contraction won’t (as from any word or structure which smacks of conversation); and from the word brilliant, which invites the reader to share a value judgement. Attitudinal adverbs and intensifiers such as really call for a reaction from the reader. Other words which have an interpersonal effect are those which mediate degrees of obligation, permission and possibility (modal auxiliaries such as must, should and can, as well as the adverbs which paraphrase them, such as necessarily, perhaps). Words which express the writer’s judgement on the likelihood of something are again ones which call gently upon the reader. He’s likely to arrive on Friday. The word likely highlights the fact that the statement is an estimate, one which the reader may either accept or re-evaluate. (See further under modality.) Note that some words and expressions combine an interpersonal effect with their referential meaning. This is true of many evaluative words, though it varies with their use. The word brilliant has both when used in reference to someone’s acting, but the interpersonal effect is hardly there when it refers to the light of the sun. interpretive or interpretative Which of these gets priority varies from dictionary to dictionary, and either can be justified. According to the evidence of Webster’s English Usage (1989), interpretive has been increasing its currency in the last few decades, and it certainly relates more directly to the verb interpret.Inthe past however, interpretative seems to have been the more common of the two—to judge by the Oxford Dictionary’s 12 citations over four centuries for interpretative, as opposed to 2 for interpretive in three centuries. Fowler (1926) argued from Latin word-forming principles that interpretative was more legitimate, though he elsewhere argued against unnecessary syllables. Both the Australian Oxford (2004) and the Macquarie Dictionary (2005) foreground interpretative while acknowledging interpretive as alternative. Yet data from Australian internet documents (Google 2006) show that interpretive is the more popular of the two, in the ratio of 3:2. interrobang This yet-to-be-established mark of punctuation could be handy when we need to use both question mark and exclamation mark simultaneously. 419 interrogative Shaped like a combination of the two: the interrobang allows us to query and to express incredulity in the same stroke: You want the report tomorrow The complex of emotions you may feel at such a moment cannot be adequately expressed through the conventional sequence of ?! or !?, and the interrobang would be a valuable addition to our repertoire of punctuation. According to the Random House Dictionary it originated in the 1960s as printers’ slang, and its potential is discussed in Webster’s Style Manual and in the Right Word at the Right Time (under question mark). Its futureno doubt depends on its becominga standard punctuation itemin wordprocessingpackages. Alternativespellings known for it are interrabang and interabang, but only interrobang is used in Australian documents on the internet (Google 2006). interrogative This is the traditional grammarians’ name for the form of verbs that expresses a direct question: Are they coming to the barbecue? When will he decide? Do you like red wine? In interrogative constructions the normal subject-verb order is inverted, and the subject they/he/you follows the first (auxiliary) part of the verb. Compare the order in they are coming, he will decide etc. The third of those sentences shows how a simple verb like actually acquires an auxiliary (do) in the interrogative.In Shakespearean English it was done by simply inverting subject and verb: Like you red wine? But in modern English do is always brought in to form the interrogative if there is no auxiliary already. Note that in modern grammars such as the Comprehensive Grammar of English (1985), and the Cambridge Grammar (2002), the term interrogative is applied to the particular “sentence function” or “clause type” that expresses a question, rather than the distinctive verb form. (See further under mood and questions.) The interrogative verb can and does express other speech functions, such as the imperative. In American English the sentence Why don’t you open the window? is a polite way of getting someone to do something. interrogative words With these words we signal the start and the focus of a question, as in “Who are you?” or “What’s the time?” Interrogative words include both pronouns: who what which whose whom and adverbs: when where why how 420 interstate differences Both can be used in either direct or indirect questions: Who’s there? He asked who was there. What do you want? They inquired what I wanted. Modern grammars such as the Comprehensive Grammar of English (1985) and the Longman Grammar (1999) use the collective name wh-words for both groups. Note that wh-words also work as conjunctions in other kinds of clauses. Interrogative pronouns can be relative pronouns in relative and noun clauses: The man who came to dinner went away satisfied. I asked them who had been invited. And interrogative adverbs are used to introduce adverbial clauses: They went where no human being had ventured before. See clauses section 4. interstate differences There are relatively few words which vary from state to state in Australia. But those that do involve everyday things and are often associated with what we drink or eat or wear. They affect domestic life—whether we send our small children to preschool or kindergarten, and what we call the place we live in (see for example home unit and Federation). Among beer-drinkers it’s well known that the various sizes of beer glass change their names from state to state. Those from Western Australia would be disappointed with the size of a pot in the eastern states, while those from South Australia would be pleasantly surprised at the size of a schooner elsewhere, as the table shows: 7 oz (200ml) 8oz (225ml) 10oz (285ml) 15oz (425ml) 20oz (575ml) QLD glass pot NSW seven middy schooner pint VIC glass pot schooner TAS eight ten/pot SA butcher schooner pint WA glass middy schooner pot The distribution of the various terms is no simple matter, with a different set used in each state. There is no overlap at all between South Australia and Western Australia, separated by deserts. Research by Bryant (1989) confirms that regional variation is more than a matter of differences from state to state. Some words are shared by two or more states, but not all of them. Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania share terms such as laundry trough (for “laundry tub”), while NSW and Queensland share stroller, lobster and devon, which are known by other names elsewhere. In any case the boundaries of different usages do not coincide with state borders. Some which defy them are port for “suitcase”, which is used in northern NSW as well as Queensland; nature 421 inthrone or enthrone strip for “footpath”, found in southern NSW (including ACT) and in Victoria; and spider “ice cream soda”, used by Victorians and those in southeastern South Australia. Connections such as these can sometimes be explained in terms of older patterns of settlement, or in terms of current commercial contacts. At any rate, they show that interstate and metropolitan differences are not the only ones to reckon with in charting regional variation in Australia. inthrone or enthrone See under in-/en intra-/intro- This prefix meaning “inside” appears in a number of words coined for scientific or institutional usage. The form intra- is the more recent one, first recorded in the nineteenth century, in words such as: intracranial intramuscular intramural intrastate intra-uterine intravenous A number of intra- words are obviously intended as counterparts to those prefixed with extra-, witness intramural/extramural for instance. Formations with intro- are loanwords from Latin, which mostly date from the seventeenth century on, apart from introduction which was borrowed in the fourteenth. Unlike those prefixed with intra-, their second components are not usually independent words in English, and they maintain a classical flavor: introgression introjection intromission introspection introvert/introversion introvolution Most are specialist words, except for those popularised through psychology such as introspection and introvert/introversion. intra vires See under ultra vires. intransitive This is the grammatical name for a verb which does not take an object. (See further under transitive and intransitive.) intrench or entrench. See under en-/in introductions First impressions are as important in writing as they are in spoken encounters. The first few sentences should combine to convince readers they are in competent hands, and that the writer is in control of the medium. In nonfiction, the introduction needs to identify and frame the topic to be discussed, with some indication as to the stages in which it will be treated, or the ultimate destination of the argument. The longer the document, the more some sort of map and signposts are needed. A long report may offer its concluding recommendations at the start, and then proceed to show how they were arrived at. The so-called executive summary in business documents serves this purpose (see under reports). In fiction the introductory chapters serve to set the scene, create a particular tone, and secure the reader’s engagement in the imaginative world. 422 inversion Yet engaging the reader’s imagination is not unimportant in nonfictional writing. The most effective introductions try to project some lively details of the subject, linking it with the real world and avoiding too many generalisations and clich ´ eed observations. For the relationship between the introduction, foreword and preface of a book, see preface. intwine or entwine See under en-/in intwist or entwist See under en-/in Inuit See under Eskimo. inure or enure The first spelling inure is given priority in American dictionaries as well as British ones, whether the meaning is “become accustomed”, or “accrue”. Enure is a recognised alternative, but less commonly seen in the US than Britain, by the citations of Webster’s English Usage (1989). invaluable or valuable See valuable and invaluable. inversion Any departure from the normal word order used in a clause (subject– verb–object/complement) can be called inversion. Inverting the subject and verb is a regular feature of certain English constructions, such as: r direct questions: Have you finished? Are they on their way? r after an adverb which highlights the timing or location of an event at the start of a sentence: Here comes the bus. Now is the time to run for it. Down came the rain. There stood a surprised passenger. No sooner had she reached the bus-stop when she found she’d lost her wallet. Never had she been so embarrassed. Under no circumstances could she return home. As the last three examples show, inversion with negative adverbs (or adverbial phrases) always requires an auxiliary verb immediately after. Exactly the same construction occurs after hardly and scarcely. Note that pronouns are normally inverted after auxiliaries (Hardly had they come . . .), but not after a simple verb: we don’t say “Here come they”. r stock phrases identifying the speaker in dialogue: “I’d like you to take the shot from my other side”, says he. “Here we go again”, said the cameraman. 423 [...]... authorities seemed to meet the needs of the age, and they created arbitrary linguistic rules and used them to condemn the language of earlier authors The “ipse dixit” grammarians were not inclined to look at the facts of usage, even in their own times Some of their pronouncements (such as those concerning the uses of shall and will) have been transmitted through the English language curriculums of the nineteenth... in the US; or that in Britain it’s preferred by both Oxford and Cambridge University presses; or that scientists the world over endorse it In Australia the CSIRO nevertheless decided in 19 86 to change the spelling of its name from Organization to Organisation, to conform with the Australian government standard The Australian branch of Oxford University Press switched to -ise with the publication of the. .. and the US, the full titles are themselves given in roman, according to the Chicago Manual of Style (2003) and New Hart’s Rules (2005) b) the official names of court cases, e.g Kramer v Kramer, are italicised everywhere in the English- speaking world In the past, editors were enjoined to put the v separating the names in roman, but both the Australian Government Style Manual and the Chicago Manual put their... time—since 1921, when Mesopotamia became the kingdom and then the republic of Iraq—and it’s not yet fully assimilated to English patterns of spelling The use of q without a following u is un -English, as is the appearance of q as the final letter of a word For other words in which q and k vary, see qu/k Irish The division of the “Emerald Isle” into Northern Ireland (= “Ulster”) and the Republic of Ireland... Zionists continue to develop the common language and culture, though their emphasis on Jewish nationalism is felt by some to displace the essential Jewish religion 433 -ist The words Jew and Jewish seem to have outlived the pejorative associations which hung around them for centuries They now serve to mark the religious identity of Israelis and others round the world, and therefore correspond to Christian,... Scots, the English of the Protestants of Northern Ireland which owes rather more to Scottish English The three varieties get bundled together under the term Irish English, but its lack of regional and cultural sensitivity is evident irony This much-used concept originated on the Greek stage, in the duality of meaning created by the character whose words had a simple, immediate meaning as well as another,... antithesis axis ceratosis ellipsis genesis hypothesis metamorphosis neurosis parenthesis psychosis synopsis thesis thrombosis Note that the plurals of axis and basis (axes/bases) are identical in their written form with the plurals of axe and base The context will clarify whether axes is the plural of axe or axis; but with bases it’s less clear-cut since both base and basis are abstract enough to fit the. .. complicated the use of the adjective Irish Only in geographical references and jokes can it refer to the whole island When referring to the people and their language(s) it needs qualifying Yet “Northern Irishman” is not an established term, and “Ulsterman” is not entirely accurate, since only six of the original nine provinces of Ulster belong to Northern Ireland The other three are now part of Eire To scholars,... 1948 it has been the name of the Jewish state in the eastern Mediterranean, established after the horrors of World War II The land was of course occupied by Jews in biblical times, though the area was then known as Palestine, and while Israel was the northern section, Judah was the southern The word Israelite also goes back to biblical times, whereas Israelitish is a medieval word Neither is in common... as another, discrepant meaning for the audience who saw them in the context of the whole play and of the common culture From there the notion of irony has been extended to the similar effect achieved in modern forms of literature—when there’s a discrepancy between the immediate meaning of a writer’s words, and the shades of meaning they take on in a broader context The effect may be gentle as in Jane . Eire 4 26 irregular verbs 3 Ulster Scots, the English of the Protestants of Northern Ireland which owes rather more to Scottish English. The three varieties get bundled together under the term. needs to identify and frame the topic to be discussed, with some indication as to the stages in which it will be treated, or the ultimate destination of the argument. The longer the document, the. Organisation, to conform with the Australian governmentstandard. The Australian branch ofOxford University Press switched to -ise with the publication of the Australian Writers’ and Editors’ Guide (1991). Other