Is “muggle” used outside of the Harry Potter world?

May 9th, 2012

The famous Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station

One of our readers asked us about the word muggle after observing the Swedish translation mugglare in an article which was not about Harry Potter, wondering if this is a real word, and if so, what it means. Everyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films has come into contact with the word muggle, used to describe someone who does not possess magical powers.So, did J.K. Rowling invent the word or did it exist before Harry Potter entered the literary scene in 1997?

Turning to the bible of language origin, the Oxford English Dictionary, we find four definitions besides the Harry Potter one: (a) ‘a tail resembling that of a fish’, (b) ‘a young woman’, (c) ‘a sweetheart’ and (d) ‘marijuana’. The OED also provides a definition of the word muggler (which is sometimes used alongside muggle about a person not belonging to the society of wizards and witches), ‘a marijuana smoker’, first attested in 1938:

(1) Many swing players are ‘killer-dillers’ (first-rate players). Some are ‘mugglers’ (Marijuana addicts), but very few are ‘long-hairs’ (people who like classical music) (from Manchester Guardian Weekly).

Obviously, none of the original meanings resembles that used by Rowling. If we google muggle/muggler, the great majority of the occurrences are quite naturally located in texts where Harry Potter is mentioned. Interestingly, we also find it used in one other context, geocaching, which is an outdoor activity where participants use GPS to locate small objects (‘caches’) hidden all over the world. The following example is from a website called Basic Geocahing Glossary:

(2) Muggle: (or muggler) A non-geocacher. The discovery of a cache by a non-geocacher is a very real problem and a cache needs to have an identified purpose included in the container.

It is thus possible that muggle/muggler is on its way to turning into a term that can be used about someone who is not part of a particular community sharing a joint interest. Perhaps this new meaning of the word will enter the Oxford English Dictionary in a few years’ time? Finally, a question to our readers: has anyone observed the term muggle/muggler in a context outside of the Harry Potter world?

Maria

 

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“Assume” or “presume” – is there a difference?

May 3rd, 2012

The verbs assume and presume are given more or less identical definitions in dictionaries. For instance, Longman English Dictionary of Contemporary English defines assume as ‘to think that something is true, although you do not have definite proof’ and presume as ’to think that something is true, although you are not certain’. Assume and presume are also suggested as synonyms of each other. Similar definitions and cross references are presented by the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and Merriam Webster Online. The latter adds ‘especially with confidence’ after ’assume’ to its definition of presume, possible indicating that presume could be slightly stronger than assume.

David Livingstone statue, Princes Street Gardens (by Kim Traynor)

However, as so often when we dig further into a case of language variation, we will discover differences between two phrases with seemingly identical functions. First of all, comparing frequencies, we can observe that assume that is far more frequent than presume that in both British and American English (used in 95% of the examples in our corpora). Both verbs are particularly frequent in academic texts, but presume that is more common in spoken language (and fiction, which often includes a lot of dialogue) than assume that. It is the phrase I presume that which dominates the scene in the spoken texts.

Speaking of phrases, we can also note that there are some differences in how assume and presume are used respectively in various more or less set phrases. For instance, assume predominates in phrases such as This theory assumes (‘presupposes’) that…, Let’s assume that… and assume the worst:

(1) The theory assumes that the risk applies to all exposure levels […] (American magazine)

(2) Let ‘s assume that you’ve already cut back on caffeine. (American radio)

(3) We always assume the worst. (British fiction)

Presume, on the other hand, is used in presumed dead/innocent:

(4) Eleven men are still missing and presumed dead. (spoken American news)

It is further possible to add either I assume or I presume, as a little tag after a hypothesis, as in:

(5) A very theoretical risk, I assume. (American fiction)

(6) You’re on holiday, I presume. (British fiction)

However, when we ask about confirmation of someone’s name, presume seems to be the preferred alternative, just as in the famous quote “Dr Livingstone, I presume.”

Maria

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We’re back!

April 26th, 2012

Due to lack of funding and various other circumstances, we have had problems finding time to write blog entries, but now we’re back on track, almost to the day a year after our last entry! We would really appreciate having usage questions from you, and we would also be grateful if you could spread the word to your colleagues. If you are on the old GramTime News e-mail list, you will be notified about new entries every three months. Are you not on the list? Please send an e-mail to maria.estling-vannestal@lnu.se

The blog is also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheEnglishLanguageBlog. Here you will be notified every time there is a new blog entry. You can post your usage questions there, or send an e-mail to maria.estling-vannestal@lnu.se.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Maria, Magnus and Hans

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When you do something alone, do you do it “single-handedly” or “single-handed”?

April 21st, 2011

There is some scope for variation here, as illustrated in (1) to (5) from the British National Corpus (BNC; 100 M) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA; 410 M):

(1)     I like sailing single-handed. (BNC)

(2)     I had summoned his demons and fought them single-handed, in the dark of his mind; (COCA)

(3)     (…) they must support their children single-handed. (BNC)

(4)     Mr. Marks almost single-handedly created a heated collectors’ market. (COCA)

(5)     (…) he had single-handedly raised his son into a fine man. (COCA)

Overall the bare form (single-handed) is more common in BrE than in AmE, which strongly prefers the ly-form (single-handedly). In the BNC, half the tokens of adverbial usage (50%; 63 of 125) had the bare form, while only 7% (38 of 573) had the same form in AmE.

Apart from these notable regional differences, the examples above illustrate further interesting trends in the material. While only 16 of a random sample of 100 instances of the ly-form occur in clause-final position (i.e. immediately before a full stop or a comma), a striking 69 of the in all 101 instances of the bare form did the same, as exemplified in (1) to (3) above. In contrast, single-handedly most typically occurs before a verb, as seen in (4) and (5). This may suggest that the ly-form is more adverbial in function and that the bare form keeps some of its adjectival features. Furthermore, the examples show that there are some important collocations. Verbs like circumnavigate and sail (as in (1) only occur with the bare form single-handed, while child rearing and other forms of care (as seen in (3) and (5)) occur with either form. Single-handed also fairly often occurs with verbs like fight and take on, while the verb create occurred eight times with single-handedly and only once with single-handed.

To sum up, there are several interesting patterns seen with single-handedly and single-handed. Single-handedly is most common in AmE and immediately before verbs. Single-handed is most common in BrE, clause-finally and with certain verbs like sail.

Magnus

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Do settlers settle “in” an area or do they just settle an area?

April 21st, 2011

Those of us who are more familiar with BrE usage would probably go for the alternative with the intransitive verb followed by an adverbial, as in (1), rather than the transitive verb followed by a direct object, as in (2), but in fact both alternatives occur in present-day usage.

(1)     Later, Arabs began to settle in the region. (COCA)

(2)     Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first settled the region in 1879. (COCA)

We searched for the string settle/settled/settling/settles in (the) area/region/west/America in the British National Corpus (BNC; 100 M) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA; 410 M). The results indicate that the verb settle is mostly used with in in BrE (12 occurrences with in as compared to none without), while there is a lot more variation in AmE where 58% (59 of 104 tokens) of the AmE instances occurred without in.

Thus, judging from this fairly limited material, both settle in the region and settle the region are fine, but while BrE speakers prefer settle in, AmE speakers use both.

Magnus

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Should I say “I beg you” or “I beg of you”?

April 21st, 2011

Both the variant with of and the one without can be found, as seen in the following examples from the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA):

(1)     First of all, please, please, please, I beg you, don’t go on a diet. (COCA, Spoken)

(2)     Sir Edmund, I beg you, wait a while. (BNC, Fiction)

(3)     Lady Lavinia, I beg of you, don’t make me any gifts! (BNC, Fiction)

(4)     Gentlemen, I beg of you, don’t let the Congress do this. (COCA, Fiction)

The examples are typical in that they show that the two phrases usually occur in archaic dialogue in fiction. Overall the two phrases are very rare outside fiction and they are both slightly more frequent in the BrE corpus than in the AmE one. The simple form without of is the more frequent alternative being 5 times more frequent than I beg of you in AmE fiction and 3.5 times more common in BrE fiction. In the Oxford English Dictionary the first attestation of I beg of you (from Othello, 1604: He begg’d of me to steale’’t.) is slightly older than I beg you (1675).

So, to conclude, you can use either I beg you or I beg of you, but both alternatives sound old-fashioned. Unless you want to sound like a historic novel when you speak, you can choose other alternatives such as the simple please.

Magnus

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Språklänkportalen – a free resource for teachers of English

March 31st, 2011

A few years ago I created a web resource called Språklänkportalen – a huge collection of links to websites that may be useful to teachers of English (and other people who are interested in the English language). The information is in Swedish, but most of the websites suggested are entirely in English. There is a menu where you can find links to websites in the following categories:

  • Ready-made language learning material
  • Other websites that can be used for learning English, i.e. for thematic work
  • Media
  • Communication
  • Creating and publishing in English
  • Reference tools, such as dictionaries and language corpora

Many of the websites have been reviewed by practicing teachers. These are marked Lärarrecension, and you can search for them by inserting this word in the search function. If you are particularly interested in websites for young learners, you can type in yngre elever in the search function. You can also find many sites for young learners in the category called Temasidor m.m. Språklänkportalen has a discussion forum and you can grade and comment on websites.

There is a blog related to Språklänkportalen. Here I share thoughts and ideas for various ways of using ICT in the teaching of English.  Språklänkportalen is also on Facebook.

Very welcome!

Maria

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The demonstrators in the Arab world are often described as coming from “all walks of life”. What does this mean?

March 30th, 2011

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the phrase refers to ‘[a] person’s social grade, station, or rank’ or ‘[a] person’s trade, profession, occupation, or calling’. One of the earliest attestations from the OED is given in (1) below, and a more modern example from the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) is presented in (2):

(1)     On your left hand, in solemn state, the corporation awaits your instruction; men respectable, very respectable in their different walks of life. (OED; 1787)

(2)     Now members come from throughout the Twin Cities and from all walks of life. (COHA; Magazine; 2007)

In modern American English the most common form of this idiom is from all walks of life, which is about seven times more frequent than from every walk of life. This is a clear illustration of the fact that idioms, which are sometimes claimed to constitute a ‘fixed’ part of the lexicon, are not at all fixed, but often occur in many variants.

Magnus

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In the news reports from the protests in the Arab world I have heard that the police have been firing “live ammunition”. What is this?

March 30th, 2011

According to Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English, ‘a live bullet, bomb etc still has the power to explode becasue it has not been used.’  This definition seems to include all ammunition that has not yet been fired. However, in current usage live ammunition appears to have a more restricted sense, as will be seen below.         

Live ammunition does not occur as an independent headword in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), but it does occur in an example under the word barbed wire from 1942, as seen in (1). Interestingly, the oldest example we found in the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) is also from 1942, given in (2) below:

(1)     In the final lap of the obstacle course, the men crawl on their bellies through a network of trenches, shell holes, barbed wire, and dummy mines to take a nest of machine guns shooting live ammunition a foot or two over their heads. (OED; 1942)

(2)     The men are issued live ammunition halfway to the firing line but do not load their rifles; they creep up to the line, taking advantage of stumps and brush and little gullies for cover, their instructors caustically criticizing their technique all the while. (COHA; Non-Fiction; 1942)

The more restricted sense of live ammuniation is exemplified in the definition of the word replica in the OED, ‘[d]esignating a firearm made in imitation of an existing type of gun, but which does not fire live ammunition’, where it is used in contrast to blanks (from blank-cartridge, i.e. ‘a cartridge containing no ball’ (OED)). In current usage the phrase also often seems to be used in contrast to rubber bullets: there are more than 100,000 hits for “rubber bullets and live ammunition” on Google. This is exemplified below in (3). Example (4) is another typical example from recent news reporting:

(3)     Soldiers fired back with rubber bullets and live ammunition. (Corpus of  Contemporary American English (COCA); News; 2010)  

(4)     The demand had little apparent effect, and unrest still flared in various parts of the downtown area, with troops firing live ammunition at protesters who were lighting tires to hide their positions. (COCA; News; 2010)

To conclude, live ammunition appears to be a term invented in the 20th century used in contrast to either blanks or rubber bullets.

Magnus

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Very welcome to the English Language Blog!

March 30th, 2011

This is the place to go if you want to learn more about the English language, especially modern vocabulary and trends in grammar. We are three English linguists at Linnaeus University and Malmö University – Maria Estling Vannestål, Magnus Levin and Hans Lindquist – who are keen to know what you’re curious about.

Perhaps you’ve heard somebody on TV use a grammatical structure that you learned was incorrect when you went to school? Perhaps you’re a teacher and have noticed phrases that your students use, and which you suspect are examples of Swenglish? Perhaps there is an English word that you would like to know the origin of? Send an e-mail with your question(s) to elb@lnu.se and it may be answered in the English Language Blog.

The origin of the blog is a web-based newsletter called GramTime News, which was published at Växjö University from 1998 to 2009. Over the years we got more than 500 subscribers and received hundreds of interesting usage questions from our readers, many of which were answered in the newsletter that appeared four times a year. The usage questions and their answers are still available here. Scroll down to the pdf-file at the bottom of the page called GTN alphabetical to find a complete index. Click on the topic you’re interested in and you will be led direct to the newsletter including the usage question.

In January 2010, Växjö University and Kalmar University merged into Linnaeus University, and we will now continue our mission of spreading some light on English problems in a new form: the English language Blog. We plan to write in the blog at irregular intervals, but will inform our readers about new posts via e-mail four times a year. Would you like to be on an e-mail list to have such notifications? Please send a message to elb@lnu.se. If you used to be a subscriber to GramTime News, you will be put on this list automatically.

We’re looking forward to your questions!

Maria, Magnus and Hans

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