Words in Use
1. Vocabularies
• When we pick up an English dictionary, we
imagine that we hold in our hands a
representative collection of the words that
exist in the English language, the
vocabulary of an educated speaker of the
language.
• When we open the dictionary and look
more carefully at the entries, we see that
quite a number of them are marked with
labels of one kind or another, e.g.
botanical, baseball, slang, American
English, etc. These indicate that the word
is restricted in its use, and taken together,
they indicate that there are a number of
sets of words with a restricted use.
Core and special vocabulary
Dimensions of variation
• Historical, geographical
• Occupational: daily work or leisure interest,
scientific, religious, legal, political,
journalistic, sports, hobbies, …  jargon
• Social, cultural: slang, youth, criminal,
Internet, …  subculture
• Formality of context: formal vs. informal
• Medium: spoken vs. written
2. National and
regional vocabulary
• Native language (Mother
tongue)
• Second language
• Foreign language
Kachru’s three circles 
• McArthur’s
‘circle of
world
Englishes’
British & American English
• 70% of mother-tongue speakers
• US : UK = 4 : 1
• AmE dominant variety: political, cultural
and economic dominance of USA, +
American movies, television and pop
music
• Many words formerly restricted to US now
well understood in UK, esp young people
Lexical differences
• Cultural differences, no equivalent: Ivy
League, Groundhog Day (US), Honours
Degree, Value Added Tax (UK)
• Variety-specific, with equivalent: baggage
room (US) = left luggage office (UK),
potato chips (US) = crisps (UK)
• Words that have at least one sense used
in World English (WE) with an additional
sense or senses specific to either or both
varieties: caravan ‘a company of traders or
other travellers journeying together, often
with a train of camels, through the desert’
(WE); ‘a large enclosed vehicle capable of
being pulled by a car or lorry and equipped
to be lived in’ (UK) = trailer (US).
• Words that have single sense in WE and
have an equivalent word in either UK or
US: ball-point pen = biro (UK); filling
station = gas station (US), petrol station
(UK)
• Words that have no WE meaning, but
have different specific meanings in the two
varieties: flyover, ‘a ceremonial flight of
aircraft over a given area’ (US) = flypast
(UK); ‘an intersection of two roads at
which one is carried over the other by a
bridge’ (UK) = overpass (US)
US
UK
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candy
cot
diaper
freeway
grab bag
kerosene
wrench
zip code
sweets
camp bed
nappy
motorway
lucky dip
paraffin
spanner
post code
US (WE)
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can
crepe
eraser
French fries
intermission
leash
stroller
zero
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UK
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tin
pancake
rubber
chips
interval
lead
pushchair
nought
US
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ash can
bathtub
casket
drapes
fall
faucet
line
pantyhose
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UK (WE)
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dustbin
bath
coffin
curtains
autumn
tap
queue
tights
US (WE)  UK (WE)
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administration
antenna
baggage
dry goods
nightgown
mail
sweater
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government
aerial
luggage
drapery
nightdress
post
jumper
Canadian English
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Cross-border contact with USA
Continuous flow of immigration from UK
Bilingual influence of French in Quebec
Contact with native American languages in
Canada
Canadian English
• Vehicles and parts are US: truck, hood,
fender, trunk, station wagon
• UK and US coexist for different regions: fry
pan (US), frying pan (UK); silverware (US),
cutlery (UK)
• From French: bateau, brulé, habitant
• Native: bogan, mowitch, hooch
Australian English
• First immigrants to Australia, end of 18th c.,
were deported convicts from overcrowded
British jail. A. continued to be used as a
penal colony well into the 19th c.
• AusE has some 10,000 distinctive words
drawn from a variety of sources.
Australian English
• From British dialects and slang: cobber
(friend), dinkum (genuine), larrikin
(hooligan), shake (steal)
• From aboriginal languages for flora, fauna
and geographical features: dingo, brolga
(bird), morwong (fish), billabong (stagnant
pool in a stream), dillybag, outback,
backblocks
Australian English
• Sheep or cattle farming: stockman,
squatter (sheep or cattle farmer),
rouseabout (unskilled labourer),
sundowner (tramp, seeking shelter at
sundown)
New Zealand English
• 3-4,000 distinctive words or senses
• From native Maori dialects: kowhai &
totara (trees), kumara (sweet potato),
takahe (bird), katipo (spider), tuatara
(lizard)
• From Maori culture: ariki (chief), haka (war
dance), pa (village), tangi (ceremonial
funeral), wahine (woman/wife)
South African English
• Afrikaans  WE : aardvark, apartheid,
eland, trek, veld
• Restricted to SA: bakkie (basin/container),
lekker (nice/enjoyable), voorkamer (front
room)
• African languages  SAE: gogga (insect),
indaba (matter of concern), muti
(medicine), tsotsi (violent young criminal)
West and East African English
• West: official language in Nigeria, Ghana,
Sierra Leone, Gambia, Cameroon, Liberia;
second language in others
• East: used by educated people in Kenya,
Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia &
Zimbabwe. Additional language for most
speakers apart from Swahili.
Indian English
• From Portuguese
• From local languages
• From Arabic and Persian via local
languages
Other varieties
• Far east: HK, Malaysia, Singapore
• The Caribbean: inc. creole varieties
3. Jargon
• Specialist vocabularies associated with
‘occupations’ that people engage in, either
as a mode of employment or as a leisure
pursuit or for some other purpose.
• Often has a pejorative connotation.
Occupational jargons
• Neoclassical compounds:
• -ology: angiology, enterology, haematology,
psychology
• -iatry/-iatrics: geriatrics, paediatrics,
podiatry, psychiatry
• -gram/-graph: angiogram, audiogram,
cardiogram, electrocardiograph,
encephelograph, mammograph
Occupational jargons
• Computing: central processing unit, disk
drive, read only memory, virtual reality,
word processor; chip, file, icon, monitor,
keyboard, printer, scroll, setup, terminal,
window
Sports jargons -- cricket
• General: wicket, stumps, bails, bat, crease,
boundary, slightscreen, innings, follow-on,
declare, over, maiden over, opening
batsman, middle order, tailender,
nightwatchman
• Field positions: leg side, off side, slip, gully,
cover, point, square leg, silly, long, wicket
keeper
Religious language
• Anglo-Saxon: holy, ghost, sin, forgive,
gospel, believe, heaven, worship
• Latin (OE): abbot, altar, cowl, mass, monk,
nun, priest
• Latin (ME): chapel, cloister, compline,
convent, eucharist, offertory, office, prior,
rule, tonsure
‘Green’ jargon
• ‘environment’: acid rain, additive,
alternative energy/technology/fuel,
biodegradable, bio-diversity, bottle bank,
CFC, deforestation, desertification,
dumping, Earth Summit, eco-friendly, ecotourism, ecology, E number, lead-free,
global warming, greenhouse, organic,
ozone, recycling, sustainable,
4. Style
• Formal words: occident, orient, carnivore,
herbivore, philatelist (stamp collector),
horticulture (gardening), ornithologist (bird
watcher), troglodyte (cave dweller)
• Colloquial and slang words: bellyache,
booze (alcoholic drink), beanfeast/beano
(party), bitch/beef (complain), brolly
(umbrella), bigwig (important person),
doddle (easy thing), awesome (excellent)