Worlds of English
TMA 01
Part 1 – 490 words
In linguistics, there are several terms which are important to use to better understand
the languages. We are going to study three words in this essay giving a clear
definition of each of them and how to use them. I will illustrate the words hyponym,
prescriptive and dialect leveling.
Hyponym:
The word hyponym comes from the Greek language. It is a combination of two words
‘hypo’ and ‘onoma’. ‘Hypo’ means something that is below, beneath or under.
‘Onimo’ means name; it is the way of naming something with a narrower meaning.
For example, the word ‘doctor’ is a hyponym for the word profession. Likewise the
word pediatrician is a hyponym for the word doctor. I have made up a sentence to
show how a hyponym would work: “Groups of refugees arrive daily from Africa
punished by the drought. These people are hungry, tired and thirsty”. Note that
refugees here is the hyponym for the word people.
As I have showed, hyponym is crucial to understand and classify the words as
well as discovering the identify, the group or community that such a word belongs to,
thereby helping us to better understand, classes of words and specific vocabulary.
Prescriptive:
The word prescriptive (praescriptivus) comes from the Latin language and it
describes the act of establishing norms and making something standard. For
example, we have books, dictionaries and other materials containing the standard
that should be used for teaching and learning languages. We also have today the
normative standard of English in the United Kingdom and the United States.
According to the definition given by oxford dictionary, people of higher social
class, i.e. the highest buying power, dictate such rules that must be followed as a
normative standard. A good example to understand it better and how it is clearly
seen in our midst nowadays is when people judge themselves and others to be part
of a certain social class by the way they speak.
Dialect leveling:
Dialect leveling is the influence of a certain group of people who emigrate or
immigrate to a certain region or country and end up influencing the local language as
well as creating a new way of communication in their original language. An example
of this is the Portuguese spoken in Brazil that has undergone several influences of
the Italian language, due to a large immigration of Italians to Brazil in the early
1800s. Besides that, the Italian spoken by those immigrants has changed as well,
due to the influence of the Portuguese. In Brazil people speak Portuguese with
Italian accent and using some of the Italian words.
In conclusion, I would say that these three terms I have explained more about
- hyponym, prescriptive and dialect leveling - are extremely important in linguistics as
they are useful in obtaining a broader view of how to teach and to learn a language
and thus it is crucial to understand these terms to deepen our linguistic knowledge.
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Worlds of English
TMA 01
Part 2 – 905 words
Chosen word: ‘engineer’
Etymology:
The word ‘engineer’ originally came from an Old French word ‘engigneor’ and from
the medieval Latin ‘ ingeniator’. It’s original meaning was to 'contrive or devise', and
sprouted from the old Latin word ‘ingenium’. It was later found in French language as
‘ingénieur’ and made its way into the Italian language as ‘ ingegnere’. The Latin form
‘ ingenium’ with the ending influenced by ‘eer’. (OED, Engineer, 2013)
According to another Online English Dictionary the word ‘engineer’ was first
used in the early 14th century. It was spelled as ‘ingineer’ and it was used to explain
or mean a ‘constructor of military engines’ and was also used to ‘denote a designer
and constructor of fortifications and weapons’. (Engineer. Dictionary.com.)
The word was used in a general sense to mean "inventor, designer" and this
is recorded from the early 15th century. The ‘Civil’ sense of the word, in regards to
public works, is recorded from the 16th century onwards.
Word class:
According to the Oxford English Dictionary ‘engineer’; is classified as a noun (OED,
Engineer, 2013) however it can vary according to the way it is employed as listed
below in the morphology description. If the word ‘engineer’ is used with an object, it
can also be classified as a verb, for example ‘to plan, construct, or manage as an
engineer’. (Engineer. Dictionary.com.)
Morphology:
The Oxford English Dictionary lists many different derivations of the word engineer
such as; ingenious, engender, engineering, ingenuity.
 Noun ‘engineer’ is a person who designs, builds, or maintains engines,
machines, or structures.
 Verbs like, to design, to build, and to engender, are typical example of the
derivation for the word engineer. When we think about the verb to build for
example; we have a clear vision that we will need an architect and a civil,
and an electrical engineer.
 Adjective, ‘engineered’. We can say ‘engineered plants’ for example. This
is a process of genetic mutation of several species of plants that
agronomists develop.
Senses:
As I have explained before in part 1, words can have different meanings when
applied in a different context. When we think about the word take, we can find many
ways to apply it and it can have multiple senses based on the context it finds itself. I
can say; I always take my son to school and it takes me ten minutes to get there by
car. Each take here has a different sense. In a sense, I am physically ‘taking’ my son
somewhere, in the sense of carrying him or pulling him or pushing him somewhere.
‘It takes me…’ is in reference to the period of time or the length of time and ultimately
a reference to ‘delay’ in this sense of the context of expression.
The Oxford English Dictionary lists many different senses for the word
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Worlds of English
‘engineer’, and include such words as ‘surveyor’. The word ‘surveyor’ means
someone ‘who is an inspector that checks the properties and structure of roads and
can be used interchangeably with the verbs ‘surveyed’ or 'engineered'. ‘Surveying’ is
still relative and used in the same sense as ‘engineering’ as it belongs in the field of
study or activity concerned with modification or development in a particular area.
(OED Online, 2013). Other similar senses based on different variations or parts of
‘engineering’ include designer (design stages of engineering), planner (planning
stages of engineering), builder (construction or building stages of engineering),
inventor, (relative to design) and technician (term for a drawer of engineering
designs). All of these senses relate to different contexts in which engineers find
themselves with regard to an industry or process of engineering.
Synonyms:
Synonyms are a way of expressing an idea utilising different words that have a
similar meaning or sense in order to produce greater understanding and a better or
narrower meaning. We can say’ let’s commence the meeting’ or ‘let’s start the
meeting’, or ‘let’s begin the meeting’. In this way, we are using synonyms of words
all meaning the same thing: to initiate a process.
We can find a synonym for almost every word in a language, especially
languages which were influenced by others like the English language that uses Latin
root words and Anglo Saxon words to express the same idea. For example, ‘Irineu is
a clever guy.’ Or ‘ Irineu is an intelligent person.’ In this example I used the words
clever guy which are words that came from Anglo Saxon roots and’ intelligent
person’ which comes from Latin. However these examples may have many other
variations coming from the same roots.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word ‘engineer’ has many
different synonyms such as; architect, builder, designer, director, inventor, manager,
planner, surveyor, contriver, deviser, manipulator, originator, schemer, sights and
techie. (OED, Engineer, 2013) The definitions given to the word 'engineer' by the
Oxford dictionary online include words like, 'contriver', 'deviser' and 'sight' that were
used in Old English. As civilisations have advanced, and technology as well, terms
like ‘sight’ have been replaced to better emphasise what an engineer actually does in
the modern day; they will describe more accurately what the role of an ‘engineer’
does in the modern day rather than in the past centuries. Rather than just ‘devise’
and ‘contrive’, an engineer will ‘design’ and ‘detail’ thus these words will become
more prominent as synonyms. Old English synonyms are rarely to be used
nowadays therefore being replaced by more familiar words we know today.
References
 Oxford Dictionary Online, Oxford University Press
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/engineer?q=engineer
(Accessed: November 07, 2013)
 Engineer. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Engineer (accessed: November 07,
2013).
 Oxford English Dictionary, The Open University
http://www.oed.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/ view/ Entry/ 67168 (Accessed:
November 07,2013)
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