In my not-so-long experience teaching English in all levels, I have wondered at students' bewilderment, and sometimes even frustration, at the richness of vocabulary in the English language. What is meant here by richness? Simply the great variety of words to choose from, synonyms, derivatives and the amazing number of words with different slight shades of meaning. Most probably, some Semantics and Etymology experts have already gone through this analysis, but I go through it every day, through the everyday contact with the language. My restless curiosity pushes me back to the dictionary every time I return home with eyebrows up or doubts aroused by my students. Tireless reader as I am, books also provide field for exploration galore.
I have spotted and recorded more than 100 pairs (or groups of 3) of words coexisting, living and throbbing in the language. In many cases, one of the words in a pair has evolved or adapted to give English that specificity which few other languages have. Therefore, not all the mentioned pairs are synonyms, but they are somewhat related. Deep observation is not necessary to notice the dual character of English vocabulary.
The reasons for this duality are traceable and logical, however too complex and extensive to explain in this article. All the same, it will be worth to mention the main ones. Present day English is the result of a dynamic process of evolution: adoption and adaptation. Many cultures have contributed to this enriching process. The Celtic culture was the original in the British Isles. To the Celts we have to add, with different degrees of influence, Latin (Romans), Scandinavian (the famous Vikings), French (Norman French) and Latin and French again with the Renaissance. Plus, the myriad of cultures which came into contact with English when the British Empire expanded all around the world. This impressive enumeration shows why we have words like fiancée, banana, kindergarten, kangaroo, skirt and postpone coexisting in English.
Since not all parallel sets of words could coexist, they reasonably adapted and changed to be more specific or to belong to different fields of studies (jargons) or different spheres of life. Either they adapted or one of them disappeared, but since English is an open, non restrictive language, many words have been assimilated. An example of jargon specificity can be the differentiation between explain- explicate. When a beginner student says “Can you explicate this again?,” our hair stands on end and we diplomatically shout “Explain, my dear, explain!” However, explicate exists in English to be used only in formal contexts, for example a literature professor explicates a poem. As I always tell my students, the more similar the word looks to our language the more cautiously should they use it. This is simply because those terms directly taken or derived from Latin are used in formal contexts where powerful and elegant speech is essential.
To exemplify diversification as regards different spheres of life, we can refer to the cuisine world. Pig and pork both refer to the same animal. However, you cannot see a pork in a farm or eat pig chops for dinner. To understand this, we have to picture the medieval world of Norman conquerors and English conquered. Ruling wealthy Normans had pork for dinner, while poor English peasants had to raise pigs for their masters, but could never taste the delicious chops. Similarly, Normans in power sat on comfortable chairs (a word of French origin) while subservient English sat on tough stools (an originally English term).
Of course this phenomenon is more noticeable for us, non-native speakers of the language, who are in need of analyzing it in order to learn it, whereas native speakers come with the “chip” incorporated from birth. When waves of invaders went and stayed in the British Isles, they brought their cultures and languages with them. So once, skirt (of Scandinavian origin) and shirt (of Anglo-Saxon origin) meant exactly the same: the piece of clothing people covered their bodies with. Eventually, after generations of coexistence and as “fashion” made people wear separate pieces of garment, they adapted to mean the two different things they mean today.
The term docent looks like another example of students' creativity. Surprisingly, the word docent actually exists in English, but through the process of specification, it came to mean something completely different from what we might expect. It entered English in the 1800's, from Latin (docere) through German to refer to a museum guide. Well! Here the dictionary is essential!. Beginners can be easily misled by the similarity of words to their native language.
Other pairs worth mentioning are: blessing and benediction, whore and prostitute, allow and permit, bewilder and confuse, bright and brilliant, find out (yes, terrifying phrasal verbs!) and discover, foe and enemy, and last but not least get and obtain. All these pairs are synonyms. Interesting non-synonym pairs are: earn and win; potato and Pope, wrist and doll, weather and climate, kitchen and cuisine, hire and rent; world and planet, and wage and salary.
Hopefully, this picture I tried to draw here can help learners to be aware of the possibilities this richness allows us for. This means we can always improve. No student in this world, however gifted or hardworking they may be, can learn lists of words or definitions by heart. The best way, and probably the only effective one, to learn vocabulary is contact and use. Reading a lot, writing some, listening attentively, speaking confidently and reading some more can help. Funnily enough, we should never panic to encounter one more word to tell us how the main character stared, glared, glanced, gaped, scowled, gawped or gazed at his enemy in the novel we're reading. Dictionaries can be lifelong friends, happy to serve us well, so keep them at hand.
Pamela Sabrina Escudero is a graduate English Teacher from UNMDP. She is presently teaching English at different levels at schools and institutes in Mar del Plata.
“As I always tell my students, the more similar the word looks to our language the more cautiously should they use it.” |
