tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8468396885799872742.post4470864474034796593..comments2023-05-03T10:02:39.909+02:00Comments on Mademoiselle Melle: A certain cheeky little wordMademoiselle Mellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06027228733818166604noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8468396885799872742.post-51796114722776664172013-02-18T19:29:15.610+01:002013-02-18T19:29:15.610+01:00Ooo, interesting comment! I'd never thought ab...Ooo, interesting comment! I'd never thought about the actual meaning of 'really', that's so true! I guess you could also say the same for 'very', since it's a derivative of 'veritas' meaning truth...<br /><br />Might have to give that book a read, it sounds really interesting. I'd never associated the 'pas' in negation with 'un pas'. I guess most words in any language you take for granted, and it's not until you break them down or properly look at them that you realise how they've evolved over time.<br /><br />On the students, I can sympathise with their lack of enthusiasm when I realise how boring the lesson is, but yeah as you said, when it's something that should be pertinent and interesting to them, you just think to yourself 'will ANYTHING make these kids pipe up!' However, I know I am hypocritical, since at uni I am pretty reticent in language classes myself! That's going to have to be something I change in 4th year I reckon...Mademoiselle Mellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06027228733818166604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8468396885799872742.post-45790482404244413642013-02-14T17:11:28.192+01:002013-02-14T17:11:28.192+01:00Also, students who don't talk... This really a...Also, students who don't talk... This really annoys me. Especially when you've gone to the trouble to sort out a lesson they ought to find interesting.<br /><br />What annoys me the most is when students who are perfectly good at English (and *know* that they are) decide they're not going to take part in the lesson. Like it's beneath them or something.El Profesorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12224254478792841386noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8468396885799872742.post-16960561508695960532013-02-14T17:09:46.509+01:002013-02-14T17:09:46.509+01:00I'm writing this comment whilst eating a cheek...I'm writing this comment whilst eating a cheeky bit of cake!<br /><br />This word has fallen victim to one of the processes in language evolution. It starts as people try to make their language more interesting, particularly when they want to emphasise something. People find certain words sound particularly impressive, so they use them more and more, even if they are not necessarily apt. For example, "it's utter chaos out there", well it's not, but it sounds a lot better than just saying there's a "considerable amount of disorder out there". Eventually the word is used so much it loses its shock factor and its original meaning, so it becomes just an ordinary word. This is happening with the word "literally", which sounds impressive when you use it because it suggests what you're saying is true and so, naturally, is being used for things that aren't true at all. But it's being used so much it's become a sort of variant of "really" or "very". But then, if you look at the word "really", you can see how this was once in the same situation – "really" as in "real".<br /><br />All of this and much more about how language evolves is explained in Guy Deutscher's book, ‘The Unfolding of Language’. He uses the example of "at all" stuck on the end of questions. "I'm I bothering you at all"; "Can I help at all?"; "Would you like a bag at all?" He suggests that this little tag is being used so much, it could even become a part of English grammar to denote a polite question. And a similar thing is happening with "cheeky". It doesn't mean anything, but it's just a way of making a sentence sound more interesting, kinda cute, kinda funny, kinda... well... cheeky.<br /><br />There's a few great examples in French too. "Quoi" can just be stuck onto the end of a sentence without really meaning anything. Or, for another example from Deutscher's book, the way of making sentences negative in French once meant something slightly different. "ne... pas" used to mean "not a step" as in "not even a little bit" and was used just for emphasis (along with other expression such as "ne... point"). But it was used so much that it become a regular part of French grammar. Bizarrely, "pas" now carries more negative meaning than the "ne", which can be dropped in spoken French.<br /><br />Btw, I really love language evolution.El Profesorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12224254478792841386noreply@blogger.com