English in the Information Society

1. English in the Information Society Grammar Saskia Nolte

2. Der Binnenmarkt ist das Herz der Europäischen Union. Aber viele Europäer können mit dem Begriff wenig anfangen. • The domestic market is the heart of the European Union. But a great many Europeans cannot do much with this concept / aren’t familiar with this concept. lex: *inland, *home, *internal, *inner ( domestic) market *center ( heart) *trade ( market) *expression, *word ( concept) *how to handle this *expression; *don’t know, *do not know what it is about; *do not get an idea of ( cannot do much with, aren’t familiar with)

3. Die Studenten-Organisation setzt sich für die Rechte der Arbeiter in Textilfabriken der Ditten Welt ein. • This student organization is fighting for the rights of workers in textile factories in the Third World. sp: *third world ( Third World) prep: *of ( in) the Third World coh: *the ( this) organization lex: *stand up for ( work for, fight for) aspect: *works/ fights for ( is working/fighting for)

4. Es war der ehrgeizige Versuch eines visionären Franzosen, Europa aus der Phase der politischen und wirtschaftlichen Lähmung zu befreien. • It was the ambitious attempt of a visionary Frenchman to free Europe from a phase of political and economic paralysis / immobilization. lex: *try ( attempt) *futuristic ( visionary) *financial, *economical ( economic) *palsy, *paralyzing, *stagnation, *handicap, *standstill ( paralysis) *rescue, *relieve, *release ( liberate, free) *state, *stage ( phase, era, period) prep: *free of ( from) a phase det: *a ( zero) paralysis *an ( the) ambitious attempt tense: *had been ( was … attempt)

5. Grammatically wrong or merely a matter of style? How important are these changes for comprehension? • The heuristic advantage of the differentiation is particularly salient in cases in which publics become involved as third parties bringing about the peculiar dynamics of modern competition as a “fight of all for all” (Simmel). • The heuristic advantage of the differentiation is particularly salient in cases in which the public becomes involved as a third party, which brings about the special dynamics of modern competition as a “fight of all for all” (Simmel).

6. The sociology of knowledge should analyze the communicative conflicts about conjectured borders of knowledge because they allow studying the repression and marginalization of erring statements which are involved in any kind of knowledge production. • The sociology of knowledge would profit from an analysis of the communicative conflicts about the conjectural limits of knowledge because these conflicts allow the study of the repression and marginalization of erroneous statements, which are involved in the production of knowledge of all sorts.

7. How wide should/could International English be? • Basic English (Ogden) “The question of intelligibility is one which has generally been neglected by an undue insistence on correctness” (Ogden, 1968). • Reduced grammatical system

8. Sentence structure • The General Word Order: Subject- Verb- Object • Questions: formed by inversion and do Nouns • Plurals are formed with a trailing -s. The normal exceptions of standard English also apply, notably -esand -ies • Compound words may be combined from two nouns (milkman) or a noun and a directive (sundown). Adjectives (Qualifiers) • Comparison is expressed with more and most; -er and -est are alternative suffixes • Negative adjectives are formed with prefix un- • Adverbs use suffix -ly

9. Operation Words (Verbs) • 10 operators: make, put, take, keep, let, give, get, go, come, do + 3 operator auxiliaries (have, be, seem) + directive (preposition) = equivalents of roughly 200 simple English verbs Auxiliaries may: possibility/permission will and have: to form compound tenses be: passive voice will: only auxiliary for futurity Pronouns • operators and pronouns have to be congruent in case, number and gender Tense …“a matter of common sense”

10. How wide should/could International English be? • Basic Global English (Grzega) • a (fast) start for learners of English, open for developing larger skills of all kinds of Englishes • reduced but still natural, not artificial English • English for international contexts (with a guarantee of international intelligibility) “BGE should only offer the most basic and most frequent grammatical patterns of English” (Grzega, 2005).  only 20 grammar rules

11. Prerequisite: Differentiation of seven word classes (Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Conjunctions and Prepositions) • Sentence Structure: Agent- Verb- Patient/object of the Action • Singular vs. Plural • Definite and indefinite article • Personal pronouns • Other pronouns • Simple present (Irregularities: be, have, do) • Progressive • Simple past and present perfect • Progressive used for background and frame actions • Future

12. Passive • Auxiliaries (most important be, have, do) • Relative clauses and relative pronouns • Adverbs • Comparison • Negation • Interrogative and imperative sentences • Prepositional constructions with verbs • Subordinate clause • Conjunctions

13. “Obviously, violations against grammatical rules of standard English do not seem to lead to any serious communicative breakdowns”. • “Native and advanced non-native speakers of Englishare asked to accept the variants presented as rightful variants in international contexts” (Grzega, 2005)

14. How much Variation can there be in English in the Information Society?

15. Works Cited Ogden, C.K. Basic English: International Second Language. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968. Grzega, J. “Towards Global English Via Basic Global English (BGE)” The Journal for EuroLinguistiX, Vol. 2, 2005. p. 65-164. <http://www1.kueichstaett.de/SLF/EngluVglSW/ELiX/grzega-054.pdf>