English for Academic Teaching Purposes
Entry #1
Week of October 17
Compiled by Kai & Jana
| Word (Part of Speech) or phrase or idiom | Definition | Special Notes or Context |
|---|---|---|
| Lecturette (n.) | A short lecture | You can use ending –ette to produce diminutives (common diminutives with that ending: diskette, cigarette, kitchenette) |
| Assignment (n.), to assign (v.) | Some work/task given to be completed | |
| Discourse (n.) | communication that goes back and forth (from the Latin, discursus, "running to and fro"). Discourses are linguistic units composed of several sentences — in other words, conversations, arguments or speeches. | This word is used in the list of learning outcomes of our course. |
| Pro-active (adj.) | Acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty (not after the difficulty has already occurred) | It is frequently contrasted in opposition to the words "reactive" or "passive." |
| Teleprompter (n.) | A device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech | Has been in use from 1950s, nice scheme available in Wikipedia! |
| Proficiency (n) | The quality of having great facility and competence | |
| Conceive (v) | 1. To have the idea; 2. Judge or regard; 3. To become pregnant | |
| Perceive (v) | 1. To become aware of directly through sight or hearing; 2. To apprehend | |
| Crescent (n) | 1. A shape resembling a segment of a ring tapering to points at the ends; 2.The emblem of Turkey and Islam; 3. increasing, growing; 4. the curve or curved portion of a street | |
| Taper (n) (v) | 1. A candle; 2. To reduce gradually |
Entry #2
Week of October 24
Compiled by Kalle
| Word (Part of Speech) or phrase or idiom | Definition | Special Notes or Context |
|---|---|---|
| substantive | 1. noun 2.being the essential element of a thing 3.having independent function 4.solid in foundation or basis | Substantive agreements (pl.) – collective agreements that regulate job, pay, and conditions. |
| stance | 1. the manner and position in which a person stands 2.Sports: the posture assumed when about to play the ball, golf etc. 3. general emotional or intellectual attitude | |
| to construe | 1. to interpret the meaning of something 2.to analyze the grammatical structure 3.Old-fashioned: to translate literally. You can construe that in different ways | adj. construable n. construability; construer |
| rate | 1. a quantity or amount considered in relation to or measured against another quantity or amount 2. a price or charge with reference to a standard or scale 3. Statistics: a measure of the frequency of occurrence of a given event 4. to estimate the value of | A rate of 70 miles an hour; Rate of interest/discount; Birth/death rate; At any rate = in any case; First-rate=excellent |
| encounter | 1. to meet casually or unexpectedly 2. to come into conflict with (an enemy, etc.) 3. to be faced with | He encounters many obstacles in his work |
| notion | 1. impression 2. an idea, concept or opinion 3. pl. Am.: pins, cotton, ribbon and similar wares used for sewing | Notions department; The common notion = common understanding; I have not the slightest notion = I have no idea |
| oppressive | 1. cruel, harsh or tyrannical 2. heavy, constricting, or depressive | adj. oppressively n. oppressiveness |
| divisive | 1. causing or tending to cause disagreement or dissension 2. having the quality of distinguishing | adj. divisively n. divisiveness |
| plummet | 1. to drop down, plunge 2. a lead plumb used by anglers to determine the depth of water | |
| poise | 1. dignity of manner 2. physical balance 3. the state of being balanced or stable 4.the position of hovering | adj. poised = self-possessed |
BONUS The definition of "savvy" discussed during class last week: 1) Kalle's Pirate definition from Wikipedia, 2) Jennifer's definition of savvy from Answers.com
Entry #3
Week of October 31
Compiled by Jaanus
| Word (Part of Speech) or phrase or idiom | Definition | Special Notes or Context |
|---|---|---|
| gist (n.) | 1. central idea or the essence; 2. a scientific graphics library written in C programming language; 3. the grounds for action in a suit | |
| shortening (n.) | known as Hisham is a semisolid fat used in food preparation | Used especially in baked goods, and is so called because it inhibits the formation of long gluten strands in wheat-based doughs, giving them a "short" texture (as in shortbread) |
| gluten (n.) | mixture of the proteins gliadin and glutenin containing in the cereals. | |
| shortbread | a type of biscuit (cookie) | It is traditionally made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three parts plain white flour, although other ingredients like ground rice or corn flour are sometimes added to alter the texture. Shortbread is so named because of its crumbly texture (from an old meaning of the word short). |
| stretch (n.) | 1. deliberate act of lengthening of muscles, in order to increase muscle flexibility and/or joint range of motion; 2. extension | |
| speculation | 1. (n.) speculating on the value of financial instruments (shares, futures, derivatives, etc.); (v.) as a speculative action; 2. (n.) — thought, idea, a single instance or process of consideration; the contemplation or consideration of some subject | |
| ghoul (n.) | a monster from ancient Arabian folklore that dwells in burial grounds and other uninhabited places | |
| banshee | a female spirit in Irish mythology ("woman of the síde (Gaelic word for peace)" or "woman of the fairy mounds") | Usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld. |
| omen (n.) | a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change | |
| hail (n.) | 1. — a form of precipitation which consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice (hailstones); 2 — a shout or call to attract attention (v.) 1. — as a precipitation process of balls or irregular lumps of ice; 2. — (v. used with an object) a) to cheer, salute, or greet; b) to acclaim; approve enthusiastically welcome; 3. — (v. used without an object) to call out in order to greet, attract attention, etc. | within hail (idiom) within range of hearing; audible |
Entry #4
Week of November 7
Compiled by Terje
1. surmise
• Found in: Bowker, L., Pearson, J. 2002 Working with Specialized Language. A practical guide to using corpora Routledge
• page 197 Based on this evidence, we can surmise that collective agreements are typically written in a style that uses passive constructions and the third person.
• OALD2000: formal style
• to suppose/guess
• Search in BNC (random choice of max 50 hits):
surmise 84, surmise that 30
surmised 70, surmised that 23
surmises 8, surmises that 2
surmising 5, surmising that 3
2. hunch
• Found in: Bowker, L., Pearson, J. 2002 Working with Specialized Language. A practical guide to using corpora Routledge
• p198 One of the simplest, and yet most valuable, ways you can use a corpus is to investigate a hunch.
• OALD2000: hunch, verb, noun, cf adj hunched
• VERB/ADJECTIVE: bend forward, raising your shoulders and back – He sat hunched over his breakfast
• NOUN: a guess – follow/back your hunches; My hunch is that ….; The doctor’s hunch had been right.
• Search in BNC (shows random choice of max 50 hits):
hunched over (52)
doctor’s hunch (0)
hunch is that (5), my hunch is that (5)
• Search in Cobuild Concordance and Collocation Sampler (random choice of max 40 hits):
hunched over (40)
doctors’ hunch (no answer retrieved)
hunch is that (10), my hunch is that (8)
Compare the style of surmise and hunch. Yet both found in an academic book (Bowler, Pearson 2002).
3. research article or research paper? (Question posed on one of the feedback sheets on Wednesday)
• Found in: Bowker, L., Pearson, J. 2002 Working with Specialized Language. A practical guide to using corpora Routledge
• p 205 You are translating text that is a popularized article about viruses that is aimed at non-experts
• p 178 If you are a research student or are planning to become a research scientist you will need to know how to write a scientific article.
• Search in BNC (random choice of max 50 hits):
research article/articles (3)
research paper/papers (49)
scientific paper/papers (66)
scientific article/articles (5)
• Search in Cobuild Concordance and Collocation Sampler (random choice of max 40 hits):
research article/articles (1)
research paper/papers (18)
scientific article/articles (0)
scientific paper/papers (5)
The British National Corpus (BNC) is a 100 million word collection of samples of written and spoken language from a wide range of sources, designed to represent a wide cross-section of current British English, both spoken and written.
Cobuild Concordance and Collocation Sampler retrieves samples from Collins WordbanksOnline English corpus which is composed of 56 million words of contemporary written and spoken text.
4. jargon
• McEnery, et al 2006 Corpus-Based Labguage Studies. An advanced resource book. Routledge
• page 90: Varieties of a language may include, for example, the standard language, dialects, [ ] and jargons (particular to specific domain).
• OALD2000: style: often disapproving
• language used by a profession or a certain group of people, e.g.
• medical jargon, computer jargon
Search for jargon in BNC – 512 hits, e.g.
• sales staff are not permitted to speak in jargon and are obliged to help the layman understand exactly what their products are all about
• If you come across an unnecessarily complicated piece of jargon, you can either forget it or send them one of our cards that carries the pointed message: Gobbledygook can damage your business
Search for jargon in Cobuild Concordance and Collocation Sampler – 40 hits, e.g.
• soppy jargon
5. Gobbledygook (from the BNC concordance for jargon, see No 5 above)
• OALD2000: gobbledegook (also gobbledygook) informal style
o language that is difficult to understand, esp in official documents
Search for gobbledegook in BNC – 24 hits, e.g.
To me it's all gobbledegook
my mind is getting lost in the gobbledegook
Search for gobbledygook in BNC – 15 hits, e.g.
he extract reads as gobbledygook
to justify their ambitions by some gobbledygook about making a contribution to nature
6. soppy (from the Cobuild concordance for jargon)
• 1) OALD2000: soppy (AmE usually sappy) informal style
silly, sentimental
• e.g. soppy love songs, is soppy about cats
• 2) OALD2000: sappy (of plants) full of sap (=liquid)
Search for soppy in BNC – 47 hits, e.g.
a soppy Western
the soppy notion that X is Y
They ranged from the sleazy to the downright soppy
all this soppy stuff to look sophisticated
Search for sappy in BNC – 11 hits, e.g.
I hate to sound sappy
He didn't say anything, much,'; said Gazzer, just as casually, chewing on a sappy grass stem, not looking at her
Entry #5
Week of November 26
Compiled by Jennifer
| Word (Part of Speech) or phrase or idiom | Definition | Special Notes or Context |
|---|---|---|
| alternate/alternative | The first means one after the other; the second means one instead of the other. | Walking requires alternate use of the left foot and the right. The alternative is to take a taxi. |
| complement/compliment | To complement is to complete, to round out, or to bring to perfection; a complement is something that completes or makes whole. To compliment is to praise or admire; a compliment is an expression of praise or admiration. | Marcel loved to compliment Albertine. "That chemise complements your eyes, my little sparrow," he murmured. |
| nauseated/nauseous | It's the difference between sick and sickening. You are made sick (nauseated) by something sickening (nauseous). | Never say, "I'm nauseous." Even if it is true, it's not something you should admit. I'm nauseated by that nauseous cigar!" said Ethel. |
| raise/rise | To raise is to bring something up; there's always a "something" that's being lifted. To rise is to get up. | When they raise the flag, we all rise. |
| ingenious/ingenuous | Something that's ingenious (pronounced in-JEEN-yus) is clever or brilliant; the tip-off is that it has the pronunciation of genius built right in. Ingenuous (in-JEN-you-us) means frank, candid, unworldly, or innocently open; it's related to ingénue, a word for an inexperienced girl. | Calling someone disingenuousinsincereis a roundabout way of saying he/she lies. |
| eclectic | this word is mistakenly used to mean discriminating or sophisticated; in fact, it means "drawn from many sources." | Sherman has an eclectic assortment of mud-wrestling memorabilia. |
| Literally | This means actually or to the letter. (Martha sprayed a dried bouquet with metallic paint, literally gilding the lily.) | Literally is often confused with figuratively, which means metaphorically or imaginatively. No one says figuratively, of course, because it doesn't have enough oomph. Check out this sentence referring to a Pioneer Days celebration: "Spectators were literally turned inside out and shot backwards in time." |
| Decimate | To decimate means literally "to slaughter every tenth one," although most people don't intend it literally. It can be used loosely "to destroy in part"(Gomez says the mushroom crop in the cellar has been decimated by rats.), but don't use it to mean "to destroy entirely." | And definitely don't attach a figure to the damage: The earthquake decimated seventy-five percent of Morticia's antiques. Ouch! |
This week's DOD adapted from O'Conner, P. T. (2003). Verbal abuse. In Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, pp. 81-132. New York: Riverhead Books.
Entry #6
Week of December 5
Compiled by Thomas-Andreas
| Word (Part of Speech) or phrase or idiom | Definition | Special Notes or Context |
|---|---|---|
| „Close but no cigar” | a phrase used in contexts, where the original goal of an act has not been fully reached. | Origin: cigar, presented as gift of congratulation |
| „A turn of the screw” | informal – a situation, which is already very hard do bear, becomes still more difficult | An extremly good novel by Henry James has such a title („The Turn of the Screw”) |
| „Go trough the mill” | to have or to cause somebody to have a bad experience | |
| „To pay trough the nose” | To pay for something much more than it is actually worth | |
| „To talk trough one’s” | To speak nonsense. | |
| „To have the blues” | to be depressed; to be in a sentimental mood. | |
| „To beat about the bush” | to speak about something in such a way, that the central point of the talk is avoided or introduced after a very long preparation | |
| „Advent” | the coming of something or somebody (from Latin); the first season of the church year, that leads to Christmas (the coming of Christ) | |
| „to cut both ways” (of a statement) | to function in both sides of an argument, (of an action) – to have both good an bad consequences | |
| „to jump down someone’s throat” | informal – to react to what someone has said in an abrupt an angry manner |
