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Thursday 18 October, 2012 Dear Students!

We invite you to join the Linguistic Club that is a student group interested in the study of language.

The current membership is around ten undergraduates. The club aims to foster a sense of community among those interested in the language.

Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow. (Oliver Wendell Holmes)

The club holds meetings once a month to work on problem sets, discuss relevant new articles. In addition to the regular meetings, the club will host important speakers, in an effort to bring current linguistic research to the students.

The first meetings of the Fall 2012 semester are October 18, and November 18, December 10, 2:003:00pm in room 419.

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lexible Vocabulary Units ―Language is the harmony of human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests‖.

(S.Taylor Coleridge)

The language represents a living body. All the languages change over the time and vary from place to place.

They may change as a result of social or political pressures, such as invasion, colonization and immigration. New vocabulary is required for the latest inventions such as transports, domestic appliances and industrial equipment or sporting, entertainment and leisure pursuits.

Most contemporary linguistic commentators accept that the change in the language, like change in society, is an unavoidable process-occasionally regrettable, but more often a means of refreshing and reinvigorating a language, providing alternatives that allow extremely subtle differences of expression.

It means that there are vocabulary units that ,,are born ―and the others that ,,die‖. Still, there is a series of words that are ,,reanimated‖ (they get a new meaning and a new vocabulary life).We have chosen some words that have been ,,reanimated‖: Pneumatic: used to mean something relating to the spirit/soul of a person. Now it means something filled with air, especially compressed air.

Net: used to be a device for capturing birds, fish, or insects, a barrier against flying insects or a mesh for holding the hair in place. Now it’s an abbreviation for the internet.

Coke: was a carbonated drink, a soda. Now it’s an informal term for cocaine.

Gay: the centuries-old other senses of gay meaning other ,,carefree‖ or ,,bright and showy ‖have more or less dropped out of natural use. Gay in its modern sense typically refers to a homosexual person (in the 1960 this term to describe themselves).

Nice: in Middle English had the sense ,,stupid‖ ,from Old French, from Latin nescius,,ignorant‖, from nescire ,,not known ―. Now has the meaning of good –natured, kind person.

Of course: came into English from French some time in the High –to-Late Middle Ages, from a participle meaning running.

It’s been used as such since at least 1823 and comes from an adverbial and adjectival usage meaning ,,belonging to the ordinary procedure‖. Now we use it as a sentential adverbial phrase that means more or less ,,obviously‖.

Enthusiasm:a borrowing into English from Greek, it is first attested in 1603 with the meaning ,,possession by a god, supernatural inspiration. This inspirational meaning lost prominence when gods stopped possessing people quite so often, as after a dalliance as a ,,misdirected religious emotion:, enthusiasm settled with its current meaning ,,passionate eagerness in any pursuit ― These words prove how flexible the language vocabulary is and how attentive and knowledgeable the language users should be.

(Ana Lungu and Olesea Malear )

ords of October

W Sometimes we’re flooded with so much information that we don’t have time to absorb it all. The Word of the Day gives us 24 hours to meditate on a single word. The words are gathered according to some criteria: unusual-sounding, hard translation, interesting etymology. The aim is to diversify everyday speech, sometimes laugh and sometimes make to think.

October 01, 2012 Utile /’ju:tʌɪl/ 1. Means useful , advantageous.

2. Utile comes directly from the French word of the same spelling which also means "useful." It entered English in the late 1400s October 02, 2012 Hamartia /hə’mɑːtɪə/ 1. Means a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine 2. Hamartia stems from the Greek word hamartánein which meant "to err." However, it entered English in the late 1800s.

October 03, 2012 True/tru:/ 1. in accordance with fact or reality, accurate or exact, loyal or faithful 2. True, in the common sense of "real and authentic," has been in the English language since at least the 1200s. The lesscommon verb form of the word was first used in the 1840s, particularly with reference to mechanics.

October 04, 2012 Agita /’aji,tə/ 1. Agitation; anxiety.

2. Heartburn; indigestion.

Agita was coined in America in the 1980s. It comes from the Italian word agitare meaning "to bother."

October 05.2012 Hirtellous /hə¦teləs/ 1.Minutely hirsute.

2. Hirtellous comes from the Latin word hirt meaning "hairy."

The suffix -ellus is a diminutive adjective suffix.

October 06, 2012 Fracas /

In dictionary it means: ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary. Learning the word of the day it is one of the easiest way to enrich vocabulary and to learn.

(Natalia Stremouhova and Natalia Semeniuc)

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1.A noisy, disorderly disturbance or fight; riotous brawl; uproar.

2.Fracas is derived from the Italian word fracasso meaning "to smash." It entered English in the 1720s.

October 07, 2012 Tardigrade /

/

1. Slow in pace or movement.

2. Belonging or pertaining to the phylum Tardigrada.

1. Also called bear animalcule, water bear. Any microscopic, chiefly herbivorous invertebrate of the phylum Tardigrada, living in water, on mosses, lichens, etc.

Related to the common word tardy, tardigrade comes from the Latin word tardigradusmeaning "slow-paced."

October 08, 2012 Apophasis 1.Denial of one's intention to speak of a subject that is at the sa me time named or insinuated, as ―I shall not mention Caesar's avarice, nor his cunning, nor his morality.‖ 2.Apophasis stems from the Greek word apópha meaning"to s ay no, deny." The suffix sis appears in Greek loanwords, where it forms an abstract nou n from averb, as in thesis.

October 9, 2012 catachresis /ˌkatəˈkriːsɪs/ Misuse or strained use of words, as in a mixed metaphor, occurring either in error or for rhetorical effect.

Catachresis is derived from the Greek root chrêsis which meant "to use." The prefixcata- means "down, back, against." The word katachrêsthai meant "to misuse" in Greek.

October 10, 2012 anacoluthon 1. A construction involving a break in grammatical sequence, as It makes me so—I just get angry.

2. An instance of anacoluthia.

Anacoluthon has a very literal meaning in Greek. The root kolouth- meant "march." However this root has two prefixes. First, the prefix a- means "together." The other prefix "an-" means "not following." In Greek anakólouthos meant "not following."

October 11, 2012 Litotes

/

/

Understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expre ssed by the negative of its contrary,as in ―not bad at all.‖

T

ongue Twisters- A means to Laugh and

Learn A tongue-twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to articulate properly, and can be used as a type of spoken word game. Some tongue-twisters produce results which are humorous (or humorously vulgar) when they are mispronounced, while others simply rely on the confusion and mistakes of the speaker for their amusement value.

She Sells Seashells Down by the Seashore and Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers are two very famous and challenging tongue twisters. They have delighted and entertained many generations, bringing joy and silliness. But where did they come from? Is there a story behind these two tongue twisters, and what inspired their being? The answer may be surprising, as well as fascinating.

She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore.

The shells she sells are sea-shells, I'm sure.

For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore Then I'm sure she sells sea-shore shells.

This type of tongue-twister was incorporated into a popular song in 1908, with words by British songwriter Terry Sullivan and music by Harry Gifford. It was said to be inspired by the life and work of Mary Anning who spent her time gathering seashells from beaches to sell to tourists. Her father was the one who taught her how to identify seashells and fossils as a child, and she developed a deep love for digging into the cliffs, searching for the seaside treasures.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” also had a real-world origin. There was an actual person whom Peter Piper was based on: a French pirate and horticulturalist named Pierre Poivre. Pierre would steal from spice stores to grow in his own garden, and make the spices more available and affordable to the common populace. In those times, the cooking spices were known as “peppers”, and the spice trade companies – mostly named by the Dutch – would keep supply low and demand high by deliberately rubbing lime on the seeds in order to jack up the prices. This

process was known as “pickling”. He also arranged for the smuggling of such spices as well, and was partly responsible for the introduction of Clove and Nutmug in his own spice company and gardens.

As it has already been mentioned, the tongue-twister is a sequence of words that is difficult to be pronounced quickly and correctly. Even native English speakers find the tongue-twisters difficult to be pronounced quickly.

Woodchuck Chuck is another tongue twister: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck If a woodchuck could chuck wood?

He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, And chuck as much as a woodchuck would If a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Its origins are unknown. There have been some efforts to attribute it to Archimedes but these efforts are not terribly convincing. "“History teaches us that when Archimedes (ca. 287-212 BC) finally solved this ancient riddle he ran naked through streets shouting "Eureka!" which of course is Greek for "Hand me a towel!". Luckily the answer was later recorded on the Rosetta Stone.

Betty Botter is a tongue-twister written by Carolyn

For example one of these words is antidisestablishmentarianism.It is an interesting word,but it is not the longest one in the English language.

This is the best known long word which has 28 letters. It means “opposition to the withdrawal of state support or recognition from an established church, esp. the Anglican Church in 19th-century England” This word can be broken down as follows: ~ism………………..The philosophy of ~arian……………….those people who belive in ~anti…………………opposition to ~dis…………………..the removal of ~establishment…….The Church of England as the official state church.

The second word is Honorificabilitudinitatibus. This word has 27 letters which appears in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act V, Scene I, which means “invincible glorious” or “Honorableness.” This word was spoken by Costard in Shakespeare’s plays: O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words.

I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as

Wells :

honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier

Betty Botter had some butter, "But," she said, "this butter's bitter.

If I bake this bitter butter, It would make my batter bitter.

But a bit of better butter, That would make my batter better."

So she bought a bit of butter – Better than her bitter butter – And she baked it in her batter; And the batter was not bitter.

So 'twas better Betty Botter Bought a bit of better butter It was originally titled "The Butter Betty Bought " . By the middle of the 20th century, it had become part of the Mother Goose collection of nursery rhymes. The construction is based on alliteration, using four words in the English language which begin with "B" and end in "-ter" (batter, better, bitter, and butter). The surname Botter (which sounds like the phrase "bought a") is used twice in the rhyme, thus allowing five

swallowed than a flap-dragon.

English vowel sounds to be used in the "B-(vowel)-ter" pattern.

English has a lot of tongue twisters with an interesting history. Look for them and they will bring delight and laughter within your own family.

(Lilia Neagu and Marina Ochisor)

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he most difficult English words

English language contains a lot of interesting and unusually words. These are words which people use in their in every day and words which were used once and remained in the history .

English is one of the most common languages that is spoken across the world. "English is a very funny language". Yes, there are some unbelievable words in the English language, most of which we have never even heard of, which are difficult to pronounce and even more difficult to mug-up.

The other word is floccinaucinihilipilification. This 30- letterword is a non-scientific English word and it appears in the first edition of the Oxford Dictionary. The 1992 Guiness book of Records calls floccinaucinihilipilification “the longest real word in the Oxford Dictionary.

It was formed by Estonian scholars, who searched for as many Latin words meaning “nothing” or “not very much as possible”: flocci (means “a little bit,” but literally it means “a bit of wool”), nauci (means very little), nihili (means “nothing”), pili (means “very little”); fused them together, and then added the suffix “fication” on the end, to give the sense of an action.

This word has been used by Jacob Rees-Mogg on 24 February 2012. (Jacob William Rees-Mogg (born 24 May 1969) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament(MP) for North East Somerset since the 2010 general election.) Jacob Rees-Mogg has made the record books with the use of floccinaucinihilipilification in the House of Commons - now the longest word in Hansard.

The Conservative MP told Andrew Neil the 29-letter word meant the "act or habit of estimating as worthless" and that it "came to mind as it does from time to time".

He said its use had helped to highlight alleged corruption among judges in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic This word has 52 letters, describing the spa water at Bath, England. It was invented by the British Medical author, Dr. Edward Strother, 1675-1737. This word is composed of the following elements: Aequeo: equal (Latin, aequo) Salino: containing salt (Latin, salinus) Calcalino: calcium (Latin, calx)

Ceraceo: waxy (Latin, cera) Aluminoso: alumina (Latin) Cupreo: from “copper” Vitriolic: resembling vitriol Do you know that the longest word in English language contains 1,909 letters and it is used in Chemistry to describe a protein in the amino acid.

These words are difficult but they have very a interesting history. These words are not very important in our everyday's life but they play an important role and occupy a certain place in English language.

(Cristina Martinescu and Șpac Marina)