Posted on 05/29/2012 5:14:15 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The future of written English will owe more to Hollywood films than Dickens or Shakespeare, if the findings of a study into children’s writing are anything to go by.
The analysis of 74,000 short stories found that their written work was littered with Americanisms, exclamation marks and references to celebrities.
Researchers who looked at the entries to a national competition found they were increasingly using American words such as garbage, trash can, sidewalk, candy, sneakers, soda, cranky and flashlight.
The stories, written by pupils aged seven to 13, show how fairy cakes are referred to as cupcakes and a dinner jacket has become a tuxedo.
‘Smart’ is now often used for ‘clever’ and ‘cranky’ for ‘irritable’.
Celebrity culture also has a powerful influence on children’s work, with Simon Cowell and Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi among the famous names cropping up repeatedly.
But pupils are let down by basic spelling, punctuation and grammar, according to the study by Oxford University Press, which looked at the entries to BBC Radio 2’s ‘500 Words’ competition.
Children stumbled over simple spellings such as ‘does’ and ‘clothes’ and struggled to use the past tense correctly, often saying ‘rised’ instead of ‘rose’ or ‘thinked’ instead of ‘thought’.
Researchers also found that punctuation was underused, especially semi-colons and speech marks. Some did not know how to use capital letters.
However, exclamation marks were overused. Researchers found 35,171 examples in total, with some young writers using five at a time.
The study of more than 31million words will be compared with future research to see how written language evolves. Popular US fiction such as the Twilight vampire novels and films is thought to be fuelling the increasing use of American vocabulary and spelling.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Is there an Association for the Advancement of Coloured People in England?
If Europeans could get it right about math instead of maths, I would be happy. Also they are missing a word around hospital.
And calling subway riders “strap hangers”...stop it already! They are not apes. Some sit and should be called sitters.
:) :) ;) ;)
Same here. I’ve caught myself saying maths a few times.
And I’ve fallen in love with the Aston Martin.
I’ve learned to love them too as well as hating Morris Marinas except when pianos fall on them out of the blue.
RE: Is there an Association for the Advancement of Coloured People in England?
I think it’s spelled Advancement of Colored People over there now.
And oh yeah, many will be surprised to know that blacks in the UK do better economically on average than blacks in the USA.
So, there’s really no need for a group like that.
After living in the UK for about a year in the late eighties, it took me several years to gradually stop using most of the Brit slang I’d picked up there.
Even to this day, I pop off with the occasional “crikey!”, or “bollocks!”, and I’ve never managed to drop the ever useful, “mate”.
And don't forget the exclamation point. Gotta have that to communicate it just right.
“Garbage Truck” does seem a bit lowbrow to “Dustbin Lorry”. I wonder if those kids still think a “fag” is a cigarette.
'Fairy cake' - what a cute cake concept for a child.
I don't know!
Let’s just be glad they probably don’t talk about putting a “fag” between their lips very much any more either.
Sure, but it's a dangerous language unless you know what you're doing. Don't try this anywhere near Cripple Creek.
I can't say I'm all that concerned about the British finally learning to use the language properly. Really, giving fairy cakes instead of cupcakes to children? Isn't eating fairies a kind of cannibalism?
I've always been irritated whenever I hear about some Brit being taken "to hospital." Um, where's your definite article? And I cringe whenever I read or hear about someone getting their "flu jab." Dang, that sounds positively painful.
American preference for "flu shot" explains the high level of firearms violence in their society.
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