The Ever-Evolving Language

As I've mentioned before in this blog, English is a language that is constantly evolving. New words enter the lexicon on almost a daily basis, whether they be tech terms, slang or just something that people started to use.

The definitive authority on the English language is the Oxford English Dictionary. The dictionary traces its origins back to the late 1850s. Published by the Oxford University Press, the OED is comprised of over 300,000 main entries;157,000 bold-type combinations and derivatives; 169,000 italicized-bold phrases and combinations; 616,500 word-forms in total, including 137,000 pronunciations; 249,300 etymologies; 577,000 cross-references; and 2,412,400 usage quotations. That is a lot of words.

Each year the OED adds new words and phrases to the dictionary. 2009 saw words like Generation Y, superbug, and blogosphere added to the dictionary. These terms have been added to our language through popular culture, so the OED has added them to the dictionary. My favorite addition to the dictionary in 2009 is turducken. A turducken is a turkey, stuffed with duck, which is in turn stuffed with a chicken.

2010 saw the additions of vuvuzela, hashtag, and bromance. When bromance is officially recognized, you know that English has truly evolved.

Pass it Forward 2010 Reviewed

This year I've had the great honour of sitting on the board of directors of Pass It Forward, a charitable organization that helps kids who cannot afford hockey equipment the chance to take part in Canada's national past time. Pass It Forward, along with Perth's Drycleaners, collects used hockey equipment and gives it to kids who want to play the game, but whose parents can't afford the high price of hockey equipment. Hockey Manitoba, the sport's governing body in the province, takes the equipment and hands it out to participants in their youth hockey programs.

Pass it Forward was started last year by Kalen Qually, a Red River College Creative Communications student. Originally it began as his Independent Professional Project, but after the success the program enjoyed in its first year, he decided to continue forward this year.

Participating in the organization of the equipment drive has made me appreciate how much the implementation of the four principles of persuasion has made the program a success. The action, identification, familiar and trust, and clarity principles have all been put to good use.

For the action principle, the program's partnership with Perth's makes it easy to donate equipment. Perth's has 21 locations around Winnipeg, so it was very convenient for donations to be dropped off by people from all over the city.

As far as the identification principle goes, Pass it Forward answered the question, "What's in it for me?" by having a draw for autographed Jonathan Toews and Mike Richards Team Canada jersies. The winners were announced live on program partner Curve 94.3's morning show.

This also applied to the principle of familiarity and trust. Jonathan Toews and Mike Richards are both well known, local hockey stars and they both have a lot of name power in Winnipeg. Working with Perth's, Curve, and Hockey Manitoba has also helped to bring recognition to the program and boost donations.

Finally, the clarity principle was achieved through Pass it Forward's partnership with Curve. In the leadup to and during the equipment drive, Curve aired PSAs and frequently mentioned the program, it's goals, and how people could get involved. This helped get Pass it Forward's message out to a large audience in a clear and concise manner.

Pass it Forward 2010 was a huge success on many fronts. The most important being that thanks to the donations of Winnipeggers, lots of kids who may not of had the chance to play hockey now have been given that opportunity.

Editing is the life of a CreCommer

Coming into the second year of CreComm, I had no clue that editing would be the theme of my year. It definitely has so far. I've got courses in Editing Print and Online Media, Image Editing, and video editing. It's quickly become clear that the principles of editing the written word carry over to editing video.

When we edit a news article, we read for understanding, for organization and focus, for grammar,spelling, punctuation and style, for language and sentence structure, and to proofread. Several of these techniques are useful for editing video as well.

When editing an article we read it first for understanding. Does the story make sense? The same concept applies to video editing. When we're in the editing booth, a story needs to be formed through the editing of clips.

Organization and focus is essential for both the written word and for video. Are the facts in the right order to tell the story? Is the focus placed on the right information to make it compelling? Both writing and video need organization and focus.

Finally proofreading is as essential to video editing as it is to editing writing. It's just not reading. It's picking up all the tiny errors in the editing process and cleaning them up, just like proofreading is catching all the small errors in writing. This process is essential for a clean, final product.

I'm slowly getting used to editing consuming my life, but I'm glad there are consistencies between the different media.

Canada, the UN Security Council and PR

Currently there are two temporary seats up for grabs (in the "Western Europe and Others" region) on the United Nations Security Council. Canada, Germany, and Portugal are the three countries in the running for the two positions. All three countries have been pulling out all the stops in order to grab one of these influential spots, among the eight other non-permanent members. The United States, the UK, France, China, and Russia are the permanent members of the Security Council.

What does this have to do with PR, you might ask. The answer is everything. Canada, along with its competitors is spreading the public relations on thickly this week in New York. Stephen Harper addressed the UN General Assembly yesterday, while cabinet ministers Lawrence Cannon, Bev Oda, Jim Prentice, and Peter Kent are also in New York communicating the positives of Canada having a seat at the Security Council.

Germany is pretty much a lock to take one of the seats. They are the third largest contributor to the UN and provide vast quantities of economic aid around the world. So it comes down to Canada and Portugal for the remaining seat.

This is where public relations comes into play and more specifically the principles of persuasion. The principle of familiarity and trust will play a vital role in who gets the seat. Both Canada and Portugal are working this method of communication.

For Canada, Harper and his ministers are pushing the wide international role that Canada plays. Key to this is its membership in virtually every important international political organization, from NATO to APEC to the Commonwealth to La Francophonie. Canada's role in the reconstruction of Haiti is also being played up. The main goal of this communications strategy is to influence voting nations that Canada is a well known and trusted player on the international stage. It's asking these nations to remember what Canada has done in the past and the good it has brought to the world.

Portugal is using the same communications principle, but on a smaller scale. It has the support of Portuguese speaking countries like Brazil and other former colonies in Africa and Asia. This is again an example of the principle of familiarity and trust.

The vote on the two seats will occur on October 12, when all 192 member states of the UN vote. In the end, good PR and more specifically the principle of familiarity and trust will likely be the deciding factor.

Yogi Berrisms

The English language is based on a lot of rules and a defined structure, but there are almost as many exceptions to rules, as there are rules. This is especially true when it comes to spoken English.

When we're speaking we often don't say things like we would write them. We take short cuts, we omit words, we use slang. Spoken English is much more casual than the written word.

This casualness leads to the use of malapropisms. Malapropisms are when a word is substituted in for another making the phrase meaningless, but often providing comedy. They have been a staple of comedy since Shakespearean times.

Some people take the use of malapropisms to a new frontier. The most famous is New York Yankee Hall of Famer, Yogi Berra. Berra played during the Yankees' glory years of the 50s and 60s. He was a reporter's dream. Berra would throw around unintentional malapropisms whenever he was interviewed. He went further beyond malapropisms and twisted English right around. He was a reporter's dream, but a grammatical nightmare. Here are a few examples:

"It ain't over til it's over."
"It's deja vu all over again."
"90% of the game is half mental."
"He can run anytime he wants. I'm giving him the red light."

English is a pretty strange language and people tend to twist it into knots. Fifty years after Berra's prime his sayings are still legendary.

Old George, Buffalo Bones and Antiques

A massive mound of buffalo bones, a ramshackle pioneer village, an old country manor filled to the brim with potential valuable antiques. This is what greeted us when we pulled into Old Geo's Antiques in Whitewood, Saskatchewan last weekend.

Let me give you a little back story first on how we ended up at Old Geo's. My friend owns a burger stand outside of Winnipeg and was in need of a new ice cream machine. He managed to find one on Kijiji, but the seller was in Saskatoon. He agreed to drive to Regina to make it easier. So, my buddy called me up and said, "Hey, I've got to go to Regina. You want to go? We'll have a few drinks. (note: a few drinks was an underestimation)"

We headed off to Regina, picked up the machine, had a few drinks, and woke up the next morning ready to head back to Winnipeg. We got about 175 kilometres east of Regina, when we spotted a towering sign on the north side of the Trans-Canada. It read, "Old Geo's Antiques. Magnificent Period Home. 1895."

Something clicked in my friend's mind and he remembered that his parents had stopped in on a trip home from Calgary and said that the house was interesting and kind of creepy, but worth a stop. So we hung a u-turn and pulled into the house's driveway.

Old Geo's is one of the weirder roadside attractions I have ever seen, but it's really interesting. The house was built in 1895, by immigrants from France, and it's huge. It has seventeen bedrooms and seven staircases. Behind the house, the owner had constructed a pioneer village out of old farm houses, graineries, and scrap wood. To the side of the house is a massive pile of buffalo bones. Needless to say we were a little wary ringing the doorbell.

The owner of Old Geo's is George Chopping, a well-known antiques collector. Old George is a little bit of an eccentric, but a really friendly guy. He took us for a tour of his pioneer village. He's meticulously constructed an authentic pioneer village, filling each building with antiques and period furniture. He's been at it for almost twenty-five years and he's continuously adding on every year. His pride is his saloon. I wish I had a camera (I was a bad journalist) so I could take a picture of his bar. He hand-crafted a bar and it looks like it would be right in place in a high-end saloon, circa 1890.

Old George Chopping. Photo Credit: Sean Murphy

George's house is a sight to be seen as well. It is jam-packed, wall to wall with antiques. To say that George is a little bit of a hoarder would be an understatement. George gave us a tour of his place and gave us the history of some of his more prized antiques. He has a massive collection of glass bottles, all from early Western Canada. I don't know much about antiques, but I would assume his collection is worth a lot of money.

George got into collecting antiques when he was still in his teens. "When I was 19, I gave up smoking and drinking and replaced them with collecting," he said. " I guess one addiction replaced another."

The house is full of old household knick-knacks, pioneer clothing, oil lamps, and carvings. George has put some serious effort into his collection. He's received a fair bit of media attention as well, having been profiled by the Saskatchewan Television Network and, surprisingly, the Japanese version of Cosmopolitan magazine.

All in all, the stop at Old Geo's Antiques was worth the time spent. It's an interesting, if not weird roadside attraction. If you're ever driving through eastern Saskatchewan, stop in and see Old George.

ESL, the intricacies of english, and editing

What is a gerund? How do you properly use the past participle? When do you use the active voice and when do you use the passive voice? These were questions that I was asking my students even though I had just learned the answers the day before.

English is an extremely hard language to learn. Before one can even learn how to put a sentence together, he or she must learn the parts of speech like nouns, verbs, conjunctions, prepositions, etc., etc. Then there are the silent letters or why certain is spelled with a "c" and not an "s". Oh, and don't forget the rules that apply to verbs and the million exceptions to these rules.

Learning english as a second language is not an easy process. It's not like languages, like French, where there are concrete verb rules and feminine and masculine forms of words. English is all over the place. It's a free-flowing language that is evolving every year. There is also an ever growing demand for english language instruction all over the world. It's estimated that 750 million people speak english as a first or second language.

I taught ESL to students in Taiwan for roughly a year and a half. I taught students from kindergarten all the way up to adult business students. They all shared a common will to attempt to master a language that did not share an characteristics with their own and whose wild irregularities caused frustration on a daily basis. I'm amazed at what it takes to learn english as a second language.

Teaching ESL helped me to understand english better as well. Growing up, grammar wasn't emphasized in education. Because we begin speaking english at home when we are young, the nuances and rules come natural to us, but we don't know why we speak like this or the terminology behind our language. Teaching ESL gave me a strong education in grammar, sentence structure, and the written language in general.

What does this have to do with editing? The answer is everything. Strong editors need to be well versed in the building blocks of the english language. Structure and grammar are essential aspects of what goes into editing. In order to be better editors, a great knowledge of the inner workings of the english language is needed. I understand why Chris Petty drilled grammar rules into are head for half a semester.

To answer the opening question, a gerund is when a "ing" verb is used as a noun, like swimming.