Teach Secondary Issue 14.8

DICTIONARY DEEP DIVE Join David Voisin on a rich, and sometimes surprising journey through the points at which literacy, language and vocabulary intersect... SAME ROOT, DIFFERENTWORDS PARDON MY FRENCH Contrary to what many people think, the French ‘ baguette ’ does not mean ‘bread’. It’s actually short for ‘ baguette de pain ’, meaning ‘bread stick’. Another word for stick in French is ‘ bâton ’ – as found in the ‘baton’ passed between athletes during a relay race. It also appears in Baton Rouge (‘Red Stick’) – the state capital of Louisiana. Finally, the third word for stick in French is ‘cane’, which is present in several forms in English. Examples include the compound word ‘sugar cane’, and the past participle ‘caned’, which signifies ‘Hit by a stick’. ‘ Une cane ’ in French, meanwhile, means ‘a walking stick’, whereas ‘ une cane à pêche ’ means ‘a fishing rod’. LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS The term‘corpus’, due to its obvious Latin origin, seems to belong more among the recondite terms of an old grammar manual than the technical panoply of the 21st century linguistics researcher. No one needs to be a classicist to decipher its meaning, though, when a little morphological analysis can help. Because it’s evidently linked to the noun ‘corpse’ and adjective ‘corporeal’ (deriving from‘a body’). Corpora (the plural of ‘corpus’) are literally bodies of language. There are different types of corpora which can serve various purposes. Corpus linguistics is a fascinating and potent field of study. Aided by computer data and AI, linguists can now filter millions of words throughout all types of sources. Through quantitative and qualitative methods, linguists can study the recurrence, predominance, disappearance and emergence of words through language and identify patterns. The preponderance of certain classes of words in a text, for example, can betray the state of mind, or even personality of its author. Psychologists in the US recently used corpus linguistics to identify politicians who exhibited the dark triad traits (psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism), simply by examining their use of language. TEACHING TIP: ALLITERATIONS From poems to limericks, and all the way to song lyrics, rhymes are an author’s faithful friend. The reason is simple – the reader is a pattern-seeking creature. Thus, style isn’t just about semantic depth; it’s also about pace, rhythm and all those other little writing tricks that don’t just embellish language, but can sometimes make it sound like music. Rhymes, however, can sometimes be a little intrusive, and not always compatible with all genres. Alliterations are more subtle, and therefore more versatile as a stylistic tool. In his book, The Elements of Eloquence , Mark Forsyth shows us how Shakespeare mastered their use to cement his writing brilliance. But alliterations can be a fantastic didactic tool as well. Keen readers of Stephen Fry’s books will have noticed how much fun their use can be. Give students a letter, a number and a target (such as ‘P’, ‘3’ and a thing/character), and then ask them to compose a succession of alliterated words around those lexical constraints.With ‘P’, for instance, you could have a ‘ Passionate and protective person ’; a ‘ patriarchal and pompous politician ’ or a ‘ potent, paralysing potion ’. Further clues can then be added for more challenge (‘ Describe a particular novel’s character by using a combination of adverbs, adjectives, nouns... ’ etc). The possibilities really are endless. This can provide you with a ludic and competitive way to stretch pupils’ lexical flexibility, discuss language and grammar with them and widen their vocabulary. David Voisin is a head of MFL To ‘ad duc e’ evidence means to bring it forward, or in support An aque duc t is a construction through which water is guided from one place to another A con duc tor leads an orchestra 11 teachwire.net/secondary