Some seasonal etymologies.

The origins of many of the words associated with Christmas are as fascinating as they are illuminating. But at this time of year those who celebrate Christmas throughout the world are usually too preoccupied with buying presents, preparing traditional fare, organising parties etc. to bother about the derivations of the words unwrapped along with the presents, only to be used for a couple of weeks before being put away again till next year.

I recently had a conversation with a colleague about students who make rude comments in class. Many of us in higher education have experienced a student's inappropriately disparaging comment like ‘This is boring/stupid/worthless/a waste of time/you fill in the blank.’ I remember how shocked I felt the first time this happened to me. ‘Jack’ walked into class 10 minutes late, dropped into a desk in the back of the room and let out an audible yawn. That was the extent of his participation in class that day. He promptly leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. Frankly, I'm surprised he didn't start snoring. A few minutes later, after I instructed the class to read a short text individually, I tapped Jack on the shoulder. Startled, he looked at me with what can only be described as a glare. Five minutes later, his head was down on his desk, eyes closed. I woke him up again and his response was, ‘But English classes are so boring. They're a waste of time. I'm just stuck here until I pass the TOEFL.’

Unfortunately, I've now come to expect a few of these comments to crop up every semester. At the risk of sounding like an uncaring teacher, I'll admit to sometimes writing these students off, letting them make their own choices, even if that results in failing the class. However, in my more patient moments, I try to reason with the student. Occasionally I've even asked a student for some practical suggestions to improve the class. But I always wonder, is this really my responsibility? After all, I'm their teacher, not their mother.

The use of ‘as’ as a post-modifying intensifier is a construction that has become well-established in Australian and New Zealand English but is rare elsewhere. Only recently has its usage begun to be studied. In 2002, Laurie Bauer and Winifred Bauer included adj + as in their study of intensifier usage among middle-school aged children in New Zealand. Later, in 2006, Michael Head and Peter Petrucci built on Bauer and Bauer's work by studying this specific construction using the Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English (WSC) and quotations in newspaper articles. Since these studies, adj + as has become increasingly grammaticalised, as evidenced by its use in the predicate and attributive positions, its modification by adverbs, and its use as an adverb. The usage is further examined in this article.

A report on the Fourteenth Annual Conference of the International Association for World Englishes was held from 1–5 December 2008 at the City University of Hong Kong. The Conference Theme was ‘World Englishes and World's Languages: Convergence, Enrichment or Death?’ On the first two days, three pre-conference workshops and an open forum discussion were held, addressing theory and methodology in the world Englishes classroom, creativity in world Englishes and the implications of language variation for classroom teaching. This was followed by three packed days of presentations, including a keynote, plenary and presidential address, four focus lectures, and eight streams of parallel paper presentations or special panels/thematic sessions. In total, more than 150 presentations were made, and the conference was attended by well over 200 delegates.

Review of McCully, Chris. 2009. The Sound Structure of English: An Introduction (Cambridge Introductions to the English Language) 264. pp Hardback 978 0 521 85036 0, UK £45, US $90; Paperback 978 0 521 61549 5, UK £15.99, US $32.99; Adobe eBook Reader 978 0 511 51258 2, $26