Unit 1 English in the World

Part 2. Transition

Warm-up and Review

Analyses of vast digital collections of text and transcribed speech suggest there are some slow and scarcely perceptible changes in English under way now. And it’s not only the words that come and go, but also grammatical tools are either going out of style or becoming more frequent.

18. Share if you follow these trends (after Arika Okrent):

1. There’s a SHIFT FROM "THEY STARTED/liked TO WALK" TO "THEY STARTED/liked WALKING".

2. The Language is GETTING MORE PROGRESSIVE.

The progressive form of the verb has steadily increased in use. For example, in the passive ("It is being held" rather than "It is held") and with modal verbs like "should," "would," and "might" ("I should be going" rather than "I should go") has grown dramatically. There is also an increase of "be" in the progressive form with adjectives ("I'm being serious" vs. "I'm serious").

3. GOING TO, HAVE TO, NEED TO, WANT TO.

It's pretty noticeable that words like "shall" and "ought" are on the way out, but "will," "should," and "can" are doing just fine. "Going to," "have to," "need to," and "want to" cover some of the same meaning territory as the other modal verbs. They first took hold in casual speech and have enjoyed a big increase in print in recent decades.

4. There’s a RISE OF THE "GET-PASSIVE".

This is giving us "they got fired" and "the tourist got robbed." The get-passive is strongly associated with situations which are bad news for the subject—getting fired, getting robbed—but also situations that give some kind of benefit. (They got promoted. The tourist got paid.) However, the restrictions on its use may be relaxing over time and get-passives could get a whole lot bigger (Let’s get started/get going. I get dressed).

19. What kind of materials would you expect in this course to have an up-to-date awareness of the language’s condition to date? Make use of the expression of liking and disliking below.

­­­­­­­­All I've ever asked for is ____

I'd be more than happy just to ____

I have every intention of ____ing

I feel quite tempted to ____

I am quite committed to becoming a ____

I'm really looking forward to ____ing

I'm keen to _____

I'm anxious to have a good command of __

I'm desperate to _____

I'm dying to start work on ____

I'd love to do something like __ for a while

I'll be glad if I lean ____

I really like the sound of ____

I'm in the mood for something like ____

I feel inclined to try _____

I could do with _____

I wouldn't mind _____

I wouldn't say no to _____

I have half a mind to _____

I'm undecided as to whether to _____

I'm not sure I ever really wanted to _____

I would be a bit reluctant to _____

I'd force myself to ____

_____ is the last thing I’ve ever wanted

I dread having to ____

I’d turn my back on ____

I couldn't face __ing ____

I don't really fancy _____

I didn't really plan to get into ____

I really have no strong preference.

20. Share if you see it legitimate to include registers falling out of the literary, that is standard, language?