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Файл:Why Do the English Say So (Почему англичане так говорят). Учебное пособие для дополнительного чтения
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Englishistheworld’sfavouritelanguage, butit’snot quiteBritish.Englishis doing wellamong theworld’slanguages; from aEuropean perspective, it is the most successful language since Latin.
Theadvantagetothiscountryisenormous,bothdirectly,intheEnglishlanguage industry,and indirectly,in the lackof communication
barrierstoBritish people travellingoverseasoftrading with foreign
businesses.SowillingistherestoftheworldtouseEnglish,thatthe
countryitselfisa drawtotourists,visitorsandinvestors.Oneofthe
principal reasons for choosing the UK is the “common language”.
Manyindustrialists are morecomfortablewithEnglish thanFrench,
GermanorSpanish.
ThesuccessofEnglishhasnothing to dowith anything linguistic.Itsspellingsystem,orlackofit,makesitmoredifculttorelate
spokenand writtenforms;its huge vocabularymakesit hardtouse
anditsapparentlysimplegrammarisfullofdifculties.It’snotvery
muchlikeotherlanguages,itisamongrellanguage.
ThefateofEnglish,asofanylanguage,isdeterminedbyacombination of power, politics, history and geography, and not by its
wordsoritssounds, or even,sadly,itsliterature.Thefoundationsof
theglobalutilityofEnglishwerelaidinthedaysoftheEmpire,and
mainly by the economic success of that former colony, the United
StatesofAmerica.
Englishwasrequiredasamedium.Itwasspokenroundtheclock
androundtheglobe,andespecially by important people.Education,
religion, law and other colonial imports were offered in English.
When independence came, and as the newly-independent countries
consideredtheirlanguagepolicies,mostmaintainedEnglishinacentralposition.
ThereisaBabelofvarietiesofEnglish worldwide. If economic
andpoliticalpowerwastheonlyforceindetermininglanguageuse,
thentheworldwouldbespeakingAmericanEnglish.BritishEnglish
wouldbearelicofthepast,likesteamengines.ButtheBritishvariety
hasshownaremarkabletenacity.
11
Ofcourse,AmericanEnglish isvery strong also,particularly in
SouthAmericaandpartsofAsia,whileAustralianEnglishisgaining
passage in the Pacic rim. Moreand morecountries arereconciled
tohavingatleasttwostandards:AmericanandBritishEnglish.
Joiningthecompetitionarethe«Englishes»oftheothereconomic
powers,particularly Germany,which offers averyserviceable form
ofEnglishthatdoesnothavethenative-speakertagit.
There is, of course, a down side to this, and it is that British
people are pretty reluctant to learn anyone else’s language, when
they can doalmost anything in English. The courtesy of using the
nativelanguageofacolleague,clientorcustomerisstillnotavailable
tomosteducatedpeoplefromthisonce-island.
Scholars might just have a small say in what happens next.
BritishEnglishisfamousforitsmonuments,likethebigdictionaries
andgrammars thathelpto establishstandards.Nowadays itishuge
computerheld collections of languages texts that form the reference
points. In this area Britain is leading the way with corpora like the
BankofEnglishatCobuildinthisUniversity,now323millionwords
in length, available to answer most conceivable queries about the
world’sfavouritelanguage.
12
John Smith is indeed Britain’s
mostcommon name,closely followed
by John Williams and John Taylor.
“Smith” originally meant a foundry-
1
man
or a metalworker, as in Blacksmith, Ironsmith, Coppersmith and
soon.Itbecameatermlike«wright»,
meaningpeoplewhoworkedwiththeir
hands. Before the Industrial Revolutionthemajorityof families inBritain
werepeasants,illiterateandnamedaftertheirprofessionorresidence.
2
Soany Cartwright,Wainwright,Copperor other artisan
notspellhisownnamewascalled“Smith”.
“John Smith” is one of those short, sweet, virtually phonetic
Biblicalnamesthataresimpleandplain.Manynamescomeandgo,
but JohnSmith lives onforever.The mostrecent published gures
showedthat thereareabout amillionand ahalfSmiths inEngland
andWales.
who could
1. Afoundryman–литейщик.
2. Anartisan–ремесленник.
13
Wedon’thaveone.ThisisobviouswhenintheMissWorldcontest, the English contestant ends
uphavingtowearaBeefeatersuit
during the national dress section.
Perhapswearejusttooindividual.
The costume that most expresses the spirit of the English
is that of the shepherdess for the
female, i.e., a peasant blouse,
a skirt,a laced waistcoat, apetticoat,stockings,buckledshoesand
abonnet.Forthemaleitisthatofthecountryman,i.e.,ahandmade
fullskirt,kneebreeches,ahose,buckledshoesandasleevelesscoat.
Thenational costumeof England unlikethat ofmanyother nationshasneverstoodstill,butlikeitssocietyhasevolvedthroughthe
ages.Itnowstandsas:denimjeans, trainers andfootball shirts with
regionalvariations.
Wecan also seethenationaldresseach yearin Spanishresorts.
The“BritonTour”wearsastringvest,aknottedhankyonthehead
andturneduptrousers.
14
ThersttypeofkiltwasmadeinScotland in the 16
th
century. It was originally
oneitemwhichwascutabovethekneeand
belted in the middle.In the 18th centuryit
wasmadeintoatwo-pieceitemofclothing
consistingofalittlekiltand a tartan plaid.
Tartan designoriginates fromHolland and
kilts fromEngland. Tartans eventually becamepartofuniformswhichdifferentiated
newregimentsofthearmy.
Another version says that the kiltwas
inventedby theRomans andwas wornby
all ranks in the Roman legions. Naturally
thehighertherankthebetterthequalityand
design.AstohowthePicts,astheEnglishwerebetterknownatthat
time,adoptedthekiltisstillamysterytous.
AfewyearsagomyhusbandandIvisitedEgyptandwhilebeingtakenroundamuseumby anEgyptian guide,we sawa huge
statueofoneofthePharaohs.Theguidesaid
“Noticehisskirt,whichwecallaKilt”.
SoIthinkthatthekiltwasaroundalong
timebeforeitendedupontheBritishIsles.
15
Number10DowningStreethasbeentheofcialresidenceandofcialofceoftheBritishPrimeMinistersince1735,whenthehouse
wasacceptedfromKingGeorgeIIbySirRobertWalpole.Thehouse
isoneofthethreehousesinDowningStreetwhichstillremainfrom
a street of houses built by Sir George Downing, who obtained the
leaseonthesitein1860.Theothertwosurvivinghousesare№11,the
ofcialresidence of theChancellorof theExchequer
1
and№12, the
groundoorandbasementofwhichareusedasofces.№12DowningStreet isalsothe home ofthe corner shopsellingall mannerof
foodanddrinkduringallhoursofthenight.
1. TheChancelloroftheExchequer–министрфинансовАнглии.
16
It was in 1759 that Josiah
Wedgwood – the “Father of
English Pottery” – founded the
Wedgwoodrm.By1766,Wedgwood had prospered sufciently
to build himself a house and
asplendidnew factory whichhe
named Etruria. During his lifetime (1730–1795), J.Wedgwood
invented and produced a wide range of tableware and ornamental
wares.Wedgwood’sgreatestachievementandcontributiontoBritish
potteryindustry washis developmentand productionof creamcolouredearthenware.LateritwasknownasQueen’sWare.Inexpensive
andbeautifulthisnewtablewarewaswithinreachofallpeopleandits
successwas immediateand world-wide.Themost famouscommissionofallwasadinneranddessertserviceforEmpressCatherineII
ofRussia.Theserviceconsistedof952pieceswhichweredecorated
withpaintingsof1244differentEnglishscenes.Fivebonechinawas
rstmadebythermin1812–1822andhasbeenmadebythecompanyeversince.Finebonechinaismadefromthreemainrawmaterials–chinastone,chinaclayandoxbone.Itisthebone(reducedto
aneash)that gives chinaitswhiteness,translucencyandaboveall
itsamazingstrength.
17
Themostinuential invention everwas
thespacerocket.Itopenedupsomanynew
possibilitiesto goforwardinto placesother
thanourownrestrictiveplanet.
The second most inuential inventionhas tobethe personalcomputer.It has
opened upwhole new worlds in education,
workandleisurewhichonlyafewyearsago
wouldhaveseemedunbelievable.
Withallthe satellite,cable,and normal
TV channels available today many people
voteforthechannelchopper(theremotecontrol).It’sabsolutelyessentialtobeabletochangechannelswithoutwalkingbackwardsand
forwardstotheTV-set.Ourchannelchopperslidintothesetteeonce
anditwaslikelivingintheStoneAgeuntilwefoundit.
But mostpeople agree thatthe atomic bombshould have been
loadedontotheaeroplaneanddroppedonthetelevision!
18
Thereisawhiteelephantthat
lives mainly in Thailand. Also,
within the Buddhist religion the
whiteelephantisasacredanimal.
At the time when Thailand was
calledSiam,itskingswouldkeep
white elephants because of their
sacred position. They were kept
inabsolutesplendour.Ifthekings
ofSiamwantedtoruinaperson,theycoulddosobygivingagiftof
awhiteelephanttothatperson.Eventhoughitwasgiveninhonour,
itwouldruinthepersonas,ontheonehand,hecouldn’tgivethegift
awayandontheother,hecouldn’taffordthegreatexpenseofkeeping
suchasacredanimalinsplendour.
Thetruthofthematteristhat in the11
th
centurypeasantsinIndiausedtoselltheirunwantedhouseholdgoodsfromthebackofan
elephant.Theelephantsoftenturnedwhitewithfearwhencrowdsof
peopleappeared.Thephrase“whiteelephant”wasappliedtoanyunwanteditem.
19
The expression “to touch wood”
comesfromthepracticeoftouchingrelics of the body or possessions of holy
people in times of personal distress to
askforblessingandrelief.Alargenumberof those relicsweresaid tobefrom
thecrossofJesusChrist.Actuallytouching wood was an ancient superstition
believedtoavertbadluck.Certain trees
such asoak or willow weresacred and
sowerebelievedtohavestrongprotectivepowers.Theactualtypeof
woodhasnow become notimportant andany woodistouched,and
often,injest,evenone’sownhead.
Thissuperstitionhasbeenchangedinmeaningthroughcenturies.
Todaywe say “Touchwood”,“Knockwood”or “Keep yourngers
crossed”tostopmisfortunesandhopeforgoodluckandprosperity.
20
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