New words in English ppsx

New words in English The Oxford Dictionary of English is a dictionary that tries to reflect words currently being used by English speakers.. In this programme, Rob and Alice talk about

New words in English

The Oxford Dictionary of English is a dictionary that tries to reflect words

currently being used by English speakers In this programme, Rob and Alice talk about new words which have recently entered the English language

This week's question:

How many new words were added to the Oxford Dictionary of English this year?

a) 100

b) 2,000

c) 10,000

Listen out for the answer in the programme

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New words in English

Alice: Hello! I’m Alice I’m joined today by Rob Hi Rob

Rob: Hello Alice

Alice: Today we’re talking about some of the new words which have entered the

English language recently

Rob: These are words which have been added to the Oxford Dictionary of English

this year

Alice: There are quite a few but we thought we’d pick some which you might

enjoy using But first – a question – Rob can you guess how many new words or

phrases were added in this latest edition? Is it: 100, 2,000 or 10,000

Rob: I would think that there are thousands of new words every year but not all of

them are added to the dictionary Let me have a think about it

Alice: I’ll let you know at the end of the programme, but first let’s hear from

Catherine Sommes from the Oxford English Dictionary talking about how they

choose which new words will make it into the new edition

Extract 1:

What we can do – we’ve got software tools that actually show how words are being used, how widely they’re being used, so it’s not just a question of

numbers, it’s a question of different places it’s being used so everywhere from

magazines, to newspapers to chatrooms

Alice: So the company have software tools which are able to monitor new words,

how and when they are used

Rob: Catherine Sommes says it’s not just a question of numbers – they don’t just

measure how often a new word is used

Alice: And she uses that phrase again It’s a question of different places – they

also look at the different places where the word is used – for example she says in

magazines, newspapers and chatrooms

Rob: So a word must be used in a variety of places

Alice: That’s right In order to make it into the dictionary it can’t just be jargon –

words which are specific to particular fields of interest

Many of the new words this year come from social networking Here’s Catherine

Sommes again to explain:

Extract 2

Social networking as well is so huge – so we’re getting words in the dictionary now like de-friend, or un-friend which means take somebody off your friend list on a social networking site such as Facebook We’re seeing lots of words like that come into the language now

Alice: Rob have you heard the words ‘de-friend’, or ‘un-friend’?

Rob: I’ve never used them myself but I know what they mean!

Alice: If you remove someone from your friend list on social networking sites you

might de-friend them, or un-friend them It’s easy to make a new word just using

the prefix de- and un- but it does sound a bit clumsy!

Rob: How about blogging?

Alice: Blogging has been in the dictionary for a while – but what about micro-blogging? That’s a blog which is really small – it could just be a sentence, a quick

video-link or an image

Rob: Now, Alice, Do you know what a dictionary attack is?

Alice: No

Rob: It’s an attempt to find out your secret computer password by trying an

enormous number of words which might unlock it

Alice: That sounds nasty! And so do some of the new words and phrases which

come from talking about the problems in the world’s economy Can you explain

what toxic debt is Rob?

Rob: I’ll try! It’s the phrase used to describe a class of assets which were once

valuable – mortgages or financial products – which are now worthless

Alice: Pretty good! A toxic debt can be worthless or at least have a reduced value

which is hard to find out Here’s another one we’ve heard quite a lot over the last

couple of years Quantitative easing That’s when governments put new money

into the national money supply to ease pressure on the economy

Shall we have something more entertaining? My favourite new word is this one:

Extract 3: Vuvuzela

Rob: Aha – that’s probably what the year 2010 will be remembered for The hum

of the vuvuzela at the Football World Cup in South Africa

Alice: So Rob have you thought about the answer to my question at the beginning

of the programme How many new words do you think were added to the

dictionary this year?

Was it 100, 2000, or 10,000?

Rob: I think 100 is too little, and 10,000 is too many So I’m going for 2000

Alice: Well done! It’s actually slightly more than 2000 new words and phrases in

this year’s edition of the Oxford English Dictionary

Shall we hear some of them again?

Rob: Yes of course And here’s some of the other language we heard in the

programme:

 edition

 software-tools

 a question of

 chatrooms

 jargon

 social networking

 de-friend, un-friend

 micro-blogging

 dictionary attack

 toxic debt

 quantitative easing

 vuvuzela

And we’ve got time to listen to Catherine Sommes from the Oxford Dictionary of English talking about the 2010 edition again:

Extracts 1 and 2 (repeated)

Alice: Well that’s all we’ve got time for today Thanks for joining us and see you

next time Bye!