Brutus and Britain

A follow-up to Eponym of Britain

In the Middle Ages, the story of Troy was hugely popular, and most European countries strove to trace their national origin back back to the descendants of Troy. Britain is not exceptional claiming the right as an inheritor (through "Brutus" of Troy, an eponymous founder of the island).

Brutus of Troy

When Brutus first set foot in the island, he found nothing except a few giants. He had one of his battle-loving retinues wrestle with the chief giant, and eliminates it. Giant-killing is an event, or act of hero that signals the foundation of a new nation. After the event, Brutus searched for the suitable land where he can build a second Troy.

The 14th-century chronicle describes the scene as follows:

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þis Brut lete felle adoun wodes, & lete erye & sowe londes, & done mow medes for sustinaunce of hym & of his peple. & he departed þe land to hem, so þat eche of hem had a certayn place for to dwelle vpon. And Brut lete Calle al þis land Britaigne, after his owne name, & his folk he lete calle Britouns.

(This Brutus had trees cut down and lands cultivated and sown with seeds, and meadow mowed for sustenance for him and his people. And he divided the land among his people so that each of them has a certain place to dwell upon. And Brutus had the whole land called Britain, after his own name, and he had the people called Britons.)
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"Naming" the land is tantamount to "occupying" the land.

The Winter of our Discontent

"Now, will the winter of our discontent
Be made glorious summer by this sun of New York?
And will the clouds that lour'd upon our house
Be in the deep bosom of the ocean buried?
Now will our bodies be bound with military garments?
Our rusted arms made ready for aiming?
Our stable negotiations changed to feaful warnings?
Our peaceful dances to dreadful measures?"

("Donald the Trump" Act 1 Scene 1)



(Original)
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.

("Richard III" Act 1 Scene 1  by William Shakespeare)

Why Grammar-oriented?

English education in Japan is often described as being "grammar-oriented."

"Grammar" and "glamour" are etymologically the same, so that grammar is a sort of magic glamour of the language. The "magic" seems to have unshakable and absolute power, the myth dominating the mind of language learners. When learning the second language, it's necessary to conform to the basic of grammatical rule.

However, the grammatical accuracy is not directly connected with a perfect form of "communication." For example, look at the following sentences that are simple and perfect in terms of grammar.

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The girl smiles.
The horse smiles.
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Some might say the latter does not make sense, while some admitting a certain degree of poetic, humourous, or metaphorical interpretation.

What is crucial in communication is not only grammar but also "usage" of each words and expressions. People choose their expression depending on the context in which they are best used, adjusting to the situations and circumstances. Smooth communication is not possible without sharing various types of tacit agreement among speakers.

Regarding the reason why Japanese English education gestures towards a grammar-oriented one, Yoshihiko Ikegami speculates that it is because teacher's side had a limited knowledge of "usage." To them, grammar is "teachable," while "usage" is not, which requires a great amount of experience and practice.    

He goes on to describe the difference between "studying grammar" and "goal of communication" as "an astonishing gap almost to the point of fainting":

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…英語の＜文法＞の規則を身につけるということと、英語教育が目指す目標――つまり、＜コミュニケーション＞のレベルでの英語の適切な運用――ということとの間には気の遠くなるような落差がある。
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Somehow, I feel encouraged and empowered by such mind-boggling gap he refers to.


Works Cited:
池上嘉彦, 『＜英文法＞を考える――＜文法＞と＜コミュニケーション＞の間』ちくま学芸文庫, 1995.  

Names and their meanings 02 Dutch names

Family names carry stories, family background. Some tell us what occupation the family had (Smith, Baker, Taylor, Potter) , some tell us who the father was (Johnson, Wilson, Thomson, Davies), some tell us where the family came from (Da Vinci, Van Dyke, Dubois, Gallo).

I have learnt from my friend who lives in the Netherlands that there are some very funny names in the Netherlands that just seem to be like a joke. Some have humorous meanings, some have funny sounds. Here are some examples:

Naaktgeboren  born naked
Rotmensen     rotten people
Nieman          nobody
Poepjes         little shit
Fokker           breeder
Kok               cook
Zondervan     without surname
Borst            breast

How the Dutch got funny surnames is like this. It goes back to 1811 when the power of Napoleon Boneparte and the French army then occupying the Netherlands came into action.

Before the French occupation, it was more common for the Dutch people to use patronymics than surnames. Then the French decreed for census, to register all birth, death, marriage and transfer of the people. This was for the purpose of taxation and for military service, and forced every Dutch person to have surnames.

The Dutch thought this would be just a temporary measure, and the system would be dropped when they got their country back from the occupation. To show their resistance to the forced system, the Dutch chose humorous surnames and registered them.

Yes, their surnames reflect the Dutch people's uncompromising spirit.

Yet, had it crossed the minds of the people of 1811 that the names they chose as a joke could be passed on generations after generations, and their descendant might mix and work with poeple outside the Netherlands?

A funny story is in an article on a website that introduces news of the Netherlands.

Fokker (breeder) is a perfectly legitimate surname in the Netherlands. ... my heart goes out to the Dutch man who proudly announced 'I fok horses' when asked about his occupation during an interview on British television some years back.

http://www.expatica.com/nl/insider-views/Funny-Dutch-names-and-the-story-behind-them_102043.html

Inflectional Simplicity

European languages have inflections: the noun, the adjective, the verb.

The Inflection of the verb is particularly called "conjugation."
For example, Latin "amo" (love) conjugates as follows (English on the right):

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amo (I love)
amas (You love)
amat (He, She, or It loves)
amamus (We love)
amatis (You [plural] love)
amant They love)
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As descendants of Latin, romance languages retain the various verb-ending.

Compared with these, one might be surprised to see how little English verb changes, only requiring "s" in the third person singular.

Indeed, what characterises the present-day English is its inflectional simplicity, which can encourages second language learners to pick up the language more smoothly and easily.
Yet, it is not necessarily so. Here is a heads-up from Baugh and Cable:   

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One must take care not to overstate the importance of this feature for second-language learners of English, as early editions of the present text perhaps did. Studies of second-language acquisition have shown, for example, that an English speaker learning German will have a mix of advantages and disadvantages . . . (10)
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It's interesting that they allude to the early editions, saying that they "perhaps overstated" the importance of inflectional simplicity. This suggest that, over time, more emphasis has been placed on the external factors rather than intrinsic value of language.

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Works Cited:
Baugh, Albert C. and Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language. 6th ed. London: Routledge, 2013.

Pseudo-Anglicism 02 Mansion

Pseudo-Anglicism - words that look and sound like English but the meaning is very different in the foreign language context.

The word "mansion" is used in Japanese to describe a type of housing, but the picture the word gives is completely different from the original English word.

English "I live in a mansion." would be like this:

You would be a member of a family headed by a person with a title.


I have often heard my Japanese students say in their crude beginners' English:

"I live in a mansion."

presuming that the word has the same meaning in Japanese and English, but the picture they have in their mind is this:

The same word in Japanese means housing for multiple family, all living 'cells' like in a bee-hive.
Some of my students have made mistakes in saying "I live in a mansion" to English speaking person, giving them the impression that they come from a rich prestigious family. English speakers would be surprised by how many Japanese people live in a "mansion".

Apo Koinou in The Buried Giant 1

A follow-up to "There is no one compares with you" and Apo Koinou

What motivated me to explore the sentence construction was a constant encounter with them when reading Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant.

This novel is set in medieval Britain and features a journey of the Britons' elderly couple. Ishiguro states in some interview that he added some stylistic devises into passages in order to create a different atmosphere and tone fitting for the world. As far as I understand, "Apo Koinou" must be one of such deliberate attempts.

Let me write down and make a list of passages in the following. I have underlined the part which seems to me the case in question:

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   (Beatrice) 'Well it's not just your dream woman thinks it strange we should have our       candle taken from us.' (9)

   (Axl) 'What can it be makes everyone, yourself included, forget she ever lived?' (10)

   (Beatrice) "I'm sure it was the old ones were full of fear and foolish beliefs, reckoning every stone cursed and each stray cat an evil spirit. But now I'm grown old myself, what do I find but it's the young are riddled with beliefs like they never heard the Lord's promise to walk besides us at all times' (16)

   (Beatrice) 'It's been a thing in my thoughts a long time, Axl, though it's what that poor woman said just now makes me wish to delay no further' (19)

   (Beatrice) 'But why do you say it's my wishes always stood in the way of it?' (19)

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The list of the passages shows that Ishiguro's construction does not come with either "there-" or "have." They appear with an "emphatic" construction.

To be continued.

Works Cited:
Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Buried Giant. London: Faber and Faber, 2015. Print.