Wouldn't it be Loverly

The title of the song in my previous article (Abso-bloomin-lutely) was "Wouldn't it be Loverly". Some of you might have thought that the word "Loverly" is misspelled, but it isn't.

The word loverly is not in most dictionaries. The only one I found the definition in was Merriam Webster (American English Dictionary) :  resembling or befitting a lover.

I could not find definition in any English English dictionaries.

Eliza imagines about her ideal comfortable life:

Someone's head resting on my knee

Warm and tender as he can be

Who takes good care of me

Aow wouldn't it be loverly?

The word loverly in this context could mean as the above definition. However, this story is set in 1912 London (although it was written by an American lyricist, he was strictly instructed to write the song lyrics following the original story written by Bernard Shaw), and the word would mean the same as "lovely".

Then why is it spelled with an "r"?

Eliza speaks Cockney, accent of the working class, so the word lovely would sound like loverly when she says it, so the spelling is phonetically faithful to her speech.

Ain't it loverly?

Absolutely's "generosity"

Maki's "absobloominglutely" fabulous observation on the language in Eliza prompted me to look up the expression in OED:

The word appears as "colloquial interjection," and the dictionary defines as follows:

2. With an expletive infixed for humorous emphasis, as abso-blessed-lutely, abso-bloody-lutely, abso-blooming-lutely, etc.

There are various ways of putting it.
Looking through the following citations, I understand "etc" serves as a kind of mask:

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1909   R. E. Beach Silver Horde xi. 147   ‘Did you rustle this money without any help?’ he                demanded. ‘Abso-blooming-lutely!’

1912   A. M. N. Lyons Clara xxiv. 265   His Information was abso-blessed-lutely good and all            the very latest; right Up-to-Date

1914   W. L. George Making of Englishman iii. v. 299   Oh, don'tcher care, it's all                              over, absoballylutely.

1935   E. Weekley Something about Words i. 24   This natural tendency to add body and                 content to words is possibly prehistoric... A crude example of this persisting instinct is            offered by the contemporary abso-bloody-lutely.

1947   Amer. Mercury Feb. 183/1   An Englishman who wishes to be very positive will                      exclaim, ‘Abso-bloody-lutely!’

1985   D. Bodey F.N.G. 224   ‘Like, don't it seem like the time has gone fast now?’ ‘Abso-                fuckin'-lutely.’

1993   Homemaker's Mag. (Toronto) Jan.–Feb. 102/1   Can a pot of tulips, daffodils or                      hyacinths help banish February funk? Abso-bloomin'-lutely.

2001   F. North Fen xlv. 302   ‘We should celebrate,’ Otter said... ‘Abso-bloody-lutely,’ Matt                agreed.

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An entry of 1985 turns out to be the one that the OED refers to as "etc."

What a pity that only 1985 entry was omitted by "etc," which kind of makes sense though.

As it implies, The OED seems to have had some controversial relationship with the F-word entry. I speculate that the issue was whether it is appropriate for the prestigious dictionary to include such nasty kind of words. It needs more research into the foundational moment behind the making of the OED.

Anyhow, "absolutely" is absolutely generous to allow such F-word intrusion into his/her territory!

Abso-bloomin-lutely in "My Fair Lady" Affixation

Another article from my favourite movie "My Fair Lady"

Eliza is a common flower girl, her life is far from grand, but with her Covent Garden fellows, giving herself airs and graces, she imagines her ideal life singing "Wouldn't it be Loverly?"

All I want is a room somewhere
Far away from this cold night air
With one enormous chair
Aow, wouldn't it be loverly?

Oh so loverly sitting
Absobloominlutely still
I would never budge 'till spring
Crept over me winder sill


Eliza dreams of a modest decent life like a lady, but she uses a word that a lady would not use - absobloominlutely.

This word is now Googlable, but it is not in the English dictionary I have around me. It is a variation of "absolutely" with the word "blooming" inserted. You could say that "blooming" is an infix intensifying the meaning "absolutely".

For Eliza, the word "blooming" is a casual intensifier but I presume it was quite a shocking swear word in the early 20th century. Later in the movie, Eliza gets too excited watching a horse race and shouts,
"Move your BLOOMIN' ARSE!!"
All the upper class people at the race are aghast, some ladies fainting, at her words.

blooming : a mild swear word, used to emphasize a comment or a statement, especially an angry one. (OED)

100 years later, the word has become mild. Once shocking, but now not so, so people come up with a new expression that can replace it, and also apply the same rule in forming new words - absof*ckinlutely.

Now, I say that word is shocking. I would not dare use it, cannot even write the whole word. (However, you can hear it used in the American drama, "Sex and the City")

Preposition stranding

A follow-up to "My aunt, who I live with"

People are advised not to end a sentence with a preposition.
"Preposition" has to be "pre-positioned," not "post-positioned." This is literally what the preposition is about. (I end this with "about," though...)

In fact, this so-called "prepositional stranding" is often taken up as one of the grammar usages that people tend to avoid when they write formally. In case of casual conversation, few people would tell your friends that "I have an aunt with whom I live."

Regarding this usage, David Crystal's Encyclopedia notes:

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This usage is probably first introduced by John Dryden in the 17th century, and shows the influence of Latin grammar, where prepositions usually preceded nouns. It has never reflected colloquial practice in English, though in formal English the prescriptive rule tends to be followed. To alter someone's practice can be dangerous, as in Winston Churchill's famous reaction to secretarial changes made to his usage: 'This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.' (194)
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I've never come across "up with which" except this Winston Churchill's witty reaction!
It's interesting that, throughout history, many aspects of the English language has been influenced by Latin. It is by way of analogy with Latin that people feel confident about the English usage. Why? Because Latin was a prestigious model upon which English is based.

Works Cited:
Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. 2nd ed. Cambridge: CUP, 1997.

Pseudo-Anglicism 03 High Tension

Another pseudo-anglicism in Japanese.

In Japanese, we often say when talking about a person,
"Oh, he is always in high tension."

If you are going to throw a party, you would want to include couple of these "high tension" people in your guest list to make the party successful. They are entertaining and would warm up the place very quickly with talks and laughs.

When a person is "high tension", it means he is easily excited, cheerful, or hyper, in a positive way. A comedian is often described as "high tension". So the person is likely to respond to or laugh at almost anything - cute, lovely or funny.

The word tension in English has negative meaning when it talks about a person's feelings, quite opposite to Japanese -- under stress or pressure, the feeling anxiety that makes one impossible to relax. When we talk about tension between two people, they are in a very unfriendly situation, difficult to find understanding.

Interesting how the word has opposite meaning in two languages.

"Tension" in Japanese seems to be used similar to "feeling", so there is the expression "high tension", and also the opposite "low tension" meaning the person is depressed, not likely to cheer up with little jokes.

We have many "high tension" comedians in Japan, but it means they are anxiety free people (well, at least what you see on the surface).

My aunt, with whom I live!

The following comedy skit has a hilarious punch line in the end.
This is from "Not the Nine O'Clock News," a television comedy sketch show.

Here goes the clip with my Japanese subtitle:

A student is asked to correct his grammar by clarifying the usage of preposition when used with the relative pronoun.

----------
from "my aunt, who I live with"
to "my aunt, with whom I live"
----------

The shift, putting "with" before relative pronoun "whom" (formal version of "who"), seems to be a tiny little difference, but is often treated as one of the formal styles of composition.

The punch line is funny as it betrays the expectation audience would have had by then.
The student's recycling of the same sort of answer to any test question is surely expected to be the target of teacher's condemnation, but what infuriated him was the student's repetition of the casual phrase "my ant, who I live with."  

To be continued.

Presidential Election and Evangelism

The USA presidential election of 2016 was quite an entertainment. I had never followed the whole procedure before - from primary elections and caucuses, nominating conventions, the debates, the election day. It was one big dramatic show.

The supporters waving their placards and streamers gather at a huge stadium decorated in their supporting candidates' colour, an enormous monitor projects the self assured candidate convincingly making his / her speech, the excited audience cheer and clap at hearing the words they want to hear. The mass is in rapture, enthralled, sometimes it seemed to me like they were in a group hysteria.

These scenes also reminded me of church congregation in America. I have not attended any for real but I have seen in televised evangelical congregation. The heat, the rapture, the enthrallment, I can see here the source of the festive mood of today's presidential election.

The history of this heated evangelical congregation in America goes back to 18th century, when the first great wave of revivalism hit the country. The evangelists preached round town to town, and some of them wisely used the media, mainly newspaper, and were able to attract a huge mass.

George Whitefield was the most popular preacher in the 18th century. He preached everyday in front of thousands of people from colonies to colonies. Whitefield, who had dreamed of becoming an actor in his youth, had a fine voice, and was dramatic in gesture and in his rhetoric. His words were plain and simple, very easy to understand, even for the people with no schooling and for immigrants.

Whitefield has an unbelievable legend.

Once in his preach, he repeated one single word 40 times, each time changing the tone, and gradually making the audience excited, profoundly inspired that most of them burst out crying. The single word he said was "Mesopotamia".

Yes, "Mesopotamia", the name of the land between Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

I wonder how he made the preach so divinely inspiring that people shed tears.

Recently I found a similar (edited) movie on Youtube. Donald Trump says "China" over and over. I don't think it will move you to tears, but it is surely intriguing, to see there are so many ways of saying the same word.

『反知性主義　アメリカが生んだ「熱病」の正体』　森本あんり　新潮選書　2015