Unit 3: The Popularization of Specialised Knowledge, University Presentation

UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO

Lingua inglese (MED 3) - Academic year 2023-2024

Popularization of Specialised Knowledge

Prof. Massimo Sturiale (massimo.sturiale@unimi.it) Lecture 1 - 19/20 February 2024

Popularization

• Simple or complex?
• How many morphemes?
• Popular > -ize > -(a)tion

Popularizer

What is the difference between the Angelas (Piero+ Alberto) and Barbero?

So ...

• Chairs
• Washed
• Teacher
• Unemployed

Knowledge Dissemination through Traditional Print Media and the Internet

Unit 3 focuses on how information and views about science and technology are spread to and shared with lay readers through the mainstream print media, non-fiction publications and on the Internet in a variety of online modalities. During lessons comparisons will be made between the linguistic aspects involved in conveying scientific information in the traditional print media (newspapers and non-fiction works) and in internet modalities (e.g., blogs, vlogs). The course will also consider what kinds of specialised information are popularized in the media and the criteria behind selection. Lessons will also include close linguistic analysis and comment of a selection of representative mainstream print and Internet genres, accompanied by related activities and tasks.

Set Texts for Specialized Communication

Pilkington, Olga. 2019. The Laing rediles io foy Readers Popular Science: Analyzing the Communication of Advanced Ideas to Lay Readers. McFarland: Jefferson North Carolina, chapters 1-4.

Garzone G. 2020. Specialised Communication in English and Popularization in English, Carocci Editore, Roma, chapters 7 and 8.

Popularization of Science

"Original, provocative and brilliantly entertaining. It's the sort of book that changes people's lives' Sunday Times

"For a scientist ... to popularize science was to exploit his or her own community. By the 1970s, popularization was an activity in which all but a few high-profile "visible" scientists engaged at considerable professional risk (Christopher Dornan quoted on p.45) In the recent past, many scientists looked at involvement in the popularization of science as something that might damage their career; now, they are being told by the great and the good of science that they have no less than a duty to communicate with the public about their work. (Gregory and Miller 1998: 1)

The English Language in the Media

BBC (1986) vs ITV (2003)

Robert MeCrum Robert MacNeil William Cran

The Story of English

The Adventure of ENGLISH The life story of a REMARKABLE LANGUAGE INGAỐC YOUN HING EXPAND YOUR WORLD Athena: 'A SUPERB NEW HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.' Andrew Roberts, Spectator The Adventure of English THE BIOGRAPHY of a LANGUAGE MELVYN BRAGG

The English Language on the Radio

BBC Audio

As heard on BBC Radio 4 The Routes Fry's Foreword by Melvyn Bragg of English English Delight Series 2

The British Library 2010/2011 Exhibition

Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices

Search our website Our website Main Catalogue Catalogues & Collections Discover & Learn What's On Visit Business & IP Centre Visit the Shop Join Press Office Home Press releases Contacts Images Videos Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices Search Press Office 12 November 2010 - 3 April 2011 Ever wondered why 'love is blind'? Why do Americans say fall but Britons say autumn? Are you sitting reading this or sat reading this? 1,500-year history told through the literary canon and the canting academy (underworld slang) Once in a lifetime opportunity to see the earliest surviving copy of Beowulf and Victorian TXT poetry in the same room Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend us your voice! Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices (12 November 2010 - 3 April 2011) is the first ever exhibition exploring the English language from Anglo-Saxon runes to modern day rap. Driven by developments in religion, politics, technology, economics and culture, English today is spoken by a third of the world's population. For more information: Evenings and weekends: +44 (0) 20 7412 7150 Press Office contacts

The English Language on the Web

BBC Voices

Wednesday 24th April 2013 Text only version BBC Homepage voices How do we sound? Take an online audio journey with the Voices Recordings Voices Recordings Listen ... Word Map results What you said ... Your Voice Features, debate ... chuck toss hou bung wang Journey with BBC radio journalists around the country and listen to hundreds of conversations ... 620,000 words, supplied by you, mapped across the UK ... browse our Word Map of local language. more: What happens when languages collide with each other? 'New words like 'le camping' and 'cul-de-sac' are formed. Voice of the day more: Talking about accents in County Durham Language change > Multilingual Nation Discussing 'bling' and "booty' in Cardiff News archive Language news from across the online press on language, accents and dialects from January 2005 to December 2006. Elsewhere on BBCi Balderdash & Piffle - Help rewrite the Oxford English Dictionary > The Routes of English - The story of the English language Where I Live Regional voices - Vikings influenced the West Yorskshire accent. > Wordly Wise - Test your knowledge of regional words Multilingual nation About Voices Contact us Open University + Download an interview kit and explore language for yourself

British Library Sounds

Explore 50,000 selected recordings of music, spoken word, and human and natural environments bl.uk Sounds Home About Audio tools | Blog |Case studies Help Accents & dialects Accents & dialects Search Accents & dialects Enter keywords Only recordings everyone can play Search BBC Voices Full sound archive cataloque Search tips Most shared Tag cloud Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset Survey of English Dialects UCL phonetics recordings Conversation in Oldham about accent, dialect and attitudes to language. Welwick, Yorkshire View by Duber Naunetta liman Wordmap, How good is your ear?, BSL survey Where I Live Voices near you Schools Lesson plans Your Voice Features, News archive Lleisiau Voices in Walsh Wahnnida Log in | Register Arts, literature & performance Classical music Environment & nature Berliner Lautarchiv British & Commonwealth recordings Millennium Memory Bank Jazz & popular music Oral history Sound recording history "Joost see whit da young eens waures " Paula from Shetland. Listen Contents Your contributions "It has been suggested that men think logically, whilst women think emotionally. With neither understanding the other." Gordon from Boston, UK World & traditional music Sound maps

David Crystal (2004) on English Language History

'Simply the best introductory history of the English language family that we have. The plan of the book is ingenious, the writing lively, the exposition clear and the scholarly standard uncompromisingly high' J. M. Coetzee 'David Crystal speaks for the everyman in all of us in this luminous and groundbreaking work. His skill is to make the average reader feel like an expert in the history of linguistics, for he combines the wit and readability of Bill Bryson with the authority that comes with being one of the world's leading experts on the English language. The Stories of English reads like an adventure story. Which, of course, it is' Roger McGough 'This new history of the English language in all its manifestations is among the best ever written, and is both entertaining and informative' Steven Pinker

Bill Bryson (1990) - Mother Tongue

'THE SORT OF LINGUISTICS I LIKE, ANECDOTAL, FULL OF REVELATIONS, AND WITH NOT ONE DULL PARAGRAPH' - RUTH RENDELL IN THE SUNDAY TIMES 'MORE THAN 300 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE WORLD SPEAK ENGLISH AND THE REST, IT SOMETIMES SEEMS, TRY TO ... ' In this hymn to the mother tongue Bill Bryson examines how a language 'treated for centuries as the inadequate and second-rate tongue of peasants' has now become the undisputed global language (more people learn English in China than live in the USA). He explains how the words shampoo, sofa, slogan, OK and rowdy (and others drawn from over fifty languages) got into our dictionaries and how the major dictionaries were created. He explores the countless varieties of English - from American to Australian, from Creole to Cockney rhyming slang - and the perils of marketing brands with names like Pschitt and Super Piss. With entertaining sections on the oddities of swearing and spelling, spoonerisms and Scrabble, and a consideration of what we mean by good English, Mother Tongue is one of the most stimulating books yet written on this endlessly fascinating subject. "A delightful, amusing and provoking survey, a joyful celebration of our wonderful language, which is packed with curiosities and enlightenment on every page' - Graham Lord in the Sunday Express "There are few pages without some nugget of information ... Mother Tongue is a delight' - John Silverlight in the Observer Cover illustration by Claudio Munoz PENGUIN Language Linguistics U.K. $6.99 AUST. $14.95 (recommended) ISBN 0-14-014305-X 91101 9 780140 143058

Crystal's Stories on The Guardian

Books about the history of the English language come in two main varieties. First there are the traditional textbooks: written by scholars and read mainly by undergraduates. These tend to be dry compilations of facts about loan words, vowel shifts and the levelling of inflections. Then there is the popularising tradition. Aimed at a non-specialist audience, this genre cuts through the philological minutiae to tell the inspiring tale of the obscure Germanic dialect that transcended its origins to become a global lingua franca used by more people in more parts of the world than any other language in history. (Cameron 2014: 22. My emphasis) 22 Guardian Weekly June 25-July 1 2004 Books Deborah Cameron welcomesan informative introduction to English Quite a story, innit? The Stories of English by David Crystal Allen Lane 608pp £25 (C22) Books about the history of the English language come in two main varieties. First there are the traditional textbooks: written by scholars and read mainly by undergraduates. These tend to be dry compilations of facts about loan words, vowel shifts and the levelling of inflections. Then there is the popularising tradition. Aimed at a non-specialist audience, this genre cuts through the philological ininutiae to cell the inspiring tale of the obscure Germanic dialect that transcended its origins to become a global lingua franca used by inore people in more parts of the world than any other language in history. I was expecting David Crystal's The Stories of English to be a hybrid of the two types. In fact it turns out to be something far more interesting: an attempt to give the story of English a new plot. The distinctive feature of Crystal's approach is indicated by the plural of his title. "The other stories," Crystal declares, "have never been given their rightful place in English linguistic history, and it is time they were." Here it might be objected that dialect diversity is a staple ingre- dient of the popular formula that would be incomplete without the obligatory Scottish fisherfolk, Cumbrian shepherds, Appalachian farmers and Caribbean market traders. But their usual role is to add a touch of decorative local colour; Crystal's more ambitious goal is to inte- grate them into the main historical narrative. This move not only complicates the story itself; it also produces a dramatically different meta- narrative. Whereas the conventional story is a narrative of progress, and tends to Panglossian optimism - all is for the best in this best of all possible languages - Crystal's version Is more of a meditation on riches lost, or squandered, and then rediscovered. In the beginning, he explains, was diversity, which for centuries was accepted and indeed celebrated by our greatest writers. When Chaucer made the two students in the Reeve's tale northern speakers, this was not a way of downgrading their status or poking fun at them, but simply a way of portraying them more vividly as individuals. But the process of codifying a standard for English brought with it a devaluation of diversity. From the 18th to the late 20th century, English was ruled by the pedantry and snobbery of authorities who sought to impose the norms of their own elite group. But recently, Crystal argues, a new wisdom has prevailed, From Edin- burgh to Cape Town and from New York to Singa- pore, literature in non-standard Englishes is flourishing once again. Standard English itself is now "pluricentric", with overlapping but recognisably different standards applying in different parts of the world. The range of material Crystal gathers to Bad language . .. do Australian soaps, such as Neighbours, affect viewers' use of English? demonstrate the diversity of English through the ages is impressive. Popular histories tend to concentrate on vocabulary; Crystal is equally good on grammar, spelling, pronunciation, poetic metre and prose style. He does not shy away from "difficult", pre-modern forms of the language, but devotes nine of his 20 chapters to Old and Middle English. Where other writers are packing English's bags for the obligatory world tour within a couple of chapters, Crystal stays in England for most of the book. And where others recycle familiar platitudes, Crystal attacks them with relish. "The problem with Shake- speare," he remarks at one point, "is that his lit- erary greatness has led enthusiastic linguistic amateurs to talk absolute rubbish about his role in the development of the English language." Crystal honours the contribution made to English not only by the usual literary suspects - the Beowulf poet, Ælfric, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Johnson, Austen and Dickens - but also by anonymous rune-carvers, scribes, clerks and court reporters, Sun journalists and the trans- lators of scripture into Scots, Yorkshire dialect and African-American vernacular English. In light of all this evidence it would be hard to quarrel with Crystal's assertion that the art- ful use of English is not confined to a single dialect. I was less convinced, however, by his thesis that there has recently been a general move towards greater linguistic tolerance. I would be prepared to bet that many people who buy this book will also own a copy of Lynne Truss's bestselling Eats, Shoots & Leaves, sub- titled "a zero tolerance approach to punctuation". I would also bet that many readers who are relaxed about the older shibboleths that Crystal discusses (H-dropping, glottal stops), and who admire the non-standard writing of James Kel- man and Derek Walcott, are reluctant to extend the same tolerance to innovations such as the Invariant tag "innit", the quotative use of "like" and the pronunciation of statements with rising intonation. In the past commentators deplored the malign effects on gentlemen's English of fre- quenting coffee houses and salons; today they worry about the effects on young people of text messaging and watching Australian soaps. Because linguistic prejudices have this covert symbolic dimension, they are resistant to ratio- al arguments about the logic of non-standard English or the naturalness of language change. The targets of our criticism shift over time, but our basic compulsion to criticise remains. Yet even if I do not share Crystal's view that ntolerance and prejudice have had their day, I do think his spirited celebration of Englishes in the plural injects some much-needed energy inte a genre that was becoming stale. The Stories of English is not an undemanding read, but i: offers much more than just another ripping yarn about the world's favourite language. For this relief, much thanks.