You've been verbed - Module 6

C1 Advanced · Gapped Text · Advanced Expert Coursebook, Pearson Education

You are going to read a magazine article about language change. Six paragraphs have been removed from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (1–6). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

You've been verbed

What is the driving force behind wanting to do it, though? 'Looking for short cuts, especially if you have to say something over and over again, is a common motivation,' says the editor of a popular dictionary.

Sport is another ready source. Rollerblade, skateboard and snowboard have all graduated from names of equipment to actual activities. Football referees used to book players or send them off; now they card them.

On the other hand, it has been welcomed by linguists as evidence of a vibrant linguistic culture. Many people applaud its entertainment value, especially when it is applied to someone's name.

What makes these innovations so easy is that English, unlike other Indo-European languages, uses few inflections. It rarely changes the form of its words to show different meanings.

Using a complicated verb when there is a far simpler alternative, such as dialogue for talk, has the same effect, which is why some lovers of the language dislike the whole business of verbing so much.

No trend has been more obtrusive in recent years, though, than the changing of nouns to verbs. 'Trend' itself (which used to be a noun and is now also used as a verb meaning to change or develop in a general direction) is an example of the way the language is adapting.

The practice goes back a long way too. Steven Pinker, in his book The Language Instinct, points out that 'easy conversion of nouns to verbs has been part of English grammar for centuries; it is one of the processes that makes English English'. Sixteenth-century writers such as Shakespeare revelled in it and there are many examples of nouns used as verbs in his plays.

Further evidence of this linguistic phenomenon is found in all areas of life, though some are more productive than others. Financiers have a wealth of imaginative ideas. As do politicians, who have come up with the verb to doughnut. Apparently, this means to sit in a ring around a colleague who is making a parliamentary announcement, so that it is not clear to television viewers that the room is practically deserted.

Yet another productive field is technology, partly because it's constantly seeking names for things which did not previously exist: we text from our mobiles, bookmark websites, inbox our email contacts and friend our acquaintances on Facebook – only, in some cases, to unfriend them later. Blog had scarcely arrived as a noun before it was adopted as a verb. Conversely, verbs such as twitter and tweet have been transformed into nouns, although the process of verbing – or denominalisation, as it is known to grammarians – is much more common.

There is a difference today, though, in that potential changes in our language are picked up and accepted faster than they would have been five or six hundred years ago when print was the only mass communication medium, and fewer people were literate. They can now be tried out around the world and given the green light (or greenlighted!) right away. So while in French the noun action has to become the verb actionner, English can use the same form as both verb and noun. In German, (apart from essen, meaning food or to eat) such words are usually unknown; the same is true of Chinese – though the noun meaning thunder can also be used as the verb to shock. In Arabic, such formations are not found at all.

Which is fine, but sometimes the results are ridiculous – notably when verbs come from nouns which were formed from verbs in the first place. To say 'Let's conference,' instead of 'Let's confer,' or 'I'll signature it' instead of 'I'll sign it' makes the speaker come across as either ignorant or pretentious.

Certain verbs seem to upset people more than others. Verbs connected to place are particularly clumsy: 'I'd like to showcase/workshop this.' And honing, progressing and impacting seem to wind people up too.

Of course, not every newly invented word or phrase passes into general use and hopefully some will gently fade away. But as for hoping to end verbing altogether, no chance! There is no turning back the clock.

Mothers and fathers used to bring up children; now they parent. Critics used to review plays; now they critique them. Executives Skype and almost everybody googles. The English language is in a constant state of flux. New words are formed all the time, while old ones fall into disuse. ___ Further evidence of this linguistic phenomenon is found in all areas of life, though some are more productive than others. Financiers have a wealth of imaginative ideas. As do politicians, who have come up with the verb to doughnut. Apparently, this means to sit in a ring around a colleague who is making a parliamentary announcement, so that it is not clear to television viewers that the room is practically deserted. ___ Yet another productive field is technology, partly because it's constantly seeking names for things which did not previously exist: we text from our mobiles, bookmark websites, inbox our email contacts and friend our acquaintances on Facebook – only, in some cases, to unfriend them later. Blog had scarcely arrived as a noun before it was adopted as a verb. Conversely, verbs such as twitter and tweet have been transformed into nouns, although the process of verbing – or denominalisation, as it is known to grammarians – is much more common. ___ There is a difference today, though, in that potential changes in our language are picked up and accepted faster than they would have been five or six hundred years ago when print was the only mass communication medium, and fewer people were literate. They can now be tried out around the world and given the green light (or greenlighted!) right away. So while in French the noun action has to become the verb actionner, English can use the same form as both verb and noun. In German, (apart from essen, meaning food or to eat) such words are usually unknown; the same is true of Chinese – though the noun meaning thunder can also be used as the verb to shock. In Arabic, such formations are not found at all. ___ Which is fine, but sometimes the results are ridiculous – notably when verbs come from nouns which were formed from verbs in the first place. To say 'Let's conference,' instead of 'Let's confer,' or 'I'll signature it' instead of 'I'll sign it' makes the speaker come across as either ignorant or pretentious. ___ Certain verbs seem to upset people more than others. Verbs connected to place are particularly clumsy: 'I'd like to showcase/workshop this.' And honing, progressing and impacting seem to wind people up too. ___ Of course, not every newly invented word or phrase passes into general use and hopefully some will gently fade away. But as for hoping to end verbing altogether, no chance! There is no turning back the clock.

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