English language

The T-Shirt, the Shepherd, and the Wardrobe

Niall O'Donnell 16 Comments

One day, maybe only 10 years ago, I was flicking through some manner of catalogue, and my eye was momentarily drawn to a t-shirt. Seeing it laid out flat, I idly thought to myself That really looks like a lower-case t. After a few moments, it hit me: that’s why they’re called t-shirts! I was amazed, but also immediately annoyed with myself. How had I not noticed it before? It was so obvious! Even worse, how had I not even wondered why it was called a t-shirt before? I’d gone my whole life never thinking about this strange name. For someone who likes to think of himself as alert and conscious of how language works, it was embarrassing. Continue reading →

What a Drag it is to See You

Niall O'Donnell 11 Comments

You might have noticed that Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, for “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” Some people have expressed surprise at this, feeling that a lyricist shouldn’t be given the award. I don’t see why not though. First of all, there’s not such a difference between poetry and song lyrics. They’re very similar structurally, tending to be divided into verses, and share the same concerns with rhythm and rhyme. I think some people feel that because song lyrics need to match the song’s music, they’re therefore less important than less important than the words of a poem or a novel which the writer was not required to match to anything. But I don’t think that’s much of an argument: all that should matter is the words, and if they’re good, and can be appreciated on their own, without music, then why shouldn’t that count as literature?

Anyway, to celebrate Bob’s win, here are some of my favourite of his lyrics in no particular order, and without commentary, because sometimes I just like them for their own sake: Continue reading →

Exploitation

Niall O'Donnell 2 Comments

Lately, I’ve been watching the Marvel TV programme Luke Cage on Netflix, when I can find a spare moment. One thing that’s quite apparent early on is that it’s heavily indebted to, and deliberately homages, the blaxploitation genre of movies. In the 1970s, these films were cheaply-made, stylised (and stylish) films featuring African-American protagonists, usually fighting back against oppression from The Man, and looking quite cool while they did it.

This genre was a sub-genre of the exploitation film. In a way the exploitation film had been around since the birth of cinema: cheaply-made films with risque topics aimed at teenagers. What we now recognise as the archetypal exploitation film (cheap production values, questionable acting, sexy young people, violence, more sexy young people) came to prominence in the 70s. Continue reading →

From Ireland to Jamaica

Niall O'Donnell 10 Comments

The English language has an amazing variety of accents, not just internationally, but within different regions of countries. One of the most recognisable, and oft-imitated, is the Jamaican accent. And of course people often imitate it badly. And when they do, a common remark is that they sound more Irish than Jamaican. Well, that’s no coincidence… Continue reading →

Talking about Language

Niall O'Donnell 1 Comment

One of the interesting things about learning to become a language teacher is just how much your vocabulary improves. There’s a lot of jargon related to different aspects of language that one doesn’t ordinarily come across in life. So here’s a fairly random sprinkling of some of the more interesting (to me!) words we language teachers learn to use: Continue reading →

Daily Prompt: Original

Niall O'Donnell 1 Comment

via Daily Prompt: Original

Hhm, his work is just so… original!

The new album’s pretty good, but I prefer their early stuff. It was much more original.

He’s fantastic, a true original!

Original: the word for when you like something and know that it’s not slightly left of centre, but can’t quite explain how.

Only, when I was young, I didn’t consider it such a positive word. To me it was boring and banal, synonymous with ordinary, plain, common, everyday. Because of course, I was being influenced by so many different snacks with ORIGINAL FLAVOUR on their packaging. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want original flavour of anything! When you could get something like bacon, barbeque, salt & vinegar, sour cream & onion, why would you want plain old original flavour!? Continue reading →

Time is Money

Niall O'Donnell 3 Comments

Time is money.

Such an ugly phrase, isn’t it? Only the most obnoxious, boorish oaf would use it without a trace of irony. What a perfect representation of the greedy arrogance of our late-capitalist society (i before e after c), of the desire to just make more and more money, or at least not to lose any of it.

But maybe we shouldn’t dismiss it so easily. Maybe using it isn’t just the preserve of the greedy. Look at how we talk about both time and money: Continue reading →