English usage | Steve Woods

Ministry of Justice and Capita breach Magna Carta

24/03/2013 Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

The administration of justice in England has a long history. Nearly 800 years ago, on 15th June 1215, King John and 25 barons of the realm signed the Magna Carta Libertatum or The Great Charter of the Liberties of England (otherwise simply known as Magna Carta) in a field on an island in the Thames at Runnymede with 12 bishops and 20 abbots as witnesses.

If you’ve ever read it, you’ll know that Magna Carta is a curious hybrid of a document whose content ranges from the seemingly mundane, such as the removal of fish weirs on the rivers Thames and Medway, to such major legal concepts as trial by a jury of one’s peers and various rules for the administration of justice, which have been implemented by many other jurisdictions around the world, particularly those based on common law.

Parts of Magna Carta are still in force today: you can see which (with relevant amendments) by reading the text in the UK Statute Database.

One of 4 surviving original copies of Magna Carta, now in the British Library

What has Magna Carta to do with the Ministry of Justice and Capita? The answer is the disastrous contract for interpreting in courts and tribunals which the Ministry of Justice – in its limited wisdom – handed over to Capita Translating & Interpreting/ALS (posts passim).

An English translation (the original text was drafted in Latin. Ed.) of Clause 40 of the original 1215 text reads:

To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice.

If court proceedings cannot take place due to unqualified interpreters being sent to court by Capita T&I, or interpreters not showing up for court assignments, that sounds very much like justice being delayed and could even be bordering on refusal. By their cavalier attitude to the administration of justice, the Ministry of Justice (perhaps it should be renamed the Ministry of Injustice. Ed.) and Capita T&I are showing their contempt for eight centuries of English law.
Budget shocker: “one pence”

20/03/2013 Steve WoodsPolitics, Social Media, Tech

Today was a momentous day for George Gideon Oliver Osborne (aged 41 and three-quarters), a man who does Chancellor of the Exchequer impressions. Firstly, he joined Twitter. Needless to say, there was the usual warm Twitter welcome for politicians, as evidenced by the use of the hashtag #gidiot. Those using the hashtag were slightly more polite than other reactions to George’s embracing of Twitter.

Secondly, it was also the day of the Budget. In summary there was very little to cheer about, except the abolition of the beer duty escalator.

However, what made me cringe while listening to the Chancellor’s speech live on radio (apart from his whining, grating tone. Ed.) was his language: at one point near the end, I distinctly heard him refer to the amount of “one pence“.

Now, George isn’t exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but one would at least expect the Chancellor of the Exchequer to know the difference between penny and pence.

Since the end of the budget speech itself, BBC Radio 4 news readers have also reiterated Osborne’s ‘one pence’ blunder – repeatedly. 🙁
Confused by translators and interpreters? You too can write for the Post!

20/03/2013 Steve WoodsBristol, Language

To paraphrase the Duke of Edinburgh’s famous retort from 1962, the Bristol Post is a bloody awful newspaper. Every day it manages to show its ignorance of the districts of Bristol, greengrocer’s apostrophes are not unknown and the command of terminology shown by its journalists is abysmal.

As regards the latter, there was a prime example in this article about cannabis farms, as follows:

Gardeners often appear in court with a translator and cases regularly detail how electricity at the grow houses is bypassed from the mains.

In court with a translator? My heart sank. The writer has clearly not been following this blog or other sources about the interpreting fiasco in the English courts (posts passim). Moreover, he has clearly never read my early post on the BBC’s never-ending confusion of interpreters with translators.

For the benefit of passing Post journalists, I shall once again quote from that article about the difference between the two:

…here’s a brief explanation of the difference between interpreting and translation: interpreting deals with the spoken word, translation with the written word.

Simple isn’t it? So simple on would think even a Bristol Post hack would be able to understand the difference. 🙂
My two homes united – by a medieval clerk

18/03/2013 Steve WoodsBristol, Language

The two places where I’ve lived the longest are Bristol (where I’ve lived since graduation) and Market Drayton (where I grew up). These 2 places are ones I’d call home.

It’s therefore quite a surprise for me to find the two of them brought into close contact by a writer who lived 6 centuries ago.

I’m currently reading ‘The Maire of Bristowe is Kalendar’ by Richard Ricart, who became clerk to the Mayor of Bristol in 1478 in the reign of Edward IV, (re)printed in 1872 by the Camden Society and available from the Internet Archive.

Bristol as seen by Robert Ricart, clerk to the mayor

Ricart recorded Bristol’s history from 1217, mentioning the name of the mayor and other chief officers of the town (Bristol did not become a city until the reign of Henry VIII. Ed.), along with major national or local events.

Imagine my surprise at the following text – in the original Middle English – appearing at the end of the entry for 1459:

And the Sondaye by fore Mighelmas, James Lorde of Audeley was slayne at Blourehethe besides Drayton in the countee of Stafford.

In modern English: “And the Sunday before Michaelmas, James, Lord of Audley was slain at Blore Heath near Drayton in the county of Stafford”.

The Battle of Blore Heath, which was fought on 23rd September 1459, was an echo from my childhood: as a child I’d looked for Audley’s Cross – marking the spot where Audley allegedly fell – from the tops of buses, whilst a popular childhood haunt was Salisbury Hill just outside Market Drayton, so called because it was where Lord Salisbury’s troops had apparently spent the night before the battle.

Besides exhaustive detail, the Blore Heath 1459 website has a brief introduction to the battle, as follows:

In September 1459 the armies of the House of Lancaster and the House of York met on a damp Sunday morning at Blore Heath and fought the battle which would begin the English Wars of the Roses. Thousands of men from across England fought and died in a bloody battle, which lasted for the rest of that day.

Legend has it that Queen Margaret of Anjou watched the battle from the nearby Mucklestone church tower, only to flee when she realised her army had lost. A stone cross still stands on Blore Heath to this day, to mark the spot where the Lancastrian leader is said to have been killed.
“A most illustrious place”

14/03/2013 Steve WoodsBristol, Language

I’ve been very preoccupied recently with the history of Bristol (posts passim) and have now obtained a copy – in jpeg format – of James Millerd’s map of Bristol from the 1670s.

Millerd’s map of Bristol. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

As a long-term resident of the city, several things strike me about the map: the city’s medieval walls appear to be largely intact, as are all the city gates (only one survives today in situ); the old four arch early medieval Bristol Bridge is there complete with housing and chapel; there’s no New Cut and Floating Harbour (i.e. port is still tidal); Bristol Castle may have gone, but its moat still remains and Brandon Hill looks like it gets a lot of use of washing days (This Hill is a publick convenience to ye Cittie for ye use of drying cloaths).

The text in the bottom right corner of the map makes particularly interesting reading and is reproduced below in the original 17th century English.

The Cittie of Bristoll standeth upon ye borders of Somersett & Gloucester sheirs, yet belongeth to neither but is a Cittie & Countie of itself. It’s seituation is in a pleasant Vale upon ye two Rivers of Avon & Froome. The river Froome is much the lesser river yet on it standeth the Cheif Key of this Cittie. The water floweth there at an high spring tide neere 40 foot in height bringing up thither shipps of great burthens, but there greatest ships ride about three miles downe the river and are for the most part discharged by lighters. Just below this Cittie the river Froom falleth into the river Avon which about Six miles lower falleth into the great River Seaverne but by the way hath a wonderfull passage through a mighty hill leaveing on each side very high & stupendious Rocks, that on the North side is called St Vincents rock where are found those adamantine like stones or Bristoll-Diamonds, which are famous in most parts of Europe & elsewhere & which (as Cambden affirmeth) only in point of hardness come short of ye Diamonds of India. On ye top of this rock are seene ye footsteps of some larg, but very antient fortification. And out of ye bottom thereof issueth a famous medicinall warme Bath water comonly called ye Hotwell, much frequented at all convenient seasons of ye yeare, both by ye neighbouring cittizens & also by Others, who liveing farr remote resort thither for health sake. This Cittie is governed by A Mayor, 12 Aldermen, two shrieffs & a Common Councill consisting in all of ye number of 48. Vsually once every yeare there is held a generall sessions of ye peace & Court of Oyer & Terminer before ye Right worshipfull the Mayor ye Recorder & Court of Aldermen for delivering of ye Goale & for inquirie into ye dammages of ye Crown. Toward ye East end of this Cittie formerly stood a very larg & strong Castle which since ye late Warrs hath bin demollished & is now turned into faire streets & pleasant dwelling retaining still ye name of ye Castle. At ye West end of ye Cittie standeth ye Cathedrall Church & Bishops seat in a most pleasant & wholesome aire neere where-unto are to be seene ye remaynes of Antient Cloysters & other Religious houses which in ye time of ye Warrs of England were defaced & for ye most part ruined & since continues in ye same condition. This Cittie sheweth 19 faire Churches whereof 17 are Parochiall, the chiefest of which standeth on ye south side of ye Cittie without ye Walles which from ye Red rock whereon it is founded is called St Marie Redcliff which by reason of it’s Stately seituation (being ascended unto on ye Cittie-side by above 30 steps of stone) it’s Archie foundation heigth strength & largeness of building, both for Chappell Church & Tower, it’s cross shape & loftie Isles, it’s beautifull porches, pinnacles, battlements and other Ornaments that renders it admireable, is held & deemed to be in all respects ye fairest parochiall Church in England by reason whereof it is highly esteemed by ye inhabitants & much admired by Strangers. It is wholly built of free-stone without the Concurrance of any timber either to ye structure or tecture of ye same that bears the lead. Over ye River Avon passeth a very faire & loftie stone Bridg built on either side with houses & shopps which though in length it cometh much short of yet in fairnesse of buildings goeth as much beyond ye famous Bridg of London over Thames. There are no sincks that come from any houses into ye streets, but all is conveyed under ground rendering ye Cittie exceeding sweet & delightsom. They use no Carts there as in London, but carry all uppon Sledds. In few yeares last past this Cittie hath bin much augmented by ye increase of new buildings in most parts thereof, especially on ye West & Northwest sides where ye riseing of ye Hill St Michael being converted in Comely buildings & pleasant gardens makes a very beautifull addition to the suburbs thereof; it is a a place of verie great trade & Merchandize sending forth shipps into all parts of ye World where tradeing is allowed. In which respect as also for its number of inhabitants and good Government it may well be accounted One of ye cheiff Citties of this Kingdome. It is so pleasant to ye Eye & so well accomodated with all things necessarie for life or delight, so well furnished with plentifull Marketts, wholesome waters, faire buildings, Schooles, Hospitalls & what ever else may be desired that it well answers to its antient Saxon name Brightstop, Signifying in English A most illustrious place. It hath been formerly dignified with the honourable title of an Earldome which the truely Noble familie of the Digbyes now enjoy. 1673.

As a linguist, what also intrigues me about the above description of the city apart from the erratic spelling and capitalisation is the presence of a large number of superfluous (or greengrocer’s) apostrophes; these are the earliest examples I’ve yet seen.

The full resolution (5,931 × 5,365 pixels (4.6 MB)) version of Millerd’s map is available from Wikimedia Commons.
Allergy warning: Office 2013 marketing may contain traces of FUD

28/02/2013 Steve WoodsLanguage, Linux, Open Source, Open Standards, Tech
In the IT world, FUD is a very useful acronym: it’s short for fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Wikipedia defines FUD as:

Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD), is a tactic used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics and propaganda.

FUD is generally a strategic attempt to influence perception by disseminating negative and dubious or false information. An individual firm, for example, might use FUD to invite unfavourable opinions and speculation about a competitor’s product; to increase the general estimation of switching costs among current customers; or to maintain leverage over a current business partner who could potentially become a rival.

The term originated to describe disinformation tactics in the computer hardware industry but has since been used more broadly. FUD is a manifestation of the appeal to fear.

As you’ll find if you read further down the Wikipedia entry, Microsoft, that superannuated leviathan of the proprietary software world, is no stranger to FUD. Indeed, it seems to have roused its sales partners to use it to help promote Office 2013/Office 365, the latest versions of its bloated, overpriced and ubiquitous office suite.

This came to my attention courtesy of Misco, who are kind enough to send my recycling box lots of sales material once a month. Included in this month’s batch of recycling was a 2-page spread for MS Office. Included in the ‘Top reasons to buy Office” was the following dubious information (reproduced verbatim from the leaflet):

End of Support

Running Office 2003 and Windows XP after the end-of-support date (April 8, 2014) may expose your company to security, compliance and compatibility risks due to a lack of ongoing updates.

Several points can be made about this misleading statement.

Firstly, all Microsoft products are insecure: just ask any decent, competent sysadmin.

Secondly, what’s all this ‘compliance risk’ about then? Is Microsoft revoking all Office licences for Office 2003 and older versions and sending in the software police? I think we should be told.

Thirdly, as far compatibility is concerned, users are wholly at the mercy of Microsoft as to how long files produced with earlier versions of Office programs can still be opened, read and edited using different versions of Office. This is vendor lock-in and it stinks.

Especially in these times of austerity when money is tight, my advice to anyone thinking of procuring or upgrading an office suite would be to look carefully at gratis open source alternatives to Office, such as:
- Apache OpenOffice – available for Linux, Mac and Windows;
- LibreOffice – a fork of OpenOffice – also available for Linux, Mac and Windows;
- Calligra – available for many Linux distributions and Free BSD and now with preliminary support for Windows and Mac.
All of these can also open and write files in Office formats, as well as working natively with Open Document Format – an international standard recognised by the ISO that’s being adopted increasingly by national governments across the world as a means of ensuring their documents can still be read in centuries to come.

I’ve been using open source office suites – principally OpenOffice and LibreOffice – in my professional capacity for the last 8 years and none of my clients – all of whom use Office – has reported problems opening the files I produce.
Plain talk about plane trees

26/02/2013 Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media

The Bristol Post is not particularly renowned for the quality of its journalism.

This point of view was borne out by its report today on public works in Weston-super Mare, which features the following paragraph:

The species to be planted include silver birch, hazel, Scots pine, Himalayan plain, London plain and common alder. Work on removing the trees is due to start this week.

Himalayan plain? London plain? The Post should be sent to sit in shame in homophone corner until it learns the difference between a plain tree and a plane tree and promises not to make such elementary sub-editing errors in future.

However, the Post is not only guilty of falling victim to homophony and failing to do a bit of basic sub-editing. Indeed it is also guilty of churnalism – “a form of journalism in which press releases, wire stories and other forms of pre-packaged material are used to create articles in newspapers and other news media in order to meet increasing pressures of time and cost without undertaking further research or checking”.

Checking back on the source of the story in question, one arrives at a North Somerset Council news item of 20th February 2013, where – lo and behold – the following sentence appears:

The species to be planted include silver birch, hazel, Scots pine, Himalayan plain, London plain and common alder.

Thus the anonymous Post hack quoted initially has merely repeated the error of the original author of the news in North Somerset.

This blog has pointed out before that North Somerset is a strange place (posts passim), but having an illiterate write news on the council website is just plain perverse.
Parliamo Shropshire!

15/02/2013 Steve WoodsLanguage, Social Media

Floreat Salopia
One can’t help where one’s born and that often affects how one speaks. It certainly did for me. Until I left home to go to do my degree, I spoke Shropshire dialect.

On 5th February I tweeted the text below to link to a report in the Shropshire Star about a new project which is going to be mapping Shropshire dialects:

I started out saying anna, cunna and wunna and went to Shoesbree for a treat. #Shropshire dialect

.

Today I was delighted to note I’d received the response below in dialect from the @shroppiemon Twitter account.

@wood5y yer munna say cunna it inna polite and yer munna say wunna cos that inna roite*.

* For non-Salopians: “You mustn’t say cannot, it isn’t polite and you mustn’t say won’t because that isn’t right”.
Haggis – a poetic dish

25/01/2013 Steve WoodsLanguage

The Bard of Ayrshire. Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Today, 25th January is the birthday of Robert (or Rabbie) Burns (1759 – 21 July 1796), Scotland’s most celebrated poet. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, making his works accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English and this brought out his bluntest political and civil commentaries.

Burns is also regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, as well as a cultural hero in Scotland and the Scottish diaspora around the world.

Rabbie’s birthday is now traditionally celebrated by a Burns Night supper, of which haggis is an essential ingredient, traditionally accompanied by ‘neeps’ (turnips or swede) and ‘tatties’ (potatoes). One gets the impression that Rabbie was rather fond of haggis, since in 1786 he wrote “Address To A Haggis”, which is reproduced below.

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the pudding-race!
Aboon them a’ yet tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’a grace
As lang’s my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin was help to mend a mill
In time o’need,
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin’, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an’ strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
Bethankit! hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad make her spew
Wi’ perfect sconner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckles as wither’d rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash;
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ blody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll mak it whissle;
An’ legs an’ arms, an’ hands will sned,
Like taps o’ trissle.

Ye Pow’rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer
Gie her a haggis!

Haggis, neeps and tatties.
I’m looking forward to some haggis, neeps and tatties this evening at The Volunteer Tavern in St Judes, Bristol, beautifully prepared by Mark the chef, as well as a wee dram or two to wash it all down. I’m also looking forward to the other courses, starting with cock-a-leekie soup or Scotch broth for starters finishing with cranachan for dessert.

Furthermore, I might also have to find time to bone up on the Address above as I might have to do it.

If you are celebrating Burns Night too, do enjoy it!
Snow in Bristol

19/01/2013 Steve WoodsBristol, Language

A snowflake under the microscope. Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
It snowed in Bristol yesterday, as it did over a large part of the UK. No more than 2-3 inches of the frozen white stuff caused complete chaos with bus services withdrawn, schools closed and similar over-reactions. A friend called me yesterday afternoon: he works in Geneva and told me that several times that amount – nearly 2 feet in fact – fell there on Tuesday afternoon and life continued as normal.

When snow settles in the Bristol area, it does something unique that’s not repeated elsewhere in the country or in the English-speaking world (to the best of my knowledge. Ed.): it pitches. When it’s snowing, Bristolians have been known to confuse people from elsewhere simply by asking, “Is it pitching?”

Chambers 21st Century Dictionary defines the verb to pitch as follows:

pitch verb (pitches, pitched, pitching) 1 to set up (a tent or camp). 2 to throw or fling. 3 tr & intr to fall or make someone or something fall heavily forward. 4 intrans said of a ship: to plunge and lift alternately at bow and stern. 5 tr & intr said of a roof: to slope • is pitched at a steep angle. 6 to give a particular musical pitch to (one’s voice or a note) in singing or playing, or to set (a song, etc.) at a higher or lower level within a possible range • The tune is pitched too high for me. 7 to choose a level, e.g. of difficulty, sophistication, etc. at which to present (a talk, etc.) • was pitched too low for this audience. 8 a cricket to bowl (the ball) so that it lands where the batsman can hit it; b golf to hit (the ball) high and gently, so that it stays where it is on landing; c tr & intr, baseball said of the pitcher (sense 1): to throw the ball overarm or underarm to the person batting. 9 to pave (a road) with stones set on end or on edge.

Out of these possible definitions, from whence could this bit of Bristolian dialect come? Sense 9 above, i.e. paving in the sense of covering something over, seems a strong possibility.

In addition, users of the WordReference Forum have also discussed what snow does when it settles, including pitching in Bristol. In this thread, one user, Loob, suggests that Bristol’s pitching could have originated from Somerset since Somerset dialect for to lie is to pitch.

Pitch itself comes from the 13th century Middle English verb picchen, meaning to throw or put up.

One final point: whatever snow does where you are – pitch, settle,lie or anything else – don’t forget to let your inner child enjoy it!

Posts navigation