A stripped-down vocabulary of words

Question

Hi teachers,And as English gains momentum as a second language all around the world, it is morphing into a new and simplified version of itself - one that responds to the 24/7 demands of a global economy and culture with a stripped-down vocabulary of words like "airplane," "chat room," "taxi," and "cell phone."1.  Does "it" mean "English"?2.  Does "one" mean "a new and simplified version of itself"?3.  Is it "demands of a global economy " or "demands of a global economy and culture"?4.  Would you explain the last part of the sentence for me, please?Thank you.Tinanam

KrisBlueNZ · Accepted Answer

tinanam0102And as English gains momentum as a second language all around the world, it is morphing into a new and simplified version of itself - one that responds to the 24/7 demands of a global economy and culture with a stripped-down vocabulary of words like "airplane," "chat room," "taxi," and "cell phone."
1. Does "it" mean "English"?
2. Does "one" mean "a new and simplified version of itself"?

Yes, and yes.

tinanam01023. Is it "demands of a global economy " or "demands of a global economy and culture"?

The latter. The demands of a global economy, and the demands of a culture.

tinanam0102 4. Would you explain the last part of the sentence for me, please?

The writer is giving examples of words that are stripped-down versions of older or more formal English words or phrases. These aren't very good examples, in my opinion.

AIRPLANE could be considered an abbreviation of AEROPLANE, but I think AIRPLANE has been standard in American English for a long time now.

CHAT ROOM isn't really a stripped-down version of anything. Of course it isn't literally a ROOM, but this is just a metaphor, not really a language simplification.

TAXI could be considered an abbreviation of TAXICAB but, like AIRPLANE, it's not a recent shorthand word.

CELL PHONE (or CELLPHONE) is an abbreviation of CELLULAR [TELE]PHONE, but it's a recent concept, so I don't think it's a simplification of traditional English.

Clive · Answer

Hi guys,

a stripped-down vocabulary of words like "airplane," "chat room," "taxi," and "cell phone."

I interpret this slightly differently.

ie A vocabulary stripped down in the sense that it contains a much smaller number of words. Probably mostly words that deal with simple, basic , concrete things like the examples given. With such a vocabulary, people could have very basic conversations.

Clive

Tinanam0102 · Answer

Hi Clive,

Thank you for your explanation.

I'd like to ask the word, "vocabulary", I think I am mistaken. In the dictionary it says it's a listing of words. And we were taught that "vocabulary" is uncountable. That would mean you can't say "airplane" is a vocabulary. Would you tell me what exactly "vocabulary" is?

Thank you.

Tinanam

Clive · Answer

Hi,

It's a set of words.

eg The vocabulary of the Engish language is all the words in the language.

eg My vocabulary is all the words I know.

Clive

Tinanam0102 · Answer

Hi Clive,

When you gave me the examples. Do you mean:

Vocabulary - "The vocabulary of the Engish language is all the words in the language." which is a set of words, and that means you have, in your example, a set of 13 words including prepositions.

Thank you again.

Tinanam

Clive · Answer

Hi,

When you gave me the examples. Do you mean:

Vocabulary - "The vocabulary of the Engish language is all the words in the language." which is a set of words, and that means you have, in your example, a set of 13 words including prepositions.

The vocabulary in that sentence consists of 10 words, because the word 'the' is only counted once although it occurs 4 times.

eg 'The cat ate the rat.' If you learn these words, you have added 4 new words to your vocabulary.

Clive

Tinanam0102 · Answer

Hi Clive,

Thank you for teaching me this. I understand now.

Have a good day.

Tinanam

A stripped-down vocabulary of words

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