ABOUT DRAMATISATION
Dramatising Not Drama - according to Sarah Philips
The word drama may produce the image of an end-of-term play, staged by nervous children, organised by overwrought teachers, and watched by fond parents. I want to replace this image with a much less dramatic one. Drama is not about the product (the performance) but part of the process of language learning. It allows children to own the simple and mechanical language they use by involving their personalities. It gives those children who are shy when speaking a foreign language another character to 'hide behind'. 'Dramatising' is perhaps a better word for this than drama: dramatising is much simpler than that nerve-racking end-of-termplay.Dramatising means that the children become actively involved in a text. This personalisation makes language more meaningful and memorable than drilling or mechanical repetition can.
Dramatising Not Drama - according to Sarah Philips
The word drama may produce the image of an end-of-term play, staged by nervous children, organised by overwrought teachers, and watched by fond parents. I want to replace this image with a much less dramatic one. Drama is not about the product (the performance) but part of the process of language learning. It allows children to own the simple and mechanical language they use by involving their personalities. It gives those children who are shy when speaking a foreign language another character to 'hide behind'. 'Dramatising' is perhaps a better word for this than drama: dramatising is much simpler than that nerve-racking end-of-termplay.Dramatising means that the children become actively involved in a text. This personalisation makes language more meaningful and memorable than drilling or mechanical repetition can.
An Example of dramatisation
Pictures below show a pupil telling a story using stick puppets on a mini theatre.
Pictures below show a pupil telling a story using stick puppets on a mini theatre.
THE BAD LANGUAGE LEARNER
There seem to be three sorts of bad language learners. The very worst has neither acquisition nor learning going for him. This might be the result of both attitudinal factors (lack of interest in the target language and its speakers and/or self-consciousness, high anxiety, etc.) as well as low aptitude or interest in grammar. The second language student who seems to get nothing from the class or the natural environment may be of this sort (the "remedial ESL student").
Two other varieties of bad language learners have been discussed elsewhere (Krashen, 1978a; Chapter 1, this volume). The underuser of the Monitor will progress as far as his attitudes will take him. The Monitor overuser will be limited by his conscious knowledge and will suffer from a lack of spontaneity.
The model predicts that all varieties of performers will be helped by a classroom where intake for acquisition is available in a low anxiety situation. This is easy to say but difficult to provide. Conscious learning need not be avoided, just put in its place. This recommendation is quite close to Carroll's: "Persons with limited sensitivity to grammar may be better off in courses that de-emphasize grammar and concentrate on exposing the learner to large amounts of the second language in actual use. Nevertheless, many of them will find it profitable to note carefully, and to try to correct, the errors they make in second language utterances. Others, as they use the language more and more, may find it satisfactory simply to wait until a natural correction process takes over, somewhat the way children learn to speak their native language in increasing conformity with adult norms" (Carroll, 1977, p. 3). We differ only in that the Monitor Theory predicts that the acquisition-rich environment is for everyone.
If in fact, acquisition is central and obligatory for real proficiency in a second language, and if, at best, learning is a useful supplement available only in certain situations, and if attitude relates more directly to acquisition that to learning, then Savignon (1976) is correct when she says "Attitude is the single most important factor in second language learning". We might even suggest that one characteristic of the ideal second language class is one in which aptitude will not
38
The Bad Language Learner
There seem to be three sorts of bad language learners. The very worst has neither acquisition nor learning going for him. This might be the result of both attitudinal factors (lack of interest in the target language and its speakers and/or self-consciousness, high anxiety, etc.) as well as low aptitude or interest in grammar. The second language student who seems to get nothing from the class or the natural environment may be of this sort (the "remedial ESL student").
Two other varieties of bad language learners have been discussed elsewhere (Krashen, 1978a; Chapter 1, this volume). The underuser of the Monitor will progress as far as his attitudes will take him. The Monitor overuser will be limited by his conscious knowledge and will suffer from a lack of spontaneity.
The model predicts that all varieties of performers will be helped by a classroom where intake for acquisition is available in a low anxiety situation. This is easy to say but difficult to provide. Conscious learning need not be avoided, just put in its place. This recommendation is quite close to Carroll's: "Persons with limited sensitivity to grammar may be better off in courses that de-emphasize grammar and concentrate on exposing the learner to large amounts of the second language in actual use. Nevertheless, many of them will find it profitable to note carefully, and to try to correct, the errors they make in second language utterances. Others, as they use the language more and more, may find it satisfactory simply to wait until a natural correction process takes over, somewhat the way children learn to speak their native language in increasing conformity with adult norms" (Carroll, 1977, p. 3). We differ only in that the Monitor Theory predicts that the acquisition-rich environment is for everyone.
If in fact, acquisition is central and obligatory for real proficiency in a second language, and if, at best, learning is a useful supplement available only in certain situations, and if attitude relates more directly to acquisition that to learning, then Savignon (1976) is correct when she says "Attitude is the single most important factor in second language learning". We might even suggest that one characteristic of the ideal second language class is one in which aptitude will not
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SECOND LANGUAGE
Indiviidual differences that are inherent in the learner can predict success or failure in language learning. Outgoing personality, intelligence, aptitude, motivation ,and the age at which learning begins determine the rate of success in second language learning. Here, we will see whether these intuitions are supported by researchers’ findings. To what extent can we predict differences in the success if we were to provide information about learners’ personalities, their general and specific intellectual abilities, their motivation, or their age? Who is a ‘good language learner’? The rate of development in learning language varies widely among learners. Some students progress rapidly while others still struggling along making very slow progress.
Neil Naiman and his colleagues (1995) have tried to identify the personal characteristics that make one learner more successful than another. Research on learner characteristics When researchers are interested in finding out whether a VARIABLE such as motivation affects second language learning. They usually select a group of learners and give them a questionnaire to measure the type and degree of their motivation. Then test on their proficiency. The test and the questionnaire are both scored, and study the correlation between both. Although the correlation procedure seems straightforward, it requires careful interpretation. It is not possible to directly observe and measure variables. Characteristics are interdependent of each other, for example it is impossible to separate opportunities and willingness. We cannot conclude whether it is motivation or opportunity that is most closely associated with success. Another error in interpreting correlation is the conclusion that one of the variables causes the other. It may be that one variable influences the other, it may be that both are influenced by something else. Another difficulty is how language proficiency is defined and measured. The language proficiency tests used in different studies do not measure the same kind of knowledge. The social and educational settings of learners will affect their successful rate in learning process. In some social conditions, individuals who approach a new language with the cognitive and motivational characteristics of a ‘good learner’ may not achieve the proficiency that these characteristics would predict. The researchers seek to know how the variables are related and how they interact with learners’ experiences so that to gain a better understanding of human learning.
INTELLIGENCE
Definition
The ability to learn, understand and think in a logical way about things.
Mental capacity; power of reasoning; perception; intuition.
Support – COGNITIVE CONSTRAINT
This language- specific ability must be consistent with the other aspects of the cognitive system because it interacts with and makes use of it.
Research done.
• Oller (1981) claims that general intelligence and language proficiency is more or less the same thing. He based the results of language tests and the high correlation with IQ scores.
• Genesee (1976) found evidence of correlation of IQ with communication skills.
Reject – UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR
There is a language – specific ability or faculty, distinct from other cognitive abilities.
Research done
• Chomsky (1981) declares that children are born with a special ability (LAD) to discover for themselves the underlying rules of language system. All children successfully learn their native language at a time in life.
• In ‘Natural’ learning situations, IQ differences are limited in their effects to the kinds of skills that IQ tests measures.
• Gardner, Howard (1993) introduced the concept of Multiple Intelligences which is inborn.
Implications to SLA
• Intelligence is complex and individuals have many kinds of abilities and strengths, not all of which are measured by traditional IQ tests. Many students whose academic performance has been weak have experienced considerable success in second language learning.
• Some IQ tests are associated with success and means of predicting success in school. There is a link between intelligence and SLA.
• Intelligence does not generally seem to predict the learning of communication skills.
APTITUDE
Definition: Natural ability or skill at doing something.
Talent; proficiency; competency; mastery.
Theories Involving Aptitude
• John Carroll (1991). A learner with high aptitude (ability to learn quickly) may learn with greater ease and speed.
• Nick Ellis (2001) hypothesized the working memory may be the most important variable in predicting success for learners in many language learning situations.
• Peter Skehan (1989) argues that successful language learners may not be strong in all of the components of aptitude.
Learners’ strengths and weaknesses in different components may account for their ability to succeed in different types of instructional programmes.
Components of aptitude
Identify and memorize new sounds.
Understand the function of particular words in sentences
Figuring out grammatical rules from language samples
Remember new words
Implications to SLA
Specific skills related to auditory ability- the better a learner can discriminate between the sounds of language and its parts, the more successful his learning of speaking and understanding SLA.
Tasks showing grammatical sensitivity- the better a learner’s ability to ‘derive grammar’ implicitly, the better and faster he/she develops control of the grammatical structure of SLA.
Test of memory- the better the learner’s memory, the faster he/d\she will learn new items.
Teachers knowing the aptitude profile of their students will help them in selecting appropriate classroom activities for particular groups of students.
LEARNING STYLES
Definition: An individual's preferred way of learning.
According to Reid 1995, it is an individual’s natural, habitual and preferred way of absorbing, processing and retaining new information and skills. Many learners are grouped as visual learners, aural learners and kinaesthetic learners. Different individuals have different cognitive learning styles.
i) Field Independent FI ii) Field Dependent FD
FD child may have a cognitive style advantage over the more FI adult.FD learners performed better in inductive lessons but FI do better in deductive lesson.FI learners are more independent, competitive and self confident.FD learners are more dependent on teachers/ instructors.
Looking at the aptitude continuum, some people who are good academic learners have hard time learning a language unless they know the right instructional approaches and learning styles. Then they will succeed.
Another one are those individuals who learn language successfully because of their partly independent of cognitive and social skills.
PERSONALITY
Definition: The various aspects of a person’s character that combine to make them different from other people.
Temperament; nature; persona
Personality Characteristics That Affect SLA
Extroversion. Different studies using learners’ scores on questionnaires found that these learners produce positive success in SLA.
Lily Wong- Fillmore(1979) found that, in certain learning situations, the quiet observant may have greater success.
Inhibition. Inhibition discourages risk - taking, which is necessary for progress in language learning.
\
Alexander Guira(1972) support that inhibition is a negative force.
Anxiety. Feelings of worry, nervousness and stress that many students experience when learning a second language is a permanent feature of a learner’s personality. Anxiety is dynamic and dependent on particular situations and circumstances.
\Guy Spielman and Mary Radnofsky (2001) say that it can be beneficial and detrimental. A certain amount of tension can have a positive effect and even facilitate learning . Anxiety before a test or oral presentation provides a right combination of motivation and focus to succeed.
Language ego. Pronunciation is the most important contribution of language ego to self-representation.
Guiora (1989) states that language is a basic method of self-representation. Learning a second language involves confronting a different organization of perception and conceptualization.
Implications for teachers of SLA
o Teachers can have a positive and influential effect on both the student’s linguistic performance and emotional well-being.
o Teachers must endeavor to the task of removing negative personality traits like inhibition and anxiety and enforcing positive personality traits like risk-taking and motivation.
o Teachers must promote learners to the need to be receptive and responsive to those they are communicating with and the language.
o Learners must be encouraged to experiment and discover target language learning. Learners must be willing to speak out in class.
MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDES
Motivation is defined asLearners’ communicative needs
Learners’ attitudes towards the second language community
1. Motivated learners who have acquired proficiency in the second language can communicate well in a wide range of social situations and thus are able to fulfill their professional ambition.
2. Also, when learners have favourable attitudes towards the speakers of the language, they will desire contact with them.
3. ‘Instrumental Motivation’ or learning language for more immediate practical goals and ‘ Integrative Motivation’ or learning language for personal growth and cultural enrichment were the terms for motivations which are related to the success in the second language learning. They were given by Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert (1972).
4. There are also three phases motivation model, developed by Zoltán Dőrnyei (2001).
i) Choice motivation : getting started and to setting goals.
ii) Executive motivation: carrying out the necessary task to maintain motivation.
iii) Motivation retrospection: students’ appraisal of and reaction to their performance.
5. Graham Crookes and Richard Schmidt (1991) found some effective levels of motivation in relation to pedagogical practices:
i) Motivating students into the classroom
ii) Varying the activities, tasks and materials
iii) Using co-operative rather than competitive goals
LONGEST WORD IN ENGLISH
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The identity of the longest word in English depends upon the definition of what constitutes a word in the English language, as well as how length should be compared. In addition to words derived naturally from the language's roots (without any known intentional invention), English allows new words to be formed by coinage and construction; place names may be considered words; technical terms may be arbitrarily long. Length may be understood in terms of orthography and number of written letters, or (less commonly) phonology and the number of phonemes.
Word Letters Characteristics Dispute
Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl...isoleucine 189,819 Chemical name of titin, the largest known protein Technical; not in dictionary; disputed whether it is a word
Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsano...pterygon
183 Longest word coined by a major author[1]
Coined; not in dictionary; Greek transliteration
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
45 Longest word in a major dictionary[2]
Technical; coined to be the longest word
Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism
30 Longest non-coined word in a major dictionary[3]
Technical
Floccinaucinihilipilification
29 Longest nontechnical word Coined
Antidisestablishmentarianism
28 Longest non-coined and nontechnical word
Honorificabilitudinitatibus
27 Longest word in Shakespeare's works Latin
Contents
• 1 Major dictionaries
• 2 Coinages
o 2.1 Advertising coinages
\• 3 Constructions
• 4 Technical terms
• 5 Place names
• 6 Scrabble
• 7 Words with certain characteristics of notable length
o 7.1 Typed words
o 7.2 Common words in general text
• 8 Humour
• 9 See also
• 10 References
• 11 External links
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SECOND LANGUAGE
Indiviidual differences that are inherent in the learner can predict success or failure in language learning. Outgoing personality, intelligence, aptitude, motivation ,and the age at which learning begins determine the rate of success in second language learning. Here, we will see whether these intuitions are supported by researchers’ findings. To what extent can we predict differences in the success if we were to provide information about learners’ personalities, their general and specific intellectual abilities, their motivation, or their age? Who is a ‘good language learner’? The rate of development in learning language varies widely among learners. Some students progress rapidly while others still struggling along making very slow progress.
Neil Naiman and his colleagues (1995) have tried to identify the personal characteristics that make one learner more successful than another. Research on learner characteristics When researchers are interested in finding out whether a VARIABLE such as motivation affects second language learning. They usually select a group of learners and give them a questionnaire to measure the type and degree of their motivation. Then test on their proficiency. The test and the questionnaire are both scored, and study the correlation between both. Although the correlation procedure seems straightforward, it requires careful interpretation. It is not possible to directly observe and measure variables. Characteristics are interdependent of each other, for example it is impossible to separate opportunities and willingness. We cannot conclude whether it is motivation or opportunity that is most closely associated with success. Another error in interpreting correlation is the conclusion that one of the variables causes the other. It may be that one variable influences the other, it may be that both are influenced by something else. Another difficulty is how language proficiency is defined and measured. The language proficiency tests used in different studies do not measure the same kind of knowledge. The social and educational settings of learners will affect their successful rate in learning process. In some social conditions, individuals who approach a new language with the cognitive and motivational characteristics of a ‘good learner’ may not achieve the proficiency that these characteristics would predict. The researchers seek to know how the variables are related and how they interact with learners’ experiences so that to gain a better understanding of human learning.
INTELLIGENCE
Definition
The ability to learn, understand and think in a logical way about things.
Mental capacity; power of reasoning; perception; intuition.
Support – COGNITIVE CONSTRAINT
This language- specific ability must be consistent with the other aspects of the cognitive system because it interacts with and makes use of it.
Research done.
• Oller (1981) claims that general intelligence and language proficiency is more or less the same thing. He based the results of language tests and the high correlation with IQ scores.
• Genesee (1976) found evidence of correlation of IQ with communication skills.
Reject – UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR
There is a language – specific ability or faculty, distinct from other cognitive abilities.
Research done
• Chomsky (1981) declares that children are born with a special ability (LAD) to discover for themselves the underlying rules of language system. All children successfully learn their native language at a time in life.
• In ‘Natural’ learning situations, IQ differences are limited in their effects to the kinds of skills that IQ tests measures.
• Gardner, Howard (1993) introduced the concept of Multiple Intelligences which is inborn.
Implications to SLA
• Intelligence is complex and individuals have many kinds of abilities and strengths, not all of which are measured by traditional IQ tests. Many students whose academic performance has been weak have experienced considerable success in second language learning.
• Some IQ tests are associated with success and means of predicting success in school. There is a link between intelligence and SLA.
• Intelligence does not generally seem to predict the learning of communication skills.
APTITUDE
Definition: Natural ability or skill at doing something.
Talent; proficiency; competency; mastery.
Theories Involving Aptitude
• John Carroll (1991). A learner with high aptitude (ability to learn quickly) may learn with greater ease and speed.
• Nick Ellis (2001) hypothesized the working memory may be the most important variable in predicting success for learners in many language learning situations.
• Peter Skehan (1989) argues that successful language learners may not be strong in all of the components of aptitude.
Learners’ strengths and weaknesses in different components may account for their ability to succeed in different types of instructional programmes.
Components of aptitude
Identify and memorize new sounds.
Understand the function of particular words in sentences
Figuring out grammatical rules from language samples
Remember new words
Implications to SLA
Specific skills related to auditory ability- the better a learner can discriminate between the sounds of language and its parts, the more successful his learning of speaking and understanding SLA.
Tasks showing grammatical sensitivity- the better a learner’s ability to ‘derive grammar’ implicitly, the better and faster he/she develops control of the grammatical structure of SLA.
Test of memory- the better the learner’s memory, the faster he/d\she will learn new items.
Teachers knowing the aptitude profile of their students will help them in selecting appropriate classroom activities for particular groups of students.
LEARNING STYLES
Definition: An individual's preferred way of learning.
According to Reid 1995, it is an individual’s natural, habitual and preferred way of absorbing, processing and retaining new information and skills. Many learners are grouped as visual learners, aural learners and kinaesthetic learners. Different individuals have different cognitive learning styles.
i) Field Independent FI ii) Field Dependent FD
FD child may have a cognitive style advantage over the more FI adult.FD learners performed better in inductive lessons but FI do better in deductive lesson.FI learners are more independent, competitive and self confident.FD learners are more dependent on teachers/ instructors.
Looking at the aptitude continuum, some people who are good academic learners have hard time learning a language unless they know the right instructional approaches and learning styles. Then they will succeed.
Another one are those individuals who learn language successfully because of their partly independent of cognitive and social skills.
PERSONALITY
Definition: The various aspects of a person’s character that combine to make them different from other people.
Temperament; nature; persona
Personality Characteristics That Affect SLA
Extroversion. Different studies using learners’ scores on questionnaires found that these learners produce positive success in SLA.
Lily Wong- Fillmore(1979) found that, in certain learning situations, the quiet observant may have greater success.
Inhibition. Inhibition discourages risk - taking, which is necessary for progress in language learning.
\
Alexander Guira(1972) support that inhibition is a negative force.
Anxiety. Feelings of worry, nervousness and stress that many students experience when learning a second language is a permanent feature of a learner’s personality. Anxiety is dynamic and dependent on particular situations and circumstances.
\Guy Spielman and Mary Radnofsky (2001) say that it can be beneficial and detrimental. A certain amount of tension can have a positive effect and even facilitate learning . Anxiety before a test or oral presentation provides a right combination of motivation and focus to succeed.
Language ego. Pronunciation is the most important contribution of language ego to self-representation.
Guiora (1989) states that language is a basic method of self-representation. Learning a second language involves confronting a different organization of perception and conceptualization.
Implications for teachers of SLA
o Teachers can have a positive and influential effect on both the student’s linguistic performance and emotional well-being.
o Teachers must endeavor to the task of removing negative personality traits like inhibition and anxiety and enforcing positive personality traits like risk-taking and motivation.
o Teachers must promote learners to the need to be receptive and responsive to those they are communicating with and the language.
o Learners must be encouraged to experiment and discover target language learning. Learners must be willing to speak out in class.
MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDES
Motivation is defined asLearners’ communicative needs
Learners’ attitudes towards the second language community
1. Motivated learners who have acquired proficiency in the second language can communicate well in a wide range of social situations and thus are able to fulfill their professional ambition.
2. Also, when learners have favourable attitudes towards the speakers of the language, they will desire contact with them.
3. ‘Instrumental Motivation’ or learning language for more immediate practical goals and ‘ Integrative Motivation’ or learning language for personal growth and cultural enrichment were the terms for motivations which are related to the success in the second language learning. They were given by Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert (1972).
4. There are also three phases motivation model, developed by Zoltán Dőrnyei (2001).
i) Choice motivation : getting started and to setting goals.
ii) Executive motivation: carrying out the necessary task to maintain motivation.
iii) Motivation retrospection: students’ appraisal of and reaction to their performance.
5. Graham Crookes and Richard Schmidt (1991) found some effective levels of motivation in relation to pedagogical practices:
i) Motivating students into the classroom
ii) Varying the activities, tasks and materials
iii) Using co-operative rather than competitive goals
LONGEST WORD IN ENGLISH
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The identity of the longest word in English depends upon the definition of what constitutes a word in the English language, as well as how length should be compared. In addition to words derived naturally from the language's roots (without any known intentional invention), English allows new words to be formed by coinage and construction; place names may be considered words; technical terms may be arbitrarily long. Length may be understood in terms of orthography and number of written letters, or (less commonly) phonology and the number of phonemes.
Word Letters Characteristics Dispute
Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl...isoleucine 189,819 Chemical name of titin, the largest known protein Technical; not in dictionary; disputed whether it is a word
Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsano...pterygon
183 Longest word coined by a major author[1]
Coined; not in dictionary; Greek transliteration
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
45 Longest word in a major dictionary[2]
Technical; coined to be the longest word
Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism
30 Longest non-coined word in a major dictionary[3]
Technical
Floccinaucinihilipilification
29 Longest nontechnical word Coined
Antidisestablishmentarianism
28 Longest non-coined and nontechnical word
Honorificabilitudinitatibus
27 Longest word in Shakespeare's works Latin
Contents
• 1 Major dictionaries
• 2 Coinages
o 2.1 Advertising coinages
\• 3 Constructions
• 4 Technical terms
• 5 Place names
• 6 Scrabble
• 7 Words with certain characteristics of notable length
o 7.1 Typed words
o 7.2 Common words in general text
• 8 Humour
• 9 See also
• 10 References
• 11 External links
Major dictionaries
The longest word in any of the major English language dictionaries is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, a word which refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine silica particles, specifically from a volcano. Research has discovered that this word was originally a hoax; medically, it is the same as silicosis. It has since been used in a close approximation of its originally intended meaning, lending at least some degree of validity to its claim.[2]
The Oxford English Dictionary contains pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters).
The longest non-technical word in major dictionaries is flocci¬nauci¬nihili¬pili¬fication at 29 letters. Consisting of a series of Latin words meaning "nothing" and defined as "the act of estimating something as worthless", its usage has been recorded as far back as 1741.[4][5][6][7]
Coinages
In his play Assemblywomen (Ecclesiazousae), the ancient Greek comedic playwright Aristophanes created a word of 183 letters which describes a dish by stringing together its ingredients:
Lopadotemakhoselakhogameokranioleipsanodrimypotrimmatosilphiokarabomelitokatakekhymenokikhlepikossyphophattoperister-alektryonoptokephalliokigklopeleiolagōiosiraiobaphētraganopterýgōn,
Henry Carey's farce Chrononhotonthologos (1743) holds the opening line: "Aldiborontiphoscophornio! Where left you Chrononhotonthologos?"
James Joyce made up nine 101-letter words in his novel Finnegans Wake, the most famous of which is Bababadal¬gharagh¬takammin¬arronn¬konn¬bronn¬tonn¬erronn¬tuonn¬thunn¬trovarrhoun-awnskawn¬toohoo¬hoordenen¬thurnuk. Appearing on the first page, it allegedly represents the symbolic thunderclap associated with the fall of Adam and Eve. As it appears nowhere else except in reference to this passage, it is generally not accepted as a real word. Sylvia Plath made mention of it in her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, when the protagonist was reading Finnegans Wake.
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", the 34-letter title of a song from the movie Mary Poppins, does appear in several dictionaries, but only as a proper noun defined in reference to the song title. The attributed meaning is "a word that you say when you don't know what to say." The idea and invention of the word is credited to songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman.
Advertising coinages
In 1973, Pepsi's advertising agency Boase Massimi Pollitt used a 100-letter but several-word term "Lip¬smackin¬thirst¬quenchin¬acetastin¬motivatin¬good¬buzzin¬cool¬talkin¬high¬walkin¬fast¬livin-ever¬givin¬cool¬fizzin" in TV and film advertising.[8]
In 1975, the 71-letter (but several-word) advertising jingle Twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesonionsonasesameseedbun (read: two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun) was first used in a McDonald's Restaurant advertisement to describe the Big Mac sandwich.[9]
Constructions
The English language permits the legitimate extension of existing words to serve new purposes by the addition of prefixes and suffixes. This is sometimes referred to as agglutinative construction. This process can create arbitrarily long words: for example, the prefixes pseudo (false, spurious) and anti (against, opposed to) can be added as many times as desired. A word like anti-aircraft (pertaining to the defense against aircraft) is easily extended to anti-anti-aircraft (pertaining to counteracting the defense against aircraft, a legitimate concept) and can from there be prefixed with an endless stream of "anti-"s, each time creating a new level of counteraction. More familiarly, the addition of numerous "great"s to a relative, e.g. great-great-great-grandfather, can produce words of arbitrary length.
"Antidisestablishmentarianism" is the longest common example of a word formed by agglutinative construction, as follows (the numbers succeeding the word refer to the number of letters in the word):
establish (9)
to set up, put in place, or institute (originally from the Latin stare, to stand)
dis-establish (12)
to end the established status of a body, in particular a church, given such status by law, such as the Church of England
disestablish-ment (16)
the separation of church and state (specifically in this context it is the political movement of the 1860s in Britain)
anti-disestablishment (20)
opposition to disestablishment
antidisestablishment-ary (23)
of or pertaining to opposition to disestablishment
antidisestablishmentari-an (25)
an opponent of disestablishment
antidisestablishmentarian-ism (28)
the movement or ideology that opposes disestablishment
The use of additional affixes could stretch the word to the oft-cited 'pseudoantidisestablishmentarianism' (34) or 'antidisestablishmentarianisticalized,' (36) but such coinages are unlikely to gain the cachet of usage (not in standard dictionaries).
Technical terms
A number of scientific naming schemes can be used to generate arbitrarily long words.
Gammaracanthuskytodermogammarus loricatobaicalensis is sometimes cited as the longest binomial name—it is a kind of amphipod. However, this name, proposed by B. Dybowski, was invalidated by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic, at 52 letters, describing the spa waters at Bath, England, is attributed to Dr. Edward Strother (1675-1737).[10] The word is composed of the following elements:
• Aequeo: equal (Latin, aequo[11])
• Salino: containing salt (Latin, salinus)
• Calcalino: calcium (Latin, calx)
• Ceraceo: waxy (Latin, cera)
• Aluminoso: alumina (Latin)
• Cupreo: from "copper"
• Vitriolic: resembling vitriol
John Horton Conway and Landon Curt Noll developed an open-ended system for naming powers of 10, in which one sex¬millia¬quingent¬sexagint¬illion, coming from the Latin name for 6560, is the name for 103(6560+1) = 1019683. Under the long number scale, it would be 106(6560) = 1039360.
Names of chemical compounds can be extremely long if written as one word, as is sometimes done. An example of this is sodium¬meta¬diamino¬para¬dioxy¬arseno¬benzoe¬methylene¬sulph¬oxylate, an arsenic-containing drug. There are also other chemical naming systems, using numbers instead of "meta", "para" etc. as descriptive dividers, breaking up the name, which then no longer can be considered a single long word.
The IUPAC nomenclature for organic chemical compounds is open-ended, giving rise to the 189,819-letter chemical name Methionylthreonylthreonyl...isoleucine, the shortened version of a protein also known as titin, or sometimes connectin, which is involved in striated muscle formation. Its empirical formula is C132983H211861N36149O40883S693. A 1,185-letter example, Acetylseryltyrosylseryliso...serine, refers to the coat protein of a certain strain of tobacco mosaic virus and was published in the American Chemical Society's Chemical Abstracts in 1972.
Place names
The sign at Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu
Main article: List of long place names
There is some debate as to whether a place name is a legitimate word.
The longest officially recognized place name in an English-speaking country is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu (85 letters) which is a hill in New Zealand. The name is in the Māori language.
In Canada, the longest place name is Dysart, Dudley, Harcourt, Guilford, Harburn, Bruton, Havelock, Eyre and Clyde, a township in Ontario, at 68 letters.[12]
The station sign at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in North Wales
The 58-character name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the famous name of a town on Anglesey, an island of Wales. This place's name is actually 51 letters long, as certain character groups in Welsh are considered as one letter, for instance ll, ng and ch. It is generally agreed, however, that this invented name, adopted in the mid-19th century, was contrived solely to be the longest name of any town in Britain. The official name of the place is Llanfair¬pwllgwyngyll, commonly abbreviated to Llanfairpwll or the somewhat jocular Llanfair PG.
The longest place name in the United States (45 letters) is Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, a lake in Webster, Massachusetts. It means "Fishing Place at the Boundaries — Neutral Meeting Grounds" and is sometimes facetiously translated as "you fish your side of the water, I fish my side of the water, nobody fishes the middle". The lake is also known as Lake Webster. The longest hyphenated names in the U.S. are Winchester-on-the-Severn, a town in Maryland, and Washington-on-the-Brazos, a notable place in Texas history.
The longest official geographical name in Australia is Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya Hill.[13] It has 26 letters and is a Pitjantjatjara word meaning "where the Devil urinates".[14]
In Ireland, the longest English placename at 22 letters is Muckanaghederdauhaulia (from the Irish language, Muiceanach Idir Dhá Sháile, meaning "pig-marsh between two saltwater inlets") in County Galway. If this is disallowed for being derived from Irish, or not a town, the longest at 19 letters is Newtownmountkennedy in County Wicklow.
Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit is the ceremonial name of Bangkok, Thailand; it has the Guinness World record for longest place name in the world, not in English however.
See also: List of short place names
Scrabble
See also: English words with uncommon properties#Scrabble
Words with certain characteristics of notable length
• Strengths is the longest word in the English language containing only one vowel.
• Rhythms is the longest word in the English language containing none of the five recognised vowels.
• Schmaltzed and strengthed appear to be the longest monosyllabic words recorded in OED; but if squirrelled is pronounced as one syllable only (as permitted in SOED for squirrel), it is the longest.
• Euouae, a medieval musical term, is the longest English word consisting only of vowels, and the word with the most consecutive vowels. However, the "word" itself is simply a mnemonic consisting of the vowels to be sung in the phrase "seculorum Amen" at the end of the lesser doxology. (Although u was often used interchangeably with v, and the variant "Evovae" is occasionally used, the v in these cases would still be a vowel.)
• The longest words with no repeated letters are dermatoglyphics, misconjugatedly and uncopyrightables.[15]
• The longest word whose letters are in alphabetical order is the eight-letter Aegilops, a grass genus.
• The longest words recorded in OED with each vowel only once, and in order, are abstemiously, affectiously, and tragediously (OED). Fracedinously and gravedinously (constructed from adjectives in OED) have thirteen letters; Gadspreciously, constructed from Gadsprecious (in OED), has fourteen letters. Facetiously is among the few other words directly attested in OED with single occurrences of all five vowels and the semivowel y.
Typed words
• The longest words typable with only the left hand using conventional hand placement on a QWERTY keyboard are tesseradecades, aftercataracts,[16] and the more common but sometimes hyphenated sweaterdresses.[17] Using the right hand alone, the longest word that can be typed is johnny-jump-up, or, excluding hyphens, monimolimnion. [18]
• The longest English word typable using only the top row of letters has 11 letters: rupturewort. Similar words with 10 letters include: pepperwort, perpetuity, proprietor, typewriter, requietory, repertoire, tripertite and pourriture. The word teetertotter (used in North American English) is longer at 12 letters, although it is usually spelled with a hyphen.
• The longest words typable by alternating left and right hands are antiskepticism and leucocytozoans respectively.[17]
• On a Dvorak keyboard, the longest "left-handed" words are papaya, Kikuyu, opaque, and upkeep.[19] Kikuyu is typed entirely with the index finger, and so the longest one-fingered word on the Dvorak keyboard. There are no vowels on the right-hand side, and so the longest "right-handed" word is crwth.
Common words in general text
Ross Eckler has noted that most of the longest English words are not likely to occur in general text, meaning non-technical present-day text seen by casual readers, in which the author did not specifically intend to use an unusually long word. According to Eckler, the longest words likely to be encountered in general text are deinstitutionalization and counterrevolutionaries, with 22 letters each.[20]
A computer study of over a million samples of normal English prose found that the longest word one is likely to encounter on an everyday basis is uncharacteristically, at 20 letters. [21]
Humour
Smiles, according to an old riddle, may be considered the longest word in English, as there is a mile between the two s's. A retort asserts that beleaguered is longer still, since it contains a league. The riddle and both jocular answers date from the 19th century.[22][23]
In the old time radio retrospective, Golden Radio, comedian Jack Benny jokes that "the longest word in the English language is the one that follows, 'Now, here's a word from our sponsor.'"
See also
• English words with uncommon properties
• List of the longest English words with one syllable
• Longest English sentence
• Longest published word in German
• Number of words in English
• Scriptio continua
• Lipogram
• Longest word in Spanish
• Longest word in Turkish
• Longest words
• Euouae, a medieval musical term, is the longest English word consisting only of vowels, and the word with the most consecutive vowels. However, the "word" itself is simply a mnemonic consisting of the vowels to be sung in the phrase "seculorum Amen" at the end of the lesser doxology. (Although u was often used interchangeably with v, and the variant "Evovae" is occasionally used, the v in these cases would still be a vowel.)
• The longest words with no repeated letters are dermatoglyphics, misconjugatedly and uncopyrightables.[15]
• The longest word whose letters are in alphabetical order is the eight-letter Aegilops, a grass genus.
• The longest words recorded in OED with each vowel only once, and in order, are abstemiously, affectiously, and tragediously (OED). Fracedinously and gravedinously (constructed from adjectives in OED) have thirteen letters; Gadspreciously, constructed from Gadsprecious (in OED), has fourteen letters. Facetiously is among the few other words directly attested in OED with single occurrences of all five vowels and the semivowel y.
Typed words
• The longest words typable with only the left hand using conventional hand placement on a QWERTY keyboard are tesseradecades, aftercataracts,[16] and the more common but sometimes hyphenated sweaterdresses.[17] Using the right hand alone, the longest word that can be typed is johnny-jump-up, or, excluding hyphens, monimolimnion. [18]
• The longest English word typable using only the top row of letters has 11 letters: rupturewort. Similar words with 10 letters include: pepperwort, perpetuity, proprietor, typewriter, requietory, repertoire, tripertite and pourriture. The word teetertotter (used in North American English) is longer at 12 letters, although it is usually spelled with a hyphen.
• The longest words typable by alternating left and right hands are antiskepticism and leucocytozoans respectively.[17]
• On a Dvorak keyboard, the longest "left-handed" words are papaya, Kikuyu, opaque, and upkeep.[19] Kikuyu is typed entirely with the index finger, and so the longest one-fingered word on the Dvorak keyboard. There are no vowels on the right-hand side, and so the longest "right-handed" word is crwth.
Common words in general text
Ross Eckler has noted that most of the longest English words are not likely to occur in general text, meaning non-technical present-day text seen by casual readers, in which the author did not specifically intend to use an unusually long word. According to Eckler, the longest words likely to be encountered in general text are deinstitutionalization and counterrevolutionaries, with 22 letters each.[20]
A computer study of over a million samples of normal English prose found that the longest word one is likely to encounter on an everyday basis is uncharacteristically, at 20 letters. [21]
Humour
Smiles, according to an old riddle, may be considered the longest word in English, as there is a mile between the two s's. A retort asserts that beleaguered is longer still, since it contains a league. The riddle and both jocular answers date from the 19th century.[22][23]
In the old time radio retrospective, Golden Radio, comedian Jack Benny jokes that "the longest word in the English language is the one that follows, 'Now, here's a word from our sponsor.'"
See also
• English words with uncommon properties
• List of the longest English words with one syllable
• Longest English sentence
• Longest published word in German
• Number of words in English
• Scriptio continua
• Lipogram
• Longest word in Spanish
• Longest word in Turkish
• Longest words
