LL-L: "Nationality" LOWLANDS-L, 12.OCT.1999 (03) [E]

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From: Pepijn Hendriks [pepijnh at bigfoot.com]
Subject: Nationality - a follow-up

As a follow-up to the contribution I made last week on the nationality
issue, I forward you this week's WordWatch, as it deals again - in its
entirety - with this issue..

*****

>From: CobuildDirect Administration <direct at cobuild.collins.co.uk>
>Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 02:56:16 +0100
>Subject: WordWatch
>
>             COBUILD WORDWATCH by EMAIL
>
>Here is this week's Wordwatch feature from the COBUILD WorldWide Web
>site, delivered direct to you by e-mail.
>See the web page at www.cobuild.collins.co.uk/wordwatch.html for the
>full list of Wordwatch features.
>
>England team feedback
>
>The feedback about the article on `the England team' is so interesting
>that I am reproducing it virtually in full this week and next, with
>thanks to those who wrote. The first two emails focus on the use of
>nouns as modifiers in English.
>
>This one is from a technical editor and translator living in Holland:
>
>   Your corpus confirms a trend that I've noticed in the last ten years
>   or so - which is to use the country noun as an adjective, to
>   distinguish between the adjectival form that has connotations of
>   nationality. Do you have BBC examples in your corpus? I would bet my
>   bottom dollar that some years ago the BBC made a policy decision to
>   adopt this usage. Since then, we hear from their "South Africa
>   correspondent", (who isn't South African), their "Wales correspondent"
>   (Gitto Harry - who, judging by his accent is Welsh), etc etc. The
>   subtle distinction made is nicely politically correct and is
>   presumably an extension of usages of the "our Manchester
>   correspondent" type. The usage is surely akin to the use of the noun
>   as an adjective in phrases such as "Natural History Museum" and
>   "National Science Foundation".
>
>
>Correspondent is a good choice. Both British and American media seem
>to prefer the country word:
>
>     Our South Africa correspondent, Mike Wooldridge (BBC)
>
>     Mark Tully, the former India correspondent (British newspaper)
>
>     Jennings was then Middle East correspondent for ABC News (US book)
>
>although there are a (very) few nationality adjectives as well:
>
>     Former NPR South African correspondent Julie Fredericks. (NPR)
>
>Of course, the use of the nationality adjective is ambiguous, and as here
might
>just as well mean `a correspondent who is Scottish':
>
>     Might I suggest that you employ a Scottish correspondent who knows
>     about the whole of Scottish football and not just Rangers.
>     (British magazine)
>
>There is at least one country that does not have a nationality
>adjective, as this correspondent from Sweden points out:
>
>   If you had gone on to New Zealand, there would have been a zero
>   in the adjective column, since there is no corresponding adjective -
>   and that goes for any type of expression, sport or not.
>
>Actually, there is an (informal) adjective for New Zealand: it's Kiwi, as in
>
>     The Kiwi coach, Frank Endacott, said that he would not consider
>     McCracken when he finalises his squad next week. (British newspaper)
>
>   That expressions such as 'the England team' are possible at all has
>   another and more basic explanation, I think. In this noun phrase
>   'England' is used attributively, but so is 'cream' in 'the cream jug'.
>   English syntax allows for this use of a noun; most other languages
>   don't.
>
>   And in such cases as 'the United Kingdom position', 'a United
>   States expeditionary force' (where, mostly, the abbreviations UK and
>   US are used) the use is certainly not restricted to Britain.
>
>This is certainly true, although in the case of `cream jug' there is no
alternative
>adjective: you can't talk about a creamy jug (or if you did, you would mean
>something different).
>
>cobuilder at cobuild.collins.co.uk
>http://titania.cobuild.collins.co.uk

*****

-Pepijn

--
 pepijnh at bigfoot.com -- http://www.bigfoot.com/~pepijnh -- ICQ - 6033220

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