Re: native speakers of English, please come in!
- From: Bob Cunningham <exw6sxq@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2006 16:30:53 GMT
(Newsgroups set to alt.usage.english only.)
On 3 Sep 2006 20:54:24 -0700, "ranjit_mathews@xxxxxxxxx"
<ranjit_mathews@xxxxxxxxx> said:
Paul J Kriha wrote:
Charles Belov <docorbit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:44f9fe89$0$96203$742ec2ed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ray wrote:
Hi,
I don't know it's proper to ask this kind of question here. But it has
recently come to my attention that the noun phrase "courses lectured in
English" is rather common. As a non-native speaker and learner of the
language, I don't think it is correct. Could the native speakers of
English among you please tell me what you think?
I'd appreciate your help.
I'd consider it correct but stilted. I'd say "courses presented in
English."
Or somewhat less formally: "courses given in English".
What would the ordinary Anglo understand by "courses administered in
English to non-English speakers"? Would he find inconceivable (or
passe) the notion that teachers and physicians can administer courses
to students and patients, respectively?
It seems to me posters in this thread have been answering
the wrong question. The original poster didn't ask for a
better wording. He or she asked whether the wording
"courses lectured in English" is itself correct. That's
equivalent to asking if it's acceptable to use the word
"lecture" as a transitive verb with the object "courses".
Traditionally, "lecture" can have a person or a group of
people as an object, but I've seen no dictionary definition
that supports saying that a course can be lectured, and it
does indeed sound wrong to me to use it that way.
However, many English users, including me, recognize that
English words can be freely converted from one part of
speech to another independently of whether or not there's a
precedent. In saying that "courses lectured in English" is
rather common, the original poster tells us that in one or
more environments the noun "lecture" has been converted to
be used as a transitive verb with "course" as object. I
believe it's wrong to say it's wrong to do that.
In a similar way, an instructor could say "This summer I
coursed semantics" to mean "This summer I taught a course in
semantics". Many English users would find the wording
objectionable, but they should also recognize that it's
acceptable in view of the principle that words in English
can be freely converted.
We often see postings here that express indignation or
disgust about some conversion coinage that's said to be
unnecessary because the language already has words to carry
the intended meaning. My answer to that typical complaint
is that in every case I've seen, the intended and understood
meaning of the coined word can be more explicit than any
alternative would be, or the coined word is more pleasingly
concise than alternative wordings would be.
.
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