Researchers from the University of Vermont gathered billions of words from sources including Google Books and looked at the top 5,000 words from each source. They found that happier words cropped up more frequently.

Why is this? “It’s not to say that everything is fine and happy,” Dodds says. “It’s just that language is social.”

In contrast to traditional economic theory, which suggests people are inherently and rationally selfish, a wave of new social science and neuroscience data shows something quite different: that we are a pro-social storytelling species. As language emerged and evolved over the last million years, positive words, it seems, have been more widely and deeply engrained into our communications than negative ones.

“If you want to remain in a social contract with other people, you can’t be a…,” well, Dodds here used a word that is rather too negative to be fit to print — which makes the point. (Source: Science Daily)

I wonder what other languages are as ‘happy’ as English?

British-born but LA based poet and journalist John Tottenham has launched CPSOA – the Campaign to Stamp Out Awesome. His headquarters is a bookstore which he is trying to turn into an “awesome-free zone”. Tottenham argues that the word has been so overused it has been rendered meaningless.

Tottenham already is looking toward other cliches to conquer.

“Other words will be addressed once we get rid of awesome,” Tottenham promises. “‘It’s all good.’ That’s definitely crying out to be done.” (Source: LA Times)

Do you see the problem with awesome? Or is Tottenham just a grouch?

It’s not just language learners who want to ‘perfect’ their accent though – apparently there’s a rise in the number of British people taking elocution lessons. Many feel that their regional accent is holding them back in the workplace or hindering getting a job.

In what we like to think of as an increasingly classless society, and at a time when the distinctive regional accents are gradually being melded and lost, it seems a shame that there are so many people anxious to lose their accents. “I get a lot of requests from people looking to reduce their regional accents, Midwinter says. “I think as long as people speak clearly, if they have an accent, that’s OK, as long as they can be understood. But there are times when a voice with less of an accent might be an advantage, for example at an interview, or if you are speaking to a large group of people, when it helps to have a voice that is loud and clear. Most people have very specific needs that they want to correct. Very few come to me and say, ‘I want to speak like the Queen.’” (Source: The Independent)

I have the opposite issue – being the lone southerner in an office full of northerners I often wish that my accent was from somewhere else! The Yorkshire-born people I work with seem particularly proud of their accents, and I can’t imagine them taking elocution lessons. We should celebrate this diversity!

In one of the oddest pieces of news I’ve seen in a while, it’s reported in China’s People’s Daily that a Beijing suburb is to build a European style town where no one will be allowed to speak Chinese. To be built within 5 years, the town will have an English castle and create “the illusion of being abroad”.

The local mayor, Wang Haichen, said one courtyard has been turned into a boutique hotel, and promised to transform Miyun County into an international tourism and leisure attraction.

We shall have to wait and see how successful this is!

To celebrate the bicentenary of the author’s birth, ‘Dickens on the BBC’ is a series of documentary, drama, and discussion programmes on TV and radio. The season started with a reading from Claire Tomalin’s new biography Charles Dickens: A life on Radio 4 (you can hear it using the Listen again service).

An adaptation of Great Expectations, starring Ray Winstone and Gillian Anderson will be shown over Christmas. Commissioning Arts Editor Mark Bell said:

Dickens on the BBC examines the many aspects of the author as performer, social commentator, observational journalist, husband, story-teller, Christmas cheerleader and contradictory family man, and the new adaptations of his novels show his work to be as vital as it ever was.” (Source: BBC)

Not any more – the microblogging site’s users tweet about a diverse range of topics, as shown by the top hashtags of the year. Hashtags (#) are used to identify the topic of tweets and can be used to see all the tweets about that particular topic.

Top of this year’s list was #egypt, referring to the unrest in the country in the spring of 2011. This was followed by #tigerblood, referring to the actor Charlie Sheen.

Other top hashtags were:
#threewordstoliveby
#idontunderstandwhy
#japan
#improudtosay
#superbowl
#jan25
I wonder what tags will trend next year?

The Ebacc is awarded to pupils who achieve C or better in English, maths, history or geography, sciences and a language at GCSE level. The number of pupils taking a language at GCSE level had dropped after the previous government made it non-compulsory.

[Stephen] Twigg – who said he regretted having given up Spanish when he was 14 – said Labour should have put foreign languages on the primary school timetable before scrapping the requirement for older children.

“I think the mistake we made was to do it the wrong way around. I would definitely make languages optional at 14, but what we should have done is had the primary languages approach first and then made the changes at 14. You can’t go back to making it compulsory.” (The Guardian)

Let’s hope this latest change in policy makes pupils aware of the benefits of studying a second language!

Yes, I know that’s two words. This is explained by Oxford University Press:

From a dictionary-maker’s point of view, a two-word expression is called a ‘compound’ and is treated as one word [a 'headword'] in the dictionary. This is not the first time that a two-word expression has been selected as our WOTY. In 2010, the UK Word of the Year was big society. (Source: Oxford University Press)

There has been much debate about this explanation. Nevertheless, squeezed middle is the Word of the Year, and it’s defined as “British Labour Party leader Ed Miliband’s term for those seen as bearing the brunt of government tax burdens while having the least with which to relieve it”. So squeezed in the middle of the rich (who can afford to relief from tax burdens) and the poor, who are eligible for benefits and other government assistance.

What’s your word of 2011?

Perry’s “oops” came as he couldn’t remember the name of a third national agency he would close if he was made president. It’s unlikely he has an idea of the origins of the word, which started to appear around the 1930s. Whilst the exact origins are unknown, it’s thought it may come from the phrase “up-a-daisy”, which has been used since the 18th Century.

And oops isn’t just confined to the English language:

An Italian found in error might say, “ops!” while a Frenchman who’s made a faux pas might say, “oups!” In Spanish, one can say opa, but just as common are huy and ¡ay! A Russian who’s made a goof might exclaim, “ой” (pronounced oj), while a German blunderer might blurt out, “hoppla!” (Source: Slate.com)

What do you say when you’ve made an error?

The authors state there is no progression for students learning English as it is not linked from school to college. Whilst many Chinese people study English, and it is compulsory at university, the language is rarely used in social situations.

Another issue is the test-based curriculum, with one teacher saying:

“The (CET-4) test puts the students in a state of war and makes them nervous,” Xu said. “After passing the competitive gaokao, they expect lively and interesting English classes in college. But I’m afraid CET-4 may disappoint them.” (English is a core subject in gaokao, the national college entrance examination.) (Source: China Daily)

What a sad situation – language learning should be a fun activity (at least sometimes!) and not a chore to be undertaken. As the former chairwoman of the English club at Qigihar University says,

“People’s interest in the language itself is our most cherished asset”.

So next time you’re fed up and feeling unmotivated, just think of the Chinese students and their anxiety about the CET-4 test!