You know you're South African when
* You live in a country with 11 official languages, but more than 20
are spoken by a significant number of people.
* You've proudly mastered two or three of them, including English ---
just to discover on a daily basis that you speak it incorrectly.
For example, that it should be "I feel nauseated", not "I feel
nauseous". As English is not my native tongue, I found it very
informative. But then I discovered my Oxford Dictionary defines
"nauseous" as "1) affected by nausea, 2) causing nausea".
Realising that American English differs from that funny language
the Brits speak, I consulted my Websters which gives the
following explanation: "1) causing nausea or disgust :
nauseating, 2) affected with nausea or disgust.
usage: those who insist that nauseous can properly be used only
in sense 1) are in error. Current evidence shows these facts:
nauseous is most frequently used to mean physically affected with
nausea; extended use is quite a bit less frequent. Use of
nauseous in sense 1) is much more often figurative than literal, but
this use appears to be losing ground to nauseating. There seems
to be little use of nauseated except by those who prescribe it in
place of nauseous."
Maybe we should get someone from England to help us. I hear
their language intelligence (a la Howard Gardner) is extremely high:
their children speak English fluently from a very young age. And it
took me more than 20 years ....... (okay, okay!)
Regards from this side of the ocean.
Dap
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DAP LOUW, PH.D., PH.D.
HEAD: CENTRE FOR BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
PROFESSOR: DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE
P.O. BOX 339
BLOEMFONTEIN
9300 SOUTH AFRICA TEL: INTL + 51 + 4012444
FAX: INTL + 51 + 447-5719
EMAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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