Friday May 18, 2007
The cutting edge of English
By LUCILLE DASS
CUT the cackle and get on with your work!” Ever heard your teacher call for quiet and concentration in this way?
The truth is, formal or informal use of idiomatic expression is rarely heard in the Malaysian classroom today. Schoolroom English today is more literal than literary, more lean and mean than meaningfully luxuriant.
A deep cut – the unkindest cut of all – suffered nearly four decades ago, has severely incapacitated English language use. A cut that steadily caused it to lose its rich communicative value.
I’ve expressed this before (in this column a few years ago), but feel compelled to reiterate that idiomatic use of language evokes emotion, imagination and creativity. Stripped of it, the English language becomes largely pedestrian.
Are you game for some wordplay? Let’s take the word “cut” and sample the extent of its incisive take-offs as it cuts across the expanse of language to sculpt a variety of shapes and shades of expression that define and colour our speech.
You can, of course, appear elegant in well-cut branded wear, but you might still be cut down to size by critics despite all the external finery. You will, however, always cut a dash with the way you speak, and no one can rob you of that! For example, when you use choice expressions, people immediately recognise you as a cut above the average person.
While some people think they can cut corners and secure a job with their impressive grades and good looks, their efforts will actually cut little ice with discerning employers. Most employers are able to assess if you will cut the mustard or not during the interview. In their eyes, you cut a fine or sorry figure by your ability or inability to communicate in an engaging and coherent manner. You will be cut to the quick when you learn that an academically less brilliant candidate got the job.
The language classroom is where you can cut through the complexities of English to master it. In addition, you can always cut your teeth on debates, drama, recitations, and speech contests. Indeed, the school bench makes good training ground for language mastery – under a teacher who is truly cut out for the job, of course.
Now, don’t cut and run when the going gets tough! By now surely you realise the cut-and-dried principle to mastering English (or any language) is that if you don’t use it, you will lose it. So keep practising.
My friend just called. She wanted to know if I’d like her cut-and-come-again carrot cake. “You bet, and don’t let anyone cut into the cake before me,” I warned.
Then she told me her neighbour had got himself a smart-looking car. The neighbour had also taken to wearing cut-off jeans to look equally trendy, she added.
After a pause, she sobbed and said how, like me, she recently became a victim of a cutpurse. I felt sorry, but was thankful she had suffered no bruises in the mishap. Our conversation was cut short when someone rang her doorbell.
Well, I could go on ... but to cut a long story short, isn’t it intriguing and refreshing to learn that a simple three-letter word can so cleverly cleave to other units of language and reinvent itself? And with each innovative association generate more semantic units that embellish the very language that nurtures it? Indeed, English continues to make its mark among the languages of the world because of its cutting-edge potential.
Although it is some comfort to know that there is concern nationwide to remedy the severity of neglect English has suffered, we all have our work cut out for us to improve the situation. Please ignore all propaganda. There are really no short cuts or quick-fixes for language improvement. Let’s just cut the crap and start doing things right. You don’t want to continue to cut off your nose to spite your face, do you?
Expressions used above and their meanings (in context):
1. cut the cackle – stop talking
2. a deep cut/cuts – severe injury/injuries
3. the unkindest cut of all – cruel and least expected (from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar)
4. cut –removal/severance
5. cuts across – transcends limits
6. well-cut – well-shaped/good fit
7. cut down to size – expose the limitations of a person’s ability or importance
8. cut a dash – impress others
9. a cut above – noticeably superior to
10. cut corners – do something perfunctorily/incompletely
11. cut little ice – not impress or influence somebody
12. cut the mustard – be good enough
13. cut a fine/sorry figure – appear admirable/disgraceful, etc
14. cut to the quick – hurt or offended deeply
15. cut through – work through to understand
16. cut your teeth – learn or gain basic experience from something
17. cut out – be suited
18. cut and run – run away/escape when things become difficult
19. cut-and-dried – completely decided and unlikely to change
20. cut-and-come-again – the kind (cake) that one helps oneself to as often as one likes
21. cut into – start
22. cut-off jeans – a pair of jeans with parts of the legs removed
23. cutpurse – (archaic) pickpocket/thief
24. cut short – cause it to end before its natural time
25. to cut a long story short – not to tell all the details
26. cutting edge – an edge that cuts/the most significant factor
27. have our work cut out – be faced with a hard task
28. short cuts – a way of doing something more quickly or easily
29. cut the crap – stop doing useless things
30. cut off your nose to spite your face – because you are proud or angry, you do something that is intended to hurt others but in fact harms yourself.
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