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March 29, 2016 edition

If you watch TV news pretty much anywhere in the world, the announcer opens with a 'Good morning', or 'Good evening'. Unless it is a global 24-hour repeat news channel, that is. Actually, there will probably be two studio announcers reading in turn from the teleprompter and occasionally turning to look at each other. And it will probably be one male and one female. The point is, there is a format that emerges in the US, which is copied the world over.
Greetings and salutations are part of replicated situations. Move the format from one country and language to another, and the new language will come up with something to match. Like saying 'Good morning' or 'Good evening'. The verbal greeting is translated as part of the replication.

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More Word Watch articles in other editions

March 1, 2016 edition

One of the first things we want to know when we learn another language is how to say 'thank you'. We are in a situation where we would say 'thank you' in English, and we want to know how to say it in the language of that situation. We check the translation app on the phone, or ask someone. We are probably given a word, and that's what we learn to say.
Usually it all works well. But there are potential problems. We don't know how else the word is used beyond that situation. Nor do we know if people say 'thank you' for the kind of situations that we do in English. We don't really know how equivalent the 'thank yous' are.

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January 26, 2016 edition

Learning the Indonesian words for 'yes' and 'no' is easy, right? Well, yes and no...
It turns out that languages vary widely in their words for 'yes' and 'no'firstly in whether they even have those words or not, but also, if they do have them, how they are used.

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