Inside the English Maze

Credit: James Foley

Since it’s origin, the English language has had the following main characteristic:  the capacity to absorb other tongues.  Like a living organism it is growing gobbling up foreign words making it the third largest language in the world after Chinese Mandarin and Spanish.

English has placed its claws in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Sanskrit; on its journey it takes from French, Italian, Arabic, Chinese and scores of other languages.  English still uses the basic vocabulary from the first invaders, but has added tower after tower of new words and new ideas.  It has released feelings and thoughts all over the planet.  It continues to reinvent English words wherever it goes and shows no sign of slowing down.

As far as England is concerned, the language that became English, arrived in the fifth century with Germanic warrior tribes from across the channel; (e.g., Saxons, Angles and Jutes).  They were first invited over as mercenaries to shore up the ruins of the crumbled Roman Empire, stayed to share the spoils, and then dug in.

The Roman occupation brought in the Latin language, and English is full of Latin words and expressions.  Today I will write about two of them which are often confused—i.e. and e.g.

The Latin abbreviation i.e. stands for illud est, meaning “that is to say” or “in other words”.  i.e. should be used after a statement to explain it another way, typically only one other way but possibly two (more would likely be confusing). It could also be used to define a single word.  Examples:

1. Most crayon users prefer to scribble (i.e. draw erratically).
2. The most common crayon mishap involves a trip to the otorhinolaryngologist (i.e. the crayon has been inserted into the ear or nose.

In the first example above, a single word was defined; in the second example, the word was implicitly defined, but the context of the phrase was clarified.  Use it when you want to give a more precise description of the thing mentioned.

The Latin abbreviation e.g. stands for exempli gratia  meaning  “for the sake of example.”  e.g. should be used after defining a class, to give an example of a specific instance (or more than one; you can offer a list).  Example:

• The simplest crayon sets feature the primary and secondary colors (e.g., red and green).

In the above example, the general class is the noun phrase “the primary and secondary colors“, which if you remember your first art class is the set {red,blue,yellow,purple,green,orange}. “e.g.” here has provided examples from that set.  Do not end a list that starts with e.g. with etc.  This in incorrect English grammar.

 Many English teachers say that it’s more common for people to misuse “i.e.” when they mean “e.g.”, as opposed to the other way around.  Two periods punctuate e.g. and i.e. in U.S. English, where they may be unpunctuated in British English. Surround these abbreviations with commas.

Do not confuse these two abbreviations, which mean different things and have different origins.  I hope I have clarified the confusion as we walked leisurely inside the English maze.  Good Day.

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