Language Matters: Dr Lisa Lim Discusses the Inclusion of “Heaty” and “Cooling” in the Oxford English Dictionary

7 February 2017 (Tuesday)

2 February 2017 (Thursday) – online

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in the School of English, discusses the inclusion of words that represent Chinese traditional cultural concepts in the Oxford English Dictionary in her fortnightly Post Magazine column: Language Matters.

“New Englishes, such as Singapore English, have evolved to encompass these cultural concepts as lexical items. Singaporeans constantly advise each other that eating too much durian, mango or chocolate will make you heaty, and such an indulgence has to be countered by consuming something cooling, say, mangosteen or coconut water.

Such widespread currency of these words in new Englishes has been recognised by the Oxford English Dictionary: the words “heaty” and “cooling” were included in its December 2016 update, the former first documented in print usage in 1940, and the latter as far back as 1842.”

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/2067467/how-heaty-and-cooling-made-it-oxford-english-dictionary

heaty cooling
Source: SCMP

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