C.K.Ogden Memoir

C. K. OGDEN : A Collective Memoir

(3) Counter-Offensive

(A) EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

"Exposure of Certain Misrepresentations of Basic English".

Critical Examination of Basic English.

"was the outcome of more than two years labour with six collaborators, yet any one familiar with the literature which it professed to examine could detect at a glance the grossest errors and misrepresentations on every page; and the critical dogmas on which it is founded have long been abandoned by every linguist of repute. It seemed incredible that anyone would take it seriously, but the carnegie imprimatur seemed to vouch for its authenticity. A claque intervened behind the scenes to rescue it from the fate it deserved; a chorus supervened to render it nocuous:
"Cf for a trenchant criticism of defects in Ogden's list Michael West, Bulletin 2," says Professor R. H. Fife in the Carnegie volume, Experiments and Studies in Modern Language Teaching (Chicago, 1934).
"Those who wish to gain a more detailed knowledge of Basic English should read . . . A Critical Examination of Basic English," advises Dr P. B. Ballard, in his Thought and Language (London, 1934).

"For a scientific and detailed criticism of the project, see A Critical Examination of Basic English," says the official refutation of Basic published by the British Esperanto Association.
"The 850-word-list is still the same, but the criticism made by Professor Michael West and others, that the learning weight of the 850 is equal to over 3,000 words, is not answered," is the presumptuous and superficial echo of Mrs Aiken, in American Speech, October, 1934.

One knows how a misquotation or a misprint may be copied for generations from the works of one expert or another, without a verification of the reference, until the perversion becomes standard. The reader of the following pages will be in a position to judge for himself the extent to which the writers of the above had checked the material thus recommended or endorsed.

* A criticism by Ogden of West's own list of words is contained in an article by "Adelyne More" How not to make a Dictionary (1935) which can readily be referred to in the 1935 Vol. (XV) of Psyche, published by Kegan Paul.

(B) TEXT OF MICHAEL WEST ET AL, A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF BASIC ENGLISH.*
with fingers pointing to errors superimposed by Ogden

* . Bulletin No. 2, University of Toronto Press, 1934. pp. 29-31.

TABLE XVIII

SOME WORDS OF VALUE IN THE BASIC VOCABULARY WHICH MIGHT BE REPLACED BY MORE USEFUL WORDS OR OMITTED
BASIC WORD :	REMARKS AND PROPOSED SUBSTITUTE :
1 . Canvas.	-used to replace Sail and Tent, but of very little use otherwise. Sail and To sail would be better for the one use, and Camp or Tent for the other.
2 . Camera.	People who can afford to buy a camera can afford to learn an extra word; outside Europe these are few. In the wealthier countries and in Europe "Kodak" is almost an "International word",-and this word is actually used in the Basic Dictionary.
3 . Chalk.	Useful in a school, but not to adults.
4 . Chemical.	Of little use to children since there is already a phrase for "medicine".
5 . Complex.	"Complicated" would be better. But the idea is sufficiently covered (for a 1000 word vocabulary) by "Hard to under- stand", "Has many parts".
6 . Elastic.	"To stretch" would be more widely useful.
7 . Expert.	"Skill-ed" would be more useful : -or "Experienced" (in list) and "Learned" (derived from Learning).
8 . Fertile.	-soil = "good"; -woman, "has children".
9 . Glove.	Useful only in colder climates.
10. Grip.	Probably Basic uses Grip so as to get the stretched meanings "understand" and "interest"; it is a far less useful word than Hold.
11. Kettle.	A rather unimportant item in non-tea-drinking countries- especially to boys.
12. Linen.	-as material is comparatively rare. Other senses are adequately covered by "Cloth", "Clothes", "Cotton".
13. Monkey.	Not common, nor important.
14. Muscle.	"Strong" is better. (Details of the body are not important words in a small speaking vocabulary, as one can point).
15. Oven.	To bake.
16. Paste.	To stick.
17. Plane.	No use to girls, -nor to the majority of boys.
(wood--).
18. Plough.	Not needed by town children. Country children do not have occasion to discuss Ploughs in English, but use the native word.
19. Prose.	= "not verse" ("Verse" is in Basic).
20. Rice.	Unimportant in Europe.
21. Sex.	Not needed Basic has got Male and Female.
22. Smash	"An accident" would be wider in meaning and applicability
	-and "By accident" is a useful idiom.
23. Sneeze.	Very unimportant.
24. Sponge.	Little used in the tropics (because of scorpions).
25. Umbrella.	Important in Southern India, less so in Europe, still less so in dry areas.
26 Tray.	Unimportant, especially to boys.
27. Whip.	"A stick", "Hit".
28. Worm.	Unimportant as a subject of conversation.

TABLE XIX

EXAMPLES OF CONTENT Wosws w BASIC ENGLISH WHICH ARE OF MINOR IMPORTANCE TO A CHILD LIVING IN TURKEY, PALESTINE, EGYPT, SUDAN, TROPICAL AMERICA, INDIA, BURMA, CEYLON, SL4iss, MALAYA, CHINA (total population about 900,000,000, or half the population of the world)

1 .	Air-cushion
2 .	Automatic machine
3 .	Ballet
4 .	Bar (Drinking-)
5 .	Baseball
6 .	Beef
7 .	Beer
8 .	Blackberry
9 .	Blackbird
10.	Blow-pipe
11.	Buttonhook
12.	Bluebell
13.	Café

14.	Camera
15.	Canvas
16.	Chauffeur
17.	Circus
18.	Cocktail
19.	Complex, A-
20.	Conditioned reaction
21.	Dynamite
22.	Egg-cup
23.	Embassy
24.	Encyclopaedia
25.	Gas cooker
26.	Glove

27.	Harmony
28.	Insurance
29.	Jazz
30.	Kettle
31.	Linen
32.	Opera
33.	Passport
34.	Plane (for wood)
35.	Psychology
36.	Radium
37.	Referendum
38.	Sponge
39.	Torpedo

TABLE XX

ITEMS IN "THE BASIC WORDS" WHICH MIGHT BE OBJECTED TO IN THE ABOVE COUNTRIES

1.	Alcohol
2.	Ballet
3.	Backside
4.	Bar
5.	Beef
6.	"Desire for a woman"
7.	"He is her lover"
8.	Hiccup
9.	Interest (on money)
10.	Kiss*
11.	"Make eyes at - -
12.	Pig
13.	Sex-desire
14.	To have sex relations with
15.	Wine
16.	Worse for drink (and other references to drink)

* Kissing is an indecent act in certain parts of Africa. The word is of course necessary (and less objectionable) in a reading vocabulary, but may not be included in a speech course.

Page 29, Table XVIII

canvas

elastic

grip

oven

paste

whip

chemical

plane

chalk

tray

kettle

plough

tea

water !

man

Monkey

Complex

two

Camera

The Basic Dictionary,

Expert

-ed

-er

-ing

linen

rice

muscles

sponges

stick

umbrellas

smashed

worm

early bird

sneeze

The Basic Dictionary

fertile

air-planes,³ kettles,

trays

* Original page numbers.
1 . We are not surprised that sex is unnecessary (No. 21) on this criterion; but we would remind the critics that in the tropical countries puberty arrives with disconcerting rapidity. And, as Freud might ask : "Were you ever a child ?"
2 . Reference to trial of schoolteacher for inculcating Darwinism (P.S.F.).
3 . A plane is admittedly a "wood-plane" (No. 17), but its chief value is in helping us to cover the wide field of aeronautics.

Page 30, Objection 6

It is claimed that, in respect of its Content words ( = the names of the things we talk about) the Basic vocabulary is equally applicable to every age of learner, every country and degree of culture.

Basic English

learner,

needs;

Page 30, Table XIX

Ballet, bar, beer, beef, cafe, chauffeur, circus, cocktail, dynamite, encyclopaedia, jazz, opera, passport, radium, referendum, torpedo.

Psychology;

blackberry, blackbird,

bluebell

blackbird,

The Basic Words.

automatic

machine

found

air-cushion, blow-pipe, buttonhook, conditioned reaction, egg-cup,

gas-cooker.

The Basic Words

may

complex

plane

camera, canvas, glove, harmony, insurance, kettle, linen,

sponge

* Basic recommends that the word should be taught in this way, in conformity with the principle that takes advantage of every concrete or picturable element in introducing the fundamental sense to learners of every description.

Page 30, Table XX

Sex

lingams,

desire for a woman

lover

alcohol, ballet, bar, beef

hiccup

backside

ballet

kiss

interest

wine

the worse for drink

Americana

carriage

tin

electric

Chemist

Flat

lift

essential

milk;

non sequitur.

1 . Even so (unless Christianity itself is to be eliminated from the international preserve because it is objectionable to so many Confucians, Buddhists, and Mohammedans) it remains the standard salute of the Apostles (including Judas) and the most prevalent greeting of mothers, lovers, and married persons in all Christian countries. The critics have probably forgotten, too, that the hand or the toe may equally be the subject of osculation; but in any case their anthropological statistics are here farcical.
2 . An "electric train", is, of course, not used in Basic for a street-car. It refers always to what it might be expected to cover, namely an electric train.

COMMENTARY ON OGDEN's COUNTER-OFFENSIVE
I. A. Richards

Counter-Offensive,

word-counts,

word-counters

OED lists

The Interim Report on Vocabulary Selection

Basic English and its Uses,

the, of, and, to, a, in, that, it, is, I

Absolutely,

very, certainly, completely, at all

absolute

Absolute

everything,

nothing.

Contents
Notes on Contributors		vii
Illustrations		viii
PART A :	INTRODUCTORY	1
PART B : OGDEN AS EDITOR AND POLYMATH		12
PART C : THE INVENTION OF BASIC ENGLISH		133
PART D : EXAMPLES OF BASIC ENGLISH		177
PART E : C. K. OGDEN AS AUTHOR		187
	Fecundity vs. Civilization	189
	Encyclopeadia Britannia	192
	Counter-Offensive	213
	Commentary top	226
PART F : C. K. OGDEN : A PLEA FOR REASSESSMENT		231
Appendix -- List of books edited by Ogden		245

Provided and Thanks to ZbEnglish.net

(3) Counter-Offensive

COMMENTARY ON OGDEN's COUNTER-OFFENSIVE I. A. Richards

COMMENTARY ON OGDEN's COUNTER-OFFENSIVE
I. A. Richards