{"id":109,"date":"2010-06-05T13:03:19","date_gmt":"2010-06-05T11:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.teachenglishtoday.org\/?p=109"},"modified":"2010-06-14T10:58:33","modified_gmt":"2010-06-14T08:58:33","slug":"a-motivation-against-motivate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/2010\/06\/a-motivation-against-motivate\/","title":{"rendered":"A \u2018MOTIVATION\u2019 AGAINST \u2018MOTIVATE\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image_pdf\"<\/a>\"image_print\"<\/a><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>Peter Titlestad<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Retired Professor of English, University of Pretoria<\/em><\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Motivate,\u2019 meaning \u2018to give reasons for\u2019 is a South Africanism that is, perhaps, a little too well established. It comes from the Afrikaans \u2018om te motiveer\u2019. \u00a0In the rest of the English-speaking world, \u2018to motivate\u2019 is to impart a sense of enthusiasm or a desire to get things done. South Africans should be aware that local usage could cause confusion elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u2018Motivate your answer\u2019 is becoming a stock phrase in examination papers, at the cost of other, excellent, English phrases. Would not \u2018give reasons for your opinion\u2019 be pleasanter, more direct, more comprehensible? This, and other possibilities, are in danger of being lost to English in South Africa. Should our \u2018learners\u2019 grow up not knowing \u2018put the case for, \u2018argue your case\u2019, \u00a0\u2018give a reasoned argument\u2019, \u00a0\u2018state your reasons\u2019, \u2018make a well-reasoned case for\u2019, \u2018back up your opinions\u2019, \u2018justify, \u2018explain\u2019? \u00a0Instead of \u2018a good motivation\u2019 one can \u2018make a strong case for\u2019; rather than a \u2018weak motivation\u2019 one could say \u2018a weak case for\u2019; or \u2018weak reasoning\u2019 or an \u2018unconvincing explanation\u2019. The specialized phrase \u2018put the case\u2019, to express a hypothetical situation, can sometimes be essential.<\/p>\n

Jean Aitcheson, in Language Decay<\/em>, puts the case that change does not mean language decay. This is a stock-in-trade argument against the wish to preserve, conventionally objurgated as \u2018purism\u2019. However, would it not be a pity if South Africa lost the eloquent alternatives to \u2018motivate\u2019 and \u2018motivation\u2019? \u2018Motivate\u2019 is sterile and abstract; the other terms are flexible, vigorous, idiomatic English, and the expressions learners are likely to come across in all sorts of documents and situations wherever English is used. They are important items of vocabulary, basic to any debate or argument. Not to have access to this area of vocabulary is a severe handicap. They are essential items of communication. If one wants to teach \u2018communicative English,\u2019 this is the kind of thing that should be taught.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Motivate,\u2019 meaning \u2018to give reasons for\u2019 is a South Africanism that is, perhaps, a little too well established. It comes from the Afrikaans \u2018om te motiveer\u2019. In the rest of the English-speaking world, \u2018to motivate\u2019 is to impart a sense of enthusiasm or a desire to get things done. South Africans should be aware that local usage could cause confusion elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353,"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions\/353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}