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The vague use of ‘thing’

Wednesday 21 December 2011

In writing ‘A Handbook of Spoken Grammar’ (follow the links ‘Titles’ and ‘Language Practice’ on the DELTA website for details), we wanted to include some key aspects of ‘vague language’ (e.g. ‘sort of’, ‘a couple of’, ‘a bit of’ etc.).

The word ‘thing’ (and ‘thingy’, ‘thingamajig’, and ‘thingummy’) has a number of
uses:

- There was a thing at work today.

(An argument? A farewell party? A big announcement?)

- I’ve got this thing on my shoulder.

(An insect bite? A bruise?)

- Have you seen my sports things?

- Did you send thingy a birthday card?

(It might sound rude to use ‘thing’ for a person here, but people will often say ‘You poor/brave thing!’)

- Shall we see how things develop?

- I haven’t got a thing to wear.

etc.

In the unit on ‘thing’, we try to work out some rules for its use, and we’ve
written some practice exercises, and recorded some dialogues. But here’s a
question for you:

Would you say all of these? What’s the difference in meaning?

They’re rich. They’ve got a yacht and everything.

They’re rich. They’ve got a yacht and things.

They’re a couple now. They’re in love and everything.

They’re a couple now. They’re in love and things.

Next time: exaggerated language.

If you’re about to celebrate, have an absolutely fantastic Christmas!

One response to The vague use of ‘thing’

The vagueness of “thing” | efl-resource.com says:

January 14, 2012 at 7:59 pm

[...] vagueness of “thing” Posted on 24 December, 2011 by Simon Thomas Ken Paterson lists a few ways in which “thing” is used in English, and presents an exercise focussing on di….Share this post:Bookmark on DeliciousDigg this postRecommend on FacebookGoogle Buzz-up this [...]

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