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Basic English
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Basic English is an English based controlled language created by Charles Kay Ogden (in essence a simplified subset of English) as an international auxiliary language, and as an aid for teaching English as a Second Language. It was presented in Ogden's book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930).
Ogden's Basic (or "BASIC"), and the concept of a simplified English, gained its greatest publicity just after the Allied victory in the Second World War as a tool for world peace.
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Encyclopedia
Basic English is an English based controlled language created by Charles Kay Ogden (in essence a simplified subset of English) as an international auxiliary language, and as an aid for teaching English as a Second Language. It was presented in Ogden's book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930).
Ogden's Basic (or "BASIC"), and the concept of a simplified English, gained its greatest publicity just after the Allied victory in the Second World War as a tool for world peace. Although Basic English was not built into a program, similar simplifications have been devised for various international uses. Ogden's associate I. A. Richards promoted its use in schools in China. More recently, it has influenced the creation of Voice of America's Special English for news broadcasting, and Simplified English, another English based controlled language designed to write technical manuals.
What survives today of Ogden's Basic English is the basic 850 word list used as the beginner's vocabulary of the English language taught world-wide, especially Asia.
Design principles
Ogden tried to simplify English while keeping it normal for native speakers, by specifying grammar restrictions and a controlled small vocabulary which makes an extensive use of paraphrasis. Most notably, Ogden eliminated verbs, saying in his General Introduction that "There are no 'verbs' in Basic English", with the underlying assumption that, as noun use in English is very straightforward but verb use/conjugation is not, the elimination of verbs would be a welcome simplification.
Historical references
In the future history book The Shape of Things to Come, published in 1933, H.G. Wells depicted Basic English as the lingua franca of a new elite which after a prolonged struggle succeeds in uniting the world and establishing a totalitarian world government. In the future world of Wells' vision, virtually all members of humanity know this language (for a similar real-world development, see Engrish).
From 1942 until 1944 George Orwell was a proponent of Basic English, but in 1945 he became critical of universal language. The language later inspired his use of Newspeak in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Noted science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein used a form of Basic English in his story "Gulf" as a language appropriate for a race of genius supermen.
Word lists
Ogden's word lists include only word roots, which in practice are extended with the defined set of affixes and the full set of forms allowed for any available word (noun, pronoun, or the limited set of verbs).
The 850 core words of Basic English are found in Wiktionary's Appendix:Basic English word list. This core is theoretically enough for everyday life. However, Ogden prescribed that any student should learn an additional 150 word list for everyday work in some particular field, by adding a word list of 100 words particularly useful in a general field (e.g., science, verse, business, etc.), along with a 50-word list from a more specialized subset of that general field, to make a basic 1000 word vocabulary for everyday work and life.
Moreover, Ogden assumed that any student already should be familiar with (and thus may only review) a core subset of around "international" words. Therefore, a first level student should graduate with a core vocabulary of around 1350 words. A realistic general core vocabulary could contain 1500 words (the core 850 words, plus 350 international words, and 300 words for the general fields of trade, economics, and science). A sample 1500 word vocabulary is included in the Simple English Wikipedia.
Ogden also provided lists to extend the general 1500 vocabulary with to make a , enough for a "standard" English level. This 2000 word vocabulary represents "what any learner should know". At this level students could start to move on their own.
Criticism
Like all IALs, Basic may be criticized as unavoidably based on personal preferences, and thus, paradoxically, as inherently divisive. Moreover, like all natural language based IALs, Basic is subject to criticism as unfairly biased towards the native speaker community.
As a teaching aid for English as a Second Language, Basic has been criticized for the choice of the core vocabulary and for its grammatical constraints.
See also
External links
- Charles Kay Ogden, , London: Paul Treber
- Charles Kay Ogden, , Cambridge: The Orthological Institute. (1937).
- I. A. Richards & Christine Gibson, Learning Basic English: A Practical Handbook for English-Speaking People, New York: W. W. Norton & Co. (1945)
- Ogden's books and wordlists online and several discussions.
- Ongoing project to support and update Ogden's Basic (with downloads).
- A discussion about Basic English, with supporters and critics.
- Wiktionary:Basic English template (uses Basic English word list as a basis for studying equivalent basic words in other languages)
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- - Detect words which are not in some dictionary. Ogden's Basic English dictionary list included.
- - some criticisms of Basic English and suggestions for overcoming its problems
- - An alternative formulation to easily recognise third person.
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