THE SCHOLARS' SCOOP

How do you say common words? Why do you say common words? These two seemingly simple questions were attempted to be answered by John Kincaid, a 1990 Governor’s Scholar at Centre College with a PhD & MA in English from University of Texas (Austin). Kincaid spoke to the scholars on Wednesday the 10th in Johnson Theater.

Started the convocation, Kincaid explained to the audience habits of mind, these habits being curiosity, openness, engagement, creativity, persistence, responsibility, flexibility, and metacognition. These habits, according to Kincaid, are all facets of a good leader. He encouraged the scholars to embrace these habits and grow into better leaders.

Kincaid then moved to the concept of peeving; where individuals or communities get upset when another person or community pronounces a word different from them. A common example is the misuse of your or you’re. Kincaid moved to metathesis where people transpose sounds into words. A common example in our society is the pronunciation of Nuclear as “Nook-yuh-ler.”

Additionally Kincaid discussed the differences in British and American English. He specifically focused on the idea of the H dropping in British English. Think of the way they say “A’rry Potter.” He then used this as an example to illustrate why Eeyore is named the way he is. Considering most of the animals are named common things like Tiger. Understanding this allowed us to learn that Eeyore was probably supposed to be pronounced hee – haw.

Kincaid then moved onto the origins of the word grammar and explained how it started with magic in Medieval Scotland. It started with the word glamor which was used to cast spells and curse people.

Finally Kincaid discussed the purpose of machines and AI in modern English. Kincaid asserted confidently that while machines can be helpful, ultimately English is our own and we should treat it as such. Language has grown and developed all throughout history and it will continue to evolve into the future. Speaking different from someone could mean you’re wrong, or it could mean you’re about to start a trend.