Is this the correct usage of "spoilt" in Standard English? A very Singaporean way of using English? Should this be corrected to "a broken trolley"?
Alvin mentioned in one of his AAE101 lecture that spoilt is used on things like food that are perishable. When something is repairable or fixable we should use "broken" to describe an object instead of "spoilt". People from other countries will find us strange if we said "my watch is spoilt" as if we were feeding it, talking to it like it was a living thing, that is like a child that is being spoilt.
His reasoning makes sense. So I'm thinking, does it mean that when I use broken to describe an object, that object must be fixable? I do have the impression that some of the things broken are not exactly fixable. For example, a vase may actually have been shattered into many pieces, I can simply say a vase is broken. Can the vase actually be fixed and pieced together perfectly...to be able to return it to its original funtionality? Or maybe the huge pieces can be sort of glued and Scotch taped together and be considered as fixed despite seeing crack lines and likely to have small missing pieces? ...I wonder am I making up funny scenarios and am I thinking too much? Am I alone in this thought or have you ever thought and wondered about something like this too?
But well, I see there's a need for me to learn to understand and use English language in the right way. Otherwise the prescriptive linguist would hang me for my cold-blooded murder of the English tongue. haha...
I was looking up the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary 3rd Edition.
I think the words sort of lead from one to another.
Break has many meanings. The ones that I'm looking at closes to 'spoilt' are "damage" and "break down".
break
Damage>[I or T] to (cause something to) seperate suddenly or violently into two or more pieces, or to (cause something to) stop working by being damaged.
break down MACHINE> If a machine or vehicle breaks down, it stops working.
So it leads me to look up damaged.
damaged> adj.> meaning harmed or spoilt.
Leads me to look for Spoilt. Wah...this word has many meanings too!
spoil
>verb (spoiled or spoilt, spoiled or spoilt)
1.DESTROY> [T] to destroy or reduce the pleasure, interest or beauty of something
2. [I or T] When food spoils or is spoilt, it is no longer good enough to eat.
4. TREAT WELL> [T] to treat someone very or too well, especially by being extremely generous.
5. CHILD > [T] DISAPPROVING to allow a child to behave exactly as it wants to, usually so that it becomes selfish and does not care for and show respect to other people.
Well, in simplistic thinking...I'm thinking it doesn't matter whether I used "spoilt trolley" or "broken trolley" since "broken" will lead to "damage" and will eventually lead to "spoil" anyway... But I think there is a subtle difference between these words.
What complexity in the English language! Can really get confusing at times. haha...
I apologise for the lengthy read.
I'm hoping you... "Yes, You!", the Reader, would want to shed some light if you have read through or even skimmed through this post. It'll be nice for me to know that there are people who agree with me so that I feel reassured that I'm on the right track. Even if you are going to disagree with me, it's fine. So that I can learn from constructive criticism.
So what are you waiting for? I look forward to your spontaneous feedbacks!
Cheers ;)
Jennifer
6 comments:
Thanks, Jennifer, for your very thorough analysis!
Yes, 'spoilt' as used in Singapore English is different from Standard English. Perhaps it's from Chinese? What's the equivalent in Malay ... can someone tell us? Thanks in advance.
Okay, firstly, I'm not really sure who I'm replying to...but here goes.
It's difficult to find the exact equivalent of 'spoilt' in Malay. If something has broken down but can still be fixed, we say 'rosak'. If you're talking about food in particular, it's 'basi'. For vases and other decorative ornaments, we say 'pecah' when it is broken into pieces.
For Malay, we have specific words for specific classes of items, so it's not as confusing as this!
Hope that helps. :)
AIN
Hi Jennifer,
What an interesting question you posed! Kudos! No doubt this is a niggling question that haunts the deep recesses of our minds.
I looked up the word 'spoil' in the Oxford's Advanced Learner's Dictionary (7th ed.) and it basically states the same definitions as Cambridge's. According to Oxford, the origin of the word 'spoil' is as follows:
Middle English (in the sense to plunder): shortening of Old French espoille (noun), espoillier (verb), from Latin spoliare, from spolium plunder, skin stripped from an animal, or a shortening of despoil.
As you can see, the word has come a loooooong way from from its origins, no? It's true that we usually use 'broken' for objects that can be fixed and ‘spoilt’ for things that cannot.
I'll go back to your example of the broken vase. [Let's make it an expensive one imported from Italy. :)] And you mentioned whether a vase that has broken into many pieces can still be considered ‘broken’, as even after it’s fixed, it won’t return to its original form. Well, to better understand ‘spoil’ and ‘broken’, I looked up the word ‘fix’ and its definition is “to repair or correct something”. So to be ‘fixed’ need not necessarily be to return the object to its previous state, but to repair something as best as you can.
If that is the case, then my answer is YES, a vase that has shattered into a million tiny pieces can still be fixed. It is possible, just not feasible. You have to have the patience of a saint and lots of glue and tape. In reality, no one would even bother trying to fix the vase, right? They'll just buy a new one. So, in their eyes, the broken vase is 'spoilt' - the vase cannot be fixed (because it costs too much time, effort and/or money and they rather just get a new one). Ahhhh...Well, that's just my theory.
I'll use another example: a broken heart. Why use a 'broken' heart and not a 'spoilt' heart? Well, because a 'broken' heart denotes that it can still be fixed, as evident by almost everyone on this planet. We get our hearts crushed and stomped on at various stages of our lives, but we survive and move on. We don't need to fix it with glue and tape, but the point is, we can fix it. This is the total opposite of a ‘spoilt’ heart, where at the first instance of heartbreak, our hearts are forever ruined and left to decompose somewhere (referring to the origins of the word ‘spoil’).
So I agree with you that the word 'broken' can sometimes be used for things that can be fixed and things that are not exactly fixable. I think we use the latter for the simple reason that we want those things to be fixable.
What do you think?
AIN
Yes…come to think of it…I only use one term in Mandarin to describe things as broken or spoilt.
In this discussion, it is an eye-opener for me to know these differences in English, Mandarin and Malay for these few unique scenarios mentioned.
To Ain: Wow! Thank you for taking my query seriously. You sure did a lot of research and gave an amazing explanation.
Hmm…I really like the interpretation that people are hopeful… to the extent of fixing a broken vase! An optimist must have created this expression. =)
To this end, I must really say “Thanks a lot for the valuable feedbacks!!!”
Cheers,
Jennifer
I checked the meanings of "broken" and "spoilt" in dictionary.com, and here's what I found:
"Broken" is normally used to refer to reversible damage.. Example: broken health, broken heart, broken fortunes, etc
"Spoilt" generally refers to irreversible or severe damage. Example: Drought spoilt the crops, the food is spoilt, etc.
So in certain ways, Ain has gotten the main difference.
~Rebecca~
Hi,
In India we have a tendency to say, ' Don't watch too much TV your eyes will get spoilt!'
I'm sure our parents mean ' Damaged' right? :D
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