GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
13:44 Apr 7, 2009 |
English language (monolingual) [Non-PRO] Social Sciences - Geography | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||
| Selected response from: Tony M France Local time: 12:46 | ||||||
Grading comment
|
SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
5 +6 | Please see explanation below |
|
Discussion entries: 1 | |
---|---|
suburbs/outskirts/suburbia Please see explanation below Explanation: The suburbs are the part of the town or city lying outside the main central section (where most shops, public buildings, etc. are likely to be concentrated). It is a neutral term, and does not really have any qualitative or judgemental connotation. Willesden or Balham are suburbs of London. Outskirts generally means the outer fringes of a town or city — i.e. only the outermost part of the suburbs, possibly the last straggling parts of the urban area before it becomes the country. London is a poor example to choose, inasmuch as it more or less melds imperceptibly into surrounding towns, but one might say that Richmond for example (a town in its own right) lies on the outskirts of London (note also the different construction) Suburbia, on the other hand, has a quite different cultural connotation, and may indeed be used in some contexts with a negative or pejorative connotation. It does not really refer to a particular geographical area, but rather, to the whole cultural phenomenon, which may or may not be associated with a specific area. It is about the (stereo)type of people who live in the suburbs, the type of lifestyle they may have — semi-detached hosues or neat bungalows with small gardens, washing the car on Sundays — a whole cultural phenomenon that is quintessentially English. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2009-04-07 14:50:37 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- 'suburbia' is uncountable, and you certainly couldn't say "which are the suburbia of London" — though you could say that "London offers us many very typical examples of what 'suburbia' is all about" -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2009-04-07 14:51:04 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- One might say that 'suburbia' is a state of mind! -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2009-04-07 14:56:51 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Here's the rather more succinct definition from NS OED: "The suburbs (orig. esp. of London); the residents or their way of life in the suburbs of a city." Note that by 'the suburbs', it means 'the suburbs taken conceptually as a whole' -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2009-04-07 14:57:59 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- I don't think the usage is particualrly different in the US, though perhaps there is a touch less irony in it there? -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2009-04-07 15:09:41 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- The use of 'outskirts' emphasizes the fact that they are more or less on the fringes (note that it is rarely if ever used in the singular), whereas the use of 'suburbs' (often used in the singular, of course) merely stresses the fact that it is 'not the town centre'. One often hears 'inner and outer suburbs', for example — but I don't think one would ever talk about the 'inner outskirts' of a town (except in a literary style, for effect). -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2009-04-07 15:26:37 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Armorel has made an excellent point there — I live on the outskirts of a small village, but an urban entity has to be big enough to be an 'urb' into order to have 'sub-urbs' |
| |
Grading comment
| ||