Wednesday, May 3

Language

As many of my friends can tell you, I have some problems with verbal English or, at least, the direction its moving in. Particular favorite sources of hate are unnecessary acronyms, RBF for rootbeer flota and WTF are particularly vexing in that they aren't even shorter than the words which they're shortening, WTF actually having more syllables than the phrase it replaces, and using business names as general nouns and verbs, Kleenex and Google spring to mind in these occasions. In the case of acronyms, I believe the source of my rage is clear though not everyone may agree with it. I simply dislike unnecessary things. Strip life and language down to the essentials. Remove the clutter. As far as business names becoming a part of the vernacular my problem lies in seeing business become such a large part of our culture that begins to permeate our everyday speech. Mostly a knee jerk reaction against business I guess. Not that there's much I can do about it on a broad scale. Language is simply too large an element of culture for a single person to change it. George Bernard Shaw tried and failed, and I think he had more than a few things going for him that I don't.

I realize this isn't that great of a post seeing as how it lacks any deep insights or decisive philosophies, but I do hope that it causes you to think and be a bit more aware of something we engage in everyday, speech. Life and all its elements must not be taken for granted.

2 comments:

Emmett said...
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Emmett said...

I can understand the way that saying "WTF" takes more time than saying the original phrase, but how does using "Google" or "Facebook" as a verb do anything but cut it down? Language is built when a need arises to explicate something; when such phenomena are used frequently, such as Google or Facebook, it is likely that their use will be simplified as the term becomes part of the vernacular. In this case, each website is used in a certain way every time- so to say I googled something is essentially the equivalent of saying I went swimming, only without saying I put on swimming trunks, I went to the swimming pool, I jumped in the water, and then I started moving my hands and feet in a certain manner in order to propel me forward.