Language

[tealin]

Earlier this week I had a conversation in which I used a colourful euphemism, and my conversee corrected me by supplanting it with the dull, blunt word it danced around. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but I had always assumed that everyone knows what euphemisms stand for, otherwise they wouldn’t get used, or would be called symbolism or something fancy like that. When someone says ‘kicked the bucket,’ you know they don’t mean that someone literally walked up to a bucket an kicked it, you know that they expired, passed away, bit the dust, bought the farm, or otherwise died. (Please forgive me such a morbid example; euphemisms for death spring most readily to mind as there are a nearly unlimited supply.) I was also reminded of a point made by Daniel Handler in the interview to be found on the Bad Beginning audio book, in regards to the large words and sophisticated idioms found in the Snicket books:

It is really no fun to say ‘my, what a big truck’ when you can say ‘my, what a corpulent truck.’ The English language is filled with so many marvellous words that it seems a shame not to use the good ones. For instance, to say ‘the English language is filled with good words’ is not nearly as much fun as saying ‘the English language is filled with marvellous words.’ So I think Mr Snicket, like any author worth his salt, likes to use expressions like ‘worth his salt,’ rather than ‘like any author who is good.’

So, in the somewhat snarky spirit of clarity and straightforwardness, I now bring you the first in what might possibly be a series of ‘Cut the Crap and Get To It!’

The original:

What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

And the honest truth:

Man is really something. Being smart makes him good. He can do a lot of things. The shape he is and the way he moves is good. Whether doing something or not, he’s impressive, good-looking, and better than the other animals. But what is this thing to me? Man doesn’t make me happy – and girls don’t either, you perverts.

Comments

The (Brain) Death of the English Language

[(Anonymous)]

I just wanted to say Amen to all the sentiments decrying the waste of the wealth of words and expressions available to English-speakers. Yes, there are times when direct, abbreviated, unadorned communication is expedient (life-or-death emergencies, etc.), and obviously blunt, crude expressions can occasionally be highly amusing (your "translation" of Shakespeare is a riot - I want to see more of these!), but I see a growing tendency towards laziness (as well as crassness) in this country's everyday use of language (overusing a few words, using the wrong words, etc.) pervading too many age groups, social strata, educational levels, etc., to the point where many people who consider themselves intellectually and culturally enlightened or sophisticated become dependent on the same limited vocabulary and references I'd associate with (insert politically incorrect, socially backward stereotype here). It really makes me sad, and since English is a living, evolving (or devolving) language, I can't help foreseeing the death of many wonderful, colorful words, expressions, colloquialisms, euphemisms, etc. for want of use. Thus will our language gradually be reduced to fewer and fewer short, simple, imprecise, clumsy, ugly "catch-alls" that insufficiently substitute for a multitude of beautiful, creative, and subtly diverse sentiments; we will not only lose superfluous, outdated verbiage and euphemisms, but much of the clarity, beauty, history, culture, and poetry heretofore preserved in and by the English language will be further misunderstood, diluted, distorted, and forgotten. Think I'm being a melodramatic blowhard? Well, it wouldn't be possible without a big vocabulary! So nyeah nyeah nyeah pooheads.
---DisneyBoy
(Once again, I have used WAY too many words to say the same thing, not very clearly, over and over again - I'm afraid I'm not helping your cause here, but am an argument against reckless excessive verbosity! So maybe you should do yourself a favor and not actually post this - I seriously would be OK with that. Or maybe you could rephrase it in a way that wouldn't bore your loyal readers to tears. I'm too lazy ;))

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Haha, I unscreened it anyway, because it was brilliant.