Fun with Language, I

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I love language and all the fascinating things people do with it. Somewhat related to this is the fact that many people seem to think that just because I teach English, I must be an expert at all things related to language and its use (including spelling, typing, and sentence construction). Now, there is certainly some overlap, but I love language above and beyond teaching students how to write a paper. I've always loved language -- from winning a contest in early elementary school for a short verse about Thanksgiving, to reading books out loud to people who will listen. I love how it sounds, what it can do, how limited it is, how powerful it is, how utterly paradoxical it is.

That love is not always tampered by my teacher-self. So, if you think I'm quietly critiquing your use of grammar, your spelling, and your general mastery of the English language...well, I'm not. What I might be listening to is how you use words, the accent or dialect you have, how you pronounce a word here and there. Do you say soda or pop? Crick or creek? Coo-pon or que-pon? Does the region of your upbringing slip through when you are tired? Do you fulfill the linguistic stereotypes of where you hail? It is all part of the everyday music of the human voice that surrounds us in almost all that we do. That's what I'm listening for and to...not whether or not you split your infinitives or dangled your participles. There are things about language that always catch my ear and get me thinking about how language is formed, what it means, and how it comes to mean what it does.

The two most fascinating things about language is that it is arbitrary and it is defined by the people who use it. So, if once upon a time 'nimrod' meant 'hunter' and now means someone who has less than a firm grasp on intellect, then that's now what the word means. Times and people change -- the socio-political structure of a society sometimes dictates that a word will no longer mean what it once did or new words need to be created. 'Unibrow' didn't exist before the late 80's. 'Gastric bypass' was added to the dictionary in 1972. 'Decimate' once meant to destroy one out of every ten things. Now it seems to mean utterly destroy. Words sometimes retain their meaning but get so bogged down in history that they fall out of favor. We saw it with 'colored' (how many generations do you have to go back before someone you know uses it still?) and we can see it now with 'retarded.' The A-R-C is now just The Arc - a word that does not carry the same emotional baggage and troubling history that the acronym does.

Language changes and evolves all the time because somehow we decide what words will mean and we sustain the emotions that the word and its use have birthed. Sometimes, our usage and our history attaches emotions to those words that are so powerful that they change the very meaning of the words. It's not a bad thing to be discriminatory, but 'discriminate' has come to be inextricably intertwined with race, sexual orientation, gender, ethnic background, religion, political party and any other category by which we often judge others who are not 'like us.' As a result, you will rarely hear someone discussing their discrimination in regards to toothpaste, though it would, technically, be a perfectly legitimate use of the word.

And there's where the fascination lies -- with (no surprise) one word. Legitimacy. What a word has meant and is recorded as meaning is what we often use as a guide. Those, too, change, but far more slowly than the meaning used by the general populous. So, we have people who 'could care less' when they really mean they couldn't. We have perfectly calm and happy people who have 'mad skills'. The rapid rate of technology has increased the speed of this change and I see the new language bleeding into the papers of my students. U no wut i mean. That is a whole other (or is that nother?) entry...

What makes it even more interesting for me is when I realize I'm witnessing the transformation of a word. We often don't stop to think about this, but it happens around us all the time. Sometimes we lock on to one word and it becomes a beacon in the sea of communication; it is a word you seem to always be on high alert for... just so you can hear how it's used. It may not even be for any particular reason -- though sometimes it is. I have three words that are currently on my radar; two have a larger, greater purpose and one is just because.

The first two are 'gay' and 'retarded' -- I have taken it on myself to try and correct the usage of those words whenever I hear them in contexts that seem inappropriate. They are both words that should not be used to hurt others and often are. Names can hurt. The third word is just one that just amuses me. It is so often used in a way that I just don't get when considering what the word has traditionally meant and I've been trying to figure out its new role. Actually.

"That movie was actually good."
"I'm going to work, actually"
"I actually like tea."

Now, traditionally and logically, this word corrects a wrong that is implied, inferred, or assumed. It can be tied to an element of expectation and reality. If you expect that you won't enjoy the movie, and you do...then you actually enjoyed it. It's simple. That isn't how it's often used, however. It's used in sentences that aren't refuting anything that is obvious and do not seem to be expressing the revelation of something about which the opposite was expected. I hear it all the time and I'm still working through why it's there. Maybe you can help...listen for it. I'm sure you'll actually hear it. Then come tell us about it.

-T