[ad_1]
At the time of writing, I have no clear idea what “gaslighting” means. Or a store that manages “banks,” “mirrors,” “sealing,” or asset management? – “gray rock”. “Performative,” yes, but the world seemed to live without words, and its very use became performative until five minutes ago.
None of this fits into the neologisms of Anthony Burgess’s level of identity politics. And not to this “two sides” – why is it always a verb? – but conservatives are hardly above one or two sentences. What has “signs of virtue” added to “holiness”? Who wouldn’t prefer a “snowflake” in the hands of a poet like Longfellow?
It is the thing that improves the life that languages mutate. But I wonder if English has been as restless as it is now. If the changes were to remain at the level of slang or subculture, they would be of only academic interest. Instead, it’s about constantly getting into the mainstream.
One of the vectors of this is the tremendous push known as corporation, a social fashion that would not see a quiet life. Another is the public sector. I am looking at “equality, diversity and inclusion” NHS website, one of the largest employers in the world. To the extent that it is literate (beware of “white suppression”) it is a glossary of “allies,” “lived experience,” and other medical needs.
There used to be two arguments against this kind of evil. One was aesthetic. The blur of the jar can attack the ear like a noisy refrigerator. The other drawback, that of George Orwell, is that he is politically insidious. Soviet or Nazi, Jesuit or anticlerical, the perversion of language is the deception of the despot.
Let me suggest a third more strategic problem. English is the only threat as the lingua franca of the world and it is not Mandarin. There is also the (excessive) potential of translation technologies. It’s the drop that language makes to bullfighting.
The pace and darkness of lexicographic change can confuse English into one thing that the language of commerce, science, and diplomacy cannot survive: confusion. I know minor English speakers who can’t keep up. For those learning it as a second language, the scope for mistakes is wider.
Imagine that you are an intermediate English student who aims for fluency. You are trying to master the verb “center”. A few years ago, focusing on yourself was about having a relaxing moment at a stressful time: cooking was a centering hobby. Being as new as that definition, it has once again become something like “excessive promotion”. If Lyndon Johnson recognizes civil rights, I’m focusing on white people in a black story. You can find this use of the word in an alleged logbook.
Remember that none of these meanings match your textbook, where moving an object to the center of a physical space is central. At some point, this kind of ambiguity ceases to be proof of flexible and textured language. It becomes a mark of the unusable.
In his book on English, Kingsley Amis identified two enemies of the language. “Berks” speak rudely and idiomatically. In their hands or mouths, the Englishman would die of impurity, as the late Latin did. “Wankers,” on the other hand, are highly prized. They would cause English to die cleanly, just like medieval Latin.
Now English-speaking members, what we are dealing with is a kind of hybrid. Imagine a man who ignores tradition with a ridiculous wanker smile. (I would confuse epithets, but the result is consistent with a great profession of FT reading.)
Ugly change, I can live with this. If you “call” things and “round” people, it sounds silly but your meaning is clear enough. Also, there isn’t much damage to the deep false dating profile of the “Bring the responsible energy you brought” variety. Problems begin when a language loses its meaning, not grace.
The time has come for us. The Englishman never seemed to be happy with his own Académie Française, as some VS Naipaul-type drivers were banned. Now I wonder. Thanks to the calmness of the French, the language immersed the world, yes. But then he made it clear.
Send an email to Janan janan.ganesh@ft.com
Continue @FTLifeArts Discover our latest stories on Twitter for the first time
[ad_2]
Source link
