Saturday, March 27, 2021

Language Casualties of the Times

    First off, I'm not angry. Language, written or spoken, is a function of the times, and how we communicate with each other. Yet, it is of note:

    If the word black is now to be capitalized when referring to race, why not the word brown?  We hear about discrimination against the Black and brown people. Are capital letter designations based on societal injustice or slavery alone or what. 

  Words alone.  Some words or terms are banned for use by some, but allowable for others.  NAACP, United Negro College Fund

Grammar and usage. Offense to no one, but it is just grammatically wrong for a plural pronoun to refer to a singular noun. I don't mean the ambiguity afforded to collective noun usage. But the structure used to eliminate sexual designation. As in, "The person who caught the ball injured their hand."  Just so wrong.

The sometimes awkward and completely unnecessary obsolescence of words. What ever happened to the word "before." Yes, there are times when "ahead of " carries a different connotation. You want to get ahead of the crowd. That invention is ahead of its time. But the media, written newspaper accounts as well as online blurbs, almost automatically replaces before with ahead of. He will meet with reporters ahead of the  meeting. Why use 2 words when 1 will do, and even make more sense. I guess it must sound sexier, in the commercial sense.

And there have always been slangy catch phrases. But sometimes they tend to clash with time and place.   "Perfect" is an example. When you answer a question in completing a form or giving information, you don't necessarily want to hear the word perfect. What is your date of birth?  You answer and hear "Perfect." No.

But the good news is that "Perfect" is slowly being replaced. The bad news is the replacement word is "Gotcha."  Sounds like a trap, doesn't it.

And if I never hear "I love it!" again, it will be too soon.  (Maybe that started with that car ad.


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