I find it ironic that as i look for people discussing how to use ironic, nobody can quite agree on what it is. Wait – was that ironic or just coincidental? “Irony is one of the most misused words in the English language.” So say the scholars anyway. But i heard on a podcast a few days ago, and i completely agree – if the majority of the population is using a word in a certain way, isn’t that the “correct” usage, by definition? After all, language is just a construct to help facilitate communication between people, and if everyone uses a word to mean “x” (even if the dictionary says it really means “y”), who’s right – the dictionary, or the people using the word?
That’s one of the great things about the English language. It’s constantly evolving. We’d probably be hard-pressed to understand most of what someone was saying in “old english” a few hundred years ago. Many words have changed meanings, many more have gone out of day to day usage, and tons of new words have come into being. Not to mention local pop cultural references. Who can understand all those weird things in Shakespeare (unless you’re an English professor)?
Viva English … Woot!
3 Responses to “The ever evolving language”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Funny, because the ever evolving English language drives me crazy! I work so hard to teach my kids certain rules or definitions. I point out the way a word is constantly being used wrong. And just when they get it down things change and we are now accepting the wrong use and the right use. Isn’t it just like a bunch of lazy Americans so decide learning the rules is too hard so we’ll just make them up as we go?
Stupid, lazy Americans. Not you or me, of course. I mean other people.
Corrected comment: Funny, because the ever evolving English language drives me crazy! I work so hard to teach my kids certain rules or definitions. I point out the way a word is constantly being used wrong. And just when they get it down things change and we are now accepting the wrong use as the right use. Isn’t it just like a bunch of lazy Americans to decide learning the rules is too hard so we’ll just make them up as we go?
Stupid, lazy Americans. Not you or me, of course. I mean other people.
The problem with the “ever changing language” is that some of the real gems of the language are lost that way. Take “nauseaus”. Technically it means (or used to mean) causes people to feel sick. And “nauseated” means I feel sick. So if everybody wrongly says, “I’m nauseaus,” it is first funny and second sad. First, it’s funny because they are technically saying that they make other people sick. Which is hillarious. Second, it’s sad because if both those words now mean, “I feel sick,” then we lose a valuable way of describing people that make everybody else sick. (I can think of several examples, but I won’t editorialize them right now.)
I will close by saying, “Never use a big word when a diminutive one will work.”