It don't get any truer than this... (spam on subject)

endboss · Post by **endboss** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 12:30 pm

I'm tired of all this beating up on English. Every language borrows from a ton of other languages. And if you say English is bloated, Chinese and Japanese contain the English dictionary to the power of ten. You have to admit it's nice not having all those different formal titles, verb conjugations, and such you get with most languages. Also, no language can just declare itself off-limits to expanding vocabulary, nor should it. That's a horrible idea.

Now, if you want to argue that adding words like google and twitter is a stupid idea, then that's perfectly fine. They describe a product, not an action or anything else. You don't google or bing... you search the web. I don't hop in my car and go toyota. I don't ask someone who has a Ford if they're going fording tonight. It's called driving no matter what brand you find yourself using.

Unfortunately, the people who actually put the dictionaries together are even worse than the 12 year old girls who invent the words. A few years back they wanted to put WMD in. Yes, WMD, an acronym for Weapons of Mass Destruction. I don't remember if they put it in or not, but I don't think the tweens who are twittering would even tweet that WMD is a word.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 1:15 pm

Well - actually - it isn't unheard of that terms get introduced even though the original source is a "product" or company. Hoover is a common example of a product which became synonymous with an entire line and act.

Googling is an accepted term describing the act of searching via Google (and for many simply just the web). The reason for this is obviously due to Googles dominance on the web that people started calling it Googling.
Google themselves weren't even interested in the term because it would cheapen their name.

Like or dislike it - languages evolves and it is something which can't stop. It has always happened, it will always happen.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:04 pm

Xandax wrote:Like or dislike it - languages evolves and it is something which can't stop. It has always happened, it will always happen.

Yes, it does. I like to joke about outrage over it, but the only part I object to is deliberate misuse of language to confuse others, and to define oneself as among the special kids. And that applies, however old the special kids are, on up through their sixties and seventies.

Well, and as a subset, the attempt to create new, bizarre words that aren't needed, and are more complicated, than ones that exist--chartage, signage--these annoy me. Charts and signs, people! Gussying up perfectly good, simple words with Latin and Greek suffixes doesn't make the person who uses them look smooth and sound great.

Dottie · Post by **Dottie** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:55 am

@Fable: What do you know about the language log and Mark Liberman in particular? I became quite enamoured with his posts there, as well as the way he handled a lot of the comments.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 6:14 pm

Dottie wrote:@Fable: What do you know about the language log and Mark Liberman in particular? I became quite enamoured with his posts there, as well as the way he handled a lot of the comments.

Not much. I follow his comments, as you do, and like them quite a lot. I've also branched out into some other language blogs, including those he recommends. Unfortunately, my time is limited by the end of my life, so I can't read every language blog out there just for today.

And before I forget...

Another crisis.