LETTER

Awkward language

I appreciated Ms Murray’s letter of May 27 about modern language misuse.  There are also multiple new usages in social-media practise, but they can be seen as specific to that media -- just as telegraph usage was quite different than ordinary use, back when telegraphs were common.  

Ms Murray’s annoyance with new usages and neologisms is shared by many, and there are plenty of examples today.  Language is a communal business, meaning there has to be wide acceptance of usages for them to work.  Poets and artists may invent new words and usages, but always in the context of a work of art -- not as communications, in the first sense.

My three contributions are “indicate” for “said”, “advise” or “point out.” Also “gather” instead of “meet”or “congregate” -- “come together” is even more awkward and clumsy. And, finally, “reach out” instead of simply “call”, or “contact”, “ask”, etc. 

Notice that the new expressions are longer and less specific. They are more vague and open to more misconceptions than traditional usage.  These three are among the worst, and they signal (they “indicate”) a weaker education, less familiarity with language, and less practise in reading -- and writing -- exactly because they are awkward and clumsy, longer, and open to wider interpretations than the words they replace.

Josef Barr

Aylmer