Weekend Language Musings

Two especially intriguing language-related articles caught my eye over the weekend:

What is the worth of words? Michael Rogers responds to a statement printed in the Washington Post stating that “Only 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it.” He asserts this is not a bad thing, as rapid technological gains coupled with nearly instanteous communications means future generations will be reading shorter and shorter material, so the ability to read complex works will be defunct. What he doesn’t consider are the negative impacts on the psyche of such a trend.

We live in an age of instant gratification–music, movies, games are all available at a moment’s notice. E-mail, instant messaging, and text messages are to be replied to in a few minutes, maybe a day (at the very latest). As a result, our attention spans have plummeted. Constantly searching for something new or interesting means its harder to focus on chemistry during a review session, or the role of motifs in a novel, or even the plot of a long movie. As a college student raised in the digital era, I’ll be the first to admit that paying attention is a chore while reading 100 pages by next morning. And if this is true enough when a person is relaxed, what about stressed individuals? Would you want your troops zoning out? Your President? Your surgeon?

To a certain extent, this pattern is seen in language, as the lexicon comes to favor shorter and shorter words. The Internet spawned such minimalisms as “brb,” “afk,” and “ttyl,” but when was the last time you heard someone use “aggrandize,” “importunate,” or “vituperative”? The beauty of English exists in the plethora of words one can use to describe innumerable shades of complexity and emotion. With this trend in education, these words will end up boxed away in the attic, sitting beside phonographs, LPs, and hardcover books, relics of a time long gone. It is a ceaseless process, but always a tragedy.

So no, Mr. Rogers, this is not the right trend of education, even if 10 percent or so will actually use these skills. All of us will lose the ability to appreciate the boundless creativity of the human esprit if the current education scheme is left unreformed.

Do other languages have obscenities like those of English? Everyone who’s taken a foreign language recalls the pleasure of learning swear words or similar vulgarities. Yet compared to some other languages, English seems positively benign. Other languages emphasize disrespect for one’s family, rather than oneself, especially directed towards one’s mother. Take the Argentinian Spanish example La reputisima madre que te recontra mil pario (“The twice most whorish mother that bore you again and again one thousand times”). American English tops out at “fuck off,” or “you cunt,” where the invective is directed at the perpetrator.

Is this a result of cultural diversity? America is very individualist, self-motivated, and self-glorifying. Other languages given as examples, such as Spanish, Swahili, and Farsi, come from regions of strong collectivism and sense of family. Does this example show how individuals from different cultures view themselves? When the typical American encounters failure, does he or she fall back on family and friends, or do they grit their teeth, uphold their pride, and weather the storm? I think, for the most part, Americans are likely to blame their shortcomings on themselves, while other cultures see success and failure as shared group experiences.

This is probably why expletives in America are shrugged off or ignored, since they are just words to externalize and manifest one’s anger, as opposed to genuine invective and hate for a particular individual. Not so in other countries, where a personal stab can have huge consequences.

EDIT: Apparently English doesn’t lack creativity in insults. What it lacks is passion.