Words do matter

I have been a serious student of language since I was a sophomore at Auburn University in 1961. That’s when my English professor and mentor Ruth Faulk introduced me to George Orwell’s famous essay, "Politics and the English Language." Reading that classic analysis of the debauching of the English language was a revelation then – and one that has stayed clear with me for nearly half a century.

Language matters: It’s what makes us human … the link we share with others. It’s the legal tender of communication. Without resort to language, it would be all but impossible to stimulate in others anything like the ideas and feelings we having within ourself – and so impossible to communicate effectively.

Words, in particular, matter. They are the coinage of communication, enabling us to engage in useful exchanges with other human beings.

Some words matter because they label and frame large, important concepts – such words as abortion, freedom, love, patriotism, and war. Other words matter because they are small but have the power as Orwell first showed me, to debauch language itself. Two examples of that have been in the news lately.

The two examples concern two quite evident verbal trends in our time. The first one was the subject an analytical essay in the New York Times by Clyde Haberman. It focuses on the ubiquitous use of the “F” word. He observed:

The reality is that this vulgar word has been tossed about with such abandon in public for so many years that New Yorkers tend to tune it out. Its endless, and mindless, repetition left them numb long ago. By now, the word is no longer shocking, just tedious.

Through frequent use, “a world like this begins to be less of a curse word,” said Ricardo Ortheguy, a sociolinguist at the City University of New York Graduate Center. “The more you use it, the less dirty it is.”

He discussed several possible causes of the phenomenon, which, of course, is hardly limited to the streets and offices of NYC. One is that “boundaries between public space and private are being erased. Cell phones contribute mightily to that, said another sociolinguist, John V. Singler of New York University. ‘The range of places where it’s O.K. to use that word has grown enormously.” Professor Singler said. By now, he said, “the real taboo words – and even those depend on who’s saying them – have to do much more with race.”

You routinely hear Wall Street suits use the word at high decibels in the subway. Police officers bounce it casually among one another, no matter who is around to hear it. Teenagers use it all the time. Some people walk around with the word screaming from their T-shirts – an insight, perhaps, into their capacity for self-degradation."

The second verbal trend was discussed by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough during his commencement speech to graduates of Boston College. He said, in part: “Please, please do what you can to cure the verbal virus that seems increasingly rampant among your generation.” He said he’s particularly troubled by the “relentless, wearisome use of words such as like, awesome and actually.”

“Just imagine if in his inaugural address, John F. Kennedy had said, ‘Ask not what your country can, you know, do for you, but what you can, like, do for your country actually.’ “ he said.

The AP news story on the speech ended thus: Graduates apparently thought his speech was, like, awesome. They gave him a standing ovation.