atw: Re: Youse
- From: "Geoffrey Marnell" <geoffrey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 16:33:12 +1100
Hi Christine,
You wrote:
My issue with the supposed modernisation of language is the loss of meaning.
Once we had two words, psychopath and sociopath, that had two clearly
different meanings. Now both meanings have been absorbed into psychopath.
Once we had two states, mental breakdown and emotional breakdown to
differentiate between two entirely different human states of stress. Now we
only have one. Alternative is different from alternate, and if we start to
use alternate in place of alternative, then what word do we use for
alternate, "tic toc tic toc"?
How would you stop that happening? It's just plain impossible. No-one owns
the language and it takes off as it pleases. (Recall what a dismal failure
Academie Francaise was.) Yes, I too lament loss of meaning, but, as I said
to Terry Towling this afternoon, what is the point in continuing to use a
word that once had an especially useful use if none of our readers will
grasp what you're getting at. And as I said earlier, fortunately English is
so rich of synonyms and English speakers are-mostly, but this list excepted
;-)-so forgiving of new usages, that there is always some other term (or
there soon will be) for the meaning that we may have lost.
We shouldn't despair if "principal" goes. We can always use "chief" or
"main", or maybe even "pipal".
Cheers
Geoffrey Marnell
Principal Consultant
Abelard Consulting Pty Ltd
T: +61 3 9596 3456
F: +61 3 9596 3625
W: <http://www.abelard.com.au/> www.abelard.com.au
Skype: geoffrey.marnell
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