The (Sometimes Inefficient) English Language
"Words Don't Mean What They Mean" brought some attention to how we treat everyday language. I think we use complex language because we care about our own impressions. We want more unfamiliar people to see us as professional and more approachable. Whereas with friends we want to build an emotional bond so that we can be more attached with them. If you think about how you communicate with your closest friend, you will likely not have any if not little formal speaking with them. Because when we do this, we show the more human side of our personality: the one that makes mistakes, the one that has strong and confusing feelings, the one that sometimes needs help. This way the human side of the other person is more willing to open up as well.
The formal language is like a defense mechanism, the outer walls of a fortress; while the informal language is the open gate to the more sensitive and vulnerable parts of us. There are some people who choose not to open their gates, and some who do. Its harder to do in English because of the lack of formal and informal verbs and tenses. I know almost five languages and all of them except English has this which is why we get more mixed feelings than other languages. Does my boss like my work or not? Does my sister have a bitter feeling towards me? What do my parents intend when they say that to me? These are all questions that have come from English.
I think this is also why people are a little more disconnected to each other in America than in other countries because they may find it too hard to rearrange the sentences to formal and informal settings which leads to smaller and shorter conversations with other people. About 7 months ago I had recently moved to another place and while I was spaying weed-killer onto the driveway the neighbors tried to introduce themselves to me and I fumbled so much because I didn't know which part of myself to show and which to hide.
On the other hand, I'm not saying we can change it very easily, but the English from Shakespearean times is vastly different from now. Even English from about 50-60 years ago is different which is saying that the change is happening if not fast.
This doesn't completely relate, but here is an example of the inefficiency
To answer the person in the screenshot's question, "right" is both an adjective and an adverb. Adverbs are used to modify verbs, and adjectives are used to modify nouns. In that sentence, "right" is an adverb modifying "spell."
ReplyDeleteAlso, since we're talking about language, the semicolon in the second paragraph is incorrect since the second part is not a complete sentence. Getting rid of the "while" would fix this.
Anyway, English used to have both a you informal (thou) and formal (you) but "thou" is not used anymore because people were too polite. (That's the actual reason.) I think we should bring it back. Who wants to join me in this linguistic revolution?