careful about the word you use

 The Best Story of the Year:

The pastor asked if anyone in the congregation would like to express praise for answered prayers.

Suzie Smith stood and walked to the podium. 

She said, "I have a lot of praise. Two months ago, my husband,

Tom, had a terrible bicycle wreck and his scrotum was completely crushed. 

The pain was excruciating

and the doctors didn't know if they could help him." You could hear a muffled gasp from the men in the

congregation as they imagine the pain that poor Tom must have experienced. "Tom was unable to hold

me or the children," she went on, "and every move caused him terrible pain." 

We prayed as the doctors performed a delicate operation, and it turned out they were able to piece together the crushed remnants of Tom's scrotum, and wrap wire around it to hold it in place."

Again, the men in the congregation cringed and squirmed uncomfortably as they imagined the horrible

surgery performed on Tom.

"Now," she announced in a quivering voice, "thank the Lord, Tom is out of the hospital and the doctors

say that with time, his scrotum should recover completely."

All the men sighed with unified relief. The pastor rose and tentatively asked if anyone else had something to say.

 

A man stood up and walked slowly to the podium.

He said, "I'm Tom Smith." The entire congregation held its breath.

“I just want to tell my wife the word is sternum.”

Word Usage from bad to bombastic to the beautiful

 

Word Usage from bad to bombastic to the beautiful

 

Words and expressions are marvelous creations and they grow best through usage.

 

“In capturing a word, a sliver of lived experience can be observed and defined. If only you were able to catch all the words, perhaps you could define existence.”

 

I use many of these types of terms in some contexts without giving an overdose of them.

 

If that happens, then the contrived bombastic usage may cause uneasiness to the reader who may be more interested in the content and not the excessive ornamentation or frills.

 

However, there are two interesting things in doing this (i.e. using bombastic vocabulary at times):-

First it is gives a sheer pleasure of toying with bombastic vocabulary studded texts [tinged with a undisclosed pride in showing off which I used to do during my SSLC and PUC [when I did Advanced English] [1];

 

Second, sometimes certain single words [in English language itself which are not that well known because they not much used or words from any other language] convey better certain complex states of emotions, psychological states, actions in certain contexts etc. [2]

 

At the same time there are those who dismiss every write up as too wordy or bombastic just because their range of vocabulary is limited or they feel intimated by rather than getting inspired by people who can articulate more effectively  using certain nicely crafted expressions.

 

Having said all these, one has to gradually ensure either through practice, preferably out of more of reading and some regular writing, strike a nice synergistically evolved balance created between content and carefully crafted vocabulary which can not only convey the content but also tickle the aesthetic sensitivities to appreciate the art of language. It is like having a very food is nutritious, attractive to look at and also tasty.

 

Often, one need not have to work too hard to arrive at these either.

 

On the contrary, life is injected into all art forms when there is a comprehensive conceptualization along with clarity and conviction based confidence in one's perspective, then with these ingredients there comes around a smooth flow of thoughts and ideas along with concomitant vocabulary and expressions, all these leading to an excellent combo package where every part/piece is worth relishing.

 

This is how great sculptors look at a big rock/mountain/stone and inject life into it carve out great sculptures that get immortalized ; great painters visualize a theme, take a look at the canvas and inject life into it and produce great works of arts that get immortalized; great composers churn a theme and tune and inject life into the them and come out with great lyrics and good musical compositions that get immortalized; great writers weave spells of extremely brilliant write ups and inject life into them that get immortalized in their writings; great scientists strike  a chord through observations and churn the hypothesis  with experiments and inject life into them that get immortalized  in universally measurable, applicable and useful designs and technological devices; great philosophers think and view from in depth perspectives and inject life into premises that get immortalized into great workable and multi-utility concepts and so on. 

 

 

So, this process is more or less similar in most realms only the tools and techniques are different.

 

In language things get a greater attention because language is the queen of sciences and king of arts because all arts and sciences can be expressed and explained fully; enjoyed and experienced at least to a certain extent through langue.

 

Language helps better understanding of many things. 

 

So there is no need to explain further because from religious scriptures to political speeches to all scripts, to research findings to song lyrics are weaved out of words of some language.

 

The greatness of language over any other medium like music, painting, science and so on is its unhindered, unlimited access to any or many or almost all dimensions of life known and perceivable to human beings.

 

In that aspect language is omnipotent in its influence and impact.

                                         

As a medium it uses two methods Oral [speaking] and written [writing].

 

Whether it is used to express and explain thoughts, ideas, concepts, facts, events, actions, reactions, feelings, imagination, stories, discoveries, descriptions, fantasies, social, religious, cultural systems, dreams are all determined by the favorite frame of reference of the speaker or writer.

 

Lexicography is imbued with life with all its sweet memories, vicissitudes of living and potential evolutionary growth.

 

 

Every dictionary must be a family album of nostalgic moments narrating stories, histories, narrations and all these nurturing the pride of ancestry and heralding a hope for future through the nice anecdotal references.

 

When lexicology and literature come together and deliver a baby of words and expressions with inherited beauty of etymology and denotation.

 

They watch the baby grow into a child acquiring connotations as it experiences its life through various contexts.

 

Then the metamorphosis of child into a marvelous adult happens as it captures the raptures of evolutionary imperatives in linguistics.

 

Online dictionaries can be spiced up with audio-visual presentations, appropriate anecdotes, captive dialogues and relevant quotations that would enable us to remember the word/phrase/expression because of the impact of the quotations, probably with hints to usage in different contexts.

 

 

There are also the other side to this glorious importance to words and expressions. There is one whole tribe called, ‘Munduruku whose language has no tenses; no plurals and no words for numbers beyond five’ [Alex’s Adventures in NumberLand] and the best part is they count and give their produce running into few lakhs every week and they are considered one among the smartest tribes in Rain forests.

Anyway as these are getting popularized by some as would like to add this anecdote.

                                                                                                    

One Italian friend of mine admonished me for using words like bribe and corruption during UPA regime, instead he asked me to say, “ Busterella” [Italian term for ‘Envelop stuffed with money given as bribe] and I said it is a

“Mokita” [ Word from a language called Kivila, spoken in Papua New Guinea meaning  “the truth we all know but agree not to talk about.”]

 

One can find large quantity of such words in my reverse dictionary of adjectives [3]

 

[1] https://contentwriteups.blogspot.com/2009/04/marriage-bride-and-home.html

 

[2] https://contentwriteups.blogspot.com/2020/06/covid-19s-agathokakological.html

 

 For a bigger collection read this

 

https://contentwriteups.blogspot.com/2019/11/perspective-and-attitude-matters.html

                                  

[3] https://adjectives-balayogi.blogspot.com/2010/05/adjective-finder-or-reverse-dictionary.html

 

Word usage

Words in all languages, at many places, in various contexts and on several topics are cleverly used  and misused to set a narrative or inject a particular idea or extrapolate an ideology.

This is the reason words wind through myriad paths and acquire a huge carapace of connotations at every juncture. 

However, fortunately or unfortunately,  words are impregnated with not only meanings but move with masks of many intentions.

It is very unfortunate , if we extricate words out of context and the specific cultural milieu in which they have evolved and try to use them superficially and carelessly to refer to something either over generalized or over simplified.

Most words are unfortunately misused like this.

Telesis [n. the intelligent direction of effort toward the achievement of an end] decides the curve of articulation and the nature of vocabulary used.

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-telesis-of-terminology-and-creation.html?m=0

The Telesis of terminology and the creation of contrived expressions.

The Telesis of terminology and the creation of contrived expressions.

When good quality milk is available in a sachet why bother owning a herd of cows and milk them followed by a hoard of other concomitant tasks before you get a cup of milk to drink.

Similarly, when certain single words are available that can convey a simple or complicated idea/ideas, thought/s, concept, philosophical approaches why resort to use multiple words and expressions to convey the same thing.

Personally, I feel the beauty of, grandeur of and the maximum number of users and domains in which the English language is used are attributable to a very great extent to its willingness and ability to absorb, assimilate and adopt words and expressions from many languages and allow them to permeate permanently in certain contexts.

I also feel that the recipient or reader must take the trouble of finding out the exact meaning new words and expressions that he/she encounters.

I have gathered, like many addicts of linguistics, etymologies and lexicology many excellent expressions in many languages which are so nice that there is neither any harm in adopting nor in using them in any context.

For example an Italian friend of mine admonished me for using words like bribe and corruption during UPA regime, instead he asked me to say, “ Busterella” [Italian term for ‘Envelop stuffed with money given as bribe] and I said it is a

“Mokita” [ Word from a language called Kivila, spoken in Papua New Guinea meaning  “the truth we all know but agree not to talk about.”]

There are many ways of attracting and appealing to sensitivities and sensibilities of the receiver.

 It is done by adding aesthetic aspects to any art either through individual improvisations or imaginations or innovations or through repeated and refined reuse of some abstract elements or bombastic frills to project a style and create a niche of elitism or identity.

Even within the same language certain new expressions render as endangered species certain very easily and universally comprehensible generic expressions.

For example the mere term ‘Changes or changing trends’ have been replaced by ‘paradigm shifts’.

In additions to naturally evolving changes required to adapt to emerging new contexts and newer domains of human activities, there are also these types of affected usages [like paradigm shift] to replace the existing words and expressions.

This arena is further crowded by the ejection of multitude of carefully crafted nuanced new connotations [too far removed from the denotation, and devoid of any etymological justification] assigned to certain terminologies by the new breed of professionals known as ‘agenda setters, the dinosaur like predatory [but selective in their prey] mass opinion molding narrative peddlers who contradictorily are moving in the safe sanctuaries of main stream media [MSM] houses and they also go about appropriating lofty terms like intellectuals, scholars, liberals and so on.

There is no counter to this terminological terrorism because it operates from safe sanctuaries.

The nibbling of terminologies portraying greatness by these termites or bugaboo

[Media sponsored opinion nibblers] has squeezed out the sap of greatness attached to those terms. [‘Bugaboo’ is an American English term for an object of fear or alarm in both the literal and figurative sense is from Jamaican word for scary insects]

There are, and preferably there cannot be or must not be any hard and fast rule, either in punctuation or usage of words and expressions, especially if they restrict the free flow of thoughts and ideas in specific contexts.

However, we cannot totally ignore the importance and role of certain reasonable [a highly relative term in this context] broad guild lines in punctuation, grammar, and word usage that enable and enhance the recipient or the reader to understand better without too much of ambiguity.

Having said all the above there are certain inherent inadequacies and illogicalities in every language in some aspects of every language and they get further mutilated when a non native speakers use those languages.

Let us confine ourselves to English, which is not a native language of most Indians, most struggle, and rightly so, the illogicality of prepositions in many expressions and the real meaning of certain idioms.

Neither the usage of words and expressions nor the evolving connotations beyond and besides strictly etymological justifications can be stopped and let the language to get petrified, if that had happened then the language would not have expanded its influence and superior importance. I am tempted to quote what David Crystal writes in his books WORD, WORDS, WORDS and THE STORIES OF ENGLISH wherein he shares certain interesting of information like these:- “ words science, conscience and shit all had originally common etymology”, and  “It remains a lexicological puzzle why some words were accepted and some rejected. We do not know how to account for the linguistic ‘survival of the fittest’. Both impede and expede were introduced during the same period as well as disabuse and disadorn, but in each of these pairs the first item stayed in the language and the second did not”.

  

Yes indeed words have eternal wings, enormous power and phoenix like survival instincts.

Articulation is one of the greatest arts which can enhance or extinguish anything.

But equally powerful are the interpretations, connotations with contextual relevance, perceptions, frames of references used to perceive and perspectives, ability look beyond and beneath the words and many other factors.

It is therefore, important to pay very minute attention to the nuances and learn the art of diplomatic articulation.

At the end of the day, even if we are not able to create a great impact or convince and make others accept our stand or a particular stand, at least we must be able to get across what we intend to convey to others in a way that they can grasp or preferably how we want them to grasp.

The earth may be rotating on its own axis but the world is getting rotated by multitude of axes of various versions and carefully crafted narratives.

Words evolve and live only in an environment created by literature and other contexts that involve dominant human activities.

That’s why, if we travel with or through the words we will know that many centuries ago vocabularies in most languages were dominated by mythological, religious and hunting terminologies, then wars and battles, followed by philosophical discourse, science, economics, politics, advancing technologies like internet and so on.

Mathematician Theodor Molien was fluent in German, Estonian, French, Swedish, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and Norwegian.  He said, “Read a hundred novels in a language,” he liked to say, “and you will know that language.”

In political arena very few focus on economic development, social engineering for improvement of living conditions for as many as possible and instead some of them are concentrating on verbal articulation.

So, in that process, we are bound to encounter variety of styles including bombastic language and using obscure terms etc.

The Telesis [n. the intelligent direction of effort toward the achievement of an end] decides the curve of articulation and the nature of vocabulary used.

I wish the readers to also read authors like Steven Pinker, David crystal on linguistics besides the usually prescribed linguistics books and authors.

Further dressing of appreciation of language can emerge through reading of ‘Aesthetics and the Theory of Criticism: Selected Essays of Arnold Isenberg’ By Arnold Isenberg

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2016/09/words-and-words-all-way.html?m=0

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2017/12/punctuation.html?m=0

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2016/02/words-have-colourful-wings.html?m=0

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2017/07/why-we-need-to-peep-beyond-and-behind.html?m=0

Two of my own write ups on the same topic ‘Marriage’, first one written in a totally affected style when I was in the final year of my schooling as an exercise of challenge among our friends as to who can write a free verse with maximum number of difficult words and the second one really what I felt after attending a wedding a few years back.

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2009/04/marriage-bride-and-home.html?m=0

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2016/02/sanctity-of-marriage-and-wastage-at.html?m=0

Neither fastidious scrutiny of grammatical correctness nor the most easily comprehensible expressions can act as sanctifying authority to impose any specific style as that would stifle free flow of expression.

Usages of specific terminologies depend on context, purpose and individual style.

However, if you want to know anyone’s natural reaction and spontaneous language, take him out of the comfort zone and making him take a walk in beach and unleash some ten [10] hounds and then record the language or screams that he utters in any language or ask him to take ten [10] rounds of rum on the rocks and let him speak.