| A Word Edgewise by Mary Joe Clendenin |
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| A Word Edgewise by Mary Joe Clendenin |
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Last Updated 01/20/06
THE RITE OF USING THE RIGHT WORD TO WRITE RIGHT
Now that my hearing is not as good as it once was, I often "miss-hear" words or whole conversations. Makes me wonder sometimes how we ever manage to communicate solely by language--even those who have similar ages and backgrounds. It’s easy to see how we might misunderstand across generations. So many new words and expressions are added through a few years, and many more are given different meanings.
A few examples will clear that meaning, I hope. Gay once meant happy or care-free. Cool referred to temperature. Spooning meant keeping company. A menu was only something you read in a cafe. You set a trap for a mouse.
In the decade of the eighties many new words were added to usage and most have made the dictionary: Ones brought into usage by computers, other than mouse and menu, include bit, boot, crash, disk, hacker, scroll, virus, window. Most of these are old words with new uses.
Then, when you read the business pages of the newspaper, or talk with your fellow workers, you may find or hear these words: automatic tellers, baby Bells, debit cards, entry level, power breakfasts, power lunches, telemarketing, junk bonds, cutting edge, voice mail, user-friendly.
All of that just confuses the English language. Confusion multiplies when companies expand into foreign markets and have to translate. Word translations don’t always make sense. For example when Pepsi-Cola tried to convert the slogan "Come alive with the Pepsi generation" into Chinese and German, the fizzled results were: in Chinese, "Pepsi brings back your dead ancestors," in German it said "Come out of the grave with Pepsi." Chevy Nova had a problem too. In Spanish "no va" means no go.
But as a poor speller, I don’t have to fool with another language to get confused. English has so many words pronounced the same but spelled differently. I show you two verses from a poem to shine a dim light on the dark confusion:
One night a knight on a hoarse horse
Rode out upon a road.
This male wore mail for war and would
Explore the wood that glowed.
His tale I’ll tell from head to tail.
I’ll write his rite up right.
A hidden site our hero found,
A site that I shall cite.
The knight’s adventures continue for ten more verses, but it might take all night to make that clear.
Many times, in the course of writing, I search for a word to convey a special picture or meaning. So many are available. For example "walk" doesn’t give a very plain picture. Other more descriptive words could be used: stride, amble, march, pace, tramp, shuffle, glide, straggle, trudge, and many more. Makes me stop and stumble over the meaning I want. Sometimes my choices say very little.
Often we use many more words than necessary to convey a thought. Listening to commentaries on news reports I’m often amused at the choices. "At this point in time," means "now". "At 10 A.M. in the morning," when else? "leaving no living survivors," how about dead ones. One said "minus ten degrees below zero."
I was confused when I could hear perfectly!
The order of words changes meanings. Notice the changes in this:
Only the nurse told me to take this medicine.
The only nurse told me to take this medicine.
The nurse only told me to take this medicine.
The nurse told me to only take this medicine.
The nurse told me to take only this medicine.
The nurse told me to take this medicine only.
Complicated? Imagine what happens when you fail to hear the beginnings or endings of words, or entire words, correctly. Listening and understanding are not always partners in communication. I hope you realize that when I have to ask you to repeat statements. Hearing imperfectly is not uncommon with people of my generation, and we do not intentionally ignore your words--though some meanings become warped. "Where did you get that hat?" might sound like "How did you get that fat?" Just smile when you sat it. A smile is seldom misunderstood.