The evolution of language affects business writing
Below are some observations about the nature of our language and how it is changing. Here is a sentence containing several examples of language evolution.
“If you google “laser” and the interface that definitely with the tangebalized results we already have, we can destroy the vegetables :)”
The sentence above contains several ways our language is changing: a new spelling (u), a noun turned into a verb (google), a compound (interface), an abbreviation (def), an adjective turned into a verb ( tangibalized), an abbreviation that has become a word (nuke), slang (veggies), and a new punctuation mark — :).
But of course, our language has been changing since the first growl. Try this:
“She was a worthy woman all her life, house in chirche-dore she was five years old, with no other company in you, but that’s why she doesn’t need to speak like anyone else.”
Chaucer wrote this verse, but it is about how Christopher Columbus spoke and wrote a few years after Chaucer’s death in 1400.
How about “Do you have milk?” Or “I fired her.” Neither Chaucer nor Columbus would have understood. The first is a grammatical error and the second is a mispronunciation of “asked”, which is now seeping into the written language as “axed”. Whether these current usage examples become permanent is yet to be decided, but then who thought “9/11” would mean anything other than 9/11, and a toilet plunger would ever be called a “force cup?” of hydraulic explosion” (US Army).
Here are a few ways the language is changing, and some of them will become permanent, if they haven’t already.
1. The use of pompous or ambiguous jargon.
AT&T used the high “customer in/out ease of access” to describe
their complaint windows. The White House called the invasion of Grenada a “vertical insertion before dawn.” We like to annoy the Pentagon because they are very creative. When they say “conveniently neutralize the opponent” they mean shoot first, my friend. The Pentagon refers to combat as “prosecution violence,” and “permanent pre-hostilities” means peace, brother. “Collateral damage” means killing our allies by accident.
But let’s not forget commerce and industry. Shell Oil called its gas station attendants “hydrocarbon transfer specialists,” and there are no janitors anymore because they’re all called Maintenance Engineers (and there’s no engineering degree among all of them). Most companies don’t have mail rooms, they have Document Distribution Centers. The male and female vendors are the “associates” so correct, which avoids gender identification, but they seem to own part of the business. Maybe that’s the point.
2. The Compression of Words in Acronyms and Abbreviations.
Does anyone remember what diving means? We don’t bother to capitalize it, but
stands for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. How about “laser”? It stands for Light Amplification through Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The zip code stands for Program Improvement Zone and POSH stands for “port out, starboard aft,” which are the best staterooms on a ship.
If we start putting compressions together, we find phrases like this one from Amoco Oil. “To access GPNU2, @ADD the source file TEXDIS*TEMPLATES.GPNU2 while on PARSD.” Excuse me? And from Northrop Aviation we found this procedure: “The program was loaded into the CMS and compiled with Fortran Compliers rs (FORTUS), GICFTG and H Extended (FHX).
3. The slang epidemic
The slang is so prevalent that people don’t realize they’re using it. “comeback” is
not a word, nor is it its more famous cousin “regardless”. I have heard people in high-class business meetings say “guest” with a serious face and “evergreen” to mean continuously updated or improved.
In everyday language, we hear other slang words like “bummer”, “framistant”, “diddlysquat”, cockamayme, “disambiguate”, and of course “veggies”, which is what “vegans” eat. ” which means “What’s up?” LOL has now reached the verbal language.
4. Compose words into new words
Composition begins when two words are used together so often that
are converted to script. After a few years of hyphenation, the hyphen is removed and a new word hits the streets. “Downtime” became “downtime” and is now “downtime”. There are endless combinations: “greenmail”, “meltdown”, “airhead”, “proactive” and “ripoff” to name a few.
We like to put “mega” in front of almost any word: “megabucks”, “megatrend”, “megastar”, “megabyte” and “megamillionaire”. We also put “ultra” in front of the words: “ultralite”, “ultrafine” or “ultraswede”, and paste “anti” anywhere: “anti-terrorist”, “anti-discrimination”, “anti-war”, “anti-marriage”, etc.
Lastly, we like to stick “out” at the end of many self-respecting words: “way out”, “kiss”, “vegetarian”, “pig”, “freak out”, “burn”, “police”. “, “zoned out”, “disgusted” and “chill out” to name a few. Some of these will be hyphenated, then a word over time.
5. New definitions for old words and new foreign words
It all depends on how you say it. “bad” if you mean bad, and “baaad” if you mean
good. “Anchor” used to stop ships, “wiring” meant wiring in a house or somewhere else, “heavy” used to mean that it weighs a lot, and “rubbish” meant something that was thrown on the sidewalk. “Meat market” didn’t mean a place to meet beautiful girls, “stoned” was a medieval form of execution still practiced today in some third world countries, and “crunch” was what Rice Krispies did. “Cold” means a temperature.
We are ingesting foreign words at a record rate. Anything on a Mexican restaurant menu is a New American word, “glitch” is a German word, and “skoosh” is a Japanese word. Globalization, for the next 1,000 years, will make us all speak the same language.
6. The conversion of nouns and adjectives into verbs
“Tomorrow we will be the drawings” (Bectel).
“Relates well to customers” (IBM).
“During phase 2 we will refocus the (Boeing Aircraft) program.
“The power line was built in isolation to please the landowners” (US Forest Service).
All of these sentences were taken from actual documents used in writing.
training workshops, as well as “We Professionalized in Damage-Free Trailers” on the side of a truck, “This report will define a response” by Martín Marrieta, and “Routinization began” by ARCO Oil. “Reinforced” means heavy-duty reinforcement at the BLM, and from the Cameron Iron Works: “That whole program needs to be absolute.” Shiny.
7. Regionalism
If you “live under the bridge”, you live south of the Mackinaw River
Bridge, and if you want a big sandwich, you have to know what to order: a “wimpie” in the Northeast, a “hoagie” in Philly, a “submarine” in New York, a “po boy” in Louisiana, a “hero” in the Southwest and a “blimp” in San Francisco. If you’re “shopping” in Louisiana, you’ve been to the store, and depending on where you are, you’ll either be killed for calling someone a “jerk” or congratulated for recognizing a really nice guy. Getting a soda can be a challenge, depending on where you are. In some parts of the county, “coke” means anything cold, after which you have to specify which cold drink you want, and then there’s “fiz”, “soda”, “pop” and “soda pop”.
8. The invention of idioms
“I was amazed that you were chewing the fat and shooting the bull with that
hacker But believe me, because if you want to be off the wall and spend an arm and a leg polishing yourself, let me water the horse and I’ll join you.”
That sentence is made up entirely of idioms. In business, people “massage the numbers” and “catch up.” In the trucking industry, if someone says their coffee has been “sautéed and puffed,” it means it’s ready to drink. In the government they talk about “increase in income”, which means that they are going to raise our taxes.
In 1942, Eric Partridge in his book “Usage and Abuse” said: “The field of language is strewn with the dry bones of adventurous words that once began with a paternal blessing to make their fortune, but have met an untimely end and serve only , when they come together, to fill the shelves of a lexicographical museum”.
Changes in verbal language occur with impressive speed. Some of that language, if it sticks around long enough and is used often enough, eventually finds its way into written language. Some reach the dictionaries. However, just because a word appears in a dictionary doesn’t mean it will stay there. Old words fly off the pages and unused words fly after them. Dictionaries evolve, just as language evolves. The wary keep a 1932 copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica on their shelves because it has scholarly articles instead of definitions like modern encyclopedias, which are expanded dictionaries with lots of color pictures, and throw out last year’s dictionary with the year’s phone book. last.
Writers in business, industry, and government, at the managerial level and above, should be careful about using words that might detract from their professional competence. Misuse of the word can lead to ridicule among associates and distract from good education and excellent talents.