If there's
one thing that characterizes the times it is excess .And among these excesses,
one of the most jarring is the excess of language. Listen, and read, and you
will find it sticking out its unpleasant neck everywhere.
So, it is not enough to be laughing. It must be 'laughing out loud'-L.O.L.(ugh), or 'rolling on the floor laughing; R.O.F.L. or, well, you know..In a way, the social media like Facebook and Twitter has created its own barrage of excessive language.
Thus, it is never enough to 'like'. It must be 'super like'. It is not enough to be impressed, you need to stamp it 'awesome' or 'super-duper' or 'super-duper awesome'. And worse, the trend has moved to twisting words -and hence, 'anyway' cannot be expressive enough-change it to-uff! 'anyways'!
This kind of jumping excess, a kind of verbal hyperventilation is as distracting and exasperating as a hyperventilating sham. By using such hyperbole, language is beginning to lose its muscle, and gathering sheer flab. The beautiful economy of language, giving it both flow, and sinew has been lost in this garbage of verbiosity.
Our education taught us simplicity and strength of language. But all we encounter now is flaccid, literally fat language, pumped up with distasteful verbiage.
People need to show that not only are they happy, they are very happy-not only are they excited, but very excited-not only are they puzzled, but very puzzled. And so we have the phenomenon of multiplicity. Multiple exclamation marks and question marks. For example, 'How are you??????????' 'It was so super-exciting!!!!!!!!!!!'. Another casualty is block letters. 'YOU saw the film!!!!!!!' Of late, a weird new trend has cropped up-adding a series of dots mid-sentence. The finished sentence would read something like, 'Did you....read the...BOOK???!!!!'.
I remember being taught, 'You will get a total of 8 exclamation marks to use in life. Use them judiciously.' And now we have an embarrassment of riches.
Another surprise was the joyous 'hellozzzzzzzz' that greeted me when a friend came online. When I replied with 'hello', she went into a sulk saying, 'You're welcome was so cold.' Caught in a bind- I either accept that I was lukewarm in my greeting, or point out that she was bizarre in hers. I took refuge in the language of the times by typing out three emoticons portraying embarrassment and affection.
But it is not all disgust. You could even come across some unintended hilarity. I came across an ad for a beauty salon which undauntedly hawked its 'stylish, fearlessly blow-dried hairstyle'. Ab...
So, it is not enough to be laughing. It must be 'laughing out loud'-L.O.L.(ugh), or 'rolling on the floor laughing; R.O.F.L. or, well, you know..In a way, the social media like Facebook and Twitter has created its own barrage of excessive language.
Thus, it is never enough to 'like'. It must be 'super like'. It is not enough to be impressed, you need to stamp it 'awesome' or 'super-duper' or 'super-duper awesome'. And worse, the trend has moved to twisting words -and hence, 'anyway' cannot be expressive enough-change it to-uff! 'anyways'!
This kind of jumping excess, a kind of verbal hyperventilation is as distracting and exasperating as a hyperventilating sham. By using such hyperbole, language is beginning to lose its muscle, and gathering sheer flab. The beautiful economy of language, giving it both flow, and sinew has been lost in this garbage of verbiosity.
Our education taught us simplicity and strength of language. But all we encounter now is flaccid, literally fat language, pumped up with distasteful verbiage.
People need to show that not only are they happy, they are very happy-not only are they excited, but very excited-not only are they puzzled, but very puzzled. And so we have the phenomenon of multiplicity. Multiple exclamation marks and question marks. For example, 'How are you??????????' 'It was so super-exciting!!!!!!!!!!!'. Another casualty is block letters. 'YOU saw the film!!!!!!!' Of late, a weird new trend has cropped up-adding a series of dots mid-sentence. The finished sentence would read something like, 'Did you....read the...BOOK???!!!!'.
I remember being taught, 'You will get a total of 8 exclamation marks to use in life. Use them judiciously.' And now we have an embarrassment of riches.
Another surprise was the joyous 'hellozzzzzzzz' that greeted me when a friend came online. When I replied with 'hello', she went into a sulk saying, 'You're welcome was so cold.' Caught in a bind- I either accept that I was lukewarm in my greeting, or point out that she was bizarre in hers. I took refuge in the language of the times by typing out three emoticons portraying embarrassment and affection.
But it is not all disgust. You could even come across some unintended hilarity. I came across an ad for a beauty salon which undauntedly hawked its 'stylish, fearlessly blow-dried hairstyle'. Ab...
No comments:
Post a Comment