Language
has a perennial tendency to evolve, change, “improve” and yet create totally
new words. Why does it happen so? When a word is defined as really existing?
Language is
like a living organism/human being – while existing it develops naturally and
defines itself, moreover, defines the people who use it. It’s a key to people’s
minds. Thanks to it we could express our opinion, what’s bothering us, our way
of thinking. All world communication we owe to language and our ability to
speak and write according to “defined national languages” (English, Polish
etc.). Some people could say “Ok, but what about non-verbal communication?”
There wouldn’t be that kind of communication if we firstly didn’t learn to
think according to some pattern – which is a language indeed (non-verbal
language to be precise).
If a word
does not have its meaning, we add the meaning to it, as John Koenig said in his
presentation. He felt the need to describe emotions and created a dictionary of
obscure sorrows. Firstly, he finds a feeling, secondly, he looks for a new
word, which could be assigned to it. Then comes the question: does it make a
word “real”?
Both Koenig
and Anne Curzan in another TED talk agree that any word could simply be
definite as real. When a great number of people use a word and understand it,
then the word should be defined as really existing. Editors of dictionaries
consult it with language experts, a wider circle of people, asking them whether
they consider it new and its definition right.
We are
really innovative while creating new words. It comes from our desire to
describe yet not defined things. I consider it a really great feature of
humanity. Were you surprised to hear some verbal human creations? I loved the
fact that actually we could say there’s a word hangry (as it’s commonly used in
slang) created from word hunger and angry, which means that you’re angry
because of being hungry. This is the word I needed!
Have you ever felt some not defined by single
word feeling? Did you wonder why it does not have a name yet? Do you use some
word of your own creation?
I have an
Italian friend who once wanted to say to a group of people: “be quiet and
listen” (in Polish), but instead she said “cichajcie”. That was so natural in
some way that everybody understood it, and I still use the word in that group
of friends.
What is your attitude to language changes? Does it bother you or do you
enjoy it and find it fascinating just as dictionary editors do?
Comments
I don't use my own word creation and I'm not sure if I could make any. It's really hard to create a new word.
I think that language changes may cause problems with understanding for older people. Nowadays we use many of English words in Polish sentences and it makes sense to us - young people, but our parents or grandparents may sometimes simply don't understand what we are talking about. When I'm talking with my grandmother I'm always choose words with care to make my talk understandable for her. I know that explaining what does some word mean is really hard.
I think word creation is alright as long as it makes sense and people understand why they use it. This is also how the dictionary expands, thanks to the fact that a word becomes so common for everyone.
On the one hand I believe it’s quite natural that we create new words to describe things and various phenomena which haven’t been named yet. Sometimes we introduce new words to be able to make most used phrases more succinct and for me this is ok too.
On the other hand, what I really don’t like is adapting and accepting some wording which is commonly used but previously was considered incorrect. I think it impoverishes linguistic quality. The second thing I am also unhappy with is adopting too much loanwords. Of course, if there is no good word in your mother tongue, it is much easier to explain something using word from another language, but this mechanism should not be abused.
What is my attitude to language changes? I think we can't stop it. Our civilisation is developing new things, technologies and even just these 2 create set of new words. Did we think about meme's fifteen years ago? It is natural word now. I'm curious, what new words we will use in next 10 years.
Sometimes when I kind find the word in my language(usually I speak russian) I use ukrainian, polish, english or french words without intentions, just automatically.
I guess, every language should evaluate, because everyday we invent new things, why not words?)
Im not good at creating new words but had a friend which was a specialist in that field. Creative ways of expressing and naming things is a way to better understand and know each other, also have a good laugh. Playing with words, writing/speaking in such a way the sentence flows? Expressing and being direct without being direct. Using words in such a way that people better understand each other is important.
And it's all cool and fun but seeing writing of my younger cousin which is around 13 years old is not. He uses so many shortcuts, cuts, which aims at avoiding writing too long words (due to laziness) which I consider offending. If you don't have the time or will to write me a readable message then I don't have the time and will to decipher it. Many misunderstanding can emerge from unnecessary and forced shortening as well.
It's natural that new words are created. I'm open minded and I love to learn new words.