Comments on: The Evolution of Language http://www.k-international.com/blog/the-evolution-of-language/ Searching the World for exclusive language stories everyday Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:56:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: what is leukemia http://www.k-international.com/blog/the-evolution-of-language/#comment-2376 what is leukemia Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:14:34 +0000 http://www.bloglingua.com/?p=620#comment-2376 Thank you for give very nice knowledges. Your blog is great. I am impressed by the information that you have on this blog. It shows how well you understand this subject. Bookmarked this page, will come back for more. Thank you for give very nice knowledges. Your blog is great. I am impressed by the information that you have on this blog. It shows how well you understand this subject. Bookmarked this page, will come back for more.

]]> By: Harry Runsfeld http://www.k-international.com/blog/the-evolution-of-language/#comment-96 Harry Runsfeld Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:51:11 +0000 http://www.bloglingua.com/?p=620#comment-96 I think we should be a little bit wary of the idea of language consistently evolving and changing. It's undeniably true and very liberating that new meanings and new langauge forms are consistently being created - viewing language as an adaptable tool can result in it being used in creative new ways. Language fascism is a very bad and archaic thing and I'm not saying we should go back to Victorian ways and start viewing RP as the one true path again. Far from it. But we still need to emphasise the point that having a large vocabulary, and being able to express oneself clearly and precisely is a good thing. If language liberalism becomes too prevalent then the more precisely defined meanings of expressions like literally will die out. Only meanings that are absolutely necessary in our everday lives will remain. The following might end up all meaning the same thing: "These guys are literally killing me" "These guys are seriously killing me" "These guys are dramatically killing me" "These guys are undeniably killing me" "These guys are unreservedly killing me" "These guys are cumquatastically killing me" OK. Ignore the last one but you get the point. An education expands our language beyond basic everyday meanings and allows us to use more precise distinctions. Yet if we don't keep a tight enough hold upon those original denotational meanings then perhaps our ability to use more precise distinctions in our everyday lives will die out. You could say that language is largely metaphorical anyway and that the greatest wordsmiths of all time are those that put new meanings upon old expressions. True but in order to understand the way old words are used in new contexts we need to understand the original meanings don't we? I don't think that just blindly accepting that "empower" and "literally" have lost their old meanings is a step in the right direction. Further, I don't see how literally takes over the meaning of figuratively - "killing me" is being used as a figurative expression with or without "literally". Similar to the way that "seriously killing me" is virtually identical in meaning to "killing me", just with the former having added emphasis. I think we should be a little bit wary of the idea of language consistently evolving and changing. It’s undeniably true and very liberating that new meanings and new langauge forms are consistently being created – viewing language as an adaptable tool can result in it being used in creative new ways. Language fascism is a very bad and archaic thing and I’m not saying we should go back to Victorian ways and start viewing RP as the one true path again. Far from it.
But we still need to emphasise the point that having a large vocabulary, and being able to express oneself clearly and precisely is a good thing. If language liberalism becomes too prevalent then the more precisely defined meanings of expressions like literally will die out. Only meanings that are absolutely necessary in our everday lives will remain. The following might end up all meaning the same thing:
“These guys are literally killing me”
“These guys are seriously killing me”
“These guys are dramatically killing me”
“These guys are undeniably killing me”
“These guys are unreservedly killing me”
“These guys are cumquatastically killing me”
OK. Ignore the last one but you get the point. An education expands our language beyond basic everyday meanings and allows us to use more precise distinctions. Yet if we don’t keep a tight enough hold upon those original denotational meanings then perhaps our ability to use more precise distinctions in our everyday lives will die out.

You could say that language is largely metaphorical anyway and that the greatest wordsmiths of all time are those that put new meanings upon old expressions. True but in order to understand the way old words are used in new contexts we need to understand the original meanings don’t we? I don’t think that just blindly accepting that “empower” and “literally” have lost their old meanings is a step in the right direction.
Further, I don’t see how literally takes over the meaning of figuratively – “killing me” is being used as a figurative expression with or without “literally”. Similar to the way that “seriously killing me” is virtually identical in meaning to “killing me”, just with the former having added emphasis.

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