All the time in the world. Language is not fixed, it’s a construct that reflects society and culture at any given time. Usage and meanings change over time and can be co-opted to further different agendas, so we can reliably assume that a thousand years from now the words that measure the passage of time might be very different.
Hello Linda. I enjoyed the film about words and dictionaries and would love to hear more from you about why you have a different opinion regarding who defines words. Thank you Liz
Hello ladies, I'm pleased to hear that there are others interested in the words we use and how we use them. Hopefully, this explanation will suffice for the time being:
We navigate the world with language.
Yes, I know that could be a controversial statement but do bear with me.
You may, or may not have noticed that when you read something by sight, you mentally recite the words you're reading. When you 'read' by hearing the words are already being transmitted to your brain without the need to intervene and interpret what you are seeing.
When we see, hear, taste, smell or touch something in the deepest recesses of our mind we name it. We know that wool is soft and scratchy, we use both words in our sub conscious to tell us a little bit more about what we have just touched or seen.
Language and the words that make it up are the fundamental bed rock of how we both observe, experience, navigate and create the world around us. They tell us who we are, where we are, what we are and what everything else is. They are fundamental to personality and culture, to society and religion, to politics and life.
When we play around with words we remake the world because we change the meaning we give to something, someone or some time.
That is not to say that it's not right that language changes, it should over time because our species is one that develops, adapts, and builds outside of the immediate boundaries of nature; therefore langugage needs to reflect these changes.
However, if we take Lesley's comment about the definition of the word Vaccine, that first appeared on the CDC website in 2020 - you can still find the original definition, the one that has been used since vaccines first came into being if you head over to the Wayback Machine. It was a purely political move designed to make the shift more palatable to the public.
When we lose words, adapt words, change words, create new words we are changing culture. You only have to look at the word Gay to see that in action. Before the middle of the 20th century it was used extensively in literature and conversation to tell us a person was happy, ebullient, joyful and enjoying life.
Perhaps the worst effect of the change in language and words is that it can be used to dumb down culture. I squirm whenever I see the advert on TV for Gaviscon these days ...! And locally here in West Dorset there has been controversy over the use of 'baby swans' vs 'cygnets' for the Swannery in Spring!
We do, and are nothing without language, and we play around with it at our peril!
Me too Liz / Linda.... Also enjoyed, would also like to hear more of your thinking.
I know that one bone of contention recently in some quarters has been the redefinition of the word vaccine by Webster's to cover the anti-Covid mRNA injections. Having read around the subject, I'm still on the fence as to whether that change was politically or policy motivated or not. Nor do I know why the timing of the change was what it was. The timing of the change rather than the change itself is what raises my (notoriously cynical) suspicions.
HOWEVER, it brings us back to what we think Dictionaries are for. What is their purpose? Is it to define words? To give us the correct spelling and pronunciation of them? (Assuming you can read all the phonetic signage - I can't!) Is it to tell us whether or not you can use it in a game of Scrabble? Or is it to reflect language as it evolves, including spelling, pronunciation, usage?
For me - it is all of the above. I am always interested in the changes in new editions, especially around which words have been added and which removed - which tells us a lot about our modern preoccupation with tech and lack of same with nature. One upside of the tech at our fingertips is that we may now get several dictionary definitions of the same word.
My two favourite uses of the Dick & Harry however are to see the etymology of words - and in the case of crossword puzzles to see if the word I've just made up actually exists.
To me it's been more interesting to see the difference between old dictionaries and online dictionaries. I've recently checked out the words Wisdom and Digital - it makes interesting reading!
Beginnings and endings are the head and feet of the year.
In between we have the first heel and the second heel, the seasons hinge around these key months with their equality of daylight and nighttime.
Between these lie the cold, the damp, the warm (usually) and the holiday.
Back to school and leaf fall.
The only one remaining is witness to the sun month!
A rapid bit of nonsense around my changed derivations....
~ ~ ~
Septic is the time of sickness,
followed by the janitorial duty
of all who survive the sunlight,
to whom the permission is granted,
to travel occidentally beyond
the fevered isles.
The feebleness that follows,
attends upon the drinking of the gin,
and the sitting by cold fires, before
the call to vigorous ambulation.
The wailing time cannot be so far behind,
with justice upon its heals, calling forth
the decking of the halls with mothers
attire, and uncut strings of family,
and the longing, the hoping for
the portends to be true.
~ ~ ~
Your rapid bit of nonsense, makes some sense when we recognise time as a function of living Lesley - Perfect!!!
Hello Linda. I enjoyed the film about words and dictionaries and would love to hear more from you about why you have a different opinion regarding who defines words. Thank you Liz
Hello ladies, I'm pleased to hear that there are others interested in the words we use and how we use them. Hopefully, this explanation will suffice for the time being:
We navigate the world with language.
Yes, I know that could be a controversial statement but do bear with me.
You may, or may not have noticed that when you read something by sight, you mentally recite the words you're reading. When you 'read' by hearing the words are already being transmitted to your brain without the need to intervene and interpret what you are seeing.
When we see, hear, taste, smell or touch something in the deepest recesses of our mind we name it. We know that wool is soft and scratchy, we use both words in our sub conscious to tell us a little bit more about what we have just touched or seen.
Language and the words that make it up are the fundamental bed rock of how we both observe, experience, navigate and create the world around us. They tell us who we are, where we are, what we are and what everything else is. They are fundamental to personality and culture, to society and religion, to politics and life.
When we play around with words we remake the world because we change the meaning we give to something, someone or some time.
That is not to say that it's not right that language changes, it should over time because our species is one that develops, adapts, and builds outside of the immediate boundaries of nature; therefore langugage needs to reflect these changes.
However, if we take Lesley's comment about the definition of the word Vaccine, that first appeared on the CDC website in 2020 - you can still find the original definition, the one that has been used since vaccines first came into being if you head over to the Wayback Machine. It was a purely political move designed to make the shift more palatable to the public.
When we lose words, adapt words, change words, create new words we are changing culture. You only have to look at the word Gay to see that in action. Before the middle of the 20th century it was used extensively in literature and conversation to tell us a person was happy, ebullient, joyful and enjoying life.
Perhaps the worst effect of the change in language and words is that it can be used to dumb down culture. I squirm whenever I see the advert on TV for Gaviscon these days ...! And locally here in West Dorset there has been controversy over the use of 'baby swans' vs 'cygnets' for the Swannery in Spring!
We do, and are nothing without language, and we play around with it at our peril!
Me too Liz / Linda.... Also enjoyed, would also like to hear more of your thinking.
I know that one bone of contention recently in some quarters has been the redefinition of the word vaccine by Webster's to cover the anti-Covid mRNA injections. Having read around the subject, I'm still on the fence as to whether that change was politically or policy motivated or not. Nor do I know why the timing of the change was what it was. The timing of the change rather than the change itself is what raises my (notoriously cynical) suspicions.
HOWEVER, it brings us back to what we think Dictionaries are for. What is their purpose? Is it to define words? To give us the correct spelling and pronunciation of them? (Assuming you can read all the phonetic signage - I can't!) Is it to tell us whether or not you can use it in a game of Scrabble? Or is it to reflect language as it evolves, including spelling, pronunciation, usage?
For me - it is all of the above. I am always interested in the changes in new editions, especially around which words have been added and which removed - which tells us a lot about our modern preoccupation with tech and lack of same with nature. One upside of the tech at our fingertips is that we may now get several dictionary definitions of the same word.
My two favourite uses of the Dick & Harry however are to see the etymology of words - and in the case of crossword puzzles to see if the word I've just made up actually exists.
To me it's been more interesting to see the difference between old dictionaries and online dictionaries. I've recently checked out the words Wisdom and Digital - it makes interesting reading!