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Quality of language

Writer: manuwritesmanuwrites

Thwarted, incongruousness, felicitations, Frankfurter, compendium, plethora; such specificity of language. I love it!

With so much being said (not) today with a multitude of initialisms/acronyms and icons, language (as we knew it) has undeniably taken a hit!

An inefficiency in communication brought on by the utilization of generic abbreviated expedient words and visuals that foster misinterpretation due to their inability to fully define or explain a sensation feeling or opinion, would seem to be the disheartening definition.

WT&%$#@!

Even older generations have jumped onto the abbreviation bandwagon, with at times hilarious proof in the pudding results.

I read a wonderful article the other day that used examples of messages between older and younger generations to illustrate the above point.

For example, a mother used lol after sending out a message communicating to relatives the demise of her mother in law (she thought it meant lots of love).

Then, there was a parent who after asking their child when they would be coming home wrote WTF, thinking it meant Wednesday/Thursday or Friday.

I suppose in an absurdist way I was comforted and became optimistic once more in seeing these reinventions based on misinterpretations, because they validate that language does not want to and cannot be tamed, suffocated, minimized or denied it’s right to expression.

The reinvention of initialisms may eventually lead to yet more interpretations of the original forms, such that we could see synonyms, antonyms or altogether new words/expressions developing through the imaginative and/or unsuspecting use by all generations.

Language is meant to fly and soar and capture all the minutiae/nuances in its effort to communicate effectively. And although some shortcuts are worthy and perhaps even necessary, they cannot ever replace a full well constructed sentence in the communication department.

I don’t want to seem like an OF (old fart), but I for one would be pleased if language started to retaliate and run in the opposite direction of today’s rabid dissection and dismemberment of words and phrases in the name of speed, political correctness and pure narcissism.

WDYT?

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