Importance of Words

[TexasProud]

 I just started reading a book Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies by Marilyn chandler McEntyre from 2009.  I’ve barely started but in the introduction she quotes George Steiner Who wrote about the Third Reich:

“The language was infected not only with ... great bestialities. It was called upon to enforce innumerable falsehoods, hoods, to persuade the Germans that the war was just and everywhere victorious. As defeat closed in ... the lies thickened to a constant snowdrift.... Languages have great reserves of life. They can absorb masses of hysteria, illiteracy, and cheapness.... But there comes a breaking point. Use a language to conceive, organize, and justify Belsen; use it to make out specifications for gas ovens; use it to dehumanize man during twelve years of calculated bestiality. Something will happen to it.... Something of the lies and sadism will settle in the marrow of the language. Imperceptibly at first, like the poisons of radiation sifting silently into the bone. But the cancer will begin, and the deep-set destruction. The language will no longer grow and freshen. It will no longer perform, quite as well as it used to, its two principal functions: the conveyance of humane order which we call law, and the communication of the quick of the human spirit which we call grace.”[1]

Later she sites a study:

“One study of 21 to 25 year olds showed that 8o percent couldn't read a bus schedule, 73 percent couldn't understand  a newspaper story, 63 percent couldn't follow low written map directions, and 23 percent couldn't locate the gross pay-to-date amount on a paycheck stub (Laubach Literacy Action Council).”

 

 

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[1] George Steiner, Language and Silence: Essays on Language, Literature, and the Inhuman (New York: Atheneum, 1958,1982), pp. ioo-ioi.

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by TexasProud

[MercyA]

1 hour ago, TexasProud said:

"But there comes a breaking point. Use a language to conceive, organize, and justify Belsen; use it to make out specifications for gas ovens; use it to dehumanize man during twelve years of calculated bestiality. Something will happen to it.... Something of the lies and sadism will settle in the marrow of the language. Imperceptibly at first, like the poisons of radiation sifting silently into the bone. But the cancer will begin, and the deep-set destruction. "

Oh, absolutely. In recent years (and, of course, throughout history) words have been used to dehumanize political enemies; people of other races and cultures; the disabled; the unborn; the poor; and on and on. Words have power. Words matter. And we need to be careful which words we use.

[Amy in NH]

Vygotsky theorized that we create reality through shared language (social constructivism).

[Bootsie]

2 hours ago, TexasProud said:

 

“One study of 21 to 25 year olds showed that 8o percent couldn't read a bus schedule, 73 percent couldn't understand  a newspaper story, 63 percent couldn't follow low written map directions, and 23 percent couldn't locate the gross pay-to-date amount on a paycheck stub (Laubach Literacy Action Council).”

 

 

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[1] George Steiner, Language and Silence: Essays on Language, Literature, and the Inhuman (New York: Atheneum, 1958,1982), pp. ioo-ioi.

 

While I understand the concern about whether the general population can understand a newspaper story, I am even more concerned about whether the newspaper story is understandable.  Much of what I read today is poorly or incorrectly written which leave me thinking, "The author wrote X, which of course cannot be correct, I think the author meant Y."  

DS who falls into that age range has had his employer mess up his last two paychecks.  (underpaying him a few dollars one pay period and several hundred the next pay period).   The second time he came to ask me if I thought things looked off. I looked at his pay stub and I could not make heads-or-tails out of it.  The problem wasn't that he couldn't locate something like gross pay-to-date, it was that the pay stub was all incorrect.  I am a finance professor and I couldn't figure out the basic pay stub!  After about an hour, we thought we figured out what they had (incorrectly) done, DS emailed them and sure enough, every one of his coworkers had been underpaid.   

[Amy in NH]

18 hours ago, Bootsie said:

While I understand the concern about whether the general population can understand a newspaper story, I am even more concerned about whether the newspaper story is understandable.  Much of what I read today is poorly or incorrectly written which leave me thinking, "The author wrote X, which of course cannot be correct, I think the author meant Y." 

The first time a local newspaper printed a story stating that "x event was spurned by circumstance z" I figured it was a typo.  The second time I read it, in a different edition & article by the same author, I sent them a message that the correct word is "spurred".  Derp.

 

[Not_a_Number]

21 hours ago, TexasProud said:

“One study of 21 to 25 year olds showed that 8o percent couldn't read a bus schedule, 73 percent couldn't understand  a newspaper story, 63 percent couldn't follow low written map directions, and 23 percent couldn't locate the gross pay-to-date amount on a paycheck stub (Laubach Literacy Action Council).”

I'd like to see their definitions, I have to say. Those numbers seem too high... and I'm not exactly a believer in high levels of numeracy and literacy. 

[Murphy101]

I think those numbers are optimistic and I agree Bootsie that far too often the problem is unreadable options. Bad writing and mathematics. We always sit our kids down with their first paychecks and explain what everything means on it. About 50% of the time? Their paychecks are unreadable and very confusing.  And since many people no longer get paper paystubs, it’s also difficult at some employers to even access a paystub area all.  And written materials, such as news? Don’t even get me started. 

[Bootsie]

17 hours ago, Amy in NH said:

The first time a local newspaper printed a story stating that "x event was spurned by circumstance z" I figured it was a typo.  The second time I read it, in a different edition & article by the same author, I sent them a message that the correct word is "spurred".  Derp.

 

It is not just local newspapers; I see this in major news sources and publishers.  I have had instances that I am supposed to write content on a subject matter and then it goes to the editorial staff to edit for grammar, style, etc. and then I find I have to correct the editorial staff's "corrections".  I should be able to focus on my subject matter and not worry about whether they are using BC/AD or BCE/CE and whether periods come after the initials.  But, when I get back their corrections "About 400 years before BCE..."  Or, they should correct if I capitalize president when it shouldn't be.  But, when I get the book and wonder how in the world I misspelled the US president's name and they didn't catch it, look back at my draft, realize I spelled it correctly and they "corrected" it after my final readthrough.