DailyDirt: More Than Words, Is All I Have To Say…
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
The meaning of words change all the time, and they may be changing faster than ever before. It’s hard for traditional dictionaries to really keep up with new words, but linguists are trying to record and categorize all the sounds they’re observing. It ain’t easy, but it’s interesting to keep track of all the ways our language changes as people around the world are increasingly connected. Here are just a few examples.
- Teenagers communicate in weird ways sometimes, making sounds that aren’t words (but still have meaning). There’s a difference between “duhhh” and “duhhyy” — and you should be insulted by the latter. [url]
- Many terms of endearment are almost universal, like “baby” — understandable in several different languages, but some cute names are not. Japanese women are commonly referred to as “an egg with eyes” as a compliment, but that doesn’t quite translate well in English…. [url]
- According to some linguists, young women are the leaders of language fads that spread into everyday conversations. For example, Webster’s New World College Dictionary (Fourth Edition) includes the use of “like” as a way to add emphasis — as in “It’s, like, hot.” [url]
- Verbal profanities are stored in a different part of your brain than where most of your language skills reside, and cursing has been part of our language for centuries (if not longer). Some of the worst obscenities in Latin focus on body parts and sex, so it seems like the subject matter of curse words hasn’t changed that much in a while. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: communication, cursing, dictionary, language, latin, linguistics, profanities, teenagers, terms, tone, verbal, words
Comments on “DailyDirt: More Than Words, Is All I Have To Say…”
older than words
I remember reading somewhere that chimps that had learned sign language spontaneously invented the insulting epithet “shit head”. There are universal insults, and then there are universal insults.
Toddlers...
Toddlers call people poopyheads, but it’s not necessarily an insult. It’s mostly harmless teasing.
Hi Mike,
What’s the point of pretending like you can keep me off of TD when you make a living out of ridiculing others who pretend like they can block people from doing what they want on the internet?
Seriously. I know you see the irony. But what’s the point? I post whatever I want, whenever I want. Your attempts to censor me are completely, 100% laughable and stupid.
Let me ask you this? Why do you, a man who pretends like he loves anonymity and freedom on the internet, make a point to block TOR IP addresses whenever they are used to criticize you?
Seriously. Are you so ashamed and insecure that you have to block TOR, the tool of freedom fighters who rage against dictators, to stop me from criticizing you?
Are you so scared of criticism that you think it?s worth it to block TOR exit nodes rather than receive any criticism whatsoever?
You?re just like China. And you fucking know it.
You are doing whatever you can to censor those who challenge you. Just like China. And you fucking know it.
Toodles!
That’s right, folks! As soon as Mike realizes that a TOR IP address is being used to criticize him–not for spam, mind you, but only for the purpose of criticizing Mike–he immediately blocks that TOR IP address from being able to post on Techdirt.
That’s right. Mr. Mike “Internet Freedom and Anonymity” Masnick is so scared of personal criticism that he’d rather block a TOR exit node–the tool of dissidents who criticize their oppressors–rather than leave the TOR IP address open to those who may want to criticize him or others on Techdirt.
Protector of freedom on the internet? You decide. His actions are just like those of an insecure dictator, and he knows it. Mike is just like China, feverishly oppressing those who dare to speak out against him.
See the link that Mike is so ashamed of that he’s trying to censor it–just like a Chinese dictator: http://pastebin.com/5VUv7utm
And I Was ...
… like …
The word "like"...
The TV show My So Called Life really drove the use of “like” into the ground. I remember a scene where one character used it about 15 times in one sentence.