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Corporate Life is Destroying the English Language

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  • 05-10-2007 6:43am
    #1
    The Sweeper
    Registered Users Posts: 10,658 ✭✭✭✭


    I work as freelance editor and writer for event reporting companies.

    This means I produce documents through a combination of transcription, editing, cross referencing and writing - the sort of document the company would have written if they didn't host a conference to cover the same subjects, if that makes any sense. Sometimes I even take the subject matter from a number of conferences and write a single document that summarises the topics into an easily digestible 10 pages.

    In the course of my work I regularly encounter made-up words that, over the passage of time, become more and more ingrained in accepted language. These words are not the children of invention. They are the bastard child of a mother of laziness and a father of ignorance.

    My current pet hate is the word 'disbenefit'.

    This word appears to be a creation of bureaucratic middle England, invented by town planners and county councils holding reviews on anything from population density to traffic management. It is a politician's word, an insidious implication that while something might not be expressly bad for you, it [wink wink] wouldn't be good for you [nudge nudge].

    Anybody else encountering rubbish like this?


Comments

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    #2
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    But malefit would be antagonisingly un-PC...


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    #3
    mathias
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,174 ✭✭✭mathias


    In the course of my work I regularly encounter made-up words that, over the passage of time, become more and more ingrained in accepted language.

    Believe it or not , this is the way a language works , a language is not a fixed set of words listed for all time as the only elements of that language , a language is a living thing , it moves with the times and adapts to its culture , new words form and get adopted or die out based on usage, words are not absolutes either ,nor do they have fixed eternal definitions , they exchange meanings over the generations , it is an essential part of the language instinct.

    For reference read some Chomsky , or Pinker to get an idea.


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    #4
    FlutterinBantam
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,575 ✭✭✭✭FlutterinBantam


    Of course! Going forward, the language we use evolves and changes to accommodate the dynamic and modalities of ongoing progression and innovation.

    Business,more than most is always changing,and needs over arching ,machro descriptive terminology to project company ethos to the consumer.

    Post modernist economic values demand a confluence and viscosity of language not experienced up to this and to say otherwise is stovepiping in the extreme and leaving onself open to accusations of nihilism and backwardness.


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