But now, words mean… whatever. It’s not just normal pejoration of words over time, anymore. Ortega’s Mass Man controls the decline of our increasingly debased tongue.
FROOMB! (Trust me or not, it relates… *sigh*)
Parents: Cursing baby doll should not be sold
I really do tire of this kind of thing. The doll apparently says, “Hey, crazy bitch.”
*yawn* The “Outrage Factory” is at work full time on this one, it seems.
This is marginally interesting as an indicator of the normalization of vulgarity in popular speech (but then, “vulgar” does mean “common, base” and our society is increasingly base–“morally low; without estimable personal qualities; dishonorable; meanspirited; selfish…
of little or no value; worthless”). Only stupid, subliterate, neovictorian bowdlerizers would consider “bitch” a curse. It’s vulgar, of course, but a “curse word”? Hardly. Of course, in today’s increasingly alliterate society, such pejoration of words (such as “curse”) has become common.
*waits for “outraged” subliterates to react negatively*
“Now there abide these three: phonemes, syntax and semantics, and the greatest of these is semantics.”
Phonemes: the grunts and clicks and whistles and moans (and their analogs in written “speech”) that make up the sounds of language. You can hear this sort of thing from animals and from Occupy-Whatever creatures (who are of a lower order than most animals, intellectually), absent the other two critical elements of language.
Syntax: the structural elements of language. Most people think of grammar as being syntax, but it’s just the most readily-identified expression of syntax.
Semantics: meaning. Absent this element, the other two combined do not comprise language, which is why I sneer whenever any idiot utters the “it’s just semantics” or the even stupider, “I won’t argue semantics”. Of course they won’t, because meaning is irrelevant to idiots.
Meanings change. But when words become devoid of meaning there’s no point in argument anymere.
In fact, when people argue semantics in court or as politicians do during uncomfortable interviews the media and pundits revile them for it because the sheeple can’t understand and work through it in a way that is satisfactory to the media agenda.
That ascribing symbols and being able to communicate those symbols to others is essential to being human is a pretty easy argument to make. IIRC, Susanne Langer pretty well nailed that with her discussions of sign and symbol. Meaning is THE central element of humanity as opposed to animal existence. Maybe Gibran said what I’m groping for in my sleep-and-caffeine-deprived state: “In much of your speaking, thought is half-murdered.” (“Your” here refers to The Prophet’s audience, of course. :-))