Anyway, before I return to my regular blogging, something I've noticed about language the past couple of years is the prevalence of the word "super" in descriptions.
Such as this: "I'm super excited to be here talking to you all today..."
Now, I remember when "like" was the trendy word, as in "Should I do the thing? Well, like, I guess so," so I suppose that "super" has replaced "like" among people in general. And I do mean everyone, because I've heard people my age or older use it when speaking in meetings.
It's one of those things where once I realized just how often it was said did I start noticing it everywhere.
Back when I first began writing in high school and at university, I was told to avoid colloquialisms such as "like" or "gag me with a spoon"* when writing, unless you're writing fiction and that's what the narrative voice or the person in question would say. But "like" and now "super" seem to have become so prevalent that I feel that I'm the anachronism.
Between the usage of "super" and "do the needful", I've become the Old Man Yells at Cloud person...
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| From Know Your Meme. And The Simpsons. |
#Blaugust2023
*Valley Girl stuff, you know.
It's all about register. Well-socialized individuals alter their speech, written or spoken, according to the social setting and the audience. It's why you talk differently to your elderly aunt than to your buddies at the game and why, if you don't, people look at you funny.
ReplyDeleteI luse my registers appropriately in conversation but I love playing around with them in writing. You can have all kinds of fun. I also have a huge fondness for the kind of "sloppy" language you're describing - the "likes" and the "supers" and all. Using them in print just makes me grin.
I particularly love it when I notice a new buzzword or phrase, although by the time I notice it you can guarantee it's already dated and on the way out. It's still new and exciting to me, though, so I start throwing it in immediately. Sometimes those things stick and i use them for months or even years, more often I forget about them after a handful of uses. Language is fun, that's the thing. Play around with it as much as you like!
Now I'm intensely curious about how you sound when you're in your "other" modes.
DeleteGlad your daughter is doing well.
ReplyDeleteShe might have a different opinion on "doing well", but I look at getting your tonsils carved out as an inherently painful event, and the only thing that will ultimately fix it is time. That being said, she has no infections and no bleeding, so I chalk that up as a win. And the tonsils themselves were --as the docs expected-- not cancerous. Just enlarged.
DeleteI hope she feels better quickly! I remember getting annoyed when they didn't take out my daughters when they acted up. Apparently out of style as they used to take them out at the first sign of trouble.
ReplyDeleteI know but I just can't bring myself to say super lol. There was another one recently but might be gone. Everyone would answer a question by starting the sentence with "so." TotA
I remember the "So." as the author Sharon Shinn used it a lot in her novels, especially the Twelve Houses books.
DeleteAs far as the tonsils goes, they kind of had to take them out as one had grown so large it was partially blocking her windpipe. So yeah, I'm glad it was yanked before she had a cold and they potentially could swell and block it.