Words in Transformation
The article “A FEW PRO TIPS ON WORD USAGE FOR UNSOPHISTICATED ARMATURE” by George Jonas which appeared in the National Post on January 12, 2013, claims how some words appears to changeover from one meaning to another as time passes by. Jonas uses some examples to prove his point, but no evidence of where his sources came from. He states that the most noticeable word in English language is “gay”; however, he did not include a statistical report on how he came up with his conclusions, and also no references at the end of the article. Can the reader believe that “gay” is the most perceives word in English or is Jonas just being bias towards our current generations? Compare to his time where words where not simplify enough as they are now. Also would it be because it is the most common word that has been drawing lot of attention lately in our society? Since, this generation is less conservative. Without any proofs of his sources, there is a disbelief in his argument. The other word that the author notice to have change drastically since his time was the “The luck adjective sophisticated”. He noted that since, this word have two different meanings it has fall as a victim to the use of “language” to take advantage of it meaning. He mentions that at his time of using words, the key definition of “sophisticated” was about doing something totally wrong but thanks to “language” today it has twisted it from bad to something good. It seems like the author is taking language to be one of the major reason for words to lose their original definition. What he fails to understand is that the usages of these words over time have been the great impact for their changes. Moreover without any evidence from where his sources came from, makes it difficult for the reader to agree with his opinion. The author state that the meaning of some words has been changing from something good to becoming something bad. He goes on and said that the word “amateur” used to be define as someone doing something that he or she is personate about but, today it has change to the complete opposite meaning. He used some facts to support his argument about how this word has been used in different situation where it means someone doing the wrong thing. Words meaning are usually used to frame a certain concept at a particular time it does not mean that if a word is used to describe a negative event it definition has change from its original meaning. There are other factors that could affect the meaning of a word, yet were not address by Jonas. The advance of technology would have greatly affected the meaning of words today compare to his time of using words. The author could have done lot more research to support his argument, but he seems to be taking language for granted to prove is point. He forgot that time changes so do people and language with a great development of the world today one do not expect everything to stay where they used to be from the old days. In his conclusion he also mention that language only goes with the leaders; he could have elaborate more on how the use of language have change the way we used words today. However, language is not the only thing that changes the way words are used, word is what give outline and meaning to our understanding and affect our behavior and influence our thoughts .In addition it would have been possible for the author to have done a statistical report on some of the words that have change since his time and find out the main reason behind their changes. This method would have given a clear picture of whether language or the usage of these words has a big impact to their changes. Overall there is a valid statement that words have been changing as time goes on. This being said there was not enough evidence to support the argument is right or wrong. This article was based on the author own point of view on words that he thinks has change since his own time. However, I would not agree with the author just because of his examples were not strong enough to support his judgment.