On Apr 24, 2012, at 2:04 AM, Biju Chacko wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 10:31 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian > <[email protected]> wrote: >> Let us put it this way. There are several terms being dismissed as >> pretentious expressions in this thread, that actually have specific meanings >> attached to them, and these meanings are used consistently > > I think it's pretentious to use a big or rarely used word when a > commonly one would do just as well. > -- b > I'm not against neologisms or even (on occasion) the verbing of nouns. I think we've been talking not about pretension, but rather cliche, which often indicates rote thinking or empty thought. For example, I submitted the phrase "think outside the box". That phrase might have been imaginative the first time it was used, but it doesn't wear well, in my opinion. When I was trying to come up with entries for this thread, I simply asked myself, "What would B. say?" B. is my dear sister, an executive with ATT. She speaks in business cliches. She cannot say "we need to be creative" or "we need to think carefully about this." She must say, "we need to think outside the box." She cannot say, "I'll call him" or "I'll send him a note"; she must say "I'll reach out to him." This is the language of her workplace, and she has completely internalized it. I like B. well enough; she's my sister, after all. But sometimes her way of speaking really depresses me, because she's not a stupid woman but she is capable of very shallow thought, and I believe that thinking and speaking in cliches is both a reason for and a symptom of this. My brothers and sisters and I are in nearly daily communication (by email) about our parents, who both suffer from dementia and other diseases associated with getting old. I can't complain about B.; she does so much more to help our parents than I do (she lives much closer to them than I do). But her way of speaking and writing often make me cringe; inwardly I'm doing repeated Homer Simpson "D'oh!"s. Regards, jrs
