Devolution of language

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The devolution of language is the often-corrosive affect that culture, primarily entertainment, computers, public schools, sports, and politics, have on the meaning of words.

A general trend, perhaps due to declining intelligence in culture, is for words to acquire a more literal meaning and lose their more abstract connotations.

Some examples of devolution of language include:

  • "word" was once a more figurative term, as in "speech", but now has a more literal connotation partly due to its common usage in the familiar "word processor" product
  • "message" now means something very brief, and usually non-substantive, due to the influence of instant messaging
  • "link" now means a clickable reference to another website, as well as a substantive connection, or as originally, one of the metal elements that makes up a chain.
  • "liberal" once met generous or enlightened, or committed to constitutional government and individual liberty, but, in the United States, now means demanding funding for abortion and censoring prayer in school
  • "media" now means the press, rather than modes of transferring information. The singular "medium" has largely been lost
  • "civil rights" used to refer to ensuring equality between the races, but now, to organizations like the ACLU, it involves ridiculous causes like promotion of the gay agenda and pro-abortion rights
  • "gay" once simply meant carefree and happy, but has been deliberately distorted in meaning by Liberals and atheists to further the Homosexual agenda
  • "nice" once meant "foolish, silly, simple", and then later "exact, pedantic" rather than its current meaning of "pleasant"

Devolution of language also applies to vocabulary in general. Low literacy levels fostered by liberal education systems reduce readers' ability to comprehend words commonly found in literature but not used in unintellectual entertainment and media. One report stated that the average 14-year-old's vocabulary has decreased 60% since 1945, roughly coinciding with the dominance of liberal public schooling.[1]

References

  1. Decline from 25,000 to 10,000. Utne Reader (July-August 2000), 28-9.

See also