FOCUS ON LANGUAGE

THE CHANGING ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Fortunately for many millions of mothers there are some changes in the language which mark a lightening of their daily burden. Gone are the days when Monday morning was marked off from all other mornings by the collective thumping and thudding proceeding from all the washtubs of the neighbourhood, and perhaps the time will eventually come when even the word “washtub” will be listed as obsolete in the dictionaries, ousted by washing machine. The humble kitchen sink has become the title of a theatrical movement (“kitchen-sink” drama is starkly realistic), leaving a gap to be filled by sink unit, a term which embraces the sink, draining board and cupboard underneath.

“Unit” is a hard-working little word at the present time, doing service in unit furniture, garbage disposal unit (this is then flushed away with water) and accommodation unit (a dwelling!). The spin dryer, pressure cooker, immersion heater and deep freeze all co-operate to aid the housewife. (The first is a domestic appliance for drying laundry at high speed; the second, a saucepan for cooking food at high speed; the third an electric waterheater; and the fourth, a refrigerator for the long-term storage of food.) Shopping is frequently done in a supermarket (the name comes from America) with its self-service. (But where there is a local preference for personal service the traditional small grocer’s shop may still hold its own.)

Another sign of the times is to be seen in the fact that fruit is often known as “fresh fruit” to make it clear that it is not a question of the canned variety which is in danger of being regarded as the norm, as in the case of pineapples, in particular. Canned and tinned are very nearly synonymous in British English, though the former (American) usage is gaining ground. Beer is almost invariably said to be canned (if it is not draught or bottled, of course). Even music, when it is recorded and relayed over a loudspeaker system, is called, metaphorically, “canned”, as well as applause.

A similar shift in the usual perspective seems to be operating in the realm of contrasted natural and artificial substances. A letter in The Times recounted that a gentleman asking for a sponge in a large store was shown an article seemingly composed of porous rubber. When he remonstrated he was told: “That is a sponge, sir, but perhaps you want a natural sponge”. The assistant then produced a sponge in a cellophane bag boldly labelled natural sponge. The writer then pertinently asked whether we must now call a spade “a natural spade”.

In the world of publishing, where it was for many years considered that paperbacks could not be a commercial success, there is now a frequent need to refer to hard-cover books in order to differentiate these from the paperback variety which many readers regard as the norm. In English, indeed, “book” has been extended to any magazine or “comic”. As a semantic curiosity horror-comic is worth a second glance, being a remarkable contradiction in terms.

With the expansion of university education there has been a corresponding popularisation of the appropriate jargon. Noteworthy here is Oxbridge, often imagined to be a modern coinage but actually invent by the novelist Thackeray, who sent his hero Pendennis to that imaginary seat of learning. In the fifties it came into fashion as a convenient abbreviation for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge as opposed to the newer universities described collectively as Redbrick – because the latter’s brickwork contrasted with the weather-beaten stone of the ancient colleges.

Though a certain coarsening of speech and writing is typical of our times it would be wrong to think of this movement as unhampered by any opposite tendency to avoid particular words seeming to betray attitudes now considered anti-social or undemocratic. So though the poor are always with us (as the traditional expression puts it), they are now, in accordance with American example, the underprivileged, or lower income brackets. Physical and mental afflictions are now known by less forthright names than 20 or 30 years ago. “Crippled” becomes handicapped, for example “drunkards” are now alcoholics, those who work a lot are workaholics, and the insane are the mentally ill, though in terms of political correctness or PC, which came also from America, it is not politically correct now to call anybody insane or mentally ill.

It is traditional for students of language to deride euphemisms on the grounds that softened names do not alter hard realities, and of course if they serve only as a pretext for doing nothing to help the weaker members of society they should indeed be a target for derision. But on the whole it cannot be denied in these cases that the less harsh vocabulary of the present day is indicative of a desire, however vague, to ameliorate the lot of others, especially with appearance of a new type of young people, called yuppies (from young urban upwardly moving professionals, career-oriented, tough and aggressive in view of achieving a highly-placed and well-paid job).

Inevitably a language changes with each generation and with the constant influx of new words and expressions stemming from social and technical innovations. Thus, speaking about a Taffy family (from America) we mean technologically advanced one, the family with a couple of TVs, a VCR, a computer, etc. Oinky and dinky (also from America) are used to describe a family without children, when oinky stands for one income no kids, and dinky for double income no kids.

Today when we all are living in a global village due to the technological advances of our age, and thanks to Internet networking, I think that we will be soon watching soap operas, eating banana splits and listening to reggae music everywhere.

By Natalia Predtechenskaya