Essay Deterioration of the English Language

Words: 1315
Pages: 6

Word Count: 1,237
Denise Moreno
Professor Carlene Coury
English 120
13 April 2013
Deterioration of the English Language

The English language seems to be deteriorating more and more each day. So many examples can be given to justify this observation. Three different writers have pointed out some examples of the butchering of the language. Martha Brokenbrough states that the constant use of instant messaging jargon and internetism can certainly be a good way to reshape the way we communicate. At the same time she writes it can also affect the way we communicate properly and professionally. Author, George Orwell, speaks about how we have developed words in the English language to disguise the true meaning for political causes.

Verbal false limbs are words that the writer can do without in order to make sense. Pretentious diction are words that are “used to dress up simple statements and give an air of scientific impartiality to biased judgments”(449). Words like “phenomenon” and “effective” get used to pursue the writer to believe the biased thoughts you may want to get across. Finally, meaningless words are “strictly meaningless in the sense that they not only do not point to any discoverable object, but are hardly ever expected to do so by the reader”(450).Using these kind of words is only good to persuade the reader into believing things that aren’t meant by the writer. All of these words are examples of bad choices while writing and once again an example of laziness. Orwell emphasizes that writers make the mistake of using all these words to express themselves, but in reality they just end up not being able to communicate what it was they really wanted to say. “Playbacks and self-quoting (He was like, "Where are you going?" and I was like, "I'm going to work") are the most durable symptoms of vagueness, and may find permanent homes in 21st century English”(Whelton, par.14). This particular quote by the speech writer, Clark Whelton, highlights the most common way English has become vague. “Whoa, that is so wow” “well, like yeah” and “I mean like, you know” are examples of vague talking and the loss of proper