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Tsunami and language

I am the archetypal 'grumpy old man' and one of my particular dislikes, that makes me grit my teeth, clench my fist and launch into strings of round oaths and blistering expletives is the misuse/ abuse of the word 'devastating'.
People use it when their football team is beaten, when they fail to win X factor or other such events.
These days everyone is 'devastated'.
I watched the television pictures of the dreadful tsunami and knew I had never witnessed anything so awesome ( and I mean truly awesome, not the 'awesome' used by some pop singer's fan, another pet hate).
That tsunami was truly devastating and defines the word. I can only hope that people will reconsider the use of the word in the future and recognise that the tsunami the whole world witnessed so graphically is the sort of event to which the word should be applied and not on other trivia. I can hope but know I will be disappointed.
Incidentally it impacted only slightly on the Philippines and not at all where I am living, which is well protected by other islands from tsunamis and typhoons.

Re: Tsunami and language

I agree with you Arthur ,in particular about "Awesome " which my grandchildren sprinkle around with abandon. However another one I hate is "Impact' which every radio speaker uses instead of " Affects" . In your case I think the use is correct as a Tsunami landing would have "Impacted" Am I making myself clear ?
Anyway glad to hear you are not affected . I did wonder how you were, being so close to the area.

Current location (optional) Tasmania

Re: Tsunami and language

I also agree Arthur, there was a report on one of the Australian commercial TV networks about Christchurch resembling a war zone. A very irate comment was made that it was like an earthquake

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1961

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth

Re: Tsunami and language

I only have access to BBC World news but I get really irritated by assinine questions made to reporters on site like " How long is going to be before the mess is sorted out' This is day two of the disaster. And 'What is the deathtoll likely to be?'
You can see that they are genuinley personally anxious that it is as high as it can be so they can be suitably sombre when reporting that " The death toll is likely to be in the tens of thousands".

24/7 news reportage is wonderful/ awful in its effects. Discuss.

Re: Tsunami and language

"Next up" - for "Next"
"Going forward" - for "In the future"
"Presently" - for "Currently"
Can you imagine Kenny Prut's reaction if he heard such stuff?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Re: Tsunami and language

"At this point in time" - now
"To cut a long story short" - I'm waffling
"Correct me if I'm wrong" - I know I'm right

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1961

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth

Re: Tsunami and language

A window of opportunity----------- Better be in quick!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1947-51

Current location (optional) Auckland, NZ

Re: Tsunami and language

My wife thinks it is only me objecting every day to these excruciating terms . Which reminds me , what about "in terms of " thrown in at every opportunity.

Current location (optional) Tasmania

Re: Tsunami and language

What about 'Lessons will be learned' or from 'X Factor' or 'So you think you can dance' the contestants " ......this is part of a great journey for me." and of course 'If I don't win I will be devastated'
My one real hatred is reporters thrusting a microphone in someone's face and asking, ' Tell us Edna what did you think when you came downstairs at 2-00 in the morning and found your front room under three foot of water'.
Tell 'em Edna!! Give 'em both barrels!

Re: Tsunami and language

I must say I was expecting some impact in the north of Luzon, but they seem to have avoided it. The chemical plant I partially work for is in Mindanao, nearer to you so they'll be OK . In fact I've given them an order today !

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Re: Tsunami and language

Brian, the impact was minimal and no effects felt as far as I understand. Some idiot has been circulating a text message that the rain is radioactive and everyone should stay inside their homes or go out wearing a raincoat. Everyone is edgy and many believe the message despite official denials and refutations.
The weather is not coming from that direction, for goodness sakes.

Re: Tsunami and language

How about --- Your "Take" of the situation
and --- First steps on the path to an international standard on "Outcomes"
Whatever happened to "Results"
and last " Touching base " with someone . What are they on about?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Current location (optional) Tasmania

Re: Tsunami and language

Worrysome!!!!!!!!!!!
Aaaaargh!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Re: Tsunami and language

By the way, is a tsunami a tidal wave??

Re: Tsunami and language

Wikipedia to the rescue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1961

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth

Re: Tsunami and language

er...right....so it's tidal wave then (or what we used to call an event like this before the loan word came along)! Going forward it's worrisome that we're compromising our vocabulary, englishwise.

Re: Tsunami and language

Only our "vocabulary"?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

Re: Tsunami and language

Allan, it's not just any old tidal wave, it is a tw caused by seismic activity on the ocean bed. The famous Severn bore, for example, is not a tsunami. To qualify as a tsunami (and to bring us back to Arthur's and your and others' legitimate grouses about our language becoming more and more formulaic) it has to tick all the right boxes...

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1951-58

Current location (optional) Cottingham, East Yorkshire

Re: Tsunami and language

"Dumbing down" the language is really serious stuff,lads. On a lighter note 15,ooo,ooo children starved to death last year.

Re: Tsunami and language

If you dig deep enough, Alec, you may well find that the root cause of both phenomena turns out to be the same.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1951-58

Current location (optional) Cottingham, East Yorkshire

Re: Tsunami and language

Quite possibly, Doug. However, one is,to all intents,irrelevant(in the great scheme of things) and one should fill you with horror (basically}

Re: Tsunami and language

Quite so Alec.
My wife and I work to support a charity which raises 45K p.a. for Burmese refugee children in Thailand. Please send your cheque made payable to "Kidz in Kampz" to my home address which I'd be happy to let you have.
In the meantime I'll devote a little of my time to trying to ensure that our language remains meaningful as well.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Re: Tsunami and language

Dig out your Fowler's English Usage. Or try looking up "pedantry" in your OED

Re: Tsunami and language

Perhaps we should think of those other poor sods before us who had to put up with people introducing no end of foreign words into "our" language. "Physics" and "Algebra" to name two that would be familiar to any kbgs ob. Language evolves, and in the case of English spreads. American English is different to that spoken in Canada, Australian English is different to that spoken in New Zealand. As for the English spoken in Bombay, 20 years with my INdian born wife still confuses me. The English we spoke as lads has also disappeared. Get over it!

Re: Tsunami and language

If you do get down among the pees in the OED then look up 'piety', 'pomposity' and 'intolerance' (where the pee falls silent). Definitions look for precision. Does that make definitions pedantic? If it does, Alec, then why send us off to the OED (that huge book of 'irrelevancies') and neatly contradict your own 'argument'? Language matters all right!

The other day, while continuing my ever-losing battle against mountains of paper, I came across a cartoon I'd saved from many years back. It shows an overweight American stereotype businessman, mouth full of cigar, bending down to a squatting peon in some jungle nowhere, who's pouring his last two or three drops of water onto his failing shoots. The American is proffering a miniature stars and stripes (such as sits on every pc American businessman's desk) to the haggard-looking man and he's saying: "Hey, I'm sellin' a dream here! George Washington, Old Glory, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, sea-to-shinin'-sea - what's not havin' enough to eat got to do with it?'

Clearly, language matters.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1951-58

Current location (optional) Cottingham, East Yorkshire

Re: Tsunami and language

I'm with you on this one,John. Heaven forfend we should be so pompous as to believe that the English language is perfect and intolerant of the introduction of "foreign" words in the belief that they are bastardising the language. Language matters but only insofar as the message intended to be conveyed is clear and incapable of misinterpretation.If you wish to be transported to a higher plane then read Virgil,Shakespeare, Wordsworth,Milton et al. A pedant may look at your posting and say tut,tut,tut, it's different FROM but everybody will know what you mean so why get heated about it.
Shaun, you shouldn't make the assumption that I don't give my time, freely, to children's charities.

Re: Tsunami and language

Concerning pedantry. My original post was not aimed at the organic mutation of the English Languge , which is part of its beauty and it is one of the most widely spoken languages on the planet and so it will perforce mutate. That universality is no small claim for a tiny island on the edge of the Atlantic.
My original post was remarking on the use /abuse of words like devastated and awesome.
We are living today in a world of instant news,( I can recall small paragraphs in the corner of an English daily paper that remarked that an earthquake in Turkey had killed 20000 some 10 days ago) but today we have instant news with instant pictures and so words like devastated and awesome can be supported by images that reflect the true meaning of those words.
When people use/abuse such words with ridiculous hyperbole then they are left with nowhere to go when something devastating and awesome comes along.
That's my whole point.

Re: Tsunami and language

Point taken,Arthur. I consider myself suitably chastised!

Re: Tsunami and language

Just a minor point, the Germans, Scandinavians and Dutch must feel very proud that a mongrel langauge cobbled together from theirs should be spoken over most of the planet

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1961

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth

Re: Tsunami and language

Just one of the many gifts we bequeathed via the Empire to the rest of the world along with Cricket, Footall, Rugby, Shakespeare and Katey Price.

Re: Tsunami and language

That's right, John, but don't forget the huge input from the Latin we most of us dreaded and loathed at school. One reason why English is so rich in synonyms is because of that input from two very contrasting sources. Then, of course, once Britain was administering a huge empire it was picking up words right, left and centre. As you pointed out in an earlier posting, particularly post-empire those Englishes developed individually, according to the needs of their daily life, but generally developed out of English English as it stood when the Brits finally left - one reason why the Indian English you are familiar with often sounds so quaint to a modern English (or Australian) ear, and why so many American expressions we fondly see as being ultra-modern are in fact throwbacks to Elizabethan and earlier English - I guess. It is logically impossible to be narrowly nationalistic about English because all the many variants up and down the world are as valid to the societies that speak them as is our own to us. We now have a situation in which (Bollywood being one source) we are 'borrowing' English from the English of our former colonies. And that's all positive and a 'natural' process. The dumbing down of language, which in varying degrees troubles some of us, comes from other directions, and is, in some measure, no accident, I think.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1951-58

Current location (optional) Cottingham, East Yorkshire