Plastic Words: The Tyranny of a Modular Language
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.35 (566 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0271014768 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 116 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-11-04 |
| Language | : | German |
DESCRIPTION:
Language Notes Text: English Original Language: German
Poerksen traces the history of plastic words, establishes criteria for identifying them, and provides a tragi-comic critique of the society that relies on them. For the English-language edition, Poerksen has added a new preface, explaining the origin of the book and addressing the spirited public debate it has spawned. They displace more precise words with words that sound scientific but actually blur meaning and disable common language. In the 1940s Harry S Truman made "underdevelopment" a keystone in U.S. "Development." "Project." "Strategy." "Problem." These may seem like harmless words, but are they? German writer and linguist Uwe Poerksen calls these words "plastic words" because of their malleability and the uncanny way they are used to fit every circumstance. Bold and provocative, Plastic Words is social and linguistic criticism in the tradition of Jonathan Swift and George Orwell.. They are building blocks for new models of reality that may seem utopian but that impoverish the world. But who benefits from "development"? Who benefited from the housing "projects" of the 1960s and 1970s? And who among us does not worry when our leaders tell us they have a "strategy" for solving society's "problems"? According to Poerksen,
Just excellent Adriaan Uwe Poerksen wrote an unusual and excellent book on what happened and is happening to our modern language. He did his research upon his native language, German, yet his findings go parallel with what happened in English, Dutch, Spanish, and so on. These findings are that certain words changed their meaning during the course of the last couple of decades, and not for the better, and that these words replaced words that were better suited to convey what was meant thereby limiting our abillity to express our intentions and messages to one another. Quite a serious crime ind. "Misusing Language: Is the Unexamined Generality Worthy of Speaking?" according to L. King. “An abstract term is like a box with a false bottom; you put in it what ideas you please, and take them out again without being observed”---de Tocqueville, “How American Democracy Has Altered the English Language”, Ch 16, “Democracy in America”, 18Misusing Language: Is the Unexamined Generality Worthy of Speaking? “An abstract term is like a box with a false bottom; you put in it what ideas you please, and take them out again without being observed”---de Tocqueville, “How American Democracy Has Altered the English Language”, Ch 16, “Democracy in America”, 1835. quoted on page 35.The author argues that modern societies naturally create a class of words that are on one hand so malleable and abstract as to be nearly meaningless, yet on the other hand are coercive and corrupting as they presume the hegemony of a particular world view. Poerksen's li. 5. quoted on page Misusing Language: Is the Unexamined Generality Worthy of Speaking? “An abstract term is like a box with a false bottom; you put in it what ideas you please, and take them out again without being observed”---de Tocqueville, “How American Democracy Has Altered the English Language”, Ch 16, “Democracy in America”, 1835. quoted on page 35.The author argues that modern societies naturally create a class of words that are on one hand so malleable and abstract as to be nearly meaningless, yet on the other hand are coercive and corrupting as they presume the hegemony of a particular world view. Poerksen's li. 5.The author argues that modern societies naturally create a class of words that are on one hand so malleable and abstract as to be nearly meaningless, yet on the other hand are coercive and corrupting as they presume the hegemony of a particular world view. Poerksen's li