The word « crisis » is one of those that we frequently use: political crisis, industrial crises, crisis in Europe, crisis of confidence or even housing crisis. The language is no exception, analysis of the vocabulary of crisis on the blogosphere.

Vocabulary crisis on the blogosphere

Analysis of deep hurt

The blogosphere is a reflection of today’s society and it is hardly surprising the rising tide of the spelling mistakes or the contempt it affects the location of the syntax or the encroachments of slang.

But is the deeper problem not in the field of vocabulary?

How many words do you use?

It is difficult to know how many hundreds of words match a normal baggage of the average blogger. We are seeing more and more articles with smileys that somehow replace « the thingy” the embarrassed silence, the awful rumbling or monosyllables that mean nothing.

The Font size, the colour selection, the multiplication of exclamation points look like gestures turmoil that badly hides the frightening void of our brain material traps.

If given the opportunity, you can conduct surveys among your audience at the risk of being hit by an ignorance of the most elementary words of our mother tongue.

Henceforth the average blogger has not a clue of what means conclusive, shameless, wail from the difference between special and specious verbal and verbose. And if you want to accentuate the rout continue with etymology, anachronism, timing…

The causes

Moral causes

The weakening of the will is one of the major causes. We do not know anymore the words, because we intend to do, to know no effort. Select the proper term, this implies a labour of discrimination: we turn our back to work.

« Not to worry » proclaims in neglected a shortcut that already betrays a lifestyle, the most spineless formula ever. Transpose it, this formula in terms of vocabulary and you will realize these hobbling texts where spirit, good manners, respect for the language have given way to all jargon approximations.

Intellectual causes

By giving up the traditional disciplines, we reduced the teachers’ area of influence to be well said. The readings of the blogger are limited to the prose of the sports columnist, national mainstream newspapers and tabloids.

The world image has killed the verb and has led to the closure of many libraries. Google Search has pathetically replaced looking in a dictionary.

Economical causes

The constant search for speed was the first to supply information by promoting quantity to quality. Even catching superlatives by the title are lacking of vocabulary: prodigious, super chic, atomic are soon forgotten.

The methods of the commercial or financial advertising have made a real brainwashing.

Educational causes

The blogger uses what has been taught. Time spent teaching vocabulary was reduced to a trickle. The words of the language are assumed to be known, are not.

Take any literary text and you will find that the terms even the daily ones are not seized, will cover over such a thing or such a concept.

So to speak and to write well is to know what words exactly want to mean. Understanding the true meaning of the words is to provide in mind ways to express themselves. The great pity of the vocabulary in the blogosphere, and in our life of every day, will be averted only if the learning of the language is taken on new basis.

To fight against the crisis of the vocabulary in the blogosphere we have to use a rich vocabulary without fear of not being read. It has to be a levelling upwards.

Leaves fall, the words also

The parallel between the falling leaves in autumn and words that become dead leaves are my inspiration for my participation in Sunday photo that will ultimately have more words than pictures.

Translated by Carrie