Interesantna je ovo tematika onoga što je legendarni George Carlin zvao soft language, a što je jedna od stvari u kojima su ameri prvaci.
A to je da nešto, neku stvar, stanje i slično vremenom počnu opisivati sa drugim riječima koje ublažuju snagu jezika i opisa originalne riječi.
To je jedna od njegovih sjajnih comedy rutina, koje bi svako trebao pogledati.
Par primjera iz toga, kome je mrsko tražiti i gledati cijelu stvar:
"Sometime during my life toilet paper became bathroom tissue. . . . Sneakers became running shoes. False teeth became dental appliances. Medicine became medication. Information became directory assistance. The dump became the landfill. Car crashes became automobile accidents. Partly cloudy became partly sunny. Motels became motor lodges. House trailers became mobile homes. Used cars became previously owned transportation. Room service became guest room dining. Constipation became occasional irregularity. . . ."The CIA doesn't kill anybody anymore. They neutralize people. Or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie. It engages in misinformation."
"When a company is 'levering up,' it often means, in regular language, that it is spending money it doesn’t have. When it is 'right-sizing' or finding 'synergies,' it may well be firing people. When it 'manages stakeholders,' it could be lobbying or bribing. When you dial into 'customer care,' they care very little. But when they call you, even at dinnertime, then it’s a 'courtesy call.'"
"There’s a condition in combat that occurs when a soldier is completely stressed out and is on the verge of a nervous collapse. In World War I it was called 'shell shock.' Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables. Shell shock. It almost sounds like the guns themselves. That was more than eighty years ago. Then a generation passed, and in World War II the same combat condition was called 'battle fatigue.' Four syllables now; takes a little longer to say. Doesn’t seem to hurt as much. 'Fatigue' is a nicer word than 'shock.' Shell shock! Battle fatigue.
By the early 1950s, the Korean War had come along, and the very same condition was being called 'operational exhaustion.' The phrase was up to eight syllables now, and any last traces of humanity had been completely squeezed out of it. It was absolutely sterile: operational exhaustion. Like something that might happen to your car. Then, barely fifteen years later, we got into Vietnam, and, thanks to the deceptions surrounding that war, it’s no surprise that the very same condition was referred to as 'post-traumatic stress disorder.' Still eight syllables, but we’ve added a hyphen, and the pain is completely buried under jargon: post-traumatic stress disorder. I’ll bet if they had still been calling it 'shell shock,' some of those Vietnam veterans might have received the attention they needed. But it didn’t happen, and one of the reasons is soft language; the language that takes the life out of life. And somehow it keeps getting worse."
"Plus size" je samo nastavak te prakse.
Ja lično sam podijeljen što se tiče toga, sa jedne strane nisam ljubitelj ublažavanja istine i činjeničnog stanja. Ali opet sa druge strane u današnje vrijeme se istina i činjenice prečesto znaju koristiti ne da bi se pomoglo nekome nego da bi ga se povrijedilo.
(neki će reći da je krivica na Halidu što ljude nije upoznao ali i za to postoji protokol, ako vas niko ne upoznaje onda se sami predstavite da bi se i persona X predstavila). Ili ako se i poznaju počinje opisivati nešto vezano za nju/njega i uporno govori "on, on, on".
