Some four-score-plus years ago, I grew up in a household in Central Washington State, where English was spoken fluently and correctly. My literate parents expected the same of me.
But, lately, as I read headlines on news stories and try my best to understand readers on the ‘telly, a lot of words in what passes for English today go right over my head.
Used to be, headlines were supposed to capsulize the subsequent story and give the reader a quick understanding of what happened. Seems that understanding part has been lost.
Here’s one. “Aaron Rogers was afraid of a woke crowd.” I read it. Re-read it and tried a third time. I still can’t make sense of it.
Here’s another. “Adele has dropped a new album.” “Dropped?”
These two headlines are not from some trade papers where readers are expected to know the shorthand expressions and the “inside” phrases. No, these were on the CNN news page on the I-Net. A place where readers have all sorts of backgrounds and think on many levels.
I realize the media, these days, is not interested in 88-year-old men. No, all the outlets are aimed at an audience between 20 and 45 years. And that’s bothered me for a long time.
Given a true economic cross-section of America these days, who has the most money and who buys the “big ticket” items like expensive cars and more expensive houses? Statistics prove it’s the old folks!
At our house, for example, we buy a new car every couple of years. It’s an old habit I’ve been unsuccessful in breaking.
The older I get the more distasteful the experience. Some sales people I’ve met haven’t reached full mental growth. Many can’t answer questions about mechanical operations. If they can’t find the information on their ubiquitous cell phones, they don’t know. Their knowledge of English is often challenging and with speech filled with acronyms “known but to God.”
I’ve often wondered why car dealers don’t keep an old guy or two around to deal with senior customers. It would increase the comfort zone, people would be speaking in terms both understand and take some of the uncertainty out of the “show-and-tell” process. But, I digress.
Mass media communication levels are supposed to be at a sixth or seventh grade reading level. Unless you had some portion of government – or an attorney – involved, that’s been pretty much the standard.
English has always been a malleable language, often bent out of shape to include a new meaning or adoptable to add or subtract a word. Go back five-years and try to find the words “woke” or “dropped” in a dictionary defining today’s common usage. Not there. Many, many words like that. Just make ’em up, give ’em a new meaning and throw ’em in the pot.
What’s needed now is a new type of dictionary. One that keeps up with nominal changes in the English language and publishes the meanings regularly. Yearly, at least. Monthly, maybe. Online. Even something for the cell phone crowd to stay “instantly” up-to-date.
You can start with the new meanings of words like “woke” and “dropped.” You could even throw in “critical race theory” so the Trumpers could understand what we’re all talking about.
Share on Facebook
