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+1 to a law against that.

WickedLoki wrote:+1 to a law against that.

Just as long as the new law against legalize is not written in 'cell-texting-speak'

Julie wrote:Hi - this is addressed mostly to all of you south of the 49th... because I don't understand it well, even though I know language does evolve naturally, but this is about changes that seem to have happened very quickly, within a few years at most.

When did 'aggression' suddenly become 'aggressiveness' - which is longer?

When did 'function' (or functional) become 'functionality' - again a longer way to say what everyone said forever (shorter) until so recently.

[snip]

My wife and I lived for a time in southern Ontario, and although we left over 20 years ago we still occasionally use the term garburator. The terms chesterfield and zed didn't stick though, and I'm still in the dark on geographical correction lines in the western provinces.

As for your question regarding longer words and phrases replacing shorter ones, oftentimes there is no explaining why the English language in the US evolves as it does. But to partially answer your question, I think some people use longer words and phrases to sound more intelligent. Perhaps they were allowed to get away with this throughout their school years by teachers who prioritized creative expression over clarity.

One of my pet peeves is the word "monies". Headline about a week and a half ago at KHON news, Honolulu, Hawaii: "School assistant indicted for stealing thousands in lunch monies". The word monies means ... money. Who invented this silly plural? Virtually any time the word is used it can be replaced by the word money with no loss of clarity or meaning. Another pet peeve of mine is the overuse of the word "very", e.g., "At [company that you have provided your bank or credit card details], we take privacy very seriously." Isn't taking privacy seriously sufficient? Are there protections you would omit if you didn't take it very seriously?

would this would be a good time to talk about how to use the term e. g.?