Important though words may be, they are used, abused, misused and overused, often without regard to the effects they may have on others.
You would think that journalists would value words and their usage. Listen carefully, and you will hear statements like "she went missing..." What happened to "disappeared" as a viable word. I guess it went missing. Another pet peeve is "he got gone"...excuse me, but how the h*ll does one "get gone"???? You will hear "we are expecting precip tomorrow." for a rain forcast. Correct me if I am mistaken, but I thought an abbreviation was a means to indicate a whole word. Have you heard people reading the monitors state "an N.C. Senator" rather than reading it as "a North Carolina Senator"?
I find the apparent illiteracy and use of puns by the media particularly annoying, but on a larger scale, what about the effect of language on issues we encounter every day?
Animals communicate, but humans have formed language based on WORDS. This enables us to define and describe all manner of things. Therein lies the problem.
Take the word "God" for example. Just because another group uses the name Allah or Yaweh, or whatever many assume that we are talking about different entities or concepts. Wars ensue.
A simple word like "table" should be easy to understand...right? What kind of table? Coffee table, dining room table, end table, tea table, computer table, desk, etc...is it round, oval, square, rectangular, drop-leaf??? Is it oak, maple, plastic, or something else?
If we can define, we can also differentiate...in fact we MUST differentiate. Just try going into a fast food restaurant and asking merely for a sandwich...see what response you get!! Go into a coffee shop and ask for a cup of coffee...yes we MUST differentiate or give more descriptive detail.
Humans...easy to define...right? Easy to describe...right? Here comes a problem...black, white, yellow, red...tall, short, slender, obese...a somewhat primitive way of looking at it...right? Line us all up and try to find a dividing line between any one characteristic...there are multitudinous gradations in between.
How about sexuality...homosexual, heterosexual...right? What about bisexuals, transgenders, transexuals, hermaphrodites, or people who enjoy autoeroticism...mmm...is there something "wrong" with the people who don't neatly fit into any of our "word" categories...or could there be some problem inherent in our "words"...
How about Christians...Muslems...Hindus...Sikhs...Buddhists...Taoists. Wait....there are subdivisions among each group...can we really describe each group with one word and one definition? How about Athiests and Agnostics...Wickans...are they inherently "evil" because they don't fall within our particular group?
And then...Republicans, Independents, Libertarians, Democrats...Left and Right. Is there no common ground...or do we get caught up in extreme ideologies?
Yes...language is used to describe, then differentiate...and if not used with caution...then used to discriminate by the very characteristics that assign to our words.
When we try to fit everything into our concepts based on our words and we have a small vocabulary, bias replaces understanding.