Thursday, May 19, 2005
Degrees
I wrote yesterday about how the words "unique" and "historic" don't come in degrees. Something is either unique or it isn't. It isn't a little unique or very unique or pretty unique.
Since then I've been thinking about degrees of things.
From Kevin Bacon and Facebook, we learn that there are degrees of separation.
I challenge you to challenge me to link Kevin Bacon to any actor in six degrees. I won't even cheat.
Anyway, we too often qualify words that can't be qualified. We use words as simple as "so" to indicate that the word that will follow it has a more powerful meaning than if it was standing alone.
Example: That's so fucked up.
Does the so change the meaning of the sentence "That's fucked up."? No, but when a speaker inserts the so he intends the sentence to carry more meaning than it otherwise would.
Some words do have degrees though. Look at an elementary school report card. There is "Good," but then there is "Very Good." Ah, the coveted VG, a higher degree of the G.
"Different" is another one. Two things, or people, can be a little different or they can be very different.
Even without using qualifying words we fumble meanings when we don't use the proper word for what we mean, we skip degrees, or make huge leaps to a new word.
Let me explain.
Say you are eating a slice of pizza and someone asks you how it is and you say, "Amazing!" Now let's say you just sat in the first row behind the catcher at Game 7 of the World Series and your favorite team won on a walk-off homer by your favorite player in the bottom of the ninth and someone asks you what it was like and you say, "Amazing!"
Logically, one can conclude that eating that slice of pizza meant the same thing to you that seeing that game did. This is why we need to stagger our descriptive words. As a society we are using words like unbelievable, incredible, disastorous, horrible, and amazing all too often. We need to be selective with these words.
Save the words at the extreme ends of the spectrum for special occasions. Use the ones in the middle for everyday things.
These are the things on which I dwell.
If everything is amazing to you or everything horrendous, how is someone ever going to really know what you think about something?
I'm just here to try to improve your everyday communication.
Until Later.
Since then I've been thinking about degrees of things.
From Kevin Bacon and Facebook, we learn that there are degrees of separation.
I challenge you to challenge me to link Kevin Bacon to any actor in six degrees. I won't even cheat.
Anyway, we too often qualify words that can't be qualified. We use words as simple as "so" to indicate that the word that will follow it has a more powerful meaning than if it was standing alone.
Example: That's so fucked up.
Does the so change the meaning of the sentence "That's fucked up."? No, but when a speaker inserts the so he intends the sentence to carry more meaning than it otherwise would.
Some words do have degrees though. Look at an elementary school report card. There is "Good," but then there is "Very Good." Ah, the coveted VG, a higher degree of the G.
"Different" is another one. Two things, or people, can be a little different or they can be very different.
Even without using qualifying words we fumble meanings when we don't use the proper word for what we mean, we skip degrees, or make huge leaps to a new word.
Let me explain.
Say you are eating a slice of pizza and someone asks you how it is and you say, "Amazing!" Now let's say you just sat in the first row behind the catcher at Game 7 of the World Series and your favorite team won on a walk-off homer by your favorite player in the bottom of the ninth and someone asks you what it was like and you say, "Amazing!"
Logically, one can conclude that eating that slice of pizza meant the same thing to you that seeing that game did. This is why we need to stagger our descriptive words. As a society we are using words like unbelievable, incredible, disastorous, horrible, and amazing all too often. We need to be selective with these words.
Save the words at the extreme ends of the spectrum for special occasions. Use the ones in the middle for everyday things.
These are the things on which I dwell.
If everything is amazing to you or everything horrendous, how is someone ever going to really know what you think about something?
I'm just here to try to improve your everyday communication.
Until Later.
