New Concepts, New Words
With the rapid exchange of ideas, concepts, technology, circumstances today change a lot faster than they did a hundred years ago. New, unprecedented concepts arrive, or old concepts are refashioned, and both demand new names. A label is either completely invented or an old word is re-appropriated. In many ways, this is nothing new. It is all a part of the evolution of language. For example, the title Ms., as opposed to Miss or Mrs., was a word founded on an ideological principle in the seventies. In an essay by Nancy Gibbs in Time magazine titled, “Who am I to You?,” Gibbs investigates the creation of the title Ms. and its introduction into Standard English. While it technically appeared in 1952 as a convenient way to discern between married and unmarried women for the National Office Management Association, it was not until 1972 that it was slowly absorbed into common discourse as a matter of ideological principle. As explained by the editors of Ms. magazine when it was started, "Ms. is being adopted as a standard form of address by women who want to be recognized as individuals, rather than being identified by their relationship with a man” (qtd. in Gibbs 80). This spans even farther back. For example, who needed a speakeasy before Prohibition? In the modern age, the word Internet itself is an example, shaped purely to label a new concept and concrete invention. The word “Internet” was not necessary, and did not exist, before the technology itself existed, though it did evolve from the root, and long-lived word, “network” (Luntz 65).
What is new is the rate at which these new ideas, and the demand for new words to label them, are occurring and spreading. The Internet specifically has spawned a whole slew of new concepts and vocabulary, as well as facilitating the rise and exchange of new concepts in other fields. Luntz, a linguistic expert and author of Words That Work, points out that “Over the past decade alone, the rise of the [Internet] has led to a number of new terms of increasing political and social relevance” (Luntz 66). Ideas and exchanges that before took months, weeks, or days to reach other parties and receive feedback now can be exchanged in a matter of seconds, allowing ideological and technological advances to be made much more quickly. These advances need labels, and these labels eventually become accepted into common discourse. However, when do these new words, initially categorized as slang, enter Standard English? But first, what other force contributes significantly to the proliferation of new words and informal language?
What is new is the rate at which these new ideas, and the demand for new words to label them, are occurring and spreading. The Internet specifically has spawned a whole slew of new concepts and vocabulary, as well as facilitating the rise and exchange of new concepts in other fields. Luntz, a linguistic expert and author of Words That Work, points out that “Over the past decade alone, the rise of the [Internet] has led to a number of new terms of increasing political and social relevance” (Luntz 66). Ideas and exchanges that before took months, weeks, or days to reach other parties and receive feedback now can be exchanged in a matter of seconds, allowing ideological and technological advances to be made much more quickly. These advances need labels, and these labels eventually become accepted into common discourse. However, when do these new words, initially categorized as slang, enter Standard English? But first, what other force contributes significantly to the proliferation of new words and informal language?
