The Fascinating Thing About Language
Another quick peek into the world of words and the interesting ways in which people use them!
Evolution!
English, like almost every other language, is constantly evolving, and words are often imported from specialist fields such as science. Indeed numerous scientific terms have become part of our everyday parlance in recent years - such as epicentre (originally a geological term for the centre of a disturbance e.g. an earthquake, but now used to mean the middle of any activity) and quantum leap (a technical term originally pertaining to electrons and atoms, but now meaning a huge change in just about anything!).
The way in which different words are used is also steadily evolving. One of the most frequent instances of this, is when a words are used in new grammatical roles e.g. "stretcher" was previously considered to be a noun only, yet today you'll often hear about sportsmen being "stretchered" off the field. So next time you're listening to the radio or watching television, look out for the countless other examples!
Tongue-twisting EC terminology
Linguistic confusion can arise even without trying to translate one language into another, and jargon is often the culprit when things go wrong. By the time EU legal texts have been translated back and forth a few times, simple terms can reappear as quite a mouthful. Far from calling a spade a spade, the EU prefers to talk of a "single-bladed mono-handled digging instrument"! Digging further, a rear view mirror is rendered as a "supplementary instrument for indirect vision"; if you get a job as a shelf-stacker in a supermarket, you're classified as an "ambient replenishment assistant". And don't panic if you're questioned on the "interoperability of intermodal transport systems" - all you're being asked about is whether train and bus timetables are synchronized!
Dealing with unwelcome letters
When it comes to responding to correspondence you'd rather not have received, here's one rather novel approach. The writer is responding to a particularly aggravating letter with this offering of his own: "Dear Sir, I am in the smallest room in the house. I have your letter before me. Soon it will be behind me…"
Machine translation gone mad
Despite major advances in new computer technology, machine translation is still not reliable, and the results can sometimes be very amusing. Recent examples which have come to our attention are: "out of sight, out of mind" which a computer rendered as "invisible lunatic" and "angling competition" which became a "contest for drawing angles"...
Famous last words
You have to admire the devotion of late French Jesuit grammar expert Dominique Bouhours who maintained her passion for grammar until her dying day, as evidenced by her final words: "I am about to - or I am going to - die: either expression is used." [Quoted by Nigel Farndale in The Sunday Telegraph.]