"It's Alive!"

So, in my last post, I discussed an article about a debate over correct usage of adverbs and adjectives to introduce sentences and that this article reminded me just how interesting language is. Actually, I started to discuss the article, and then I got off track and discussed stereotyping and how inaaproriate misconceptions truly are when one attempts to place individuals into particular pigeon holes. However, I would like to revisit that original thought.

"What is the purpose of language?" asked Mr. Keating, Robin William's character in Dead Poets Society. "To communicate," responded one of his loyal charges. "Wrong! To woo women!" the teacher infomraed him and the class. Regardless of the purpose of language, it is an interesting beast. Yes, beast. Creature, monster, animal. Pick one you like, but be sure it is alive. Active. Animated. Language is organic; it is living. Language grows, it develops, and changes. Why? It does these things because it is alive; it is alive because it is actually a part of us. It is what we use to interact, the get what we want, to express how we feel, and, yes, to woo women. Because it is a part of us, it is alive.  Because we, collectively and individually, change, it, therefore, must change.  Latin does not change. It is a dead language. No one actually uses it on a daily basis because he wants to use it. English, be it the Queen's or own bastardized mongrel, is not dead.

My family was watching "The 100 Greatest Videos of the 00s" on VH1 last night. Thanks to Beyonce, bootilicious is now in the dictionary. Look it up, but make sure it is a new edition. "Disgusting!" some may say as they turn their noses up at this new generation and their butchering of the English language. Hold on there, bud. If I am correct, William Shakespeare was turning new phrases, or at least was penning them for future generations long before Ms, Knowles came on the scene. One of my English professors in college told me that one Romantic poet was skewered by critics for daring to use the crude term (steady now)  wheelbarrel in a poem. Wordworth, perhaps. The word was too low, too common. My point is that language grows and changes and moves, just as we do. Words fall in and out of usage, vocabulary is invented by imagination or necessity, and the idea of what is proper or acceptable mutates and transforms.  It is interesting, sometimes even exciting. Sometimes, it is humorous.  Sometimes, it is downright disturbing. Have you ever called someone, or been called by someone else, a "little bugger"? That is just nasty. It really is.  Look it up.