**رمــــاد**
14-02-2007, 11:10 AM
Whatever ...
”I DON’T KNOW what you mean by ‘glory,’” Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t — till I tell you. I meant, ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’”
“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument,’” Alice objected.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”
This interesting bit of conversation from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass is a fascinating take on language and words. Wow! Humpty Dumpty could make a word mean whatever he wanted it to be. And this has given rise to a new expression — Humpty Dumpty language. It’s bit crazy, really, because it is an idiosyncratic or eccentric use of language. Here, the speaker decides the meaning of particular words. The words are similar to a Joker in a pack. It becomes whatever you want it to. Remember Jabberwocky, the strange poem by Lewis Carroll? There they are nonsensical words assuming the form of nouns, verbs, adjectives.... ’Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe.... Makes sense? Incidentally, Humpty Dumpty is one person, not two eggs as shown in some of the nursery rhyme books.
Camouflanguage is something similar to Humpty Dumpty language. It is a kind of language that uses jargon, euphemisms, and other devices to hide the true meaning of what is being said. It is used in the business world in the form of corporate doublespeak or business jargon. The objective behind it is to either state simple things in a complex and pompous manner or to say things the speaker doesn’t really mean. When a corporate head honcho says, “We are involved in outplacement”, it means he is firing a lot of people.
Does your mother complain that she doesn’t really understand a word when you speak with your friends? Well, that’s exactly what you want, don’t you — to exclude adults out of your conversation? That is why, many youngsters use antilanguage. Maybe it is not a conscious process, but most youngsters use a set of words which only they understand, and it becomes a kind of code language or antilanguage, which adults can’t fathom. The term is also used to describe a collection of words and phrases used to exclude outsiders from a particular group and to disguise the group’s activities. For example,
the Mafia use what is known as Mobspeak. And well, the organised crime syndicate has many secrets to guard!
Code language is nothing new. Many ancient groups and societies use cryptolects. A cryptolect is a secret language. Nomads like gypsies have always used cryptolects.
Now have you heard of a pubilect? No marks for guessing that it is made up of two words — puberty + dialect. Yes, it is a dialect unique to teenagers. Now a poser. Was Humpty Dumpty a teenager?
By Pratibha Umashankar
”I DON’T KNOW what you mean by ‘glory,’” Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t — till I tell you. I meant, ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’”
“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument,’” Alice objected.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”
This interesting bit of conversation from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass is a fascinating take on language and words. Wow! Humpty Dumpty could make a word mean whatever he wanted it to be. And this has given rise to a new expression — Humpty Dumpty language. It’s bit crazy, really, because it is an idiosyncratic or eccentric use of language. Here, the speaker decides the meaning of particular words. The words are similar to a Joker in a pack. It becomes whatever you want it to. Remember Jabberwocky, the strange poem by Lewis Carroll? There they are nonsensical words assuming the form of nouns, verbs, adjectives.... ’Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe.... Makes sense? Incidentally, Humpty Dumpty is one person, not two eggs as shown in some of the nursery rhyme books.
Camouflanguage is something similar to Humpty Dumpty language. It is a kind of language that uses jargon, euphemisms, and other devices to hide the true meaning of what is being said. It is used in the business world in the form of corporate doublespeak or business jargon. The objective behind it is to either state simple things in a complex and pompous manner or to say things the speaker doesn’t really mean. When a corporate head honcho says, “We are involved in outplacement”, it means he is firing a lot of people.
Does your mother complain that she doesn’t really understand a word when you speak with your friends? Well, that’s exactly what you want, don’t you — to exclude adults out of your conversation? That is why, many youngsters use antilanguage. Maybe it is not a conscious process, but most youngsters use a set of words which only they understand, and it becomes a kind of code language or antilanguage, which adults can’t fathom. The term is also used to describe a collection of words and phrases used to exclude outsiders from a particular group and to disguise the group’s activities. For example,
the Mafia use what is known as Mobspeak. And well, the organised crime syndicate has many secrets to guard!
Code language is nothing new. Many ancient groups and societies use cryptolects. A cryptolect is a secret language. Nomads like gypsies have always used cryptolects.
Now have you heard of a pubilect? No marks for guessing that it is made up of two words — puberty + dialect. Yes, it is a dialect unique to teenagers. Now a poser. Was Humpty Dumpty a teenager?
By Pratibha Umashankar