What do our own words say about us?

This week’s Mediahuis/INM Irish regional newspapers’ columns

Michael Commane

Language, the words we use and how we use them, is simply fascinating. Some days ago I jokingly corrected a friend for finishing a sentence with a preposition. He is forever correcting me so I thought it was time for revenge. But he quickly replied with this: ‘Are we back to 19th century grammatical mores now?’

Does grammar matter, do the rules of grammar change, maybe more importantly does the meaning of words change?

There is an RTÉ radio presenter who is a stickler on words and grammar, who last week said: ‘That’s them together’, when he should have said ‘That’s they together’, indeed, it’s now common practice to say what he said. But the grammar is wrong. 

I can hear you say who cares and yes I understand that too. But do you not find it grating on the ear when people say ‘I done it’ or ‘I have went’? Or is it all a class thing? I told you, language, or at least our use of it, is intriguing.

What about the use of foul or bad language? There are those who say they are only words. Last week a work colleague was telling a few of us how her 12-year-old son had come home from school and asked her what was wrong with ‘swear words’. An interesting conversation followed. I think some of us said that ‘swear words’ or bad language conveys or expresses anger and violence. There is also an element of rudeness or vulgarity attached to bad language.

After all doesn’t the adjective ‘bad’ explain it all in one simple three-letter word?

 

But we did have an interesting conversation and it developed into a wider discussion on the words we use.

Later that same day I was on the upper deck of a bus, sitting behind me were a young couple, probably in their 20s. For the best part of 20 minutes I was subjected to a continuous flow of foul or bad language. It is no exaggeration to say that every second word from the young woman’s lips began with an F. 

And there were worse than that. I had no intentions of turning around and asking them to desist, scared that I could get myself into serious trouble. They were not at all bickering with each other, indeed, they were enjoying their chat. I’m asking myself has the F-word become a normal part of our vocabulary. 

For the 20 minutes or so that I was forced to hear what they were saying I found myself getting annoyed, maybe even angry with them. Why was that? I honestly don’t know except that I sure do know I was getting annoyed.

During one of the Dáil debates on the housing crisis the leader of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald said: ‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph’. I’m wondering is that acceptable parliamentary language?

I’m reminded of George Washington’s words: ‘The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it.’

Or is it, as my friend tells me, I am back in the 19th century? Is language all the time evolving? Or might it be that the words we use are often an indication of who we are and what we might stand for. See, there I am again, finishing a sentence on a preposition.