Thesauruses: both widely used and commonly misused.
Source: http://theharperstudio.com/2009/07/logomaniacs-verbolatrists-and-epeolatrists-rejoice-the-world’s-largest-thesaurus-is-coming-to-town/
While students and teachers alike are generally eager to replace weak words with strong synonyms, thesaurus users must be wary of words that– stated or not– are considered unusable. Brad Leithauser explains why certain words contradict themselves and how others have simply been overused. In "Unusable Words", Leithauser explores an interesting idea; he discusses how words can be unusable. Certain words, called auto-antonyms, have two contradicting meanings. When used, auto-antonyms are sometimes too confusing to actually help the author and the reader share an idea. This essay was written for students, writers, teachers, and just about anyone else who would ever need to use a thesaurus. The author's purpose is to inform readers about the dangers of using certain words. Knowingly or not, writers can put readers in the precarious situation where the meaning of a word could be one of two contradicting meanings. Leithauser aims to help writers help readers avoid situations such as these. Leithauser uses anecdotes from his time as a teacher, irony, and classical examples to warn readers of unusable words. He describes how words that were once considered inappropriate for a classroom setting were now perfectly reasonable, showing the reader that words can go from unusable to usable or vice versa. He uses irony to show how vague words that are auto-antonyms can be. Lastly, Leithauser proves to the reader that words can also become unusable when a famous figure has already essentially trademarked them. As a poet, author, essayist, and teacher, Brad Leithauser graduated from Harvard Law School. He is a part of the writing seminars presented by Johns Hopkins University. He has written seven poetry collections, seven novels, and one essay collection, all of which make him qualified to talk about unusable words. Leithauser certainly convinced me to learn a little bit about a new word before using it, if only because I want to make sure it has the desired effect and isn't already compromised either because it's an auto-antonym or because a famous author has already "claimed" it.
No comments:
Post a Comment