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Tim Rogers is a nutjob. But he's got a few interesting points buried in there regarding language.

• Groxx 17y ago
  Only barely. English has plenty of similarly complicated words that are used frequently without people understanding their meaning. Learning about those meanings puts a bit of a shade on what people are actually saying, until you realize people don't actually mean it that way. It's the same way with irrashaimase; it's a self-deprecating phrase (and Japanese does indeed have a lot of them), but it's a stock phrase, and that's how people use it. Similarly, a lot of our exclamations have origins in words, even if we've forgotten them. For instance, why do we say "ow" instead of "ai", or simply "aa"? "Ow" is significantly more complicated physically than simply "aa!"ing. Other cultures say different things for exclamations, even "spontaneous" things like pain, and that's normal. Getting uppity about it isn't.
  • DannoHung 17y ago
    I don't think that's a particularly good example unless you say "ow" in some very strange way.
  • houseabsolute 17y ago
    Wait, your example from English is completely unrelated to Tim's point, which is that they use words with some meaning that may not apply to the current circumstances. Tim's argument is that that imposes a subliminal message, which, repeated often and widely enough, has a negative effect on the society. Maybe you have some argument against that, but you didn't make it in this comment.