3 ms·
This sparked a thought in me. Sarcasm, irony, and hyperbole; the three most common tools used to express depth of emotion. Each of which, coincidentally, is a w
by endominus 4y ago
This sparked a thought in me. Sarcasm, irony, and hyperbole; the three most common tools used to express depth of emotion. Each of which, coincidentally, is a way of speaking something untrue. But no one even considers them untruths any more; even calling out hyperbole as literally, factually, false is weird to do. There is no expectation of literal truth in any sort of speech. Words are used mainly for emotive value (I remember a rap critic, distressed at nonsense strings of words a rapper was using in order to rhyme, crying out "Words mean things, dammit!") rather than as vessels to convey information, because their carrying capacity has been heavily degraded. Strange.
- WHYLEE1991 4y agoHave you guys ever thought that maybe you just aren't able to perceive the differences in modern speech and vocab because you choose not to? Maybe viewing the past the way you are kinda leads itself to not enjoying the modern world to the extent that you possibly could. Speech evolves in ways that are often very challenging to perceive, particularly if you think of modern society as somehow dumber and less apt to convey emotions through language which mostly comes off as the opinions of someone who somehow thinks that language only works "one way" aka the way they were taught it works, and the way that they personally speak in. In the example you're using here with the rap critic, words do have meaning, and playing with that meaning or lack of meaning is just as interesting and intelligent as some rural turn of phrase, and also isn't a very new concept if you're younger than say 150.