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It goes the other way too, nouns as verbs, and just as cringy: "you can solution this", "we need to action that". Both ways come from subtle manipulation of la
by vikingerik 2y ago
It goes the other way too, nouns as verbs, and just as cringy: "you can solution this", "we need to action that".
Both ways come from subtle manipulation of language. "Ask" sounds like a polite word while "request" sounds demanding, so the former gets used even if it's the wrong word class. "Lesson" sounds harsh while a "learning" sounds positive. The word that gets used is whichever frames the speaker or conversation better, making them sound more courteous or cooperative and nudging the recipient towards complying.
- abecedarius 2y ago> "request" sounds demanding I wonder if this is a kind of euphemism treadmill. When the feds demand the records on a user from a service, it's an "access request", as if you could politely say no, I would prefer not to. So connotations from "demand" leak onto "request" over time?
- moi2388 2y agoI’m pretty sure this is exactly what’s happening. Also, I’ve noticed that for some reason more and more people care about the words rather than the intention.
- DennisP 2y agoAnd the more unpleasant the idea, the more they pile on the jargon. Once I was at a meeting between a bunch of companies, discussing a move to some common standard, and one guy used five minutes of dense jargon just to say "what's in it for us?" I'm not convinced though that it's just about sounding polite and positive. Normal english is quite capable of that. Using this odd jargon has a kind of distancing effect, emphasizing that you're just playing your part in the corporation, not acting as an individual human being. I wouldn't be surprised if the most morally questionable actions in corporate America were hashed out with the heaviest jargon, with the perpetrators going home feeling like they personally didn't do anything wrong.