Of ‘lame excuses’
A living language is defined not only in terms of its active functioning and usage but also in its quality to evolve. It is this quality that I am banking on to appeal to linguistic communities to bring about a crucial change in vocabulary patterns, words that we have taken for granted and apply to our daily communication simply because they have always been present in the language.
I am referring to words, or rather, phrases that include disabilities to make references to disparaging qualities. I wonder what participants of Para sports would have to say about the idiom “lame duck” to describe an unsuccessful person or “lame excuse” which means an unacceptable lie.
Can’t a heavily intoxicated person be anything except “blind drunk”? Why should an area outside the line of vision be a “blind spot”? Not being able to work at night is a natural physiological function, it definitely is not a “blind man’s holiday”.
These are revolutionary times we are living in now. Self-reliance being the keyword, persons of determination today strive to overcome taboos, constraints, abnormalities and afflictions to make their lives meaningful and such terms with derogatory contexts are not only insensitive in nature but also are unjustified. This definitely calls for a language change.
Eliminating such terms from our lexicon might take a few years but it’s not impossible. Lexicographers can come up with alternative phrases, and writers, speakers, teachers and other communities who use language as their basic tool must take conscious steps to not use the terms themselves and also to disallow others from using such vocabulary.
It is all a matter of creating awareness and making this issue legitimate. But if people choose to ignore the matter then all I can say is that “there’s none so hard of hearing as those who will not hear.”
Vidya Shankar
Published in The Gulf Today / Short Take, dt Feb 24, 2018)
http://gulftoday.ae/portal/dbe412b2-0685-4bf3-aace-1911d0a2844f.aspx
Here's my first book! An ensemble of poetry and photographs.
Click the link below to watch a 30-second promo video.
https://youtu.be/5BhbjMaIwpk
You can buy it at this link:
https://notionpress.com/read/the-flautist-of-brindaranyam
www.facebook.com
I am referring to words, or rather, phrases that include disabilities to make references to disparaging qualities. I wonder what participants of Para sports would have to say about the idiom “lame duck” to describe an unsuccessful person or “lame excuse” which means an unacceptable lie.
Can’t a heavily intoxicated person be anything except “blind drunk”? Why should an area outside the line of vision be a “blind spot”? Not being able to work at night is a natural physiological function, it definitely is not a “blind man’s holiday”.
These are revolutionary times we are living in now. Self-reliance being the keyword, persons of determination today strive to overcome taboos, constraints, abnormalities and afflictions to make their lives meaningful and such terms with derogatory contexts are not only insensitive in nature but also are unjustified. This definitely calls for a language change.
Eliminating such terms from our lexicon might take a few years but it’s not impossible. Lexicographers can come up with alternative phrases, and writers, speakers, teachers and other communities who use language as their basic tool must take conscious steps to not use the terms themselves and also to disallow others from using such vocabulary.
It is all a matter of creating awareness and making this issue legitimate. But if people choose to ignore the matter then all I can say is that “there’s none so hard of hearing as those who will not hear.”
Vidya Shankar
Published in The Gulf Today / Short Take, dt Feb 24, 2018)
http://gulftoday.ae/portal/dbe412b2-0685-4bf3-aace-1911d0a2844f.aspx
Here's my first book! An ensemble of poetry and photographs.
Click the link below to watch a 30-second promo video.
https://youtu.be/5BhbjMaIwpk
You can buy it at this link:
https://notionpress.com/read/the-flautist-of-brindaranyam
www.facebook.com
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