Transcripts For CSPAN2 John McWhorter Discusses Words On The

Next, Columbia University Professor John mcwhorter discovers how word means have changed over time. This program contains language that some may find offensive. Welcome to the library my name is erica parker. Before we get started i have respect for the speaker and your fellow audience members, please silence all Electronic Devices at this time. Thank you for joining us for a talk with John Mcwhorter on his book words on the move why english wont and cant sit still like, literally . Language shifts. Constantly. Did you know the word clue derived from clue, a middle english word meaning aa bowl of thread now it makes sense, countless other words change taking on new meeting or new shades of meaning. In the age of memes and texan, lol, ls w, ts w, etc. Language continues to shift. But as John Mcwhorter explains, it should not scare us. He explains how the english language has evolved before our eyes and why we should embrace the change not fight it. John mcwhorter is an associate professor in english and imperative literature. In Columbia University. He is the author of more than 15 books. Including aplease give a warm welcome to John Mcwhorter. [applause] thank you everybody. I want to talk to you for not too long about a new way of hearing language. I think it is important because i think linguists have failed to explain the realities of how language change works and what language really is. And we do not understand why everyone sees it differently than we do. But really, theres a lot in common between languages and natural history. The way biologists have taught us to see. You would never know it from the way language is taught in the school system. You would never know it from even thinking one or two linguistics classes that certain things are not really hit on the head. So i want to give you a new way of looking at language that will feel good. All of this makes the sink and walked on the street feeling better about what you hear. And feeling better possibly about your own speech. And what it comes down to is this. Its about the fact that language is inherently changeable. Language changes. It is not that it might change, it always will change. It must change. Now, if you ask somebody whether they think language changes are nothing anyone would say no. But that we tend to think that what language changes is first of all, that you need new words for new things. I think anybody would accept that. You would assume that a lot of those words probably are going to come from foreign languages. And that is something that is exciting. And then we all know language changes. Language change is much more profound than that. And so we are going to see if this works. There we go. Heres what we know. And here is what you dont learn. So, we will always need new words for new things. That is true. But what we are not taught is that language changes, as inevitably as cloud patterns change. The analogy is with looking up in the sky and seeing the clouds today. And then how you would feel if you looked up tomorrow and so clouds in the same place. That would be utterly bizarre. No one would expect that. It is the same thing with language change. It has to change the way cloud patterns have to change. They can change by winds, language is change because every generation slightly miss hears or reinterprets what the last generation said. It is never not happened but it always will. Words will also come in from foreign languages. That is true. But if he took a group of people and for some reason, put them in a cave, and somehow they can live in the cave with food and everything that they needed. But they were in the cave and there was no cultural change, no contact with anybody else. And somehow they managed to reproduce and live in a cave for 2000 years. When those people came out of the cave they would be speaking a whole new language. Not because anything new was invented. Not because they had met anybody else. And it would not just be slang. They would not understand a people who had gone into the cave. Thats because it is inherent for language to change. That is what language change is. Or we know that slang and idioms will change. But a dictionary is a wonderful thing. In dictionary page is like a polaroid snapshot. And thats really all it is. It can be beautiful polaroid snapshot but if you have a polaroid of summit 40, and then 10 years later you encounter that person and you show them the picture of themselves at 40, you do not think that the way that they were at 40 is somehow the way that they really are and that any change has happened since then is somehow wrong or peculiar. People change. Languages are the same way. Language changes and basically five ways. That is not true but for words on the move i kind of fashioned into five easy to remember ways. And one of them is something that tonight im going to call creeping implications. Words change by creeping implications. And what i mean by that is that at any point in time, a word has different residences surrounding it. There is the quote unquote different dictionary definition. And over time but everyone thinks that word is aafter a while the words meaning has changed and after a long while the words meaning is unrecognizable. That is something that happens to almost every word in every language. The words that do not change like and are in poor father and brother, those are just a boring little collection of 100 or 200 words. Most words are always moving along. For example, billy first meant blessed. Audition first meant hearing. It had nothing to do with being on stage. Lewd first meant aon learned. You can imagine how i learned might morph into meaning sexually and proper. But originally thats what lewd meant. Mary first meant short. It gradually came to mean jolly. Because that which is short is also pleasant. Then meat meant all food, local meant bread. Vegetable came in later, apple first meant fruit. For example, lets say you are blessed. And we imagine what that word means. If you are blessed, then there is reason to think that youre innocent. And so it were the first means blessed might many generations later mean that you are innocent. Something in a sense is probably harmless. It follows and that was a resident of surrounding the word. And next thing you know a word that originally meant blessed meant harmless. Thats fair enough. If something harmless it probably is weak. And so the word came to mean week. You can see this happen century by century. If you are weighed, one way you might be week is mentally. You might be not only physically weak but you might be kind of slow, not very bright and so after a while that word that meant blessed meant dim. If you are dim, one of the ways you might manifest this is that you are kind of goofy. And gradually, that meaning came and. Such that blessed man goofy. Originally, the word meant happy. And so it were that started out meaning happy became blessed, became innocent and harmless and weak and slow and became goofy. All of that in a single word salad. And this is the thing. That is normal. Thats what words do. Almost every word in your mouth is doing that. We cant feel it within our lifetime that that is how language change works. So this has implications. It is not just that silly is interestingly almost anywhere you are using has that kind of history. It gives you a sense of why shakespeare can be difficult to hear in real time if you have not read it first. And it is a controversial topic. I know many people say that shakespeare is just a matter of poetry or that it has to be performed really well for it is better when the person has a british accent. But i think all of us know that still, if all things were in place shakespeare if he had not read it, in real time, if you had not read it it is tough. You get tired after about 20 minutes. And somebody tells that you are not poetic. It is not only the poetry. It is that words meanings change. Shakespeare was a long time ago. So a lot of words that we hear sound like english because they are. But the words do not mean what they mean to us because of so much time has gone by. So for example he is defending himself against charges. When my dimensions are as well compacted, compacted on self. My mind is generous. Why generous . People are making fun of him and he is objecting that he is free with his goods. It is not possible but it is odd. It is a little bump as youre listening to the actor saying this. And he keeps going. Hes not going to stop and explain. You cannot ask your way through it. Then my mind is generous. We dont usually talk about a generous brain. It is a lot. And so that happens. So if that happens about three times a page there goes the fatigue. Generous when shakespeare meant it meant noble. He is talking about how he was noble as anyone else. If you are noble then especially back then, part of being a noble involved being magnanimous with your folks. As a result after while, generous came to me that and you need a new word for noble and so, that is why shakespeare is hard. At this point i not angry some people get the idea that shakespeare might be achange. There is a growing movement in the last 20 years not to translate shakespeare, that wouldnt be necessary. But to adjust shakespeare especially where the words are such that we can no longer understand what he meant when hearing it live. And have not read it. So for example. Besides this duncan had borne his faculties so make faculties, what does it mean . Clear what . I am not clear in my office. Im sitting in a chair. It is a play and he keeps going. It is virtue to plead like angles you are happy now because it is poetic. The examination of his taking off. Where is he going . We think of taking off as flying away but he keeps going. It is hard. You can read the footnotes but lets say we are busy. You dont have time to read. So youre watching it live. Suppose you change that to what it means. So duncan has borne authority, his faculties. Authorities have borne his authority we cant know what that means so pure in his great office the idea being that he keeps his hands clean. It would have inevitably been the case. Its just that the evidence of the reality in your own life. If a person can use a word anyway they want then doesnt interfere with clarity but the answer is this. Its people not person that uses a word in any way. Meaning change is a communal. It has never been recorded where various people went their own way. That would be a problem. Its a communal matter. Creeping implications if you can think of yourself as speaking something everchanging and it becomes a sport to wonder where the words meanings are to go. There are various choices. But to wait for the words to say the same place is unfortunate because theyre always going to keep changing you always hear the dissolutions they could face. Thats the first one. Second thing. The basis. These are types of words and expressions that you never talk about in school we never talk about this as grammar. Its a crucial part of the weight the languages on pragmatics which is an unfortunate jargon term. We think of pragmatic about being 18 different things. Im not can essay it ever again. In a college in the faces of english. Acknowledgment counter expectations the first letters of those things they spell a face. Thats a over to call it. What do i mean by that . We have sexuality markers. I got tired of the way he was acting. I just cant face it anymore. Now formally we think it means real fashion. But we dont announce it that way which is one clue. If your child and you cant read yet you have to learn. And what we use it for is to indicate an ongoing way when we talk that we act sincere. And were not doing it in a tidy sort of way. We get it do it once. And never do it again. Constantly do. They do the same gesture over and over. On Donald Trumps belief meant. He wants to indicate the factually has chosen that particular formula now actuality explains so there are many people who are very upset that literally is being misused because its supposed to mean by the letter exactly and yet people seem to be using it in an figurative construction. I was literally dying of thirst and that is just wrong. You are using something for the Immediate Office set opposite. That really gets up peoples nerves. Believe me. It started out meaning by our file litter. Everybody who thought it meeting. Is now very dead. And they died not knowing something that you guys and women can all know which is that it was never can essay meaning by the letter. What was it you come to me one thing that words do tend to do when they have a meeting of intensified is that they become less intense. That met by the letter was eventually get a gonna start mean Something Like really. But once it means that. Of course people are getting use it to intensify their figurative expressions because thats what we do. Next thing we know just as you might say. You could say i was literally dying of thirst. You knew that was can happen. Now often it says this use of this word is new. I can imagine how it must feel that way. The main reasons why it would feel new. This is a sentence. To be introduced by a find women at his arrival. This assembly is ready in a much more formal era. Its not new but why it irritates people is because of the idea that its this word that means the opposite. And people think what i that can be the way. Someone complains about literally on their chest. I had banned against it. You can run fast. It means both rapid and in the very opposite. If you are aware of it now isnt it kind of neat. And then there are lots of words like that. The world keeps spinning. If you cede a water melon chances are that you do not purchase and seed and then put them into the watermelon before you eat it. Youre taking the seeds out. But then if youre feeding it while it lands it would be counterproductive to take the seeds out of the ground. Thats three examples i think there are seven of them there. Seventyfive of those in that language. And so to the extent that we have probably rarely not known what a person meant if they said i was literally freezing to death. Whether telling you is they didnt die and so you are confused it means we just head another continent. Acknowledgment. An awful lot of language is a matter of looking into the person you are speaking tos mind and acknowledging their state of mind. Thats an awful lot of what we mean by a certain thing. It doesnt mean in total fashion. If someone says we are totally get a get tickets for that. They dont mean working to get tickets for the taylor swift concert and a complete way. Thats not what it means. Were totally can get tickets means it doesnt really mean something it does something. We both know why they would say we shouldnt get those tickets where we are busy students or Something Like that. But we are going to get it sent hes going to call you in his completeness. Hes going to call you even though some people have reason to believe that hes not. Thats what everybody is saying. Its an acknowledgment of standing conditions of which are all are aware and you dont get taught these things. There are a lot of acknowledgment markers. This is all language. Yet of that company. She is saying you know today we hear you know is kind of a tip. He was putting in and a very long time ago. And then counter expectations is a major aspect of how you actually communicate. It doesnt fit into our sense of what an adjective is. But its very much grammar. The reason that i put that there if i may is because the things that you can think of as profane which are really very sophisticated. You might think that to append an attitude is just to be vulgar and thats it. Why couldnt that person to say a big pot. They meant something very specific imagine a person looking out a window and they see a squirrel and they say hey it doesnt mean a gray squirrel. It has more specific meaning. It means that is gray rather than the black squirrels you would only say i saw that if you came from somewhere where the squirrels were different colors. What you mean is the squirrel is great. We went to this long opera. It was probably they do it all the time. You know this is never used profanity its always that its counter expectation. Im talking about language as we know it. Over the laugh out loud as it originally meant being used constantly and texting in particular and it shows it. It specially known. You can find any number of accounts. It doesnt mean anything. Its because its one of the words. The actual text exchange. Im pretty sure everyone also figured that out before you. Why are they a sprinkling that in there. It wont cancel. It just seems so unsystematic. Think about how much we laugh when we talk to each other casually. There is an awful lot of really empty laughter. If you dont giggle a little bit making little jokes while you are talking to people especially people yelling out so well your process is unfriendly. Its an unspoken part of being a normal human being to chuckle a little bit into smile a little bit when youre interacting with people. Thats how they created in the the exact thing. To make it clear that everything is okay. Were always indicating that we really need them. We are always engaging the counter expectation were always keeping things easy. The face marker just like our involuntary laughter is when we talk. As you can imagine there is a long list and they are very much a part of the language is using past tense. Very often you will hear people who can speak standard is english and the use that different kind of speech among one another. Someone said why they talk like that. President obama sounded different when he talks and ive known many wellintentioned and enlightened people who actually heard the statement in that. Why would he talked the other. Nonstandard a dialect going into it is another kind of that. To some extent. They are switching to a different language. Then a different dialect. Its very much a part of language. You have a way of hearing language in a more positive way. It can be one thing to listen to this. What is all of the trash. They never had. And all of the state markers help them those are the big two. Then there are three other aspects of how language changes. There are words for this. That sounds like a disease and so that is a lesson i will use this term thats how i actually think of it. Can came from no. You can do this. Its what you can identify. It came from the words to know as did canning and cunning all of those words started out as to know. Words always change. Suddenly it feels a kind of odd. Look at that word. Think about how to say it. Its like a seal. Where did art come from. You can hear it used that way and shakespeare. The next thing you know you ought to do something. It meant body. So what happens is that what we think of as ordinary words become pieces of grammar that just basically manage the traffic between words. So let us go. Richard rogers in 1930 having some liquor in writing a song lets go. Already for richard was he thinking that he was saying let us go. Thats a whole new grammatical item. Its really a way of summoning. If they listen to us just s