Saturday, December 1, 2012

How often have your found yourself conversing with another or reading something when along comes a word that you’ve never heard before?  Not only that, but even through context, you haven’t a clue what the word means.  There are some who feel compelled to use complicated language as a means to “show” how knowledgeable they are. 

Wanting to improve upon one’s vocabulary is an admirable thing.  But…knowing when and how to use those harder-to-understand words...that’s the sign of knowledge.  Just because a word is complicated, hard to pronounce or engages higher diction doesn’t make it appropriate to use.  When a person does so in the course of everyday conversation with folks who won’t understand their meaning, how does that show higher intelligence? 

Herman Melville, states, “A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.”  I agree with Melville and would add that using higher diction words in situations that don’t warrant them and with individuals who can’t understand their meaning, without having it explained to them, boarders on arrogance.   Why?

There’s a fine line between wanting to improve one’s diction and talking down to others.  Talking down to others occurs when a person slings together a litany of fancy-sounding words in settings when simpler ones—ones that can be understood by the masses—would work more effectively.

This talking down occurs in face-to-face conversations and also when authors “season” their writing with more complicated words.  Now don’t get me wrong.  Sprinkling in a smattering of more colorful words, which more exactly express one’s meaning, is great.  Not only does it stretch one’s mental capacities, but also those surrounding them.  But, when those same colorful words are strung together in non-stop, daisy chained, sentences, the meaning becomes so muddied that it’s lost in an obscure fog of vagueness and leaves the recipient feeling not only frustrated but also belittled—as if they’ve been talked down to.

I’m all for expanding one’s vocabulary.  Do it on a regular basis myself.  But I try to remember that not everyone is me and may not enjoy a good mind stretching.  As such, when I “season” my conversations or writings with more complicated diction, I use the approach that less is more in the hopes to make myself better understood.  Could I use higher diction words to be more succinct?  Absolutely!  But…what good does that do if I alienate those with whom I’m attempting to communicate?