Sunday, March 15, 2009

Say It, Not Sein It

Ever thought how much of what we say in "normal-speak" has actually originated on the telly? Yes, television - TV, the boob tube, the gigglebox - has had an enormous impact on modern society's lessening ability to communicate articulately.
Consider this: you meet someone at a party and they say to you, "How you doin'?" That's actually a pick-up line from the popular TV sitcom Friends, as regularly used by Joey Tribbiani. Friends was also responsible for an explosion in the use of "so" instead of "very" e.g.: "Paris Hilton is like so hot!" (which not only indicates an inability to communicate using correct English but also highlights poor taste in celebrity idols!). Seinfeld was another TV sitcom with huge social impact - "...not that there's anything wrong with that", "master of your own domain" and "no soup for you" are still heard years after the show's demise. In fact, comedian Jerry Seinfeld came up with such a linguistic lexicon that his -isms are often referred to as 'Seinlanguage'. But I can't see future generations saying "Eeee, by goom!" (a la Coronation Street) to each other, can you?

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