Last week we talked about idiolects, concentrating on personal eccentricities such as peppering speech with phrases like “I’m not being funny, but…” or “As I was saying…” But your idiolect goes quite a distance further than a list of words and phrases habitually used. It is a fascinating aspect of how we personally interpret words and language.
Imagine, if you will, a poster several yards wide, which shows the colour blue gradually becoming the colour green. If you were asked to stick a pin in the exact point where the colour becomes definitely blue, it would be in a different place to where your spouse, offspring or friends would stick the pin. Your judgment of what is green and what is blue is part of your idiolect.
Similarly. If you asked two people (who can’t see each other) to raise their hand slowly, one might reach shoulder level inside two seconds while the other takes 30 seconds. It depends upon their opinion of just how slow is “slowly”.
Your idiolect, in another sense, is also your opinion of words. There are scores of words that describe “thin”: willowy, emaciated, lean, gangling, starveling, skeletal, twiggy, lithe, puny, pinched, gaunt, to name a few. Most would regard “svelte” as a compliment, but not “scrawny”. And is “slinky” a wholesome description of a woman? Is a “rangy” man a strong man? Your opinion of these words is part of what makes up your idiolect. And it encompasses pronunciation. Which syllable do you stress in the name of the climbing plant, CLEM-atis or Clem-A-tis?
Isn’t it remarkable that while a dictionary will list a word’s meaning, we still have differing opinions on that word? You might regard “bloody” as a swear word, while others don’t. The oft-used exclamation “Oh my God” (nowadays shortened to OMG) would have outraged my grandmother. In her idiolect it would be a blasphemy.
Your idiolect is a compendium of your experiences. It will be informed by films you’ve watched, books you’ve read, sights you’ve seen, what your mother said, and many other ingredients of the unique recipe of what it is that makes you you.
I thoroughly enjoy debate and argument on idiolects — and I will have a different opinion to you on the precise place where a debate becomes an argument.
Word of the week
Kakistocracy (noun)
Government by a nation’s worst or least qualified citizens. “Brexit is being managed by a kakistocracy.”
Read the latest Oh my word! every Saturday in The Courier. Contact me at sfinan@dctmedia.co.uk
