A SIMPLIFICATION
My day-to-day interactions with my fellow citizens, normally at the Jasper County Courthouse, has led me to believe that the English language has shrunk magnificently. Life is so much simpler with a smaller vocabulary, don't you think? But this can be overdone.
English is probably one of the most remarkable languages on the planet, with the ability to express the most subtle expressions and consequently much too complex for many of our fellow citizens. What has occurred is a drastic simplification in our daily usage. This is especially true of adjectives.
Now for you who may have missed that day in class when adjectives were illustrated, an adjective is a word that in some way modifies a noun. What I experience in conversation with defendants and other participants in the courthouse drama, the number of adjectives has been reduced to one. Nothing more simple. That adjective is f - - - ing.
In some instances, within a rather long and tedious conversation when attempting to elicit facts from a defendant, family member, or witness the adjective is used with every noun articulated and often used as the noun which it is meant to modify as in f - - king f - - k. This phrase is rather common actually.
Most of us are in favor of simplification, but this seems to be a little bare. Sometimes we do need more to get the nuances of the event for which the criminal charges have been brought, but, alas, that would take several additional adjectives.
There was a time when the use of this adjective would get you disowned by your parental units. Not so now. It is so prevalent that any novelty is long gone. This is not to say that one should approve of this adjective or expressions that contain either f - - king of f - - k, and there are always those memories of how a teacher, preacher, parent, or relative would react if this particular adjective would somehow flow from your vocal cords. Not good. But those days are gone.
The legislature is in session again and as normal, thinking about sex and books and such. Maybe they could bring to the floor some suggestions regarding adjectives. They spend much of their time fixated on what we, the public, are thinking and doing and they should realize, being adults with a modicum of education, that the language people use affects not only their understanding, but their behavior.
In conclusion, you will have to make up your own mind on how the English language should be used and the range of adjectives that should be available to provide meaning in your everyday conversations. It would seem to me that limiting oneself to one adjective causes unnecessary ambiguity but apparently commonly thought sufficient.
Richard E H Phelps II
Mingo
