Last update before I go eat!
Oct. 25th, 2004 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
There's a splendid example of linguistic evolution happening right here on the internet, on LJ where I can see it! Well. Not really. But I'm sure it does demonstrate some linguistic principle or another.
It's long since seemed mihi that using acronyms (like lol) seriously tends to be... not done, except by the AOLers. This is certainly debateable, and I'm not going to be the one debating it, so hush. However, a big trend (much like use of l337 by otherwise well-written people) is to use acronyms as a semi-serious joke. For a while, a fairly decent length of time, the best example of this was OMGWTF!
And then somebody had the clever idea to go one step further, show exactly how much this was being mocked. And thus we were given OMGWTFBBQ!
Within a few weeks of my first seeing the latter version, it was all over. The original died down, and the OMGWTFBBQ version took over.
Recently, I've been seeing still more expansions on the theme: OMGWTFBBQROFL!
Now we're getting silly. Really silly. But before that thought could sink in...
OMGWTFBBQROFLCOPTER!
*dies*
Interestingly enough, we've been going over this in my medieval Latin. Apparently, the ancient Romans started expanding their words - words were constantly taking diminutives until the diminuative was the normal form, and the "frequentative" forms of the verbs were taking the place of the original. Everywhere, the longer forms were prefered.
I wonder why this is?
It's long since seemed mihi that using acronyms (like lol) seriously tends to be... not done, except by the AOLers. This is certainly debateable, and I'm not going to be the one debating it, so hush. However, a big trend (much like use of l337 by otherwise well-written people) is to use acronyms as a semi-serious joke. For a while, a fairly decent length of time, the best example of this was OMGWTF!
And then somebody had the clever idea to go one step further, show exactly how much this was being mocked. And thus we were given OMGWTFBBQ!
Within a few weeks of my first seeing the latter version, it was all over. The original died down, and the OMGWTFBBQ version took over.
Recently, I've been seeing still more expansions on the theme: OMGWTFBBQROFL!
Now we're getting silly. Really silly. But before that thought could sink in...
OMGWTFBBQROFLCOPTER!
*dies*
Interestingly enough, we've been going over this in my medieval Latin. Apparently, the ancient Romans started expanding their words - words were constantly taking diminutives until the diminuative was the normal form, and the "frequentative" forms of the verbs were taking the place of the original. Everywhere, the longer forms were prefered.
I wonder why this is?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-10-25 03:21 pm (UTC)Maybe people prefer longer forms because longer feels more intelligent? After all, big words make one seem smarter, so wouldn't longer words have the same effect?
In the case of AOLer speak, however, I think it just makes you look even more stupid, but maybe it's a form of cultural programming we just haven't managed to escape.