<html><head><title>Adjectival Degredation</title></head><!--(c) G.C. '97, '98 A.R.R.-->
<body background="../images/tile">
<center><h3>Adjectival Degredation</h3></center>
<p>
<h5>The History of Language:</h5>
<br>
 Just thought I'd run a few ideas by you: language changes and language evolves, but how does it change, in what ways does it stay the same, and is this change necessarily for the better?
<br>
 This is a thought that has worried be for some time. Looking back on, say, middle English, we, living near this millenium, might comment on, at times, the abnormality of it; to those of Chaucer's time, it was quite normal. In this age, I look on disparingly at the colapse of basic English grammatical rules, such as the poor use of the double negative by large segments of the British population; this really annoys me, that our language is slipping away as you read. However, three or four centuries on from now, these rules of language will be standard and our lexical format will look as strange to the people of the future as Chaucer does to us. I think that this worries me even more.
<br>
 But it has always happened: I never complained that Kentish spelling (sic) died out, so why should I complain when ours does? The growth of the global culture has probably contributed to the mutation of our language, so perhaps it has just accelerated. There's probably no point in trying to hang on to the fabric of English before it is rewoven, but I do it anyway.
<p>
<h5>The Power of Language:</h5>
<br>
 My mind being filled with the junk it is, I was thinking a few days ago about swearing earlier in the century. Words such as <i>blast!</i> were considered less that civil and <i>damn!</i> was unacceptable. Now the latter of the two is commonplace, hardly attracting the briefist through from the censors, while far stronger words (strong enough to make me hesitate in displaying them here) have taken the place strength. As time continues, people seem to swear more and more violently, to the extent that once vicious insults are reduced to mediocraty and new, even stronger, words must follow.
<br>
 The question is does this happen with adjectives and words in general? Are mutations of <i>wicked!</i> and <i>lush!</i> (notice my new-found predilection with the exclamation mark, designed specifically for this topic) part of this change of word meaning, leading to degredation; indeed, the two exclamations above seem to be in less frequent use these days. I think I have found a suitably irritating ending with the answer <i>no idea</i>. But, to end with, an even more pressing question: do we need to be worrying about this?
</body>
</html>