Birth of a word: systemness?

Source: Wikimedia Commons public domain photo with
text added by author.

I was all set to rail against abuse of language in this blog post (and I may still, depending on where my rambling thoughts take me as I compose; writing is thinking, after all). Recently I received an email at work containing this bullet point: “Aligning our strategies to a point of coherent systemness.” And I thought, systemness? What the %!&$ is that?!? Houston, we have achieved incoherence! Then my wife told me that “systemness” is a term she hears often in the health-care management field. So I googled systemness (there are two words that didn’t exist 20 years ago) and sure enough wikipedia (another recently-coined word) defined it as a neologism that means “the state, quality, or condition of a complex system, that is, of a set of interconnected elements that behave as, or appear to be, a whole, exhibiting behavior distinct from the behavior of the parts.” Well, butter my biscuit, who knew?

New words have continually been invented throughout the history of the English language. In fact, Shakespeare was one of the most prolific and playful coiners of new words of all time. That is not to say that “systemness” is worthy of Shakespeare, or even worthy of a dictionary entry at the moment. At best, it is management-speak jargon. If it manages to gather enough cachet in our culture, perhaps “systemness” will one day merit a dictionary listing. Again, that is not to say that each word in the dictionary is an equally worthy word. I once read this word in a piece of writing: “originization.” This will always be a horrid word, even if it were to snake its way into the lexicon. Basically, this writer was trying to think of the noun form of the verb “originate” but proceeded to lengthen the word instead of bothering to think of the perfectly good (and shorter) noun form that already exists: origin. I’m still not sure about “systemness.” My gut instinct is to despise it. But only time will tell the fate of this so-called word.

© 2014 Bob Dial.  All rights reserved.

Building vocabulary: start reading NOW

Question -- How do you build a rich knowledge of vocabulary?

Answer -- A lifetime of reading. No shortcuts.

I’m always amazed by the number of high school students who freely admit to me that they never read anything, certainly not books. (I’ve even had honors and AP students tell me this). Perhaps this comes from teaching at a small-town, provincial public high school? If these students could compare their reading to students at elite private schools like Phillips Exeter Academy or Sidwell Friends School, they might be more sheepish about their admission. Inevitably, when I ask these reluctant readers what they want to do after high school, they answer, “Go to college.” I want to scream: “Do you know what you do in college? You READ. All … day … long!”

At some point, students in 11th grade begin to worry about three letters of the alphabet: SAT. When I took it, SAT stood for “Scholastic Aptitude Test,” a name the College Board and ETS shy away from now. But this test is still used by many colleges as a cutline for admissions, and it still contains a hefty vocabulary segment. The now (marginally) worried high school students will take SAT prep classes to ready themselves for the dreaded test. Do these prep classes help? Marginally (maybe). In fact, the time to start preparing for the SAT was in kindergarten, maybe even sooner. A lifetime of increasingly challenging reading is what really builds vocabulary knowledge, not prep classes. So if you’re in 11th grade, and you’ve never read anything (or if your idea of challenging reading is the latest Nicholas Sparks or James Patterson novel), I’m not sure what to tell you. I know this isn’t what you want to hear. Start reading NOW, and maybe you can still do yourself some good in a limited time. Perhaps this blog post is directed at parents of younger children more than teenaged students. Parents, get your kids reading -- NOW!

Of course, recently, the SAT has announced it is dumbing down its requirement for vocabulary knowledge. The College Board, of course, doesn’t characterize it that way, claiming they are dropping “obscure” vocabulary words in exhange for “high utility” words (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/education/revised-sat-wont-include-obscure-vocabulary-words.html?_r=0). My translation? They are dropping sophisticated, challenging words (“obscure”) for simple, everyday words (“high utility”).

In other words, that's what I call an “SATrocity.”

© 2014 Bob Dial.  All rights reserved.

Synonyms aren’t.

Source: photo taken by the author.

English vocabulary is blessed with a plethora of synonyms that provide writers a rich palette for “painting” powerful and vivid images in words. As we all remember from elementary school, synonyms are different words that have the same meaning. We have so many of them because English is a “mongrel language” that began life as a Germanic tongue but was subsequently injected with French, Latin, various Scandinavian languages, and more recently, Spanish (among others). In the 1800s, Mr. Roget thoughtfully codified synonyms for us in his famous Thesaurus. Today, of course, students are much more likely to right-click in Microsoft Word to find a synonym in a pick-list than they are to thumb through a dog-eared Thesaurus, but either way, here’s a dirty little secret about synonyms …

They really aren’t. (Most of them, anyway.) They may have the same (or similar) denotation but most likely don’t have the same connotation. Denotation is the literal, primary definition of a word. If you’re writing directions for taking aspirin, then you’ll want to remain safely in the realm of denotation. Connotation, on the other hand, refers to what a word suggests or implies, oftentimes rooted in a word’s history (or etymology). For example, the word “sinister” means evil or wicked, but it’s also important to recognize that the word derives from the Latin word sinister, meaning left-handed. The nimble word “dexterity,” on the other hand (yes, pun intended), derives from the Latin word dexter, meaning right-handed. You can ruminate on the inherent unfairness of this distinction, but using these words effectively requires some understanding of their respective histories. The key to understanding words is to use a comprehensive dictionary that includes word roots, derivations and etymology. The gold-standard of dictionaries is the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), but any reputable hardcover dictionary is better than a paperback version good only for basic denotations.

Frequently, what a word connotes is charged with emotion. To use two simple examples, take “ground” vs. “earth” and “house” vs. “home.” Ground and earth can both describe the soil under your feet, but clearly you want to choose the word earth if you aim for an emotional connection with the reader. Earth implies growing crops and earthy smells: Mother Earth. Ground is merely ground. Similarly, the word home invokes emotional connotations of family and origin in a way that the sterile word house does not. Home is irreplaceable; house is interchangeable. Sometimes the connotation of "synonyms" can carry value judgments and reveal unfairness. In terms of sexism, consider the slang words "stud" and "'slut," both of which describe a person who sleeps around, but one is accusatory while the other is complimentary.

Diction, the process of making precise word choices, is essential to lively writing. There is ALWAYS one perfect word that will serve your purpose, and many others that will not. As Mark Twain memorably put it, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.” So find the absolutely precise words to match your meaning and let your writing strike like lightning!

© 2014 Bob Dial.  All rights reserved.