"Verbing Weirds Language"
Yesterday in Sunday School class our teacher referred to googling "Good Thursday" for some interesting and compelling information about the actual day of Jesus' crucifixion. I think everyone in the class likely knew exactly what "googling" meant, but I can think of a number of people in church who would not be likely to know. I was briefly distracted by reflecting on how language changes over time, especially when nouns or adjectives are turned into verbs. Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes fame, nailed this phenomenon when he said, "Verbing weirds language."
I had been thinking about this ever since dinner on Saturday night when Myron made reference to the poet/singer Leonard Cohen, asking if anyone remembered his poem "Suzanne." I didn't. Then he reminded me that when I was studying poetry in college, I had to compare the nonsense of Cohen's writing in "Suzanne" with the nonsense of Lewis Caroll's "Jabberwocky." It came back to me then. (Don't you hate it when other people remember better what you've learned than you do?)
It was during a spiritual emphasis week on campus. James Sire, editor and writer for Inter-Varsity Press was one of the featured speakers. Sire, more than anyone besides perhaps Francis Schaeffer himself, was responsible for getting Schaeffer's writings into print. Sire was himself an author, obviously no slouch when it came to handling language responsibly and professionally. During his speech at Sterling, he lamented the meaninglessness that characterized much of modern writing, and he used "Suzanne" as an example. Here are the lyrics to the poem by Cohen which were first popularized by the singer Judy Collins. The song begins with "Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river . . ." The song has both religious and sexual overtones, but Sire was right; not much about it makes sense.
From "Suzanne," Sire launched into an examination of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" which begins: "'Twas brillig, and the slithey toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe . . . " After each phrase Sire stopped to ask people what they thought the words meant. People voiced surprising agreement about the meaning behind these invented words. Sire's main point was that when a writer, or any other kind of artist, has a rational world view, grounded in the truth of Scripture, the works they produce have meaning. When coherence and purpose is missing in one's worldview, the works produced reflect meaninglessness also.
Poetic license permits the use of words in surprising ways--even the verbing of nouns and adjectives, which can convey meaning very effectively as long as the syntax--the order of words in a sentence--is solid and understandable. I'm not sure that there's a good reason otherwise for using words. Writing is too much work to do it for any reason other than to convey meaning. Leave the weirding of language to those of Cohen's ilk.
I had been thinking about this ever since dinner on Saturday night when Myron made reference to the poet/singer Leonard Cohen, asking if anyone remembered his poem "Suzanne." I didn't. Then he reminded me that when I was studying poetry in college, I had to compare the nonsense of Cohen's writing in "Suzanne" with the nonsense of Lewis Caroll's "Jabberwocky." It came back to me then. (Don't you hate it when other people remember better what you've learned than you do?)
It was during a spiritual emphasis week on campus. James Sire, editor and writer for Inter-Varsity Press was one of the featured speakers. Sire, more than anyone besides perhaps Francis Schaeffer himself, was responsible for getting Schaeffer's writings into print. Sire was himself an author, obviously no slouch when it came to handling language responsibly and professionally. During his speech at Sterling, he lamented the meaninglessness that characterized much of modern writing, and he used "Suzanne" as an example. Here are the lyrics to the poem by Cohen which were first popularized by the singer Judy Collins. The song begins with "Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river . . ." The song has both religious and sexual overtones, but Sire was right; not much about it makes sense.
From "Suzanne," Sire launched into an examination of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" which begins: "'Twas brillig, and the slithey toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe . . . " After each phrase Sire stopped to ask people what they thought the words meant. People voiced surprising agreement about the meaning behind these invented words. Sire's main point was that when a writer, or any other kind of artist, has a rational world view, grounded in the truth of Scripture, the works they produce have meaning. When coherence and purpose is missing in one's worldview, the works produced reflect meaninglessness also.
Poetic license permits the use of words in surprising ways--even the verbing of nouns and adjectives, which can convey meaning very effectively as long as the syntax--the order of words in a sentence--is solid and understandable. I'm not sure that there's a good reason otherwise for using words. Writing is too much work to do it for any reason other than to convey meaning. Leave the weirding of language to those of Cohen's ilk.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
1:32 PM
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