Limpeh's school of blogging: respecting the semantics of words

Hello guys, it has been a while since I have actually talked about writing on my blog - it is clearly an activity that I enjoy very much and am good at (given the number of hits my blog gets - hey, the numbers don't lie). Now recently, I crossed swords with another blogger who disputed my definition of the word 'gentleman' - Nicholas Khaw wasn't prepared to accept that it was a British concept that originated in England, spread across Europe and that if you choose to use the word 'gentleman', then it does invoke a certain British concept of what a gentleman means. Did I have a particularly British interpretation on the issue because I am a British person who lives in London? No actually, I wasn't going to rely on my understanding of the word, so I did the sensible thing and googled it: it naturally led me to the Wikipedia page where I was able to read up on the origins of the word and I also cross reference several sources. You know, back in the old pre-internet days, I would have looked the word up in the dictionary just to double check.

I am trying to define what Khaw was guilty of: was it a poor command of the English language? I don't think so - I don't think his English was any worse than mine, it was more his refusal to take a few minutes of his time to follow the links which I had provided in my previous posts to the Wikipedia references of the origins of the word 'gentleman'. If he had taken the time to read about the origins of the word, he would have seen how it was first used in the 11th century in England and how it had evolved over time. I am merely making a reference to the historical use of the word: it was not (as he implied) my personal interpretation of what the word could or should mean. This is especially regrettable as I had already given him the references (just one click away - go on, please click it!), but he was too lazy to click on it. I call this, "defining the world by your ignorance". So, let me give you a simple example to illustrate this kind of attitude.

The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Being a keen enthusiast of winter sports, I naturally got interested in Pyeongchang. I have never been to South Korea and had never even heard of Pyeongchang until it had won the bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics. In fact, it was my friend Mitch who told me, "hey Alex, the next winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang!" My reply was, "where's that?" He then said, "South Korea." Now at that point in the conversation, it was the first time I had ever heard the word, "Pyeongchang". Could I have turned around and claimed that it must be fictitious, it cannot possibly exist because I had never ever heard of it? How ridiculous would that be? After all, just because I had never heard of Pyeongchang doesn't mean it doesn't exist: it just means that I don't know that much about South Korean ski resorts. I did then simply google Pyeongchang and read all about it: now it's on my list of destinations to visit when I do finally get round to visiting South Korea.

Now that may seem fairly obvious to you - but here's another example that is so ridiculous that I can't make it up. This is when someone is determined to believe his version of events he becomes oblivious to how ridiculous he is being. My father is extremely racist towards white people and for some reason, particularly towards the French. He somehow ignores the fact that his son loves the French, has studied at a French university and worked in Paris. I have gone as far as to reject Chinese as a second language and now my French is much better than Mandarin. Perhaps part of the reason why I have embraced France and all things French so much was precisely because of my father's hatred of it. I remember the way my mum went out of her way to forbid me from drinking the drink 100 Plus and that was my favourite drink as a child (she was convinced it was somehow unhealthy). Here's a lesson in parenting people: don't go out of your way to express your hatred for something as your child may decide to do just the opposite to spite you.

I am a total francophile.

So my dad once said (in Mandarin) that he has never ever met a French person who was nice and friendly - thus they must all be scoundrels and racists. Now technically, the first half of that statement is true - the fact is my dad doesn't even speak English and has never ever set foot in France but the conclusion he draws from it is ludicrous. I have never tried to introduce any of my French friends to him (since I don't live in Singapore), so the bottom line is, he has never ever met a French person so he is happy to define French people based on his ignorance of France and the French, rather than do the obvious thing: even if he didn't want to turn to Google, he could simply turn to his own son and ask, "hey son, you speak French fluently, you've lived in France and have many French friends, what are they like? What kind of experience have you had living and working with French people? Please share you experiences with me. " No, to date, he has never ever asked me this question because he is not prepared to have his racist perception of the French challenged - so he is quite happy to remain ignorant and define the world by his ignorance.

So, what do you do if you are struggling to find the right word to express a certain concept in your writing? Can should you do to avoid committing a faux pas like that? Here are three options for you.

Option 1: Look up Google and Wikipedia, then share your findings

Google is your friend when it comes to finding the right words to express yourself. The English language has been evolving for a long time: the origins of old English can be traced back as far as the 5th century AD and yes, I googled that fact. Not sure what a word means? You can always use the definition function, which is effectively like a dictionary. So I want to verify the meaning of the word "obfuscate" - I simply go to google and type in, "define: obfuscate". And I will get not just the definition of the word but also a number of synonyms for the word as well. And if you are dealing with an argument involving the definition of a word, it makes absolute sense to check that you do have the right understanding on the concept before wading into the argument. So in this piece here, the author is dealing with concept is that of aristocracy. The author cleverly begins the piece with a dictionary definition of the word 'aristocracy' because even if he understands the concept, you can't count on all your readers to understand it: a good writer will make it easy for the reader to follow the argument by giving the reader the information they may need. After all, good writing is about communicating your ideas efficiently and effectively, not showing off how many big words you can use.

When in doubt, always turn to google!

Option 2: Use a loanword from another language

Many of us are bilingual or multilingual these days and sometimes, there are just words which do not have an equivalent in English which we may choose to use to express a very specific concept. Of course, over time, some of these words become assimilated into the English language because they are used so widely. So for example, déjà vu is a French concept (which literally translate as "already seen") but it is so commonly used in English that it is widely accepted as a loanword in English and written as 'deja vu'. But why limit yourself to words like schadenfreude, faux pas, mea culpa and hoi polloi? Heck, you can use any loanword from any language as long as you provide a translation for your readers who do not speak the language you have borrowed the word from. Let me give you an example from a recent piece I wrote when I borrowed a phrase from Chinese. 

"I'm sure some of you would have heard of the saying, "前人栽树,后人乘凉" Pinyin: Qián rén zāi shù, hòu rén chéngliáng (Chinese phrase, literally "the predecessors plant the trees, so others later may enjoy the shade", meaning: To enjoy the benefits of the hard work of one's predecessors.) Perhaps I would rather be the person enjoying the shade rather than the person planting the trees. Life is short and I have chosen to move to more progressive democracies rather than stay to try very hard to make change happen in a place like Singapore."

前人栽树,后人乘凉

Option 3: Invent a new word (or phrase)

And why not? Loads of new words have been invited over the last few years: the term selfie was first widely used around 2005, even though people have been using cameras to take photographs of themselves held at arm's length for a long time. But it was only with the explosion of social media that the term became popular and accepted as a proper word n the English language. New words are invented all the time: bling, bromance, chillax, hater, jeggings, textspeak, upcycle etc - the list is pretty long. The fact is the English language is constantly evolving because the society we live in and the technology we use are  also constantly inventing and we need to invent new words to reflect the new experiences we have today that we didn't have 20 years ago. The great thing about inventing a new word is that you are not bound by the rules and definitions of a word/concept like 'gentleman' which has been in use for over a thousand years: you simply create your new word and tell the word what definition you have given your new creation.

But trying to invent a new word is tricky business because you have to convince your readers that it makes complete sense and that there is a justification to invent that new word: so there isn't already an existing word in the English language and that there are no loanwords from other languages you can use to express that same concept. I shall rise to the challenge and try to invent a new word as an academic exercise. Let's try to invent a word to describe people who are happy to define the world by their ignorance (as already discussed earlier in this blog piece): gosh that's a lot of words to define a concept, can we invent a word (or a phrase) to capture that sentiment succinctly? So let's subject this to the test: is there a word in English to already define such a person? Well the word 'ignoramus' comes to mind but that simply describes an ignorant person, what I am describing goes further than that: it is an ignorant person who is happy to define the world according to his ignorance. So the word ignoramus is close, but not specific enough.

What about a word or phrase from another language? The phrase 井底之蛙 (Chinese: literally, frog at the bottom of the well, meaning: an ignorant, narrow-minded person) comes to mind but again, it still describes just a state of ignorance, rather than the person happily choosing to define the world according to his ignorance. I think the word in German 'Nichtswisser' comes to mind, as does the Dutch word 'domkop' - but then again, both words just means an ignorant person, it just doesn't go far enough. Nor does the word 'профан' in Russian, which again means the same thing: an ignorant person. The word in Malay 'tolol' possess the same problem: it just refers to an ignorant or stupid person. Clearly, I cannot cover every single language in the world in this exercise, so please, if you do come across a word or phrase that is a closer match to the concept I am trying to convey here, please leave me a comment below.

What is the right word/phrase to describe this person?

So in my quest to invent a new word (or phrase), I have to make sure that it makes sense to my readers. So if I came up with a word like 'Qakoxpujem", well, it makes no sense to anyone. It may sound like the name of a small town in somewhere like Greenland or Albania (or somewhere equally exotic) but otherwise, it would be useless as a new word to convey the concept at hand. So I must choose words that would make sense to an English speaker and an easy way to do that is to find a similar concept that already exist in the English language. We all know what the phrase "holocaust denial" means: it is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in the Holocaust during World War II. Despite overwhelming evidence of the extermination of Jews by Hitler's Nazi regime, somehow, these holocaust deniers persist in ignoring the facts despite the fact that doing so makes them look highly anti-Semitic and hateful. The term has also been used in the context of "climate change denial" - this refers to people who refuse to accept the link between man made action (specifically the burning of fossil fuels) and climate change. 

Thus I present you the phrase "Google denial": one can access so much information just by doing a google search that takes a few moments - yet someone like Nicholas Khaw refuses to verify his facts by doing a google search, that makes him a "Google denier". Okay my father is almost 80, doesn't speak English and doesn't know how to use a computer (hence his excuse for not using Google), but Khaw certainly has no valid excuse. So whenever we have a question like, "is it possible to eat a starfish?" A google denier would just say, "that's so gross, it's all spiny and hard, I have never ever seen anyone eat a starfish, there's no way people will eat it." A more enlightened person would say, "I'm not sure, let me do a google search." Thus a "Google denier" is a person who refuses to use Google to verify his opinion and chooses to define the world by his ignorance. In fact, the following skit from Family Guy comes to mind:

Oh and I did check on Google to see if anyone else has used that phrase before: there are no references to "Google denial/denier" and no, there isn't. The only problem with that phrase is that people like Khaw are not denying that the search engine Google exists, he just can't be bothered to use it when in doubt. But then again, it's not like holocaust deniers are somehow ignorant of what actually happened during WW2, they have been presented with the historical facts and they still choose to believe in their version of the story. Climate change deniers have heard both side of the argument, but likewise they persist in ignoring the scientific evidence and believe in their side of the story. By the same token, I am sure Khaw can use Google to check something like the weather in London or the definition of a word like 'aristocracy', but the fact is he chooses not to do so despite having the internet at his fingertips.

So admittedly, it's not a perfect way to capture the essence of the concept, but it is my valiant attempt to coin a new phrase for our modern age. Hey if you think you can come up with a better way to express the same sentiment, please let me know in the comments section below. Have fun inventing new words and phrases to express yourself! So there you go, I give you the phrases "google denial" and "google denier" - take my gift and make your writing just that little bit more interesting. Let me know what you think of this phrase and the wider issues, many thanks for reading.