Your granddaughter has just told you that she has a "date". A what ? A date with a boy, of course… Did you not know? It may be that you have not integrated the 2021 lexicon. The words we use evolve over time, changing with social transformations. Certain words embody our times: we read them on the internet, we hear them in the media, they end up in the mouth of a friend, we start to use them in our turn… Julie Neveux, lecturer in linguistics and author of a fascinating work, I speak as I am, what our words say about us (ed. Grasset), explains the way in which language crosses us and reveals to us: “When we speak, we do not speak to ourselves, we speak with our time, time speaks in us. Words tell us as much as we say them… ”A brief overview of the tics of language and other neologisms that you have not finished hearing.
In machine mode
With the arrival of the smartphone, the third digital revolution has turned our lives upside down: by dint of being permanently connected to the internet, we think of ourselves as an extension of devices. “The language we use reflects our new lifestyles,” observes Julie Neveux. Thus, we increasingly use the computer lexicon to describe the way we operate. We say of a politician whose vision we do not share must "change software" or that we "bug" when we are exhausted. We feel the need to "disconnect", which shows that the new standard is to be permanently "connected". The expression "in mode" is very significant in this: appeared among adolescents a few years ago, it goes back generations. Inspired by the operation of our computer "in standby mode" or our washing machine "in spin mode", we are now "in drag mode", "in vacation mode" …
“This formula consecrates the bursting of oneself to which the technological influence leads,” continues Julie Neveux. It presents us as a machine capable of passing, in one click, from one emotional state to another without transition. By dint of being "in fashion", we risk no longer knowing who we are, or what we feel … "Besides, isn't the risk of becoming a" snombie "? This neologism which telescopes the words "smartphone" and "zombie" designates a person who walks everywhere with his eyes riveted on his phone, a source of danger for himself and others …
Real versus virtual
By spending time on the screens, the real world comes to escape us. When we discuss "in real life", words escape us, they sometimes seem meaningless. This is why we need formulas that compensate for this virtual hold and intensify the reality of our words. This is how the tic of language “in real”, dear to young people, developed… “It testifies to a need to distinguish two modes of existence, the filtered, sublimated existence of our screens, and concrete experience, notes the linguist. He draws attention to the fact that we are approaching a truly lived experience, where our reactions are those of beings who also know constraints. Ditto for "I confess", which is also starting to spread among adults. Originally "confess" meant "to admit something wrong." But, today, we use this verb to introduce assertions that have nothing to blame: "I admit, I had such a good evening! "
Like or basher?
With the advent of digital information which must generate more and more clicks, ideas are losing ground and emotion triumphs. The French Cartesian spirit cannot resist it. On the web, any attempt at discussion seems parasitized by the sentimental lexicon: one "like" (one likes), one "bashe" (one denigrates), one uses emoticons (image representing an emotion). Moreover, in real life, we no longer discuss ideas in a rational way, we approach them through our senses, our feelings: they become "inspiring" or "nauseating", "divisive" or "uneasy" … " This sentimental rhetoric which prevails today in political discourse tends to undermine the debate, comments Julie Neveux. Thus, when one uses the adjectival metaphor "nauseating" to denounce statements that shock us, one expresses disgust rather than an argument. We do not use substantive analysis to deconstruct racist, misogynistic or negationist discourse, we are content to express our emotional feelings. The same goes for the adjective "divisive", which is used to qualify words or a personality that deeply divides opinion and can lead to "clash". “Using the term 'divisive' tends to shift the debate to the individual. Difficult to dispassionate the exchanges when one takes infatuation for the person who makes the show rather than for the social, economic or political issues. "
Forward the activists
Faced with the reign of emotion, we now need to find the right words, precise, dispassionate. It is no coincidence that many words used today to describe our society and the injustices that fracture it come from the militant lexicon. A whole vocabulary developed by feminist, anti-racist or ecological movements has become democratized, moving from AGs to universities, from news channels to courts … In a few years, some have passed into the current discourse: "feminicide" (murder of a woman), "racialized" (victim of supposedly systemic racism – a very controversial term) or "carbon footprint" (calculation of greenhouse gas emissions for which an activity is responsible). “This lexicon makes it possible to make perceptible dysfunctional realities which existed until then but which remained in the shade for lack of words to name them, analyzes Julie Neveux. Thus, by putting the word "feminicide" in the spotlight, society has been able to realize the extent of domestic violence. It is the culmination of several decades of militant work which has made it possible to make causes more concrete by making them visible to others. The language reflects the contradictions of our world. And generates solutions to remedy it.
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