For this task, I have decided to read and analyse ‘Too tired
to talk – abbreviations’ which is famous children’s author Michael Rosen
talking about the abbreviations of today and how they have developed over time,
on his special radio broadcast “Word of Mouth” on BBC Radio 4.
The article in
general isn't seriously considering if we, the pubic, are too lazy to say full
words – but it is investigating how we use abbreviations and shortening of
words in order to make our language feel more personal to us. In fact, there is
actually a quote in which Rosen says “we play with language, perhaps, as a way
of making words and phrases feel as if they belong to ‘us’ and not ‘them’.” In
this instance, ‘them’ is describing the dictionary and creators of the English
language. So by making phrases “belong to them” we are just having no fun or
creativity with our language and thus we are just following the language given
to us.
He ultimately discusses all of the different types of
abbreviations we find these days in different circumstances – whether it be
referring to the doctor as ‘doc’ or talking about all of the ‘prezzies’(presents)
you received for your birthday. He also speaks about different professions and
how they use abbreviations relative to their work and the language they find
themselves using on a daily basis. For example, nowadays radio presents are
found to say ‘mics’ rather than microphones and ‘intros’ and ‘outros’ which are
actually known as introductions and postscripts.
And interestingly, instead of just speaking about the
abbreviations and shortened words of today – he went in depth to where this
language tactic originally formed and early uses of it. The most interesting
find was the word ‘gent’ (gentleman) and how not only it has become an
abbreviation – but the meaning of this shortened word has changed over time.
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