In January 2012, the Global Language Monitor (GLM) reported that the English language had surpassed a million words. Google and Harvard's analysis have drawn similar conclusions. The discrepancy is the exact number. The slight variance could be that, “Currently there is a new word created every 98 minutes or about 14.7 words per day.” Our language is breeding new words, constantly growing, multiplying and evolving. Therefore, we can deduce that words are living.
Let’s narrow this down and give a relevant perspective, most believe that our modern English vocabulary consists of about 500,000 words, and we can suppose that at least one-fifth of them or about 100,000 are adjectives. Adjectives are words that describe nouns: people, places and things. Then there are adverbs which modify: manner, place, time, frequency and degree. I could not find a conclusive amount of adverbs, most research sites stated “too many to count”!
If we desire our children to be good communicators, we instruct them to speak. We encourage them to grow beyond using gestures or using the irritating whine or fit-throwing tantrum. We give the directive, “use your words”.
How well do we use our words? With all the words available, we should be able to freely describe and fully explain ourselves. Yet, we are often misunderstood. Could it be that we lack depth and understanding? Maybe we think by repeating the same message again and again it will somehow become clear or more relevant?
My challenge to you and myself is to dive deeper into the abyss of available words. Go beyond the …”amazing”,
“awesome” "awful"… and the overuse of ****profanity to describe our every thought, feeling and reaction to life. Let's grow with our evolving language and put some of these million words use.
Use Your Words...........................