Do you ever hear yourself saying trite phrases like "Look on the bright side," "If the shoe fits," or "The glass is half-empty"? Do you ever shoot yourself in the foot or show some backbone? Do you have a friend who fell out of the ugly tree and no matter how much he spruced himself up, he was still so ugly he'd have to sneak up on a glass of water to get a drink and wear a porkchop around his neck to play with the dog? (Thank you, Rodney Dangerfield). If so, you could be a chronic cliché-user.
Now, don't get me wrong; I use clichés. I know lots of people who use them, and I understand why they do. Cliches are convenient. If a man offers a girl a drink, she doesn't have to be content with saying something as simple as "No, thank you." After all, popular belief dictates that the word no sometimes means yes, and the words thank you are generally a positive response; consequently, the man might not get the message with a mere "No, thank you." So what does the girl do in that case? Pull out a good cliché like "Get lost!" "Jump in the lake!" or, here's an oldie but a goodie (hey that's a cliché too), "Go to h---, loser!" The message is clear, although neither creative nor original.
The problem is that such overused phrases, though at times effective, begin to denigrate the language in which they are used; instead of thinking up new ways to say things, we revert to saying the same things over and over until they are practically worthless. For example, the word good-bye has become cliché. The Oxford English Dictionary says that the word good-bye is a contraction for the phrase "God be with you," which Shakespeare used in 1598 in the play Love's Labours Lost in the contracted form "God b'wy you", and which was further shortened in the eighteenth century to "Good b'w'y" by Thomas D'Urfey. Finally, in 1819 the scandalous and often vapid Lord Byron used the words "good bye" in his epic poem Don Juan (aee "good-bye", OED Online). In all this time, the word has gone from wishing someone to have divine assistance in his or her travels to merely being something we say when someone leaves the house. Because of overuse and lack of thought regarding our speech, the term now lacks the power and substance that it once possessed.
I said before that such overused phrases (clichés) begin to denigrate the language in which they are used, but I want to rephrase that now: people who give little thought to the words they employ and how they employ them are responsible for the denigration of their particular language. We cannot simply keep wringing the sponge and expect water to drip perpetually into our empty buckets. We have to keep dipping it in the pail in order to replenish its moisture.
So, here's an experiment: What do you say to your children when they leave the house? Do you find yourself saying the same things every time they go? Maybe you say good-bye, see you later, have fun, be careful, or remember who you are? These are things my parents always said, and that in itself, namely the repetition of clichéd phrases and words, may be the reason why I had such a difficult time remembering to be careful or who I was (I always tried to have fun, but not because I remembered my dad telling me to). Their words did not stick in my head because they weren't meaningful or memorable; they were just things that parents say to their kids. Now, I am sure my parents did want me to be careful, and have fun, and remember who I was. However, the words they used to convey their sentiments unfortunately fell somewhat flat because of the nature and frequent use.
So what are you suggesting? you ask. We can't just suddenly change the way we talk.
I don't pretend to have the answer to this quandary, but I do have a suggestion. Perhaps if we try to think more about what we say before we say it, our cut-and-paste conversations may eventually develop into designer dialogues and customized communication.
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