Dying metaphors: ring the changes, toe the line, stand shoulder to shoulder with, explore every avenue, leave no stone unturned.Words become replaced with phrases, tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house. It’s a mixture of vagueness and incompetence. Dead language has two common qualities: staleness of imagery and lack of precision.If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. The language becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, and the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. Language and thought are interrelated.Our civilisation is decadent, and our language must inevitably share in the general collapse. Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Political chaos is connected with the decay of language, and vice versa – w e can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end.
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