Official Words of Praise
The
Cabinet Office gives guidance on how to nominate people for honours. They
suggest:
"Effective
citations often include nouns such as:
determination
commitment respect
drive sustainability
recognition innovation
creativity selflessness
impact zeal
performance ambassador
adjectives
such as:
trusted
unstinting conscientious
wise inspirational
peerless persuasive passionate
exemplary resourceful
enthusiastic fair
tenacious sympathetic admired
unflustered supportive
vibrant dogged
articulate diligent
dedicated
and
phrases such as:
making
a difference going the extra
mile role model
overcoming obstacles
head and shoulders above the rest
These
have the characteristics of certain kinds of English jargon prose:
- Average number of
syllables: 3.08. Basic everyday English words tend to be shorter like good and true
- Latin or French origin (-tion/ive endings etc) rather than Old English; none of these words
probably came into English before the 14th century, apart from wise
- Low frequency (unstinting 8 occurrences per 100 million words in BNC, zeal
332, tenacious 116 etc)
- Abstract vague meaning:
impact, vibrant,
- Trite
phrases: going
the extra mile, head and shoulders above the rest
Much
of the this reflects the different
historical strata in the English vocabulary. Words that come from Old English
tend to be short: buy, start. Those
that come from French or Latin tend to be longer: purchase, commence. The legacy of the Norman occupation is that
longer words seem higher status or more educated, as they were associated with
the language spoken by the elite rulers, French, or the language spoken by the
learned, Latin. Long words sound posher, within limits. On this measure the
Cabinet Office still reflects the French bias of the English elite classes.
For
many years the Plain English Campaign has been exhorting organisations to use
clear English in official documents and forms. They advise ‘Prefer short
words’. Plain English provide a list of words to avoid and suggest what to put
in their place; for example, use before
rather than prior to, keep to rather
than comply with and end
rather than terminate. Their undesirable words have an average of 3.8
syllables, their preferred words 1.7. The Cabinet Office preferences are clearly
towards the undesirable end of
the range.
The
words selected by the Cabinet rather suggest that this is how they would like
civil servants to be seen: unflustered,
dedicated, inspirational, ambassadors. But is this actually how anybody else
would describe those they sincerely admire? What is wrong with calling people good, fine, and worthy
except that they are short words that preceded the Norman Conquest?