Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 1

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress?

Eduard C. Hanganu

B.A., M.A., Linguistics

Lecturer in English, UE

Draft 18

Revised – December 19, 2014

© 2014

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 2

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress?

Introduction

A main concept in Historical Linguistics is that of “language change.” The idea is that

with time a language will “evolve” in certain aspects such as dialectological, phonetic, semantic,

lexical, grammatical, etc.(Campbell, 2004, pp. 211-312; Trask, 1994, pp. 1-2), and that

all these

changes are favorable to language development—in other words, that all changes in language

indicate linguistic progress. States Trask:

…whether we are aware of it or not, English is changing all the time. New words are

constantly coming into use, and not only new words, but also new pronunciations and

even new grammatical forms. At the same time, old words, old forms and old

pronunciations are gradually dropping out of use.

Moreover, the constant change is not some new and alarming development. English, as

we shall demonstrating, has been changing throughout its history in the same sorts of

ways, and the same is true of every other living language. One of the fundamental things

you need to understand about languages is that they are always changing. (Trask, 1994,

1-2)

The purpose of this paper is to argue that (1) languages do not change in themselves and

for themselves, but that people—the language users—change languages, and that (2) not all

language changes people introduce are beneficial to language development and indicate

linguistic progress, but that quite often such changes show language regress because most

language users who are also language changers are not trained or qualified to implement positive

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 3

or progressive changes in their languages. Such is the case, for instance, with the synonym

collapse that appears to occur in the spoken and written English among Midwest United States

users. This collapse process excludes valuable words from the English language and therefore

reduces the American English lexicon, and also narrows and limits the options the English

speakers and writers have at this time to express themselves with correctness, precision, and

elegance in their own language.

Inanimate Objects and False Predication

The common and popular assumption that “Languages CHANGE,” is in the first place

evidence of defective logic and incorrect grammar. To use the verb “change” as the simple

predicate for the sentence subject “language” produces a “breakdown in meaning,” between the

subject and predicate. This logical and grammatical error is known as an error in sentence

predication, and is called faulty predication. Inanimate objects are not able to implement change

through their own will and power. Their change needs to come from an outside agent that could

implement that revision or alteration. State the authors of the Hodges Harbrace Handbook:

When drafting, writers sometimes compose sentences in which the subject is said to be

something or to do something that is not logically possible [emphasis added]. This

breakdown in meaning is called faulty predication [emphasis supplied]. (The Hodges,

2010, p. 307)

A closer look at the sentence “Languages CHANGE,” reveals that there is a mismatch

between the subject “languages” and the simple predicate “change.” As stated before, languages

are inanimate objects that cannot think or plan, and have no will or power of their own to make

changes to their own structures. The popular tale repeated again and again in various social and

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 4

academic circles that languages change on their own is simple nonsense. It is time to drop this

unscientific claim and recognize that it is not languages that change, but that the people or the

language users change their languages. While those language changes that most people

implement might not be intentional and planned, one must also recognize that the users who

implement those changes are seldom qualified to improve their own languages due to their

inexpert language status, reduced or limited competence in language, serious ignorance about

their own language, and even an illiterate language condition that makes it impossible for them

to speak and write with competence in their own language.

Those Who Change American English

Now we come to another important and relevant issue in this matter of “language

change:” Who are the people who change the American English? Are the language changers

those few hundreds or thousands of English language educators, experts, or scholars who teach

English in the American public schools or colleges? The answer is “No!” Most of those who

change the English language are to a large degree individuals with below average or average

academic education and basic or intermediate English language knowledge, and even less than

that. Some people who implement the language change speak some dialectal and colloquial

English, but are not able to read and write in Standard English, and much less to express

informed, competent, and meaningful thoughts about the structure of the English language—its

grammar. An article in The Huffington Post (2014) provides relevant statistical evidence for the

poor English skills that characterize a large percent of Americans at the present time:

According to a study conducted in late April by the U.S. Department of Education and

the National Institute of Literacy, 32 million adults in the U.S. can't read. That's 14

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 5

percent of the population. 21 percent of adults in the U.S. read below a 5th grade level,

and 19 percent of high school graduates can't read.

The current literacy rate isn't any better than it was 10 years ago. According to the

National Assessment of Adult Literacy (completed most recently in 2003, and before

that, in 1992), 14 percent of adult Americans demonstrated a "below basic" literacy level

in 2003, and 29 percent exhibited a "basic" reading level.

The same article mentions the serious consequences these illiterate and unfortunate

Americans have to face due to their poor English language skills:

We probably don't need to spell out the benefits of reading and writing for you.

Economic security, access to health care, and the ability to actively participate in civic

life all depend on an individual's ability to read.

According to the Department of Justice, "The link between academic failure and

delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure." The stats back up this

claim: 85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are

functionally illiterate, and over 70 percent of inmates in America's prisons cannot read

above a fourth grade level, according to BeginToRead.com.

The total number of young and adult Americans who cannot read, according to statistics

above, is a rounded number of 70 million out of the 400 million that constitute the current United

States population. In percent values, this means that 17% of Americans are not able to read at all

or have serious trouble to read a text. What is even more troublesome about these English skills

statistics is that those 70 million practically illiterate Americans, that is, 17% of the 400 million

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 6

that constitute the United States population at this time, have a significant but dangerous impact

on the American English language and implement uninformed and changes to its lexical form

and content and to its structure—the grammar.

To this group of 40 million illiterate individuals we need to add the rest of the United

States population— about 330 million individuals—who have an English language competence

between an essential or survival English and an intermediate English language level. Those with

advanced academic training in the American English such as public schools teachers, college

English professors, scholars and researchers, are few—probably less than 1% of the entire

United States population—and have a rather small and inconsequential contribution to the

changes that occur in the English language.

We can draw the logical conclusion now, or generalize based on the statistical evidence

examined: the individuals who implement the major changes in the American English are people

with no formal training in the English language, and whose spoken and written English varies

from an illiterate to at most an intermediate language level. What a great reason to entrust

language change to such individuals, and to claim that the English language modifications these

unqualified people implement are adequate and beneficial to the American English and indicate

progress in this language!

The American English Role Models

What makes matters even worse is that the American Language role models for the

teenagers and young people in the United States are actors, singers, and sometimes sports

celebrities. Among these individuals there are very few who have an undergraduate degree, and

even fewer who have graduate and terminal degrees. Most of them are high school dropouts who

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 7

can barely read and write. Such individuals can be couched to recite their parts in movie scripts

as actors, or sing the lyrics of a song, but when these ignorant people are left on their own and

have the misfortune to express themselves without adequate help one can see that their English

language level seldom rises above a semi-literate English language competence, and even that

some of these people cannot talk or write. The American newspapers and the TV have related

numerous stories of famous actors, singers, and football or basketball players who are language

inept or graduated with college degrees but cannot read and write.

The High Rising Terminal Pattern

During the past three or four decades, the linguists have noticed an interesting speech

trend—the high rising terminal or “uptalk” among the teenagers, young adults, and even adult

English language speakers, which is “the habit of ending statements with a stress that makes

them sound a bit like questions” (The Unstoppable, 2014).

Linguists are at a loss about this intonation trend’s origin, but one thing is sure—the

upward inflection or “uptalk” was not devised in a Linguistics department at one of the most

prestigious academic establishments in the world such as Harvard, Yale, or Pen State, and then

spread among the common American speakers. It originated among the “masses,” and it would

be hard to see it as an improvement to the English language. States Gorman (1993):

Nobody knows exactly where uptalk came from. It might have come from California,

from Valley Girl talk. It may be an upper-middle-class thing, probably starting with

adolescents. But everybody has an idea about what uptalk means. Some

twentysomethings say uptalk is part of their attitude: cool, ironic, uncommitted.

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 8

The author of the article, “The Unstoppable March of The Upward Inflection?” printed in

the BBC News Magazine On Line also notices that this intonation craze is not localized in and

limited to the United States:

The problem is that trends in speech can be very hard to nail down. It isn't easy to even

tell how the pattern developed in either the US or Australia, let alone how it was

exported. Many New Zealanders would assert the pattern started there rather than in

Australia, for instance.

A New Yorker, an Australian, a man from Northern Ireland, an Argentine and a

Californian each display their own brand of uptalk

"The short answer is no-one knows," says Mark Liberman, a linguistics professor at the

University of Pennsylvania. Until recently, recorded language "corpora" (bodies of

words) didn't exist. Linguists often have to rely on written accounts.

Liberman and other linguists hypothesise that uptalk could date as far back as the 9th

Century. "It has been suggested that this distribution of rising inflection in sentences in

northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland probably had something to do with the

Scandinavian influence there," he says, "but that's just a hypothesis, like everything else."

Liberman cites Henry Sweet's A Handbook of Phonetics, a language primer from the

1870s, in which the author writes that "in Scotch the rising tone is often employed

monotonously, not only in questions but also in answers and statements of facts."

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 9

Then there's the Northern Irish theory, that migration into England and Scotland could

have sown the roots of uptalking. Supporters of this theory point to the occasionally sing-

song tone of some Northern Irish accents.

Some Americans have a similar theory - attributing the influx of Spanish speakers into

California as a possible explanation.

But migration theory would also back Australia or New Zealand as the source of the UK's

uptalk. Either it was British expats travelling out to Australia and New Zealand and

bringing back their manner of speaking. Or just the volume of antipodean immigration to

London. The process could have been well under way before the first episode of

Neighbours was even aired.

The “uptalk” language trend was “authenticated” and promoted in the United States

through the movie Clueless and the TV shows Clueless and Neighbors. Hilaire (2013) describes

the Clueless “uptalk” teenage speech as follows:

The film [Clueless] was released in 1995 and is a loose adaptation of the Jane Austen

novel Emma into a 1990's high school setting, written and directed by Amy Heckerling. It

tells the story of Cher and Dionne, two wealthy popular girls from Beverly Hills, who

decide to meddle with other people's lives for what they believe is the better. At the

beginning of the film, Cher is given a debate assignment where she has to make a speech

defending the right for Haitian immigrants to migrate to America:

Cher: "So... OK, like, right now, for example, the Haitians need to come to America. But

some people are all 'What about the strain on our resources?' But it's like when I had this

garden party for my father's birthday, right? I said R.S.V.P. because it was a sit-down

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 10

dinner. But people came that, like, did not R.S.V.P. so I was like totally buggin'. I had to

haul ass to the kitchen, redistribute the food, squish in extra place settings, but by the end

of the day it was like, the more the merrier! And so, if the government could just get to

the kitchen, rearrange some things, we could certainly party with the Haitians. And in

conclusion, may I please remind you that it does not say R.S.V.P. on the Statue of

Liberty?"

Discursive uses of like are in bold while occurrences of vocal fry are in italics and

underlined and uptalk is double-underlined. The above example is one of the longest

sequences where Cher speaks uninterrupted, bar her voice-over narration of the film, and

is particularly representative of the way she and other girls her age express themselves

throughout the movie.

The incontrovertible fact is that the new intonation trend emphasized in Clueless cannot

be seen as an indispensable improvement or progress in the English language because it is a talk

fad that we could do without—although it might have some sociological implications. Its origin,

though, is not among the experts or scholars in the English language, but among the untrained

and inexpert English language users, and its original and intended purpose seems to be at least

unclear or undetermined—if this trend’s initiators have even had a specific and definite purpose

in mind for its use at the start.

Synonyms in The English Language

The English Language is known for its richness, precision of expression, and elegance

due to its large lexicon and numerous synonyms. The Oxford English Dictionary [further, OED]

defines a synonym in this manner:

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 11

1.1 Strictly, a word having the same sense as another (in the same language); but more

usually, either or any of two or more words (in the same language) having the same

general sense, but possessing each of them meanings which are not shared by the other or

others, or having different shades of meaning or implications appropriate to different

contexts: e.g. serpent, snake; ship, vessel; compassion, fellow-feeling, sympathy;

enormous, excessive, immense; glad, happy, joyful, joyous; to kill, slay, slaughter; to

grieve, mourn, lament, sorrow.

Trask (1997, p. 215) places emphasis on the fact that synonyms have close but still

distinct meanings, and this indicates that while the ideas or viewpoints expressed through the

synonyms are rather similar, the propositional content transferred to the English language

listeners or readers is not identical:

synonym One of two or more words which have identical or very similar meanings:

violin and fiddle, swamp and bog, fruitful and productive.

The numerous synonyms in the English language make it possible for the speakers and

writers to express ideas and perspectives without repetition and through unique and original

expressions, and also to formulate their thoughts with elegance. This lexical contribution to the

English language development through synonyms is another feature that makes English an open

and flexible Lingua Franca as an international language.

English versus Romanian Lexicons

The more words a language has in its lexicon, the richer that language is, and the more

expressive. Schuessler, mentions in an article published in The New York Times (2009) that the

English language lexicon had reached at that time one million words. Some linguists disputed the

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 12

claim based on the notion that the English language is in constant flux and to count English

words is an impossible task, but there is still hard evidence that the English lexicon as contained

in the OED exceeds 600,000 words. States Schuessler:

On Wednesday, a Texas-based media consulting firm announced the birth of the

millionth English word, which arrived on June 10, 2009, at 10:22 a.m., Stratford-on-

Avon time.

English is definitely big. The Oxford English Dictionary lists about 600,000 words

(mostly drawn from written sources), with more than 1,000 added annually. Merriam-

Webster’s estimates that there are about a million words in English, give or take a

quarter-million — far more than the 500,000-plus claimed by the runner-up, Mandarin

Chinese, and the 100,000-odd words of French.

On the other hand, the most recent academic Romanian lexicon (2012), Dicționarul

Explicativ Al Limbii Române, ("The Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language")

includes between 50,000 and 80,000 words. That is much less than the number of words the

OED contains, that is, not even 10% of the OED’s lexical content.

This significant lexical difference between the English and the Romanian Lexicons will

impact on all the words or lexical categories that constitute the English and Romanian language

parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjective, adverbs, prepositions, etc., and also on the English and

Romanian synonyms, which means that there will be much fewer synonyms in the Romanian

language than in the English language.

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 13

English versus Romanian Synonyms

The Romanian verb “a merge,” to walk, has, according to the Dictionarul de Sinonime

On Line (“The Online Dictionary of Synonyms”) the following most common, and rather parallel

to the English language, synonyms:

(1) “a se deplasa,” to travel, (2) “a se duce,” to go, (3) “a se mişca,” to move, (4) “a umbla,” to

walk (without a definite purpose), (5) “a trece,” to pass by, (6) “a parcurge,” to cover a certain

distance, (7) “a pleca,” to leave, (8) “a se duce,” to go somewhere, (9) “a ieşi,” to come out, (10),

and “a circula,” to travel with a vehicle.

On the other hand, the English verb “to walk,” has, according to Nichol, almost ten times

more synonyms—ten times more synonyms than the synonyms for “a merge” in the Romanian

language. Nichol lists the synonyms to the verb “to walk” as follows:

1. Amble: walk easily and/or aimlessly

2. Bounce: walk energetically

3. Clump: walk heavily and/or clumsily

4. Falter: walk unsteadily

5. Foot it: depart or set off by walking

6. Footslog: walk through mud

7. Gimp: see limp

8. Hike: take a long walk, especially in a park or a wilderness area

9. Hobble: walk unsteadily or with difficulty; see also limp

10. Hoof it: see “foot it”

11. Leg it: see “foot it”

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 14

12. Limp: walk unsteadily because of injury, especially favoring one leg; see also falter

13. Lumber: walk slowly and heavily

14. Lurch: walk slowly but with sudden movements, or furtively

15. March: walk rhythmically alone or in a group according to a specified procedure

16. Mince: walk delicately

17. Mosey: see amble; also, used colloquially in the phrase “mosey along”

18. Nip: walk briskly or lightly; also used colloquially in the phrase “nip (on) over” to refer to a

brief walk to a certain destination, as if on an errand

19. Pace: walk precisely to mark off a distance, or walk intently or nervously, especially back

and forth

20. Parade: walk ostentatiously, as if to show off

21. Perambulate: see stroll; also, travel on foot, or walk to inspect or measure a boundary

22. Peregrinate: walk, especially to travel

23. Plod: walk slowly and heavily, as if reluctant or weary

24. Pound: see lumber

25. Power walk: walk briskly for fitness

26. Prance: walk joyfully, as if dancing or skipping

27. Promenade: see parade

28. Pussyfoot: walk stealthily or warily (also, be noncommittal)

29. Ramble: walk or travel aimlessly (also, talk or write aimlessly, or grow wildly)

30. Roam: see ramble

31. Sashay: see parade

32. Saunter: to walk about easily

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 15

33. Scuff: to walk without lifting one’s feet

34. Shamble: see scuff

35. Shuffle: see scuff (also, mix, move around, or rearrange)

36. Stagger: walk unsteadily (also, confuse or hesitate, or shake)

37. Stalk: walk stealthily, as in pursuit

38. Step: walk, or place one’s foot or feet in a new position

39. Stomp: walk heavily, as if in anger

40. Stride: walk purposefully, with long steps

41. Stroll: see saunter

42. Strut: see parade

43. Stumble: walk clumsily or unsteadily, or trip

44. Stump: see lumber

45. Swagger: walk with aggressive self-confidence

46. Tiptoe: walk carefully on the toes or on the balls of the foot, as if in stealth

47. Toddle: see saunter and stagger; especially referring to the unsteady walk of a very young

child

48. Totter: see stagger (also, sway or become unstable)

49. Traipse: walk lightly and/or aimlessly

50. Tramp: see lumber and hike

51. Trample: walk so as to crush something underfoot

52. Traverse: walk across or over a distance

53. Tread: walk slowly and steadily

54. Trip: walk lightly; see also stumble

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 16

55. Tromp: see lumber

56. Troop: walk in unison, or collectively

57. Trot: see nip

58. Trudge: see plod

59. Waddle: walk clumsily or as if burdened, swinging the body

60. Wander: see ramble

This large synonyms number for the English verb “to walk” allows the English speakers

and writers to nuance their speeches or written texts as close as possible to their intended

meanings and obtain precise and detailed statements in concentrated form—without the need to

use English phrases or sentences in order to provide the listeners or readers with their exact

thoughts. The Romanian speakers or writers, though, have fewer options to express themselves

through synonyms, and therefore must often use Romanian phrases or sentences to obtain the

same precision and detail in their speeches or texts.

Regressive Changes in American English

An important change that can be noticed in the American English, at least in the area in

which I live—Midwest United States—is the collapse of related English synonyms into a single

word that is far from adequate to express all the lexical nuances that the other synonyms could

express. The examples this paper will provide for such a synonym collapse relate to the words

that describe the Earth’s surface. According to MacMillan, there are 23 terms for the materials

that could describe the earth’s surface materials:

1. alluvium: soil containing earth and sand left by rivers or floods

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 17

2. clay: a type of heavy wet soil that becomes hard when it is baked in a kiln (=oven),

used for making cups, plates, and other objects

3. clod: a lump of soil

4. dirt: soil or mud (=soil mixed with water)

5. dust: very small pieces of dry earth or sand that are like powder

6. earth: the substance in which plants grow that covers most of the land

7. grit: very small pieces of stone or sand

8. ground: the layer of soil and rock that forms the Earth’s surface

9. ground: the soil nearest the Earth’s surface in which you can grow plants

10. loam: a type of soil that is especially good for plants to grow in

11. mud: very soft wet earth

12, peat: a type of soil consisting of decaying plants that can also be used as fuel

13. potting compost: the soil that you use when you put a plant in a container

14. quicksand: soft wet sand that is dangerous to walk on because it pulls your body

down into it

15. sand: a loose pale brown substance that you find at a beach or in the desert, formed

from very small pieces of rock

16. silt: sand, dirt, and very small rocks that are carried from one place to another by

moving water

17. sludge: thick soft mud

18. sod: a piece of earth that has grass and roots growing in it

19. soil: the substance on the surface of the Earth in which plants grow

20. subsoil: the layer of soil under the top layer

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 18

21. topsoil: the layer of soil that is near the surface of the ground

22. turf: a piece of earth with the short grass that is growing on it

23. worm cast: a small pile of soil on the ground, produced by a worm digging under the

surface

Out of the above 23 “ synonyms, “clay,” “dirt,” “dust,” “earth,” “ground,” “mud,”

“sand,” “sod,” and “soil” could occur rather often in conversations between people. “Grit,”

“potting compost,” “silt,” “sludge,” “quicksand,” and “turf” might occur also, but much less

often, while the words “alluvium,” “clod,” “peat,” “subsoil,” “topsoil,” and “wormcast” are

included once in a while in specialized technical discussions.

The terms used most often in casual conversations among people are “dirt,” “dust,”

“earth,” “ground,” “mud,” “sand,” “sod,” and “soil,” and here is where the synonym collapse

occurs and can be noticed. Most often, the eight synonyms in the list above are collapsed into the

word “dirt,” used in a nonspecific and seldom adequate or precise manner in order to replace all

the other synonyms. This synonym collapse process in English reduces and also limits the

speakers’ and writers’ options to express themselves in adequate, precise, and even artistic

language statements.

The English Term “Dirt” Misused

The OED defines the English word “dirt” as follows:

2. a.2.a Unclean matter [emphasis added], such as soils any object by adhering to it;

filth [emphasis added]; esp. the wet mud or mire of the ground, consisting of earth and

waste matter [emphasis added] mingled with water.

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 19

The above OED definition indicates that the main sense of the English language term

“dirt” is “unclean matter,” filth,” wet mud or mire,” and a mixture of “earth and wasted matter

mingled with water.” This means that unless “unclean matter” or “filth” is combined with ground

or soil, the use of the English term “dirt” is not appropriate to describe simple “soil,” “ground,”

or “earth.” Still, English language speakers and writers use often “dirt” in order to replace more

appropriate and adequate terms such as “soil,” “ground,” and “earth.”

Ralph Cotton’s western, Blood Rock, contains numerous passages in which the English

term “dirt” is used to substitute more appropriate terms from the list mentioned above. Here are

some examples of such word misuse that results from synonym collapse:

1. When he finished, he patted the rocky dirt [emphasis added] down into place with his

gloved hands and stood beside the fresh mound of earth for a moment until he caught his

breath. The big blue cur stepped forward and touched its nose down to the fresh grave. (p.

3:1)

The paragraph fragment above indicates that the term “dirt” is not the most appropriate

word in the sentence because the context indicates unequivocally that Cotton refers in his

narrative to “ground,” “earth,” or “soil,” and not to “unclean matter” or “filth.”

2. It was past noon when Samuel saw the horses, hoofprints leading down from the hills,

and only a few minutes later he came to the scrapings in the dirt [emphasis added] where

Ellsworth had kicked Daggett from his horse and left him to die. Samuel brought the cart

to a halt, seeing the wide mark of blood-streaked sand where Daggett had crawled away.

(p. 30:5)

This section of Cotton’s ranger and outlaw narrative takes place in the desert, where the

surface of the earth is covered with sand—as it is obvious from the last sentence of this

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 20

paragraph fragment—and yet the writer mentions “scrapings in the dirt.” This “dirt” is in fact

“sand,” and Cotton again misuses and misapplies the term “dirt” when he replaces the true earth

surface matter “sand,” with a term that means “unclean matter” or “filth.”

3. Sheriff Kemp had been coming across the street with his billy bat when he saw the

drunk in the pinstriped trousers raise the pistol and step through the doors. Aw, hell! He

quickened his pace, weaving around a buckboard in the street, dropping the billy bat and

going for the pistol at his hip. “Hold it, mister!” He yelled, but it was too late. A pistol

exploded inside the Little Egypt. As Sheriff Kemp ducked to one side, he saw the man in

the pinstriped trousers fly backward through the swinging doors, and bounce off the

boardwalk; Sherman Ellsworth landed flat on his back in the middle of the packed dirt

[emphasis added] street. Dust swirled. (p. 53:2)

The dramatic events described above occur on the main street of the small western town

Wakely. As many early western towns, Wakely’s streets were not paved, but covered with

ground or earth. During summer times, the ground became dry and turned into dust. This is the

case in the fragment above, and the last sentence in the paragraph, “Dust swirled,” makes the

matter clear. The “dirt” Cotton refers to in this paragraph is in truth “ground” or “earth,” not

“unclean matter “ or “filth.”

4. Polly gasped as she spun around and saw the dog sit down in the dirt [emphasis added]

and watch them, his tongue lolling in the afternoon heat. (p.102:1).

Two characters in Blood Rock, Sherman and Polly, are running away from the town and

the “law” to a cabin situated on the side of a trail in the mountains. The dog follows them there

and watches them, sitting on the mountain trail that is made up, most likely, of earth mixed with

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 21

pebbles of different sizes—the usual earth crust for a mountain trail. Just like in the examples

above, the English term “dirt” is also misused in this instance because there is no “unclean

matter” or “filth” on that trail except for the natural remnants of decaying matter that covers

natural mountain trails.

5. It was dark outside when Cherokee Cousins stepped on the boardwalk in front of the

Little Egypt Saloon. He’d rolled a cigarette, lit it, blew out a stream of smoke, and leaned

back against the front of the building. Inside, the sound of a snappy banjo strummed for

the drinking crowd. He shook out the wooden match, flipped it out into the dirt

[emphasis added] street and watched Blue come out of the darkness into the soft glow of

the saloon light. (p. 112:1)

As in the example (3) above, this part of the Blood Rock’s action occurs on the main

street covered with ground of the small town Wakely. It is clear, therefore, that the “dirt” Cotton

mentions in the narrative is “ground” or earth,” not “unclean matter “ or “filth.”

All the above written samples found in Ralph Cotton’s Blood Rock indicate a distinct

misuse of the English term “dirt” that replaces more precise and specific English language terms

that could be included in the narrative and enrich the novel. Cotton, though, chooses again and

again to use “dirt,” and this seems to indicate an obvious trend in the American spoken and

written English—the collapse of the synonyms and their progressive merging into a single and

often inadequate word that displaces more appropriate and precise terms in speech and text

productions.

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 22

Conclusion

The often repeated claim that “languages change” in themselves is illogical and incorrect

from a grammatical viewpoint, and is an assumption without an empirical basis. As inanimate

objects, languages cannot change on their own will and power. People are those who change

languages, and it is quite troublesome to realize that most people who change the English

language have no expertise in it, that their average language level is less than intermediate, and

that often those who contribute the most to lexical or structural modifications in the English

language are illiterate or semi-literate and therefore “change” the English language not with the

intent to improve it but due to ignorance and ineptitude in language matters.

The corrosion of the English language lexicon through the synonym collapse exemplified

in this paper is not lexical expansion but reduction and contraction, and cannot be considered

language progress, but must be understood as regress, as a constriction imposed on the English

language, and as a constraint and limitation on the English language speakers to express

themselves with precision and elegance in their own language. English Language change in its

multiple aspects could seldom be considered an improvement or progress when left to inexpert

and incompetent individuals, and the evidence indicates that most often the changes introduced

are negative and diminish its power of expression and persuasion.

Synonym Collapse in English: Progress or Regress? 23

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