MArch 2007
 Hello!
When was the last time you heard a politician use words that rang with truth and meaning? That’s a question in the blurb of Don Watson’s Dictionary of Weasel Words, in which Watson despairs at the platitudes, clichés and meaningless nonsense which have overtaken our beloved English language.
Theodore Roosevelt made use of the term ‘weasel words’ in 1916 when criticising President Wilson. The idea is that weasel words have sucked the meanings out of words just as a weasel sucks the egg and leaves the shell. It’s a clever analogy.
Watson has a swipe at the Prime Minister John Howard, for asking us to recognise a distinction between core and non-core promises. US President George Bush shows himself to be a master weasel, saying that a search of Iraq has found weapons of mass destruction-related program activities. They have both sucked the life and meaning out of the words they use.
They are not on their own, however. If you listen to spokesmen in all sorts of fields being interviewed, they seem unable to use plain English.
In Britain, Chrissie Maher founded the Plain English Campaign in 1979 to fight the good fight for repossession of the language and coined the expression blag language to describe meaningless management speak. Bottom line benefits, core competencies and stretching the envelope are all examples of blag language.
Blag is an old English slang word for a robbery, so blag language means stealing meaning from words. Maher says that pressure from management can easily make people feel they need to use blag language which avoids saying anything specific. But it’s dangerous because decision-makers are not getting the information they need.
Plain English should focus on the message. It should use only as many words as necessary and avoid jargon, unnecessary technical expressions and complex language. In other words, plain English is the opposite of gobbledegook and long-winded, confusing communication.
Have you actualised anything lately? You don’t just do any more – Watson suggests the song lyrics thus:
‘And more, much more than this,
I actualised it my way.’
Happy Actualising!
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