Sprachgefühl part 2

 

I mentioned  Sprachgefühl earlier, a helpful word to describe your feeling for language. I have a very good Sprachgefühl (as a manager once told me) and it can be very satisfying, but it can also be a bit painful too. 

Not to the same extent as a lad half way along the Autistic spectrum, whose sister used to taunt him by using idioms like the one above because she knew that he would always hear the literal painful meaning before he heard the metaphorical one. Kids can be cruel. 

But I feel his pain, and I know that sensitivity to language (which I admit is not the same as sensitivity to emotions) can often be distracting. You think about how someone has said something when you should be attending to what they have said. But sometimes you know exactly what gets you. 

The announcement when a delayed train arrives often uses a  phrase including something like "we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused...". It is the 'any' that is the problem here. If they had said instead "the obvious and very clear drawbacks of arriving one hour late into Liverpool Street" that would have been a sincere, full and honest apology. But by leaving the 'any' in there, they have left open the possibility that there is this subset of passengers - who you may consider joining if you are more reasonable - who don't mind arriving and hour late. Positively enjoy it if they think about it. So you are left with a tiny lack in the apology, which may be deliberate (I feel it is) or may be just a writer with a cloth ear. 

There are other small pains which are quite unreasonable and I know this. I loathe the word 'veggies' but many people use it and feel no pain. I can't even tell you exactly why I loathe it but I am sure I am not the only one. My brother of course, will not use any other term. Cruel, these kids.... But I would struggle to tell you why I hate it. I ask for fellow haters to comment if they will. I think it is because it sounds 'nursery language' in an objectionable 'Yes, I actually have a nanny' kind of way. Or maybe it minimizes the glory of 'vegetables' by using a diminutive. 

I don't know, but Sprachgefühl doesn't care. It will just go its own way, and I wouldn't have it any other way.