American English is suffering from inflation. Many old words are not
good enough or maybe people don't know which form to invoke for the
meaning at hand, as we have seen from the offerings in this thread up
to now. Learning top read and write is out of fashion with as much
audio-video as we have at our fingertips. Writing the scripts
requires far fewer people to spend less time than if we all had to
learn the language.
More insidious is the use of "impact" that which occurs when objects
collide. Because most people have no idea when to use "who" and
"whom" (it is for them for 'who' the bell tolls) and whether this will
have an affect or effect on their lives. The words effect and affect
are no longer found in the media or elsewhere in public use. They
have been replaced by "impact".
In the traffic reports, roads are not blocked, "roadways" are blocked.
We don't have rain but "rainstorms", we don't ride bicycle by pushing
on cranks, we use "crankarms", cars don't crash into the median but do
so into "the center divide." Who comes up with this jargon?
When it comes to metaphors it gets worse. Among these, I recall when
uncle Remus used a carrot dangling from the end of a stick to
encourage his donkey to get underway as he sat on the bench in the
buckboard.
Today, in an automotive world, no one seems to visualize that ploy and
the metaphor that arose from it. Even though it is a logical and
reasonable visualization, the common use today places the carrot in
one hand and a stick in the other, never thinking how that
configuration might induce a draft animal to pull a wagon. Besides,
the image is so crude.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/41/messages/840.html
I guess punishment by beating with a stick is more convincing in
today's mentality than the lure of reward. I really meant "mindset."
Jobst Brandt