Changing language damages the ability to communicate and understand

Changes to the definitions of conceptual words such as ‘awake’ and ‘gaslighting’ are damaging our ability to communicate and understand our experiences, a Leeds academic claims.

In a new paper published in The Philosophical Quarterly, an ethicist from the University of Leeds has coined a term for the harm caused when language switching leaves us speechless.

Language is really important for understanding the world and communicating about it. When they change so quickly, it can feel like they’ve swept the rug from under their feet.

Words like “arousal,” “depression,” “gaslighting” and “emotional labor” have all drifted from their original meanings in recent years and left us without specific words to describe useful concepts, according to the paper.

Dr Robert Morgan – lecturer and consultant at the University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Applied Ethics (IDEA) – calls the phenomenon “hermeneutic disarmament”.

Dr Morgan said: “Language is really important for us to understand and communicate about the world. When they change so quickly, it can feel like they’ve swept the rug from under our feet.

“Language change happens all the time and is mostly harmless. I am concerned about cases where a word describes a very specific phenomenon. When the meaning of that word changes, we have no other way to describe it.”

I woke up

The phrase “stay awake” was used by blues singer Lead Belly in the 1930s as a warning to other African Americans to stay alert when traveling through more dangerous parts of the US. With a specific function to communicate danger in the Jim Crow era, “woke” was an important and useful word

But today, the word has gone through so many changes — from awareness of racial injustice to mainstream progressivism, then as a pejorative term used by right-wing commentators — that people are now “disarmed” by a word originally used for safety, according to the paper.

Gas lighting

“Gaslighting” originally referred to a very specific type of emotional abuse, originating from the 1938 play “Gas Light” by Patrick Hamilton. In the play, a husband tries to convince his wife that the dimming gas lights in their house are a figment of her imagination in a manipulative effort to change her perception of reality.

But now, “gaslighting” is used much more generally to mean “lying” or “deceptive” in political, journalistic and social media discourse, so people experiencing a certain type of abuse may not can identify or understand just as easily.

Emotional labor

“Emotional labor” was coined by sociologist Arlie Hochschild in the 1980s to describe the extra effort service workers, such as waiters, make to manage their emotions to keep customers comfortable.

However, “emotional labor” has since been co-opted on social media to refer to difficult tasks that typically fall more to women than men — such as household chores and managing social relationships.

Dr Morgan said: “Emotional labor has been another useful term, but the worry is that when we start using it in this really broad way to mean lots of different things, now we don’t have a term to refer to that original phenomenon.

“For example, if you’re a barista and you feel exhausted after a day of being expected to smile at every customer, you may be experiencing the fallout of emotional labor in its original sense, but you can no longer express it. colleagues or even identify him.”

The future of hermeneutical disarmament

Dr. Morgan is now asking influential writers and speakers to consider the history of the important terms they use to help slow this phenomenon. He said: “People who are more influential when it comes to language change, such as journalists and social media influencers, should be careful how they use these technical terms.”

He also argues that there are positive cases of this phenomenon, where malicious actors can be “disarmed” by the language they use to spread hate. An example of this is “queer”, which has been a derogatory term towards members of the LGBT+ community in the past. As the word is claimed by the community, it becomes less useful to those who would use it pejoratively.

Additional Information

“Hermeneutical Disarmament” by Dr. Robert Morgan was published in The Philosophy Quarterly on Wednesday, May 22. DOI: 10.1093/pq/pqae046

For media enquiries, please email Mia Saunders at the University of Leeds Press Office at [email protected]