Confusion

While I forget the name, bad blogger that I am, I do recall from my wild college days that there is a theory of linguistics (or maybe anthropology - I never claimed to have a good memory) stating that language shapes culture, rather than vice-versa.  This theory didn't turn out to hold a lot of water, but that someone conceived it to begin with demonstrates how central a place language takes in how we relate to the world.  One might say that language is a bridge; without it, the world still exists, and so do we.  We  might even relate to the world, but not as efficiently, quickly, or conveniently.  Of course, the world will still effect us because, let's say, the people on that side of the river all have hover-cars or something.*

Logically speaking, one wants better access to a highly frequented destination. Cities build better and bigger roads and bridges and, in an ideal world at least, fund more safe and efficient public transport.  Language, or at least the English language, grows synonyms, as if bridges grew like mushrooms.**



Language one-ups infrastructure, though, in that words have connotations.  They don't just mean what the dictionary says they mean; they come with all these shades and hues and textures and baggage, the last of which sometimes remains consistent, and other times varies from person to person.  "Glisten," for example, is to me redolent of horrid things that shine under light - sewage and viscera and blood-wet bone and ugh.  My friend Alicia has no problem with it, though.

Thus, as someone who spends most of his time thinking about words, and thus frequently finds himself utterly baffled by the goings-on of normal folk who spend most of their time thinking about what they're actually doing, I was deeply gratified, yesterday, to realize just how many words this language has for the state of confusion, in all its bewildering subtleties.  There are enough for someone as talkative as I am can get through a paragraph without running out!

And there's more!  I got baffled, confused and bewildered, but I could also get mystified, confounded, lost, bemused, flummoxed, stumped, or in a quandary.  This plethora of terms, from the highbrow, such as "mystified," to the colloquial, like "stumped," and the plain, such as "confused," to the connotation-heavy, such as "flummoxed," may itself leave one a bit lost.  On the other hand, if you're easily baffled like me, it's reassuring to know you aren't alone.  Indeed, you're in good company - or at least a lot of it!

*That metaphor went someplace very peculiar, very fast.  My metaphors do that.

**See? Told you so.