Friday, March 20, 2020

Free Essays on The Truth About Lying

The Truth About Lying It is seen as one of the worse acts committed; it’s so bad that the bible speaks several times against it. However, it is something that each and every one of us does almost uncontrollably. I’m talking about lying and liars, or people who lie have a bad name in this society. But let’s be honest here, lying is a normal human aspect of life. In this society the overall moral and realistic view is that truthfulness is of virtue. But if one would try to imagine a world without lying, realistically thinking, it would be a world full of hurt and disappointment . Whoever said that honesty is the best policy, is lying. First of all, lying is natural. It is not something that is learned, rather something that we as humans do biologically. Lying is something that is a part of us from birth. A good example is young children and the tall tales that they often tell. Children are not taught how to tell tall tales, it is simply something that is a part of them by nature. In saying that, I believe it is also important to mention that fact that most of these tall tales in which children tell are often very harmless and do no damage to anyone. Knowing this, it a wonder how people see lying as something so abnormal and wrong when it is something that the average human being does on a regular basis. Studies show that the average human being lies 200 times per day. Even though a great amount of these are considered to be â€Å"little white lies†, if you consider 200 lies per day, 365 days per year, times 6 billion people in this world, you do the math. How is it possible to say that all of these lies are wrong and then go on to say that honesty would have been the policy or the better idea? Wouldn’t one consider the reasoning behind all of those lies and then further conclude that it is not safe to say that all of these lies are wrong? What needs to happen first, is the realization that not all lyin... Free Essays on The Truth About Lying Free Essays on The Truth About Lying The Truth About Lying It is seen as one of the worse acts committed; it’s so bad that the bible speaks several times against it. However, it is something that each and every one of us does almost uncontrollably. I’m talking about lying and liars, or people who lie have a bad name in this society. But let’s be honest here, lying is a normal human aspect of life. In this society the overall moral and realistic view is that truthfulness is of virtue. But if one would try to imagine a world without lying, realistically thinking, it would be a world full of hurt and disappointment . Whoever said that honesty is the best policy, is lying. First of all, lying is natural. It is not something that is learned, rather something that we as humans do biologically. Lying is something that is a part of us from birth. A good example is young children and the tall tales that they often tell. Children are not taught how to tell tall tales, it is simply something that is a part of them by nature. In saying that, I believe it is also important to mention that fact that most of these tall tales in which children tell are often very harmless and do no damage to anyone. Knowing this, it a wonder how people see lying as something so abnormal and wrong when it is something that the average human being does on a regular basis. Studies show that the average human being lies 200 times per day. Even though a great amount of these are considered to be â€Å"little white lies†, if you consider 200 lies per day, 365 days per year, times 6 billion people in this world, you do the math. How is it possible to say that all of these lies are wrong and then go on to say that honesty would have been the policy or the better idea? Wouldn’t one consider the reasoning behind all of those lies and then further conclude that it is not safe to say that all of these lies are wrong? What needs to happen first, is the realization that not all lyin...

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Theres a Word for That

Theres a Word for That There’s a Word for That There’s a Word for That By Mark Nichol Why is that despite the fact that the English language has hundreds of thousands of words, we have no single-word term for many emotions and other concepts that are specifically represented in other languages and that would be beneficial for everyday use? For example, English has no word equivalent to gianxi, a Chinese term akin to but not the same as goodwill. (It refers to the social stock one accumulates by doing favors and bestowing gifts.) Nor is there any succinct translation of forelsket, the Norwegian word for the ecstasy of love in its early stages. (A concise definition is â€Å"the state of being enamored,† but even if enamoration were a word and why isn’t it? it doesn’t incorporate the context. Infatuation comes close but is not quite equivalent.) My conclusion, after a bit of research, is that English speakers just aren’t trying hard enough. It’s true that the parent language of English, Anglo-Saxon, lets us down in matching single words to concepts, but English is very receptive to new vocabulary. (One comment attributed to a dictionary, though I couldn’t identify the specific source, is that â€Å"English acquires new words with the delicacy of a vacuum cleaner.†) It is this adaptability that we must, for the most part, rely on. (I write â€Å"for the most part† because formation of new words is effortless: See enamoration above.) All we have to do is â€Å"borrow† from other languages. (I enclose borrow in raised eyebrows of irony because steal would be more accurate; we don’t give the words back.) Turn to any page of a dictionary, and you’ll find at least one word acquired from a foreign language: Souvenir, from French. Contort, from Latin. Gymnast, from Greek. More recent acquisitions abound as well: Honcho, from Japanese. Cafeteria, from Spanish. Trek, from Afrikaans. But our loanword word-hoard is woefully incomplete. From German, we have schadenfreude, referring to the enjoyment of other’s misfortunes. But why hasn’t English appropriated pena ajena, an expression from Mexican Spanish that denotes embarrassment about another person’s humiliation? That would certainly come in handy. The answer to my thesis question is this: There’s a word for almost everything, but it isn’t necessarily in the English lexicon yet. English is constantly enriched by the accumulation and integration of vocabulary from other languages, but the only reason you wouldn’t say to me, expecting others to understand, â€Å"You’re such a pochemuchka† that Russian word means â€Å"a person who asks too many questions† is because we haven’t (yet) decided that the word’s useful enough to assimilate. Start introducing more foreign words into your writing, and you’ll build gianxi with me. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Punctuating â€Å"So† at the Beginning of a SentenceHow to Pronounce Mobile10 Types of Hyphenation Errors