Wired Mesh

Did you catch the video of the kid who fainted onstage before nailing the spelling of his assigned word?

I missed it. Poor kid. That would so not rule.

...

Any links?

Amazing. He just keels over. Then he gets up, shakes his head, and immediately spells "alopecoid" correctly. He finished second. He's my new hero:

http://www.local6.com/education/3377283/detail.html

Maybe not an exact substitute. Webster's 1st definition is "indigenous," which is, in turn, defined as "having originated in and being produced, growing, living, occurring naturally in a particular region or environment." The difference is in the 2nd definition, which is "formed or originating in the place where found." While you might be able to travel to Europe and find an Indigenous or Native American [why don't we just say "native" instead of "indigenous?"], you would never be able to find an Autochthonous American. You'd have to stay here for that.

Besides, I think that an abundance of subtly shaded synonyms is a good thing. Several years ago, some missionaries to the South Pacific came to our church and displayed a Bible written in one of the local Creoles; a kind of language that, by definition, is kept extremely simple. Since this one was English based, I was able to understand a lot of it. Psalm 18:1 in the KJV is "I will love thee, O LORD, my strength." The same verse in the Creole Bible was "Me likey you, you Big-Fellow, you."

It's not the same thing.

Just when I was carelessly snarking away, Kevin, you come along and say something thoughtful. You're right: too few synonyms can lead to a vague, nebulous language. But I think it's possible for language to cross a different threshhold, after which explicit definitions actually block communication.

Every part of life, every area of study has its own obscure lexicon; a theologian, for example, can be expected to know what "consubstantiation" means, while an anthropologist stands a much better chance of understanding "autochthonous". These terms are safely bandied about by specialists in those fields, but the unfortunate side effect is that the experts gradually lose the ability to explain a concept clearly, without the aid of their jargon. As our society grows increasingly fragmented, I worry that we are putting less emphasis on the importance of communicating a complex concept in terms that any reasonably educated person can understand.

Which brings me to my concern about the spelling bee: I fear that these children, who have spent so much time developing weirdly expansive vocabularies, will begin to think of language as some collection enterprise, like hunting butterflies. I harbor real doubts that any of these kids will ever be able to communicate beatifully, because they've never learned how to use this hypertrophic collection. It's like putting them on vocabulary steriods -- without even training them how to play a sport. Even as I write this, I suspect I'm overstating the case, but I still think obsessing over big words isn't much of an aid to communication.

I'm amused that you used the word "hypertrophic" in stating your case against large vocabularies. Irony intended?

Yup.

What we have here is failure to commuunicate? There may be some children concerning whom this results from an overly extended vocabulary collection, but I suspect that many spelling bee contestants wouldn't have had the ability anyway. Beautiful communication seems to be a lost art regardless of the size of one's vocabulary.

As to obscure lexicons, it doesn't seem so much that the experts thereby lose the ability for clear communication, but that this lexicon provides the excuse or means to not communicate outside of their own circle. The fault is not with the lexicon; in fact, without it, without words that precisely capture the concepts and realities within the discipline, there could be no substantive communication to those outside of the discipline. Teachers need not speak with the lexicon of their peculiar discipline; however, it is imperative that they think with it.

Incidently, with a name change the opening line of your comment might pass for some fairly inspired CCM lyrics. Or not.

As well as failure to spell "communicate."