The Elements of Expression by Arthur Plotnik

Author:Arthur Plotnik
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Viva Editions
Published: 2012-05-09T04:00:00+00:00

MODELS, MUSCULAR AND ATROPHIED

Paradigms go through their own cycles of strength and decline. Most tired-out patterns enjoyed a potent youth, when qualities such as novelty, symbolism, precision, or status gave them muscle. Because they were powerful they were used often, used by everyone, used carelessly—until overuse atrophied every quality that once distinguished them. Even the all-purpose adjective “great,” now a limp intensifier, had muscle in its precise Old English use as “coarse” or “gritty.” Or imagine the first time in history that an annual report concluded: “We are well positioned to meet the future head-on.” This new image would have evoked a heroic phalanx leveraging its might in the interests of shareholders. Now the words bid you to call your broker and sell.

Below are a few (actual) patterns of contemporary expression. Some may be odious to the discriminating ear, yet each represents a model that suits a certain ambition—until the intended audience tires of it and fresher paradigms bump it aside.

Academic:

Ricoeur privileges poetic discourse by marking its referent as speculative, not denotive. However, although their reference is speculative, metaphors function cognitively and constitute meanings. …6

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