Tuesday, August 28, 2018

linguistic meditation: "...all the things!"

While we're on the subject of trends in language, someone needs to explain why some people are now saying "...all the things!" in a slangy way. The expression is used with a humorously wild-eyed tone of voice, often to mock what someone else, an interlocutor, has just said.

Example:

FRED: They really should ban incandescent light bulbs.
TED (in the exaggerated tone of a mad English king): Quickly! Ban all the things!

I'm seeing and hearing this more and more, and as with certain other stupid linguistic trends ("Not!!" "I know, right?" "Amazeballs!" —etc.), I find this increasingly annoying and hope that it eventually—sorry, I mean soon—dies a horrible death.



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6 comments:

  1. CharlesAugust 28, 2018 at 2:18:00 PM GMT+9

    I've given up trying to understand all the things kids are saying these days.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kevin KimAugust 28, 2018 at 3:11:00 PM GMT+9

    Once I stopped working with adolescents, my life became a slow, inexorable slide into cultural irrelevance.

    ReplyDelete
  3. CharlesAugust 28, 2018 at 5:28:00 PM GMT+9

    My slide, while no doubt equally inexorable, has been head-spinningly rapid.

    And I'm OK with that. I'm just waiting for the day I get my government-issued porch and rocking chair.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kevin KimAugust 29, 2018 at 1:26:00 AM GMT+9

      Forgot to say I SAW WHAT YOU DID THERE in that first comment.

      Delete
  4. John MacAugust 29, 2018 at 6:56:00 AM GMT+9

    Yeah, Charles beat me to it. And all the things I might have said!

    ReplyDelete
  5. CharlesAugust 29, 2018 at 9:06:00 AM GMT+9

    Heh. I figured it just went without saying.

    ReplyDelete

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