A big part of communication is learning to modulate your language registers. If you speak like a scientic paper is written when talking with your friends, people look strange at you.
Also, sometimes simpler communocation is just more effective communication
While we're at it, is it too much to ask for leniency in some instances of tone? It's not my fault my autistic brain can't hear the way my words come out. I overcompensate in work and in public by going "into character" as someone very cheery and positive - because any less than that inevitably leads to my "tone" overshadowing the content of my speech. My line of work requires my bosses to be knowledgable about autism, and I've even told my manager that my tone does not reflect my emotions.
Yet if ever I get tired, overwhelmed, or simply have several new instructions thrown at me in a short amount of time, I'm left not only grappling with whatever I'm told to do, but my facade slips and I also get a talking to about "my tone." I'm sorry, I do my best to control how I speak, but despite living over 30 years on this planet I still struggle with this "basic" aspect of communication. Holding it against me won't solve anything, but it will contribute to my social anxiety and the sense that I simply don't belong in society.
Tone is nearly always a bullshit argument used to dismiss the content of what's said without addressing it.
Good communicators don't worry about it too much because there are lots of reasons someone can take a certain tone - for example if they're tired or stressed! So they just make sure they understand what the person is conveying without worrying about how it's conveyed.
Someone who focuses much on tone is likely a poor communicator themselves, or frequently just trying to be manipulative.
Balderdash, the specificity employed in this context was superfluous in comparison to the minimum required for conveying his emotional response to the situation.
There's an episode of Northern Exposure where a young woman says to Ed "give me your words" in a very sexual way. It's outrageously funny, and simultaneously insightful.
If you've never watched it, the writers are all about studying people, warts and all. Very thought-provoking.
It's interesting, they used to think that having a big vocabulary or knowing multiple languages delayed having Alzheimer's. It turns out that family often first become aware that a person is developing Alzheimer's because the person starts regularly forgetting common words, but people with big vocabularies can come up with alternatives when they can't remember one, so their family doesn't recognize it as early. When those people are diagnosed, they end up being further along.
I had a political conversation with a right-wing co-worker a while back, and he generally operated in good faith, but he got flustered and tried to do the "why do you use big/pretentious words" scold on me, and he did not handle it well when I responded "I guess home school and Liberty University didn't land you with much of a vocabulary".
As an ESL, I felt that in my bones. One time my boss asked me to get the pail to water the plants and my only exposure to that word had been the wailmer pail from the Pokémon games that I misremembered as a "whalepail". It was awkward trying to explain why I was stumped.
"This is a complex subject with a lot of subtleties. We have to choose the right words to make sure we avoid misunderstandings. Any sufficiently developed topic has a language all its own."
I write a lot of fantasy, and that definitely affects my practical vocabulary. I don't think the specificity is needless though, especially in English, this Frankenstein of cognates and loaner words. You have so many options because the human experience is so diverse and multifaceted. Clarity helps, and it makes language more beautiful, something we should all strive for
It gets worse the more deviations you get away from the mean:
Scientists and other academics who often pride themselves on their rhetoric act in peculiar ways when they're challenged on their assumptions with sources.
Normally, you'd expect the open-minded to be like: "Wow, that's something I hadn't considered! Thanks for expanding my intellectual horizons!"
Instead its: "You completely invalidated my work, you fuckwit! We're going to lose funding!"
I never pontificated like that, but you're utterly correct.
I find it inconceivable that when I stirred from my bedchamber this morning, that I would find myself with an appeal to my senses that would brighten my day.
There was a Basic Instructions comic about exactly this, but unfortunately the only thing I can remember about it is that the protagonist describes someone's hair as "turgid" and "basic instructions turgid hair" isn't getting many relevant results.
Also, is "chariots chariots" related to the rest of the post or am I just oblivious?
Reminds me of my lawyer relative talking about defending a case involving undercover cops and strip clubs. "Turgid" is a legal concept, I guess. Honestly I think that's very stupid.
Apparently it can mean "excessively embellished in style or language," so I guess if you were to describe a legally contested situation in a ... Turgid manner, it could distort any case made based on your testimony? IANAL, so that's just a wild swing at the appropriate application based on one web search.
Preemptive aside: I've seen lots of jokes made, so for anyone not familiar, IANAL is neither sexual nor any kind of innuendo or entendre.
you avail yourself of eloquent parlance for you cannot recall simpler vocabulary
i partake in sophisticated linguistics for it is greatly entertaining
we are not the same
Is been literally decades, so I'm forgetting, but that particular case had some arguments regarding the turgid state of penises. I read a brief from this case, because my relative was like, this is silly, you'll enjoy it