By
Obododimma Oha
Old School people like me sometimes get confused when strange new words are spoken by the younger people who are exposed to new ways of life. Computer culture is one of those sources of strange new utterance. Old School people may get puzzled.
Let me go right away to an example of one of those new words one hears out there.
1. He is facebooking.
The expression, "to facebook," is an infinitive verb derived from the name/noun "Facebook." The infinitive was not previously in existence, but we can form infinitives from nouns by adding to them the word "to" in the language. The infinitive thus begins to exist.
But, what is meant by "to facebook"? Is it
2. To check information on Facebook?
3. To post/update on Facebook?
4. To like updates on Facebook?
5. To share updates on Facebook?
6. To comment on Facebook updates?
7. To provide further information on Facebook updates?
8. To use Facebook updates elsewhere?
9. To communicate on Facebook?
Which? That means that "to Facebook" is semantically problematic. It can have just any meaning we give it.
The expression is thus idiosyncratic and is the sort that the character Humpty Dumpty in *Alice in Wonderland*prefers.
The fact that one can form new verbs is being overstretched, it seems! The apparent newness of Facebook and the appearance of being with the trend in global reach seem to propel the use.
If we say, as in (9), that "to facebook" means "to communicate on Facebook", we are not specific. We are vague, for various kinds of communication go on on Facebook: messaging, video shows, photo sharing, discussion, etc. So, (9) is inappropriate!
Facebook updates can be reused. Discussion on Facebook is part of the discussion elsewhere. Other things on Facebook can be reused elsewhere. So, reuse of update, NO!
If it is to provide further information on updates, that has a problem, too. First, is this provision of further information always necessary? Is this provision of further information what Facebook is all about? If that is what is meant, then Facebook is another organ of supplement! And, it's not far from being useless.
Next time, when we hear that you are ''facebooking," we just look on. Do we know what you may be doing there. Maybe you are trying to commit a fraud or spamming! On Facebook! Those are your own "Facebooking." Sharing nonsense on vulnerable walls!
Another word that has succeeded in negotiating its narrow meaning is "Google," used as a verb. Google is a company known well in information technology, an authority. So, the word is very important and is often used as a noun, being a name.
Other forms are:
- googled
- googling
- has/have googled
- will google
"To google" has emerged in usage. Essentially, it has come to mean
10. To search for a word on Google to know what its records say.
Google has a popular search engine, but there are other search engines.
More examples of its use as a verb are:
(11) Google it first.
(12) I googled him but found nothing.
We are to work with the meaning given in (10) above to understand (11) and (12). If "google it" has meant "to search for it with Google engine, " it shows that there is an attempt to simplify language, to derive verbs easily from nouns. Along that line, we should expect strange usages such as
(13) I will Putin you.
(14) Don't Margaret Thatcher me.
(15) Many countries in Africa have been AK-47ed.
Even though providing a search engine on the web is just one of the many things that Google does, using Google as a verb actually helps the company. It makes the company prominent among peers. It is actually language taking our lives over, encoding us and putting us on many lips.
There is something metaphorical and engaging about the expression."To search" is the same as "to google."
One of the great achievements that you a company could record in its advertisement is in language taking over and selling the services of the company.
If "facebooking"and "googling" are very much tentative as new words, the word "browse" seems to have gathered a lot from here and there. First, the noun "browser" was introduced. Then, from "browser" came "browse" as a back derivative. Even the postmodifier, "er" in "browser" gives a wrong impression that we are talking about the person or thing which browses! Note that deception.
The "browser" is just the active web environment that checks up the information for someone. If it is the person or thing at stake, it is merely being imagined.
To browse, therefore, is simply to search for information. A machine helps humans to do it very well. So, a human searches but parts of machines, called browsers, would take over and perform the task.
Strange enough, humans have started using the word "browse" even metaphorically. Having sex is described as browsing the private parts of a partner! That is a humorous search for information! But would the partner get the information?
Being in this strange new world requires being familiar with its language and knowing that some words may wait for us while in the zone of ambiguity, may get reinvented, then stick to some senses.
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