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Why Do Some People Use Other Words or Phrases?

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whhistle

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So I came across this on another area of the forum:

Poor comms when the proverbial hits the fan
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So I understand what the person is trying to say, albeit in nicer language (or missing out a swear word), but I don't understand why someone would automatically use this, instead of saying:

Poor comms when it all goes wrong
Click to expand...

I am sure there are loads more examples but I struggle to see why some people deicde to use something that seems a little harder to understand, than just plain language?
 
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pdq

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Or even, 'poor communication'... if the idea is to use plain language
 
AlterEgo

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Because language is an art form and more than just saying things in the most basic way possible. Else we’d all be using morse code.
 
Harbornite

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Who cares? people are different, they don't use the exact same phrases for everything. Besides, it's not as if the sh*t hitting the fan expression is obscure and neither are its derivatives.

What a strange thread.
 
Xenophon PCDGS

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Harbornite said:
Who cares? people are different, they don't use the exact same phrases for everything. Besides, it's not as if the sh*t hitting the fan expression is obscure and neither are its derivatives.

What a strange thread.
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Why would "sh*t" be anywhere near the location of a fan? Then, we come to the question of what the word "fan" refers to.
 
Xenophon PCDGS

Xenophon PCDGS

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whhistle said:
I am sure there are loads more examples but I struggle to see why some people decide to use something that seems a little harder to understand, than just plain language?
Click to expand...

I will hold my hand up to having been accused of arcane word expressionism on this website in the past but I have explained more than once that in the period after my stroke in 2012, that affliction affected how I express myself verbally and in print.....:(
 
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Should any of you guys be in quest of things seeming "a little harder to understand, than just plain language" -- I can only say, you should have belonged to the Ffestiniog Railway Society in the general 1960s -- 1980s ballpark, when the Society's quarterly magazine was under the editorship of Dan Wilson and Norman Gurley. Those two were very talented wordsmiths -- I'd go so far as to say, prose-poets -- with a liking for putting things, a great deal of the time, in wordily elaborate terms: a spade for them was, most often, a manual earth-restructuring appliance, only they'd think of a witty and original version of that. The readership's reactions varied, concerning Wilson and Gurley's verbal antics -- from reader to reader, and not altogether rarely, with a variety of sentiments at different times, within the same reader. Reactions ran the whole gamut between "this is a real treat -- these two literary geniuses deserve to be doing their stuff in London, with an impassioned horde of fans, and lauded by the literary critics: not messing around on a daft journal for fans of an obscure railway"; and "why in heaven's name can't they just tell -- plainly, concisely, and understandably -- about what's going on?"

That pair -- love them or hate them -- certainly produced by far the most lively and entertaining preservation-society house journal, which I have ever encountered.
 
Busaholic

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Paul Sidorczuk said:
Why would "sh*t" be anywhere near the location of a fan? Then, we come to the question of what the word "fan" refers to.
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It's usually in a creek, and inevitably when you've forgotten a paddle. I find a fan not much use as an alternative.
 
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AlterEgo said:
Because language is an art form and more than just saying things in the most basic way possible. Else we’d all be using morse code.
Click to expand...

- .... .- - / .-- --- ..- .-.. -.. / -.-. . .-. - .- .. -. .-.. -.-- / -... . / .. -. - . .-. . ... - .. -. --.
 
61653 HTAFC

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Paul Sidorczuk said:
Why would "sh*t" be anywhere near the location of a fan? Then, we come to the question of what the word "fan" refers to.
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Unsurprisingly, the word fan refers to a rotary air-cooling contraption. The expression, though perhaps over-used on these pages, is a beautifully poetic device for thing that were bad before but have now rapidly deteriorated. The prior proximity of said biological waste is not relevant- we all can imagine that however bad a situation may be, if said sh*t were to be projected at said contraption, the end result would not improve the situation at hand.

Or we could ban use of all metaphors, similies and idioms, but the place would become very dull very quickly!
 
Howardh

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Is sign language (for the deaf) universal, or does each language have it's own signs? I would have thought "I want a cup of coffee" would be the same in all languages, but what do I know?!! Anyone??
 
bramling

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whhistle said:
So I came across this on another area of the forum:



So I understand what the person is trying to say, albeit in nicer language (or missing out a swear word), but I don't understand why someone would automatically use this, instead of saying:



I am sure there are loads more examples but I struggle to see why some people deicde to use something that seems a little harder to understand, than just plain language?
Click to expand...

Because language evolves and there is a word or phrase to suit every eventuality. “**** hitting the fan” implies a more dramatic level of failure than just “it all went wrong”.
 
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Dai Corner

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**** hitting the fan brings to my mind the material being flung far and wide at great speed and in random directions; as likely to hit those only peripherally involved or not involved at all as those close to the event.
 
E_Reeves

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Dai Corner said:
**** hitting the fan brings to my mind the material being flung far and wide at great speed and in random directions; as likely to hit those only peripherally involved or not involved at all as those close to the event.
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It also brings to mind a funny scene in the film "Airplane" :lol:
 
EM2

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Howardh said:
Is sign language (for the deaf) universal, or does each language have it's own signs? I would have thought "I want a cup of coffee" would be the same in all languages, but what do I know?!! Anyone??
Click to expand...
British Sign Language and American Sign Language certainly have differences.
 
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