And now for
something completely different.
This edition of Stupid Words does not involve words at all. It does involve language, but not spoken language. It involves waggling two fingers on each hand in what is known as air quotes.
I guess somebody, somewhere, sometime, decided that waggling fingers like that resembles printed quotation marks. It’s a reach.
It’s a mystery to me why and how it caught on, as the gesture serves no real purpose.
Still, some people feel obligated to waggle, thinking that waggling with their fingers adds emphasis to what they are saying with their mouth. It doesn’t. It’s more a distraction, really. For many, an annoyance.
Besides, the human voice is perfectly suited to add emphasis, no fingers required. There’s volume, there’s inflection, there’s pacing, stretching, stress, intonation, cadence, pitch, timbre, tone, even silent pauses. I’m sure there are other ways to emphasize what you’re saying, but waggling your fingers to make air quotes need not (and, to my way of thinking, should not) be among them.
If ever
you are tempted to waggle your fingers when speaking, remember how the late
Chris Farley showed how stupid air quotes are with his character Bennett
Brauer. You can look it up.
Agreed.
ReplyDeleteAnd sprinkling your speech with copious meaningless filler such as "if you will" is a verbal sin, as well. I once heard a brilliant doctor use that phrase multiple times in each of many sentences in a long spoken paragraph. Tiring.
Don't forget starting almost every sentence with "I mean" or "so."
Delete