Our Modern Way of Speaking Comes With Extra Dressing

As time passes by, it can seem as if people are ever more emphatic in how they communicate. What was once a single exclamation point now has to be (at least) two. Instead of just saying, “It was insane,” someone will say, “It was actually insane,” or, to the dismay of many, “It was literally insane.”

Why can’t we just tamp it down and relax? The reason is that human conversation is not only about making statements, but about making statements worth your interlocutor’s attention. Our purpose is less to simply say, “This,” than it is to say, “Here, think about this.”

But as with anything designed to make a noise, so to speak, the effect wears off after time, like an old joke or a song you get tired of. This means that language is always drawing new things into the churn to keep........

© The New York Times