[ExI] Language Changing Before Our Very Eyes

[Lee Corbin]

Taken from a sentence in an on-line course I am being forced
to undergo:  "The structure is comprised of the following...."

Not so many years ago, that sentence would have read "composed"
instead of "comprised". (I actually think that the above is incorrect,
and that the official and correct use of "comprise" is, for example,
to say that X, Y, and Z comprise W.)  But I also have a sense---
a vague one, to be sure---that the above writer was striving for
precision, and that he may have felt that "compose" was too loose.
And indeed, this use of "comprise" may by now carry a more specific 
meaning to some of his readers.


Another case:  overheard, now, on a radio show instead of merely
at a boring video-conference meeting:  "My husband and I have
issues."  I say that even five (5!) years ago, that would have been
"My husband and I have problems".  Isn't it true that "issues" has
very recently become a euphemism for "problems"?   Moreover,
is it true that this use of "issues" has decended from bureaucratic
techno-speak?   Seems that way to me.

Of the two, each is worse than the other. The first is worse
because it's a blatant misuse of a word, while the second is
worse because it's yet another example of the mindless march
of euphemism (e.g. crippled -> handicapped -> physically
challenged).

Lee

P.S.  Was anyone who read the above jolted at all by my 
insensitive male-chauvinist use of the generic "he" and "his"
in the second paragraph?  No?  Well, would you have 
noticed if I had written "she" and "her"?   I conjecture that
even those under age 30 still notice when the really more
specific "she" and "her" are used, despite all the efforts of
the politically correct over the last twenty-five years.