I have always been fascinated by the ideas of
Northrop Frye, who is a world renowned scholar from Canada. He expresses many
of his best ideas in the book "the Educated Imagination: Northrop
Frye". One of his ideas is "Mob Speech" which he explained were
the use of cliché terms in which people use to express themselves without the
full apprehension of what is being said. an example of a cliché is; a thing to
keep in mind is that mob speech is very quick to spread-- a type of cliché that
could have been used here is "it spreads like wildfire" but it can
easily be avoided by using a different selection of words
People with a higher education try to avoid
saying things like this because it becomes a habit and when you develop habits
it is hard to stray from them. It is very useful to not use cliches while
trying to teach a class especially the academics course as it makes you seem
like you aren't the more intelligent person in the situation. If you refrain
from using clichés you will be seen as a more intelligent person who has a more
developed vocabulary. Clichés lower your use of language as they are very
addictive, without clichés you will be easily able to express yourself in
different ways
Instead of my previous statement "it spreads
like wildfire" you could say "It spread very quickly" or
"it caught on with an enormous amount of speed". Would you not agree
that both of these are more effective? Both of these statements seem to have
more effect as the cliché term because they reflect your intellect better. The
English language is very easy to manipulate into making yourself appear more
intelligent. In this practise you are more likely to get a job as a teacher, as
well as contain the respect of the classroom as a scholarly individual. I have
had a great deal of teachers who were not able to control a class on the fact
that they were unable to dominate the students on an intellectual basis.
