Watching George Carlin talk about hard and soft language was extremely entertaining and also thought incisive. Soft language seems to be used only to make awful things sound less awful. His example of the term shell-shock changing to battle fatigue, and then that to operational exhaustion, then that to posttraumatic stress disorder, wonderfully showed the use of soft language hiding the true meaning of something behind long jargon filled terms.
When trying to think how soft language has an affect on me, the first thing that pops to mind is my language at work.
I'm not sure if it is a professional side in me or what, but while I am at work and talking to customers, it seems as if I am constantly forced to make up "soft language" versions of everything I say.
I can't say,"Well the plant couldn't get your dirt out, if you'd like I can have them try again." Instead I am forced to basically extend everything by multiple syllables and throw in jargon, in hopes that the customer will not ask me for specifics about the cleaning process.
I become a robot and speak,"Well it looks like there are some remaining spots, some residual stains come out after a second processing, so if you'd like I can send it back for no charge and a plant manager will apply an ammonia based stain remover."
The soft language being the transformation from dirt to spot, from spot then to residual stain in the same sentence. Honestly, as the one controlling the language, the situations become a lot more manageable/less stressful. It can leave the customer in a fog of information that basically forces them to trust the opinion of the speaker.
The sort language around us now seems to be strongly concerned with the changing of the words that have to do with death. The press changes deaths to casualties, which seems a little insulting, they change dying to passing, and a kill count is now a "body count".
They really take the life out of everything. Making it seems as if one man killing another is a natural, casual thing.
