Language change harms our ability to communicate and understand, researcher argues

Poster for the 1944 film, Gaslight, based on the play by Patrick Hamilton. Credit: Heritage Auctions / HA.com Changes to the definitions of conceptual words like “woke” and gaslighting are harming our ability to communicate and understand our experiences, a Leeds academic argues. In a new paper published in The Philosophical Quarterly journal, an ethicist at the University of Leeds has coined a term for the harm caused when language change leaves us lost for words. Words such as “woke,” “depression,” “gaslighting” and “emotional labor” have all deviated from their Read More