Imprecise Language

Imprecise language use drives me nuts. To give an example:

In a particular computer game, a certain thing happens 5% of the time. This 5% is a hardcoded game mechanic. That’s the way the program is written, and it can be tested by watching 100 situations and you see it happen 5 times — 5%.

But in a conversation I was reading, a person said, “It happens all the time to me.” I’m not even going to point out that “all the time” means “all the time” — 100%. I’m not so pedantic to expect absolute precision in conversation. But come on, 5% is hardly “all the time.” For someone who doesn’t know the 5% fact, the “all the time” comment is very misleading, and can lead to future misunderstanding.

“Accidents at that intersection are very common.” — There’ve been three in the past five years.

“That’s a problem all over the city.” — There’ve been six reports in a population of 100,000.

“We’ve been waiting a very long time.” — It’s been 5 minutes.

“It’s a total wreck!” — It’ll cost $2,000 to fix the $35,000 car.

And expanding on that last item, car mechanics are exceptionally frustrating to me:

“Your breaks are busted.” — The breaks are showing wear and will need replacing within the next six months for safety.

“Your tires are bald.” — The front two tires have noticeable wear on the outside (only) edge.

Errr. I understand the concept of hyperbole for effect, and I don’t have a problem when both the speaker/writer and the listener/reader know hyperbole is in use. It’s the lazy and sloppy use of imprecise language the irks me. Language is for communication, but when used sloppily (accidentally or intentionally) it just miscommunicates.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com