This is a phrase I hear so often in my life. It could be my
father, in relation to some chore akin to the room tidying of yesteryear,
bellowing “just get it done” along the hall. It could be my internal monologue
telling me to stop procrastinating and get on with a tricky chapter.
But the other day I heard a comment from my boss to rival them
all. His tirade began (not directed at me I hasten to add) along the lines of
our colleagues’ work not being mystical or in any way difficult blah blah and
ended like “I don’t understand why it has to be so difficult, just get it
done!”
Hearing it from his mouth in a professional environment gave
me a little epiphany about how versatile our language is and how with just a
few changes of resonance, tone, volume and circumstance we can give few words a
multitude of meanings scaling from playful to downright angered.
This is a concept I’m taking into my novel writing. One of
my characters already has a phrase he likes to use frequently and now I may
just use the phrase to give it a twist on the meaning during some difficult
event in his story. Ease of adaptation for expression is possibly the biggest
strength of our language.
Elloise Hopkins.
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