Actually...
Today's blog actually has a test at the end so please pay attention!
Spoken English actually is quite different from written English. One thing I've actually noticed are these fairly big words that are actually sprinkled into speech. These words actually mean nothing in the context. I.e you can actually remove the word from the sentence, actually repeat the sentence and it will actually mean exactly the same thing.
An actual example of such a word is basically which has actually fallen out of favor of late. E.g. "I basically don't like spinach" versus "I don't like spinach". "Basically" has actually not added any meaning to the sentence. Essentially was actually added to spice up basically -- they both actually mean the same thing in most contexts -- actually, they mean nothing. Actually, I think basically actually means uh or um
Posted by Lloyd Chambers on May 11, 2006 at 05:59 PM PDT #
Actually, I am not sure I entirely agree with your premise. The words "actually", "basically" and "essentially" have real meanings that subtly modify the sentence. If I say "I went to the store", it means what it said, that I went to the store. But if I say "I actually went to the store", there is an implication that this is somewhat surprising. The same applies to "basically" or "essentially", meaning to "cut to the chase" as it were.
I agree that to use them indiscriminately is a problem. Consuming the empty calories of such syntactic sugar can lead to prosaic obesity. But these words are not entirely void of meaning. For instance, I was aware of your sprinkling of the word "actually" long before your first usage of "basically", since it seemed to me to be entirely(?!) inappropriate.
Perhaps that is your point. If others are using the word in speech just as you have used it in your text, then your rant does seem to be on the mark. If so, then perhaps it is a local phenomenon, as I have not noticed this type of usage where I live.
Posted by Brian Utterback on May 12, 2006 at 06:10 AM PDT #
Posted by rgdsf on October 14, 2006 at 06:34 PM PDT #
Posted by fgdg on October 14, 2006 at 06:34 PM PDT #
this is cool, this is what we want dude......
Posted by Tiffany Cuff Links on November 13, 2009 at 06:28 PM PST #