Chapter 16…Linguistic Repertoire

Your linguistic repertoire is the sheer number of words you know in the language you speak. Because I speak and write in American English, my brain’s database of words centers around that language.

So why is linguistic repertoire important? The short answer is variety. A variety of words helps ensure your readers won’t get annoyed by repetition. So, in this chapter, we’ll just cover the basics: building your linguistic repertoire, practice, reining in your thesaurus, and universal pronoun use.

16a: Building Your Linguistic Repertoire:

There are many, many ways to increase your word base. We’ll cover some of them here.

16a1: Online:

You can learn a lot just from your daily activities online and by looking up words. There are countless online dictionaries you can access, and because you’re online, you’ll encounter groups of people who consistently use particular words over and over again.

Here are some examples of uncommon words that haven’t seen a lot of use but have suddenly become popular because of media that inspired younger people to circulate the terms:

pretentious (guaranteed you’re familiar with this one), garner, bastion, psychotic, collusion, obfuscate, adamant, eldritch, arcane, surreptitious, preeminent, salutations.

These are just a few resurfaced words floating around out there, and the list above doesn’t even scratch the surface. Remember, if you see or hear a new word, just look it up. It takes no time, and you’ll expand your word base.

16a2: Old School:

Use an actual dictionary, the kind that has pages you can touch and turn. Modern English dictionaries contain over 170,000 words, so you can learn a new one every day just by flipping through the pages.

16a3: Reading:

Durr. Read a book, dummy. There are plenty of eloquent writers out there, and the odds are way in my favor that you already have a favorite author. You can learn new words these authors may have used in passing.

16a4: Movies and Other Media:

Watching TV, movies, theater, or the news will grow your language base. Some critics will say this is a lazy way to learn anything, but if a new word crops up while you’re watching, look it up!

16a5: Playing Games:

There are tons of word games out there, but even modern video games unrelated to word games have huge word bases. You can play some of these and look out for unusual terms.

16b: Practice:

Now write something! Use your new words in a paragraph so that the paragraph makes sense in context with your new word or words. Put what you’ve learned into play.

A good way to start is to keep a small notebook. When you learn a new word, write it down. When you have time, put that word into practice by writing a sentence or small paragraph using the word in question.

Here are a couple of examples of using this technique:

New word: Myriad.
Definition: Myriad means “countless” or “innumerable.”
Usage: There were myriad types of people gathered here, a throng made up of every ethnicity and nationality he could think of.

She stared up at the myriad stars set within the night sky.

New word: Innocuous.
Definition: Innocuous means “harmless” or “inoffensive.”
Usage: His use of language was innocuous, though outdated.

Sam did not know why such a small child was here at the lodge, but the boy was an innocuous feature in an otherwise dull gathering.

Finally, if you just want to get down to the nitty-gritty and start writing your fiction, then do it. You’ll find places to use your new linguistic mastery.

16c: Rein in Your Thesaurus:

Cool your jets on slaughtering the page with all kinds of new words. It’s very tempting to use a thesaurus to find synonyms and antonyms for everything, and there’s nothing wrong with doing this. It’s encouraged, actually. Just don’t overdo it! Using a thesaurus to emulate “smart speech” will only make you look like a faker or poser. You should only use rare words for artistic purposes.

I’m sure we’re all familiar with that person online who simply wants to hear themselves speak, and worse yet, they have a thesaurus on hand:

“Well, the invariable metamorphoses of the main character in this film resonate with the corporate rendition of the nuclear family popularized by the quaint illusion of solidarity that was the 1950s. Of course, this rendition is a cognizant means to an end, a brittle curtain of macroeconomics swept into a nicely consolidated bag, a bag that represents the burlap excess of modern America.”

“Umm…I speak English, bro. Did we even watch the same movie?”

More than likely, these people suffer from low self-esteem, unchecked narcissism, or an inability to stop showing off. Regardless of their reasoning behind this, you’re not them. Avoid bombing your writing with thesaurus “smart speak.” Be judicious and artful when you add uncommon words.

16d: Universal Pronoun Use:

It’s good practice to use the neutral pronouns “they,” “them,” or “their” when referring to everyone. I’m sure some old-school grammarians out there will tell you this is not proper English, but they don’t write genre fiction, and they don’t have readers who may get offended by using “he” or “she” to represent everyone.

In the old days, the pronoun “he” was often used as a gender-neutral term to refer to everyone:

Whilst the common person reaches to improve his station, he is usually denied by those who already possess such improvement.

In the example above, the pronoun “he” is inappropriate because not all people are male, and we recognize this…however…

Let’s see this sentence again in reverse:

Whilst the common person reaches to improve her station, she is usually denied by those who already possess such improvement.

This new example is just as bad as the old one. Not all people are female, so the sentence doesn’t make sense.

Now let’s go with the gender-neutral version:

Whilst the common person reaches to improve their station, they are usually denied by those who already possess such improvement.

Much better. This is the proper way to indicate that you’re referring to everyone. Remember, your readers remember what you write, and they will definitely remember if you write something that sounds sexist toward them.

16e: In Closing:

You can build your linguistic repertoire all you want, but honestly, you should only use words you’re comfortable using. Learning new words is great, but don’t force them into your writing. If you use new words judiciously, you’ll become more comfortable with them over time, and they’ll eventually become a permanent part of your word base.

The image for Chapter 16 of TQ&EGtWGF was generated by artificial intelligence courtesy of OpenAI.