Not All Words Are Created Equal

The Hierarchy of Words

I recently came across a shocking fact. There are 4000 words added to the dictionary every year. That's about 10 per day. That's astounding. And, I might add, pardon the pun, they were probably created by some blogger who couldn't or wouldn't take the time to spell the word correctly...brah!

And here is another shocking announcement. Not all words are created equal. Some are more important than others. Some carry more weight than others. Some can stand alone and others need some support. "Fire!", "Run", and "Stop!" need no explanation or definition. They mean what they say. To fail to comply could mean the difference between life and death.

Other words, such as "Love," "Felt need," and "My reality," are like jello or spaghetti. They need some help. In some cases, a lot of help.

As you know, there are six primary groups of words; Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, and Articles. Among these, there is a hierarchy. There is structure and supremacy.

In the Noun family, proper names and places carry more weight than general nouns. Would you rather be called "some guy," or "some person," or Mr. John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith? If, indeed, that is your name. The point is, being called by your name, is far more meaningful than being called some schmuck. Kapish?

Add to that, some description and suddenly, you are feeling pretty important. The honorable Mr. John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith has recently won his race for the Senate and will be accompanied to Washington D.C. by his lovely and gracious wife, Mrs. Josephene Jingleheimer Smith."

Now you've got sentence structure. Proper names - the Smiths, and Washington D.C., and Senate. Pronouns - his. Adverb - recently. Action verbs - won, will be accompanied. Adjective - lovely and gracious, and last, but not least, the Articles - the, for, and, to.

Notice the order; Nouns, adverbs, verbs, and Adjectives are held together by the humble Articles. Not all sentences are laid out in this order, but you get the picture. We do this without thinking (most of the time), unless you are an author, writer, poet or some wordy, word nerd.

Enough of high school grammar. What's my point? My point is ... before I get to my point, let me back up a tad. In literature, there are two styles of writing. There is prose and there is poetry.

Prose is a rather general literary term used to describe all types of writing. However, prose by definition pertains to a specific quality of writing.

Prose does not follow a structure of rhyming or meter. It follows a grammatical structure using words to compose phrases that are arranged into sentences and paragraphs. It is used to directly communicate concepts, ideas, and stories to a reader. Prose follows an almost naturally verbal flow of writing that is most common among fictional and non-fictional literature such as novels, magazines, and journals.

Four types of prose:

Nonfictional prose

Fictional prose

Prose poetry

Heroic prose

Poetry

Poetry follows a specific rhyme and metric structure. These are often lines and stanzas within a poem. Poetry also utilizes more figurative and often ambiguous language that purposefully leaves room for the readers’ analysis and interpretation.

And then there is the close cousin to Poetry; Lyrics.

The reason I include lyrics in this category is because generally speaking, lyrics follow a rhyme and metric structure with the added element of melody, and what we call in the music industry, Iambic pentameter. Meaning, it is a rhythmic pattern in poetry or lyrics that puts stress on certain words or syllables according to the rhythm of the music. This would include the rhyme scheme.

Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb.

Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

Everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went.

Everywhere that Mary went, her little lamb would surely go.

Obviously, snow and go were the rhyming words with the emphasis being placed on Go.

Notice also the visual structure of this poem/set of lyrics.

And now to my point.

Not all words are created equal. Some carry more weight than others. When displaying them on the big screen in churches across America, they should be laid out in like manner. That is, with the rhyme points at the far right. That way, the readers or singers know there is a direction they are going. They are moving toward the most important word or point in the song. In the case of Mary and her lamb, the point is; that she couldn't even go to the lady’s room without her nosey lamb tagging along. How frustrating is that?

That's it. I got that off my chest and now I can sleep at night. For other more interesting reading, please visit my earlier blogs and subscribe.