Summary Of Democracy In America By Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat, traveled to the United States in 1831 to study the American democratic system (“Democracy in America”). While in America, Tocqueville developed a perceptive interest in the sentiments and mechanisms behind American practices, which he documented in his two-part book Democracy in America. One particular observance Tocqueville chronicled was American literature and language. A quote from Tocqueville in Democracy in America that consolidates his research into American language states, “Little by little enlightenment spreads; one sees the taste for literature and the arts awaken…. and literature becomes an arsenal open to all, from which the weak and the poor came each day to seek arms” (4-5). Because

Regarding the motion of the English language, Tocqueville states, “Democratic nations, moreover, like movement for itself. This is seen in language as well as in politics. Even when they do not have the need to change words, they sometimes feel the desire to do it” (453). In analyzing current American English, one can see that a need really does not exist to create words or give old words new meaning, yet words like “hype” develop new meanings. The word “hype” formally meant to “intensify,” but now it is used in everyday speech to mean “excited.” Even though the word “excited” was sufficient enough to cover the subject, younger Americans sought to transform the word anyway. Tocqueville also notes that Americans “sometimes placed together words that in the language of the mother country were customarily kept separate” (453). One cannot deny that the English language often combines words for convenience and efficiency of speech. This phenomenon especially exists in “text speak” with words such as “chillax” and “brunch.” The word “chillax” combines the separate words “chill” and “relax,” and the word “brunch” fuses the distinct words “breakfast” and “lunch.” The notion of making words more efficient developed from America’s taste for industry. Tocqueville remarks, “the heart of democracy tends, on the contrary, to renew constantly the face of language like that of business” (453). Americans are preoccupied with industry, so their language serves as a reflection of their habits and even provides a means of promoting business. Though the English language seems to be increasingly adding words and phrases to the dictionary, some words and concepts are actually falling into disuse. On this subject, Tocqueville writes, “The language will constantly stretch in that direction [towards industry], whereas on the contrary it will abandon little by little