It's Been Said Before

A very informative and entertaining book for anyone interested in the nature and development of language, making one reflect on the nature and context of clichés. I remember a grid given to me by a friend on which were written number of clichés such as 'level playing field', 'no-brainer' and 'at the end of the day.' The idea was to see if you could complete a line during a business meeting, at which point you would shout out bingo! Nowadays, it is possible to do a more rigorous statistical analysis of clichés in terms of usage. For instance the phrase 'stamp of' is much more of a cliché when followed by the approval than legitimacy. Some proverbs can also become clichés. The first chapters are organised around grammatical concepts such as nouns, adjectives and adverbs, while the later chapters deal with framing devices, modifier fatigue and clichés in tandem.

Each cliché is marked with a score of 1 to 5, with 5 indicating the greatest frequency. Within the chapter, entries are alphabetical with examples and comment. Taking a few at random, we have deafening silence, as elephant in the room, a fish out of water, game changer, a hive of activity, meteoric rise. I suppose the critical element is how carefully such expressions are chosen in a particular context, as they can be exactly the right phrase to convey one's meaning. As one reads through the chapters, one is reminded of the richness of expression available in English and the fact that most people make very little use of this scope. Just browsing through can potentially enhance one's passive stock of phrases so that one can speak a little more colourfully.