"Language without bones" is a phraseological unit. Meaning and usage examples

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

When they say about a person “Yes, he has a tongue without bones”, this means that he loves to talk, and his speeches are empty and meaningless. But in fact, this is not always the case, sometimes someone not only loves, but also knows how to keep the conversation going. Let's analyze the history and examples of the use of phraseological units.

Origin

From a modern point of view, it is strange that an undoubted medical fact (lack of bones in the language) is treated as an insult. Everything is explained simply. Before people were not as educated as they are today, it was believed that only the bones experience fatigue in a person, they ache, they feel bad and hurt, they need rest. And if a person has a tongue without bones, then he does not need rest. It is capable of working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Use

Indeed, the expression is mostly negative. That is, one who does not have bones in his tongue, himself does not keep up with the speed of his body, therefore he says countless stupid things that offend people. But we must understand that this is not happening because the "orator" wants tooffend someone, but because he simply cannot follow the flow of words. Why harbor a grudge, because he has a boneless tongue, what can you take from him.

But sometimes someone who characterizes another person in this way does not mean anything bad, except that he loves to talk and, perhaps, does it masterfully. Although the dictionary is harsh, and it gives only one meaning of this phraseological unit. But that's why it is a dictionary, to fix the language norm, and we are talking about a living language practice in which the concept of "norm" is shifting. In other words, a boneless tongue is not always a bad thing. But let's analyze why talkativeness did not please people.

Why is talkativeness and lack of intelligence firmly linked in the popular mind?

It must be remembered that most phraseological units are the result of folk art, and the main consumer of set expressions is most often the mythical "simple person". After all, speech turns honed by time are not only well-aimed expressions, but reservoirs of folk wisdom and philosophy. If the object and subject of creativity is a simple man (most phraseological units arose at a time when a woman did not play a significant role in social life), then the expressions have an appropriate ideal. Even now it is believed that a real man is, first of all, an embodied action, he does not waste time talking, and spiritual sensitivity is “for girls” (if the reader smiled at this point, it means that he also thought about it).

There is no point in developing this idea, and it is so clear that the abilitytalking and talkativeness in the public mind differs slightly and is at the mercy of those women who are not too smart. For some reason, it is believed that a smart person will not waste words.

The question of why the expression "a tongue without bones", the meaning of which we have analyzed, has such a meaning, does not have a final answer, so we invite the reader to think about it at their leisure.