A Call to Awe

Inherent in all human languages is the capacity to evolve and adapt with the needs of their users, and with over one billion L1 and L2 speakers worldwide, English is no exception. Changes can involve sound, spelling, and syntax, but I am interested here in semantic shifts that consist of modulations in the meanings of existing words. These may be triggered by, for instance, psychological or socio-cultural forces, and may take the form of pejoration (connotations become more negative), amelioration (connotations become more positive), broadening (potential uses are expanded), and narrowing (potential uses are restricted).

For those of us who are dedicated to animal welfare and the environment, semantic mutability offers a challenge and an opportunity. To make that case, I call attention to psychologist Steven Pinker’s book The Stuff of Thought, which analyzes how “our words relate to thoughts and to the world around us,” and “what this tells us about ourselves.” For instance, the word “awe” once meant “reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder,” but it is now so overused with “awesome” as to signify almost nothing. In humankind’s relations to nature, I argue that this instance of semantic broadening diminishes us and degrades our relations with the world.

Albert Schweitzer wrote that to revere life is to embrace the sacredness of not just fellow humans but plants and animals too. While I support the “bright green” advocacy of ecologically sustainable new technologies and improved designs, in a digital age whose zeitgeist is irreverence, we are in peril without the capacity for awe. How do we rediscover, as Paul Pearsall defines it, that “overwhelming and bewildering sense of connection with a startling universe”?