LANGUAGE VICES: TYPES, EXAMPLES AND EXERCISES - LITERATURE - 2025

The vices of the language are the mistakes that certain people commit in the linguistic codes, oral or written, established by the community of speakers of any language. These failures hinder the transmission of ideas and therefore do not allow the communicative act to take place. An example of a language defect is "I knew something like this would happen."

Language vices are nothing new, they have always been present. In the ancient world, with the continuous invasions that arose, it was common for them to increase when foreign words appeared introduced by foreigners in their passage. Today we see its rise again due to the influence of social networks.

From the beginning of the conception of human languages, in its different variants, there have been those who deviate from the norms and do not comply with the proper use of language. Faults can be made in speaking or writing. These errors in the correct use of speech are known as language vices.

All human languages ​​have been the product of the agreement of the masses that make up the different populations. These germinated by the prevailing need of individuals to transmit the ideas they had. The vices of language appeared to break the schemes and bring communicative confusion.

Types of vices

Among the vices we encounter on a daily basis, the 10 most common will be shown below:

Barbarism

The barbarisms come to be the bad use in the writing or the pronunciation of the words that make up a language.

The origin of this linguistic vice is interesting, since the term “barbarian”, from which the main concept derives, comes from the Latin bar-bar, which means: “the one who babbles”.

The word bar-bar was used during the Visigoth invasions to designate the enemies, who were quickly identified for not speaking Latin well. With the Castilianization of the bar-bar voice, it became "barbarous".

Neologisms

They are words used by a large number of speakers of a language, but they are not formally registered in dictionaries.

It is common for these words to appear in subgroups (small communities or "subcultures"), being invented by the people who make them up.

The appearance of neologisms responds to the need of individuals to designate a name to a behavior or object, which is not found in a conventional way in the native language. They also appear as parallels, that is, they are words that come to fulfill the same linguistic role as another already existing one.

Many of the neologisms remain in the subcultures that engender them, but others transcend the general community, coming to sneak into traditional speech in such a way that they are later accepted by the RAE.

Archaism

This occurs when words are used in their old way to complete sentences, being more suitable useful words to express themselves in the moment.

A very common case in Romance languages ​​(those derived from Latin) is the inclusion of Latinisms at the time of expressing themselves, having perfect Spanish words that can be used.

Another typical case is to use linguistic forms that, although they are valid, have already fallen into disuse.

Foreignness

This is the typical case in which the speaker of a language refers to terms belonging to other languages ​​to communicate.

Normally this happens when a person, a native speaker of a language, wants to sound "interesting" to a group when expressing himself.

It usually happens in these cases that what begins as an "intellectual" strategy, ends up being a linguistic stumbling block by hindering understanding in communication.

Pleonasm

Pleonasm refers to the unnecessary use of words in a sentence, words that are presumed to exist in the text by mere logic that they are, causing redundancy.

Solecism

This vice of language is manifested in the inaccuracy at the time of expressing itself. Who suffers from solecism lacks syntax and logic when speaking or writing.

It is common to see it present in lower social strata, where there is no equal access to education. Solecism is one of the vices that most stumbles in the act of communication.

Vulgarism

It is considered as the incorrect use of phrases or words by people who lack culture. It usually occurs in the deformation of the terms used, when subtracting or adding letters to them.

Decheism

It is considered as the inappropriate use of the preposition "of" before the conjunction "that". It is one of the most widespread flaws in the language in Latin America.

Fillets

This particular vice refers to the words that certain people use repeatedly when trying to communicate. They usually manifest when you do not have command of speech or in moments of nervousness.

Cacophony

This vice occurs when a person when expressing himself repeats a syllable or vowel continuously, making it uncomfortable for those who hear it.

Apart from the annoyance caused by the continuous repetition of sounds, this vice tends to make it difficult to understand what is meant.

Examples of language vices

Barbarism

- "Didn't you hear what I told you?" for “Didn't you hear what I told you?

(The second person of the past singular does not have "s" at the end, never)

- "What thu?" for “what was it?

- "All excellent" for "all excellent".

Neologisms

- Chanfles (which causes astonishment).

- Bitcoin (virtual currency).

- Bloguer (subject who has a blog).

Archaisms

- You (instead of you) knew that everything would be fine.

- The curriculum (instead of curriculum) vitae is perfect.

- I illuminated it (by illuminated) very well.

Foreigners

- "What's up?" By "what happened?"

- "All right", for "everything is fine."

- "Take that" for "take that."

Pleonasms

- "The invisible wind" for "the wind".

- "Come out" for "get out of there."

- “Go up here up” for “go up here”.

Solecisms

- "What time is it tomorrow?" for "what time is it?"

- "This should not be so, he said to himself" by "this should not be so, he said to himself."

- "He said to know about his children" by "he said to know about his children."

Vulgarisms

- "What a gonito" for "how beautiful".

- "Insteresante" for "interesting".

- "Of course" by "of course".

Decheism

- "He said he would go" for "he said he would go."

- “It was speculated that it would be like this” because of “it was speculated that it would be like this”.

Fillets

- "The house was beautiful, which I had" for "the house was beautiful, I had."

- "His name was Juan, whose meaning" by "his name was Juan, it meant".

- "And he walked and ran and jumped" for "He walked, ran and jumped".

Cacophonies

- That lens is green.

- Tomorrow he will love Ana until he is fed up.

- He heard another bear alone.

Language vices exercises

Next we are going to expose a series of language vices. Can you answer what type it belongs to?

- How is my vocabulary? Laudable.

Reply

This question has an answer used with an archaism, since words more appropriate to the present time like 'extensive' or 'meritorious' could have been used.

- I don't think there is anyone in the hairdresser at that time.

Reply

This is barbaric, since he has used 'haiga' instead of 'haya' (from the verb to find).

Reply

It is an excessive use of foreign words.

- She doesn't want love, she's amorphous.

Reply

It is a neologism. The singer Bad Bunny titled one of his songs as "amorphous" which, in the words of the Puerto Rican composer, comes to mean "fucked up love."

- I already fried the fish this morning.

Reply

It is a barbarism, since it really is written 'I have fried the fish'..

- I think you are wrong

Reply

It is a dequeism.

- Myarma, give your mother a hug from me.

Reply

In Andalusia, Spain it is common to use 'myarma' as a graphic reflection of the pronunciation 'my soul'. So it is a neologism.

- Rock group needs singer to sing

Reply

Classified ads like this are redundant, therefore it is a pleonasm.

- Normally I ask Juan when I have doubts about insurance, as he advises me for free.

Reply

The incorrect use of prepositions is a clear example of solecism. It is not correct to say 'normal' or 'free', when it should be used 'normally' or simply 'free'.

Final conclusions and recommendations

It must be understood that the vices of language represent a poverty in the knowledge of languages. It has been proven that intelligence is associated with the number of words that are handled in the language that is spoken. The more words you have in your lexicon, the smarter you are.

It is therefore important to invest time daily in learning new terms, enriching our bank of synonyms and antonyms.

By getting used to these behaviors we will be able to reduce the appearance of vices and we will greatly increase our intelligence and the so important communication capacity.

References

1. The vices of language. (10/13/2006). (n / a): Abc.color. Recovered from www.abc.com.py
2. Language vices. (S. f.). (n / a): Oak. Recovered from Roble.pntic.mec.es
3. Language Vices. (2018). (n / a): Retoricas.com. Recovered from

   rhetoricas.com

4. Language vices. (S. f.). (n / a): CCH academic portal. Recovered from: portalacademico.cch.unam.mx