Newswise — One reason terms associated with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have become part of our lexicon is that there was little in our language beforehand to ably describe the event, according to Daniel Schowalter, a communication studies professor at Rowan University.
"The events of that day almost called for a new way of speaking," says Schowalter. "9/11 was such an unprecedented event, we really didn't have any language available to us to talk about it."
Thus, notes Schowalter, over time, terms like "9/11" or "Ground Zero" became part of the national lexicon.
"We can't make sense out of something until we have a name for it, and the words we use for things influence how we make sense out of the world. The 9/11 lexicon illustrates, this, perhaps, better than anything," Schowalter says.
Schowalter notes that other important national events—Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, D-Day--are identified by what happened or by their location. Not so with 9/11, which he stresses, means different things to different people.
"9/11 is ambiguous, but at the same time it points to a specific reference in time," says Schowalter, who says that media use of the terms helped propel their usage. "It's a concise number, just three digits, but it readily denotes something to everyone. That illustrates the open-endedness of 9/11."
The use of the word "Ground Zero," meaning the site of the fallen World Trade Center towers in New York City, also connotes different meanings, notes Schowalter, who discusses the 9/11 lexicon in his rhetoric classes.
"Originally the term had to do with where a bomb went off," says Schowalter. "Now it has become, post-9/11, a master term. It's a rationalization. It's a memorial."
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