Marchen said:
Generally I don't see a need to speak or write in such a manner. I suppose if you are trying to impress...but even then it just comes off as pretentious.
Granted, generally, there isn't a need to use sophisticated language, but then again, there isn't usually a need to use "language" at all. Pointing and grunting will accomplish more than people give it credit for. Unfortunately, it isn't always very pleasant, and it's rarely beautiful.
English has far more words than any other language, living or dead, but its speakers know so few of them, that we might as well not have more than a few. Why have language at all if you refuse to do more than grunt and point. This is becoming a rant, so I know that I should stop, but I love my language and I want to be as proud of those who speak it as I am of the language itself. Most native English speakers only speak English. We express ourselves with a fraction of just one language, while the rest of the world speaks their own languages and English as well.
EDIT: Yes, I understand that the quiz I posted the link to is not a very good measure of a person's general, working vocabulary, as most of the terms there are highly specialized, but the absurd difficulty of it made it more interesting, I thought, than, say
Reader's Digest's "Word Power." Moreover, I thought that I would link to it as it is what got me thinking on the subject and prompted me to start this thread in the first place.