Thingism is a communicative failure that consists of repeating the term thing in an exaggerated manner instead of appealing to other more specific nouns . This is a style problem that can appear in both written language and oral language.
Thingism is considered a discursive vice (a concept that is also known as a vice of language or discourse ) that reflects a limited lexicon and a difficulty in making use of the nuances and variants that a language offers. Sometimes, the origin of this defect is linked to problems in the person's memory.
Language vices consist of inappropriate uses of certain words, or constructions that are incorrect from a grammatical, syntactic or semantic point of view. All this leads us to the emission of a message that is difficult for the interlocutor to interpret . But these errors are not only found in the form of the words, but also in their sound emission: if diction always fails in the same places, altering certain common points, then communication is affected.
The usual thing is that thingism appears when the individual cannot find concepts to name or designate various elements. Suppose someone enters a hardware store and tells the salesperson: “Good afternoon, I need that thing that fits on top of the other smaller thing in a lock.” As you can see, he uses the word thing twice in the same expression.
Sometimes, the gender of the noun is modified and a thing is referred to: “I can't find the thing used to clean glasses.”
For the interlocutor, understanding what the person who engages in thingism wants can be complicated. If a woman asks , “In which drawer is that thing I always wear?” , the listener probably doesn't know what they're looking for.
There are those who expand the meaning of thingism to include any word that acts as a " catch-all " in everyday speech, that is, one that is used too frequently and outside the limits of its meaning. Some very common examples are the following: case, that, something, matter, question and fact .
Thingism goes beyond the "simple" excessive use of a word, since it is also defined as the distortion or alteration of its properties, such as the type of word to which it belongs . For example, use the word thing as a verb instead of a noun (its true function), as can be seen in the following example: "It is tomorrow that I am going to... thing... about the wedding that I told you about," if in this sentence the sender would like to say that the next day he will "sing."
There are many tips and techniques to avoid thingism, which generally aim to speak more slowly and look for the most appropriate words before starting. Rushing never brings good results in communication, but rather makes it dirty and, in the long term, causes us to waste time because we must explain our message to the interlocutor. Despite this, it is very common for us to stumble when speaking due to impatience or enthusiasm.
In the field of philosophy , on the other hand, thingism is a doctrine that postulates that all existing elements are concrete entities that can be perceived with the senses.
It is important not to confuse this concept with that of objectification , which is defined as the reduction of a person to a thing, to an object, particularly when they are treated as a source of sexual pleasure and their intellect and emotions are overlooked. .