I’ve reluctantly come to suspect there might be some concrete meaning behind the overblown language first employed by New Labour, and now growing like a rash/an epidemic/laughter/Sudoku across Britain.

Sea change? Step change? What’s wrong with a plain old change, I wondered? But now (possibly beaten into submission) I think there might be a difference. Here’s my guess:

• Step change: an acceleration or other increase in current activity, just as a step may advance one in a given direction. As in “Her report, in March last year, was meant to signal a step change in the number of homes constructed as the government rolled out ambitious plans to build houses for those priced out of the south east market.” Found here.
• Sea change: a 180-degree change in direction, just as the tide may change direction. As in “[Y]esterday the prime minister, the leader of the opposition, the chancellor and the leader of the Liberal Democrats all gave speeches marking their support for various measures on aid, trade and debt. This is a sea change in an election campaign that has often been microscopically insular.” Found here.

Inevitably step changes tend to apply to you, while sea changes are made by others.

Note that these are the only ways change may occur: either more of something is done, or something is reversed entirely. There are no words to express any other kind of change. This says to me a lot about government today.

Tags: change, language, semantics