5 JUNE 1993, Page 13

Mind your language

'IT IS a terrific challenge because we are really going into an unknown area, which in itself is going to be a very excit- ing period.' Who could have said that?

Why, a press officer, of course. Indeed it was the press officer of the Prince of Wales, Mr Dickie Arbiter, commenting on his new job working for the Royal Collection Trust.

Note the key words: temfic, challenge, really, exciting. These are not so much hurray words as hurray markers: they are empty of content but are intended to be emphatic, just like Billingsgate expletives.

Apart from the vocabulary, what is to be made of this statement? Not much, I think.

Dot Wordsworth