Books: How to Speak and Write Correctly
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Joseph Devlin >> How to Speak and Write Correctly
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Be constantly on the lookout for something that will suit the passing
hour, read the daily papers and probably in some obscure corner you may
find something that will serve you as a foundation for a good article--
something, at least, that will give you a clue.
Be circumspect in your selection of a paper to which to submit your copy.
Know the tone and general import of the paper, its social leanings and
political affiliations, also its religious sentiments, and, in fact, all
the particulars you can regarding it. It would be injudicious for you to
send an article on a prize fight to a religious paper or, _vice versa_,
an account of a church meeting to the editor of a sporting sheet.
If you get your copy back don't be disappointed nor yet disheartened.
Perseverance counts more in the newspaper field than anywhere else, and
only perseverance wins in the long run. You must become resilient; if you
are pressed down, spring up again. No matter how many rebuffs you may
receive, be not discouraged but call fresh energy to your assistance and
make another stand. If the right stuff is in you it is sure to be
discovered; your light will not remain long hidden under a bushel in the
newspaper domain. If you can deliver the goods editors will soon be
begging you instead of your begging them. Those men are constantly on the
lookout for persons who can make good.
Once you get into print the battle is won, for it will be an incentive to
you to persevere and improve yourself at every turn. Go over everything
you write, cut and slash and prune until you get it into as perfect form
as possible. Eliminate every superfluous word and be careful to strike
out all ambiguous expressions and references.
If you are writing for a weekly paper remember it differs from a daily
one. Weeklies want what will not alone interest the man on the street,
but the woman at the fireside; they want out-of-the-way facts, curious
scraps of lore, personal notes of famous or eccentric people, reminiscences
of exciting experiences, interesting gleanings in life's numberless
by-ways, in short, anything that will entertain, amuse, instruct the home
circle. There is always something occurring in your immediate surroundings,
some curious event or thrilling episode that will furnish you with data
for an article. You must know the nature of the weekly to which you
submit your copy the same as you must know the daily. For instance, the
_Christian Herald_, while avowedly a religious weekly, treats such secular
matter as makes the paper appeal to all. On its religious side it is
_non-sectarian_, covering the broad field of Christianity throughout the
world; on its secular side it deals with human events in such an impartial
way that every one, no matter to what class they may belong or to what
creed they may subscribe, can take a living, personal interest.
The monthlies offer another attractive field for the literary aspirant.
Here, again, don't think you must be an university professor to write for a
monthly magazine. Many, indeed most, of the foremost magazine contributors
are men and women who have never passed through a college except by going
in at the front door and emerging from the back one. However, for the most
part, they are individuals of wide experience who know the practical side
of life as distinguished from the theoretical.
The ordinary monthly magazine treats of the leading questions and issues
which are engaging the attention of the world for the moment, great
inventions, great discoveries, whatever is engrossing the popular mind
for the time being, such as flying machines, battleships, sky-scrapers,
the opening of mines, the development of new lands, the political issues,
views of party leaders, character sketches of distinguished personages,
etc. However, before trying your skill for a monthly magazine it would be
well for you to have a good apprenticeship in writing for the daily
press.
Above all things, remember that perseverance is the key that opens the
door of success. Persevere! If you are turned down don't get
disheartened; on the contrary, let the rebuff act as a stimulant to
further effort. Many of the most successful writers of our time have been
turned down again and again. For days and months, and even years, some of
them have hawked their wares from one literary door to another until they
found a purchaser. You may be a great writer in embryo, but you will
never develop into a fetus, not to speak of full maturity, unless you
bring out what is in you. Give yourself a chance to grow and seize upon
everything that will enlarge the scope of your horizon. Keep your eyes
wide open and there is not a moment of the day in which you will not see
something to interest you and in which you may be able to interest
others. Learn, too, how to read Nature's book. There's a lesson in
everything--in the stones, the grass, the trees, the babbling brooks and
the singing birds. Interpret the lesson for yourself, then teach it to
others. Always be in earnest in your writing; go about it in a determined
kind of way, don't be faint-hearted or backward, be brave, be brave, and
evermore be brave.
On the wide, tented field in the battle of life,
With an army of millions before you;
Like a hero of old gird your soul for the strife
And let not the foeman tramp o'er you;
Act, act like a soldier and proudly rush on
The most valiant in Bravery's van,
With keen, flashing sword cut your way to the front
And show to the world you're a _Man_.
If you are of the masculine gender be a man in all things in the highest
and best acceptation of the word. That is the noblest title you can
boast, higher far than that of earl or duke, emperor or king. In the same
way womanhood is the grandest crown the feminine head can wear. When the
world frowns on you and everything seems to go wrong, possess your soul
in patience and hope for the dawn of a brighter day. It will come. The
sun is always shining behind the darkest clouds. When you get your
manuscripts back again and again, don't despair, nor think the editor
cruel and unkind. He, too, has troubles of his own. Keep up your spirits
until you have made the final test and put your talents to a last analysis,
then if you find you cannot get into print be sure that newspaper writing
or literary work is not your _forte_, and turn to something else. If
nothing better presents itself, try shoemaking or digging ditches.
Remember honest labor, no matter how humble, is ever dignified. If you
are a woman throw aside the pen, sit down and darn your brother's, your
father's, or your husband's socks, or put on a calico apron, take soap
and water and scrub the floor. No matter who you are do something useful.
That old sophistry about the world owing you a living has been exploded
long ago. The world does not owe you a living, but you owe it servitude,
and if you do not pay the debt you are not serving the purpose of an
all-wise Providence and filling the place for which you were created. It
is for you to serve the world, to make it better, brighter, higher, holier,
grander, nobler, richer, for your having lived in it. This you can do in
no matter what position fortune has cast you, whether it be that of
street laborer or president. Fight the good fight and gain the victory.
"Above all, to thine own self be true,
And 'twill follow as the night the
day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."
CHAPTER XIII
CHOICE OF WORDS
Small Words--Their Importance--The Anglo-Saxon Element
In another place in this book advice has been given to never use a long
word when a short one will serve the same purpose. This advice is to be
emphasized. Words of "learned length and thundering sound" should be
avoided on all possible occasions. They proclaim shallowness of intellect
and vanity of mind. The great purists, the masters of diction, the
exemplars of style, used short, simple words that all could understand;
words about which there could be no ambiguity as to meaning. It must be
remembered that by our words we teach others; therefore, a very great
responsibility rests upon us in regard to the use of a right language. We
must take care that we think and speak in a way so clear that there may
be no misapprehension or danger of conveying wrong impressions by vague
and misty ideas enunciated in terms which are liable to be misunderstood
by those whom we address. Words give a body or form to our ideas, without
which they are apt to be so foggy that we do not see where they are weak
or false. We must make the endeavor to employ such words as will put the
idea we have in our own mind into the mind of another. This is the
greatest art in the world--to clothe our ideas in words clear and
comprehensive to the intelligence of others. It is the art which the
teacher, the minister, the lawyer, the orator, the business man, must
master if they would command success in their various fields of endeavor.
It is very hard to convey an idea to, and impress it on, another when he
has but a faint conception of the language in which the idea is expressed;
but it is impossible to convey it at all when the words in which it is
clothed are unintelligible to the listener.
If we address an audience of ordinary men and women in the English
language, but use such words as they cannot comprehend, we might as well
speak to them in Coptic or Chinese, for they will derive no benefit from
our address, inasmuch as the ideas we wish to convey are expressed in
words which communicate no intelligent meaning to their minds.
Long words, learned words, words directly derived from other languages
are only understood by those who have had the advantages of an extended
education. All have not had such advantages. The great majority in this
grand and glorious country of ours have to hustle for a living from an
early age. Though education is free, and compulsory also, very many never
get further than the "Three R's." These are the men with whom we have to
deal most in the arena of life, the men with the horny palms and the iron
muscles, the men who build our houses, construct our railroads, drive our
street cars and trains, till our fields, harvest our crops--in a word,
the men who form the foundation of all society, the men on whom the world
depends to make its wheels go round. The language of the colleges and
universities is not for them and they can get along very well without it;
they have no need for it at all in their respective callings. The plain,
simple words of everyday life, to which the common people have been used
around their own firesides from childhood, are the words we must use in
our dealings with them.
Such words are understood by them and understood by the learned as well;
why then not use them universally and all the time? Why make a one-sided
affair of language by using words which only one class of the people, the
so-called learned class, can understand? Would it not be better to use,
on all occasions, language which the both classes can understand? If we
take the trouble to investigate we shall find that the men who exerted
the greatest sway over the masses and the multitude as orators, lawyers,
preachers and in other public capacities, were men who used very simple
language. Daniel Webster was among the greatest orators this country has
produced. He touched the hearts of senates and assemblages, of men and
women with the burning eloquence of his words. He never used a long word
when he could convey the same, or nearly the same, meaning with a short
one. When he made a speech he always told those who put it in form for
the press to strike out every long word. Study his speeches, go over all
he ever said or wrote, and you will find that his language was always
made up of short, clear, strong terms, although at times, for the sake of
sound and oratorical effect, he was compelled to use a rather long word,
but it was always against his inclination to do so, and where was the man
who could paint, with words, as Webster painted! He could picture things
in a way so clear that those who heard him felt that they had seen that
of which he spoke.
Abraham Lincoln was another who stirred the souls of men, yet he was not
an orator, not a scholar; he did not write M.A. or Ph.D. after his name,
or any other college degree, for he had none. He graduated from the
University of Hard Knocks, and he never forgot this severe _Alma Mater_
when he became President of the United States. He was just as plain, I
just as humble, as in the days when he split rails or plied a boat on the
Sangamon. He did not use big words, but he used the words of the people,
and in such a way as to make them beautiful. His Gettysburg address is an
English classic, one of the great masterpieces of the language.
From the mere fact that a word is short it does not follow that it is
always clear, but it is true that nearly all clear words are short, and
that most of the long words, especially those which we get from other
languages, are misunderstood to a great extent by the ordinary rank and
file of the people. Indeed, it is to be doubted if some of the "scholars"
using them, fully understand their import on occasions. A great many such
words admit of several interpretations. A word has to be in use a great
deal before people get thoroughly familiar with its meaning. Long words,
not alone obscure thought and make the ideas hazy, but at times they tend
to mix up things in such a way that positively harmful results follow
from their use.
For instance, crime can be so covered with the folds of long words as to
give it a different appearance. Even the hideousness of sin can be cloaked
with such words until its outlines look like a thing of beauty. When a bank
cashier makes off with a hundred thousand dollars we politely term his
crime _defalcation_ instead of plain _theft_, and instead of calling
himself a _thief_ we grandiosely allude to him as a _defaulter_. When we
see a wealthy man staggering along a fashionable thoroughfare under the
influence of alcohol, waving his arms in the air and shouting boisterously,
we smile and say, poor gentleman, he is somewhat _exhilarated_; or at worst
we say, he is slightly _inebriated_; but when we see a poor man who has
fallen from grace by putting an "enemy into his mouth to steal away his
brain" we express our indignation in the simple language of the words:
"Look at the wretch; he is dead drunk."
When we find a person in downright lying we cover the falsehood with the
finely-spun cloak of the word _prevarication_. Shakespeare says, "a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet," and by a similar sequence, a
lie, no matter by what name you may call it, is always a lie and should
be condemned; then why not simply call it a lie? Mean what you say and
say what you mean; call a spade a spade, it is the best term you can
apply to the implement.
When you try to use short words and shun long ones in a little while you
will find that you can do so with ease. A farmer was showing a horse to a
city-bred gentleman. The animal was led into a paddock in which an old
sow-pig was rooting. "What a fine quadruped!" exclaimed the city man.
"Which of the two do you mean, the pig or the horse?" queried the farmer,
"for, in my opinion, both of them are fine quadrupeds."
Of course the visitor meant the horse, so it would have been much better
had he called the animal by its simple; ordinary name--, there would have
been no room for ambiguity in his remark. He profited, however, by the
incident, and never called a horse a quadruped again.
Most of the small words, the simple words, the beautiful words which
express so much within small bounds belong to the pure Anglo-Saxon element
of our language. This element has given names to the heavenly bodies, the
sun, moon and stars; to three out of the four elements, earth, fire and
water; three out of the four seasons, spring, summer and winter. Its simple
words are applied to all the natural divisions of time, except one, as day,
night, morning, evening, twilight, noon, mid-day, midnight, sunrise and
sunset. The names of light, heat, cold, frost, rain, snow, hail, sleet,
thunder, lightning, as well as almost all those objects which form the
component parts of the beautiful, as expressed in external scenery, such as
sea and land, hill and dale, wood and stream, etc., are Anglo-Saxon. To
this same language we are indebted for those words which express the
earliest and dearest connections, and the strongest and most powerful
feelings of Nature, and which, as a consequence, are interwoven with the
fondest and most hallowed associations. Of such words are father, mother,
husband, wife, brother, sister, son, daughter, child, home, kindred,
friend, hearth, roof and fireside.
The chief emotions of which we are susceptible are expressed in the same
language--love, hope, fear, sorrow, shame, and also the outward signs by
which these emotions are indicated, as tear, smile, laugh, blush, weep,
sigh, groan. Nearly all our national proverbs are Anglo-Saxon. Almost all
the terms and phrases by which we most energetically express anger,
contempt and indignation are of the same origin.
What are known as the Smart Set and so-called polite society, are
relegating a great many of our old Anglo-Saxon words into the shade,
faithful friends who served their ancestors well. These self-appointed
arbiters of diction regard some of the Anglo-Saxon words as too coarse, too
plebeian for their aesthetic tastes and refined ears, so they are
eliminating them from their vocabulary and replacing them with mongrels of
foreign birth and hybrids of unknown origin. For the ordinary people,
however, the man in the street or in the field, the woman in the kitchen or
in the factory, they are still tried and true and, like old friends, should
be cherished and preferred to all strangers, no matter from what source the
latter may spring.
CHAPTER XIV
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Beginning--Different Sources--The Present
The English language is the tongue now current in England and her colonies
throughout the world and also throughout the greater part of the United
States of America. It sprang from the German tongue spoken by the Teutons,
who came over to Britain after the conquest of that country by the Romans.
These Teutons comprised Angles, Saxons, Jutes and several other tribes
from the northern part of Germany. They spoke different dialects, but
these became blended in the new country, and the composite tongue came to
be known as the Anglo-Saxon which has been the main basis for the language
as at present constituted and is still the prevailing element. Therefore
those who are trying to do away with some of the purely Anglo-Saxon
words, on the ground that they are not refined enough to express their
aesthetic ideas, are undermining main props which are necessary for the
support of some important parts in the edifice of the language.
The Anglo-Saxon element supplies the essential parts of speech, the
article, pronoun of all kinds, the preposition, the auxiliary verbs, the
conjunctions, and the little particles which bind words into sentences and
form the joints, sinews and ligaments of the language. It furnishes the
most indispensable words of the vocabulary. (See Chap. XIII.) Nowhere is
the beauty of Anglo-Saxon better illustrated than in the Lord's Prayer.
Fifty-four words are pure Saxon and the remaining ones could easily be
replaced by Saxon words. The gospel of St. John is another illustration of
the almost exclusive use of Anglo-Saxon words. Shakespeare, at his best, is
Anglo-Saxon. Here is a quotation from the _Merchant of Venice_, and of the
fifty-five words fifty-two are Anglo-Saxon, the remaining three French:
All that glitters is not gold--
Often have you heard that told;
Many a man his life hath sold,
But my outside to behold.
Guilded _tombs_ do worms infold.
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in _judgment_ old,
Your answer had not been inscrolled--
Fare you well, your _suit_ is cold.
The lines put into the mouth of Hamlet's father in fierce intenseness,
second only to Dante's inscription on the gate of hell, have one hundred
and eight Anglo-Saxon and but fifteen Latin words.
The second constituent element of present English is Latin which comprises
those words derived directly from the old Roman and those which came
indirectly through the French. The former were introduced by the Roman
Christians, who came to England at the close of the sixth century under
Augustine, and relate chiefly to ecclesiastical affairs, such as saint from
_sanctus_, religion from _religio_, chalice from _calix_, mass from
_missa_, etc. Some of them had origin in Greek, as priest from _presbyter_,
which in turn was a direct derivative from the Greek _presbuteros_, also
deacon from the Greek _diakonos_.
The largest class of Latin words are those which came through the
Norman-French, or Romance. The Normans had adopted, with the Christian
religion, the language, laws and arts of the Romanized Gauls and Romanized
Franks, and after a residence of more than a century in France they
successfully invaded England in 1066 under William the Conqueror and a new
era began. The French Latinisms can be distinguished by the spelling. Thus
Saviour comes from the Latin _Salvator_ through the French _Sauveur_;
judgment from the Latin _judiclum_ through the French _jugement_; people,
from the Latin _populus_, through the French _peuple_, etc.
For a long time the Saxon and Norman tongues refused to coalesce and were
like two distinct currents flowing in different directions. Norman was
spoken by the lords and barons in their feudal castles, in parliament and
in the courts of justice. Saxon by the people in their rural homes, fields
and workshops. For more than three hundred years the streams flowed apart,
but finally they blended, taking in the Celtic and Danish elements, and as
a result came the present English language with its simple system of
grammatical inflection and its rich vocabulary.
The father of English prose is generally regarded as Wycliffe, who
translated the Bible in 1380, while the paternal laurels in the secular
poetical field are twined around the brows of Chaucer.
Besides the Germanic and Romanic, which constitute the greater part of
the English language, many other tongues have furnished their quota. Of
these the Celtic is perhaps the oldest. The Britons at Caesar's invasion,
were a part of the Celtic family. The Celtic idiom is still spoken in two
dialects, the Welsh in Wales, and the Gaelic in Ireland and the Highlands
of Scotland. The Celtic words in English, are comparatively few; cart,
dock, wire, rail, rug, cradle, babe, grown, griddle, lad, lass, are some
in most common use.
The Danish element dates from the piratical invasions of the ninth and
tenth centuries. It includes anger, awe, baffle, bang, bark, bawl,
blunder, boulder, box, club, crash, dairy, dazzle, fellow, gable, gain,
ill, jam, kidnap, kill, kidney, kneel, limber, litter, log, lull, lump,
mast, mistake, nag, nasty, niggard, horse, plough, rug, rump, sale,
scald, shriek, skin, skull, sledge, sleigh, tackle, tangle, tipple,
trust, viking, window, wing, etc.
From the Hebrew we have a large number of proper names from Adam and Eve
down to John and Mary and such words as Messiah, rabbi, hallelujah,
cherub, seraph, hosanna, manna, satan, Sabbath, etc.
Many technical terms and names of branches of learning come from the Greek.
In fact, nearly all the terms of learning and art, from the alphabet to the
highest peaks of metaphysics and theology, come directly from the Greek--
philosophy, logic, anthropology, psychology, aesthetics, grammar,
rhetoric, history, philology, mathematics, arithmetic, astronomy, anatomy,
geography, stenography, physiology, architecture, and hundreds more in
similar domains; the subdivisions and ramifications of theology as
exegesis, hermeneutics, apologetics, polemics, dogmatics, ethics,
homiletics, etc., are all Greek.
The Dutch have given us some modern sea terms, as sloop, schooner, yacht
and also a number of others as boom, bush, boor, brandy, duck, reef,
skate, wagon. The Dutch of Manhattan island gave us boss, the name for
employer or overseer, also cold slaa (cut cabbage and vinegar), and a
number of geographical terms.
Many of our most pleasing euphonic words, especially in the realm of
music, have been given to us directly from the Italian. Of these are
piano, violin, orchestra, canto, allegro, piazza, gazette, umbrella,
gondola, bandit, etc.
Spanish has furnished us with alligator, alpaca, bigot, cannibal, cargo,
filibuster, freebooter, guano, hurricane, mosquito, negro, stampede,
potato, tobacco, tomato, tariff, etc.
From Arabic we have several mathematical, astronomical, medical and
chemical terms as alcohol, alcove, alembic, algebra, alkali, almanac,
assassin, azure, cipher, elixir, harem, hegira, sofa, talisman, zenith
and zero.
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