The Art of Speaking and Writing an English Language

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To train our instinct for words is the first great object of our study.
CHAPTER I. 76
Notes on Franklin. (See "How Franklin Learned to Write" in preceding chapter.)
1. "The female sex" includes animals as well as human beings, and in modern times we say simply "women,"
though when Franklin wrote "the female sex" was considered an elegant phrase.
2. Note that "their" refers to the collective noun "sex."
3. If we confine the possessive case to persons we would not say "for dispute's sake," and indeed "for the sake
of dispute" is just as good, if not better, in other respects.
4. "Ready plenty" is antique usage for "ready abundance." Which is the stronger?
5. "Reasons" in the phrase "strength of his reasons" is a simple and forcible substitute for "arguments."
6. "Copied fair" shows an idiomatic use of an adjective form which perhaps can be justified, but the
combination has given way in these days to "made a fair copy of."
7. Observe that Franklin uses "pointing" for punctuation, and "printing-house" for printing-office.
8. The old idiom "endeavor at improvement" has been changed to endeavor to improve, or endeavor to make
improvement.
9. Note how the use of the word sentiment has changed. We would be more likely to say ideas in a connection
like this.
10. For "laid them by," say laid them away.
11. For "laid me under . . . . . . necessity" we might say compelled me, or made it necessary that I should.
12. "Amended" is not so common now as corrected.
13. For "evading" (attendance at public worship) we should now say avoiding. We "evade" more subtle things
than attendance at church.
There are many other slight differences in the use of words which the student will observe. It would be an
excellent exercise to write out, not only this passage, but a number of others from the Autobiography, in the
most perfect of simple modern English.
We may also take a modern writer like Kipling and translate his style into simple, yet attractive and good
prose; and the same process may be applied to any of the selections in this book, simply trying to find
equivalent and if possible equally good words to express the same ideas, or slight variations of the same ideas.
Robinson Crusoe, Bacon's Essays, and Pilgrim's Progress are excellent books to translate into modern prose.
The chief thing is to do the work slowly and thoughtfully.
CHAPTER II. 77
CHAPTER II.
FIGURES OF SPEECH.
It is not an easy thing to pass from the logical precision of grammar to the vague suggestiveness of words that
call up whole troops of ideas not contained in the simple idea for which a word stands. Specific idioms are
themselves at variance with grammar and logic, and the grammarians are forever fighting them; but when we
go into the vague realm of poetic style, the logical mind is lost at once. And yet it is more important to use
words pregnant with meaning than to be strictly grammatical. We must reduce grammar to an instinct that will
guard us against being contradictory or crude in our construction of sentences, and then we shall make that
instinct harmonize with all the other instincts which a successful writer must have. When grammar is treated
(as we have tried to treat it) as "logical instinct," then there can be no conflict with other instincts.
The suggestiveness of words finds its specific embodiment in the so called "figures of speech." We must
examine them a little, because when we come to such an expression as "The kettle boils" after a few lessons in
tracing logical connections, we are likely to say without hesitation that we have found an error, an absurdity.
On its face it is an absurdity to say "The kettle boils" when we mean "The water in the kettle boils." But
reflection will show us that we have merely condensed our words a little. Many idioms are curious
condensations, and many figures of speech may be explained as natural and easy condensations. We have
already seen such a condensation in "more complete" for "more nearly complete."
The following definitions and illustrations are for reference. We do not need to know the names of any of
these figures in order to use them, and it is altogether probable that learning to name and analyse them will to
some extent make us too self-conscious to use them at all. At the same time, they will help us to explain
things that otherwise might puzzle us in our study.
1. Simile. The simplest figure of speech is the simile. It is nothing more or less than a direct comparison by
the use of such words as like and as.
Examples: Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. How often would I have gathered my children together, as
a hen doth gather her broodunder her wings! The Kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed, is like
leaven hidden in three measures of meal. Their lives glide on like rivers that water the woodland. Mercy
droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.
2. Metaphor. A metaphor is an implied or assumed comparison. The words like and as are no longer used, but
the construction of the sentence is such that the comparison is taken for granted and the thing to which
comparison is made is treated as if it were the thing itself.
Examples: The valiant taste of death but once. Stop my house's ears. His strong mind reeled under the blow.
The compressed passions of a century exploded in the French Revolution. It was written at a white heat. He
can scarcely keep the wolf from the door. Strike while the iron is hot. Murray's eloquence never blazed into
sudden flashes, but its clear, placid, and mellow splendor was never overclouded.
The metaphor is the commonest figure of speech. Our language is a sort of burying-ground of faded
metaphors. Look up in the dictionary the etymology of such words as obvious, ruminating, insuperable,
dainty, ponder, etc., and you will see that they got their present meanings through metaphors which have now
so faded that we no longer recognize them.
Sometimes we get into trouble by introducing two comparisons in the same sentence or paragraph, one of
which contradicts the other. Thus should we say "Pilot us through the wilderness of life" we would introduce
two figures of speech, that of a ship being piloted and that of a caravan in a wilderness being guided, which
would contradict each other. This is called a "mixed metaphor."
CHAPTER II. 78 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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