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it should not be placed between the capital clauses, nor so as to harg loosely, but should be distinctly determined to its connexion by the posi tion which it occupies.

The following sentence, composed of several simple sentences, is badly arranged. The parts in Italic show what the 'circumstance' is which is thrown into the midst of the sentence.

The minister who grows less by his elevation, like a statue placed on a mighty pedestal, will always have his jealousy strong about him.'

In this sentence, a beautiful simile, by its improper location, is not only deprived of its effect, but is an encumbrance. Let a slight alteration of the arrangement be made, and the simile is restored to its beauty, and becomes highly ornamental. Thus:

The minister, who, like a statue placed on a mighty pedestal, grows less by his elevation, will always have his jealousy strong about him.

Rule 3d. Every sentence should present to the mind a distinct picture, or single group of ideas. For this reason, the scene and the circumstances expressed within the compass of a sentence must not be unnecessarily changed.

In the formation of compound sentences, therefore, from simple ones, whatever cannot be grouped so as to form an harmonious picture, should be presented in a separate sentence. The following sentence shows very clearly the bad effects of a change from person to person

"The Brittons left to shift for themselves, and daily harassed by cruel inroads from the Picts, were forced to call in the Saxons for their defence, who consequently reduced the great part of the island to their power, drove the Britons into the most remote and mountainous parts, and the rest of the country, in customs, religion and language, became wholly Saxon.' This complicated sentence, by means of some slight alterations, and a division into several sentences, will appear clear and accurate; thus,

The Britons, left to shift for themselves, and daily harassed by the cruel inroads of the Picts, were forced to call in the Saxons for their defence. But these (the Saxons) soon reduced the greatest part of the island under their own power, and drove the Britons to the most remote and mountainous parts. The consequence was, that the rest of the country became inhabited by a people in language, manners and religion wholly Saxon.

Rule 4th. The too frequent repetition of the same pronouns referring to different antecedents should be avoided.

The reason for this rule is, that such words being substitutes, can be used with advantage only when that to which the pronoun refers is quite obvious. The following sentence exemplifies this remark:

'One may have an air which proceeds from a just sufficiency and knowledge of the matter before him, which may naturally produce some motions of his head and body, which might become the bench better than the bar.' In this sentence the pronoun which' is used three times; and each time with a different antecedent. The first time that it is used its antecedent is air, the second time it is sufficiency and knowledge, and the third, motions of the head and body. The confusion thus introduced into the sentence may be avoided by employing this for the second which, and such as for the third: thus,

"One may have an air which proceeds from a just sufficiency of knowedge of the matter before him, and this may naturally produce some motions of the head, such as might become the bench better than the bar. Rule 5th. All redundant words and clauses should be avoided.

The reason for this rule is, that whatever does not add to the meaning of a sentence must be useless if not hurtful.*

In conclusion, it may be remarked in the words of Archbishop Whately, It is a useful admonition to young writers, that they should always at tempt to recast a sentence that does not please; altering the arrangement and entire structure of it, instead of merely seeking to change one word for another. This will give a great advantage in point of copiousness also; for there may be, suppose a substantive (or noun) which, either be cause it does not fully express our meaning, or for some other reason, we wish to remove, but can find no other to supply its place. But the object may perhaps be easily accomplished by means of a verb, adverb, or other part of speech, the substitution of which implies an alteration in the construction. It is an exercise, accordingly, which may be commended as highly conducive to the improvement of style, to practise casting a sen tence into a variety of different forms.

XIX.

OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.†

The English Language consists of about thirty-eight thousand words. This includes, of course, not only radical words, but all derivatives; except the preterits and participles of verbs; to which must be added some few terms, which, though set down in the dictionaries, are either obsolete or have never ceased to be considered foreign. Of these, about twentythree thousand, or nearly five-eighths, are of Anglo-Saxon origin. The majority of the rest, in what proportion we cannot say, are Latin and Greek; Latin, however, has the larger share. The names of the greater part of the objects of sense, in other words, the terms which occur most frequently in discourse, or which recall the most vivid conceptions, are Anglo-Saxon. Thus, for example, the names of the most striking ob jects in visible nature, of the chief agencies at work there, and of the changes which we pass over it, are Anglo-Saxon. This language 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 sea sons, spring, summer, and winter; and, indeed, to all the natural divisions of time, except one; as, day, night, morning, evening, twilight, noon, mid-day, midnight, sunrise, sunset; some of which are amongst the most poetical terms we have. To the same language we are indebted for 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 in external scenery, as sea and land, hill and dale, wood and stream, &c. It is from this language we derive the words which are expressive of the earliest and dearest connexions, and the strongest and most nowerful feelings of nature; and which are, consequently, invested with

*See page 71, where the term Redundancy is separately considered. †The account here given is from the "Edinburgh Review," of October 1539. See, also, pages 34 to 40, on the subject of Derivation.

our ordest and most complicated associations. It is this language which has given us names for father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, son, daughter, child, home, kindred, friends. It is this which has furnished us with the greater part of those metonymies, and other figurative expressions, by which we represent to the imagination, and that in a single word, the reciprocal duties and enjoyments of hospitality, friendship, or love. Such are hearth, roof, fireside. The chief emotions, too, of which we are susceptible, are expressed in the same language, as love, hope, fear, sorrow, shame; and, what is of more consequence to the orator and the poet, as well as in common life, the outward signs by which emotion is indicated are almost all Anglo-Saxon; such are tear, smile, blush, to laugh, to weep, to sigh, to groan. Most of those objects, about which the practical reason of man is employed in common life, receive their names from the Anglo-Saxon. It is the language, for the most part, of business; of the counting-house, the shop, the market, the street, the farm; and, however miserable the man who is fond of philosophy or abstract science might be, if he had no other vocabulary but this, we must recollect that language was made not for the few, but the many, and that portion of it which enables the bulk of a nation to express their wants and transact their affairs, must be considered of at least as much importance to gen eral happiness, as that which serves the purpose of philosophical science. Nearly all our national proverbs, in which it is truly said, so much of the practical wisdom of a nation resides, and which constitute the manual and vade mecum of "hobnailed" philosophy, are almost wholly AngloSaxon. A very large proportion (and that always the strongest) of the language of invective, humor, satire, colloquial pleasantry, is Anglo Saxon. Almost all the terms and phrases by which we most energeti cally express anger, contempt, and indignation, are of Anglo-Saxon origin. The Latin contributes most largely to the language of polite life, as well as to that of polite literature. Again, it is often necessary to convey ideas, which, though not truly and properly offensive in them selves, would, if clothed in the rough Saxon, appear so to the sensitive modesty of a highly refined state of society; dressed in Latin, these very same ideas shall seem decent enough. There is a large number of words, which, from the frequency with which they are used, and from their being so constantly in the mouths of the vulgar, would not be endured in polished society, though more privileged synonymes of Latin origin, or some classical circumlocution, expressing exactly the same thing, shall pass unquestioned.

There may be nothing dishonest, nothing really vulgar about the old Saxon word, yet it would be thought as uncouth in a drawing-room, as the ploughman to whose rude use it is abandoned. † Thus, the word

* One of the most distinguished orators and writers of the present age is remarkable for the Saxon force and purity of his language. He seldom uses an Anglicized Latin word, when a pure English expression is at hand. This will account, in some degree, for the strength of his language and the vehemence of his style. The reader scarcely needs to be informed, that reference is here made to the late Secretary of State, Hon. Daniel Webster.

To what is here said of the Saxon, may be added a short extract from Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe, in a dialogue between the jester and the wineherd. (Vol. I. p. 25. S. H. Parker's edition.)

stench" is lavendered over into unpleasant effluvia, or an ill odor, sweat," diluted into four times the number of syllables, becomes a very offensive thing in the shape of " perspiration."* To "squint" is softened into obliquity of vision; to be "drunk" is vulgar; but, if a man be simply intoxicated or inebriated, it is comparatively venial. Indeed, we may say of the classical names of vices, what Burke more questionably said of vices themselves, "that they lose half their deformity by losing all their grossness." In the same manner, we all know that it is very possible for a medical man to put to us questions under the seemly disguise of scientific phraseology and polite circumlocution, which, if expressed in the bare and rude vernacular, would almost be as nauseous as his draughts and pills. Lastly; there are many thoughts which gain immensely by mere novelty and variety of expression. This the judicious poet, who knows that the connexion between thoughts and words is as intimate as that between body and spirit, well understands. There are thoughts in themselves trite and common-place, when expressed in the hackneyed terms of common life, which, if adorned by some graceful or felicitous novelty of expression, shall assume an unwonted air of dignity and ele gance. What was trivial, becomes striking; and what was plebeian, noble.

*See Euphemism.

XX.

PERIPHRASE, PERIPHRASIS, OR CIRCUMLOCUTION, EU

PHEMISM AND ANTONOMASIA.

Periphrase, periphrasis, and circumlocution, are words all meaning the same thing, and are equivalent to what is gener

"How call you these grunting brutes running about on their fore legs?" demanded Wamba.

"Swine, fool, swine," said the herd; "every fool knows that."

"And swine is good Saxon," said the jester. "But how call you the when she is flayed and drawn up by the heels like a traitor?" Pork," answered the swineherd.

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"I am very glad every fool knows that, too," said Wamba; "and pork, I think, is good Norman French; and so when the brute lives, and is in the charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her Saxon name; but becomes a Norman and is called pork, when she is carried to the Castle-hall to feast among the nobles. There is old alderman Ox, continues to hold his Saxon epithet, while he is under the charge of serfs and bondmen; but becomes Beef, when he arrives before the worshipful jaws that are destined to con sume him. Calf, too, becomes Veal, in the like manner; he is Saxon when he requires tendance, and takes a Norman name, when he becomes matter of enjoyment."

ally called a 'roundabout expression;' which explanation itself an example of the figure, because it denotes in three words what periphrase, periphrasis, or circumlocution does in one. The definitions of words, as they appear in dictionaries, are periphrases. Such circumlocutions are frequently useful, especially in poetry; and are often necessary in translations from foreign languages, when we can find no word in our own, exactly equivalent to that which we have to translate.

Periphrase is frequently useful to avoid a repetition of the same word. out periphrases of every kind require careful management; because, perhaps, more than any other figure of speech, they are apt to run into bombast.†

Under the head of periphrases may be included the figures Euphemism and Antonomasia.

Words, or phrases that call up disagreeable ideas are, in po lite language, softened by means of circumlocutions. In these changes, as well as in most others, custom is the guide. It is reckoned more decorous, for example, to the memory of the departed, to say that "he perished on the scaffold,” than that "he was hanged." Such softened expression is called euphemism; a Greek word signifying a kind speech.

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Antonomasia is a term applied to that form of expression in which a proper name is put for a common, or a common name for a proper; or, when the title, office, dignity, profession, science, or trade, is used instead of the true name of a person. Thus, when we apply to Christ the term, "the Savior of the world," or "the Redeemer of mankind;" or to Washington, the term, "the Father of his country; or when we say His Excellency, instead of the governor, His Honor, instead of the judge; or, His Majesty, instead of the king, the expression is called Antonomasia. So, also, when a glutton is called a Heliogabalus (from the Roman emperor distinguished for that vice,) or a tyrant is called a Nero, we have other instances of the same form of expression.

*Periphrase, as defined by Webster, is "The use of more words than are necessary to express the idea; as a figure of rhetoric, it is employed to avoid a common or trite manner of expression."

Bombast is a kind of expression by which a serious attempt is made to raise a low or familiar subject above its rank, thereby never failing to make it ridiculous. Bathos is the reverse of bombast, and consists in degrading a subject by too low expressions. Both of these modes of writin, equally excite the risible faculties of the reader.

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