Composition-Rhetoric Part 8

12. But bland the smile that, like a wrinkling wind On gla.s.sy water, drove his cheek in lines.

--Tennyson.

13. The rush of affairs drifts words from their original meanings, as s.h.i.+ps drag their anchors in a gale, but terms sheltered from common use hold to their moorings forever.

--Mill.

+Theme XIV.+--_Write a story suggested by the picture on page 59 or by one of the following subjects:_--

1. A modern fable.

2. The willow whistle.

3. How I baked a cake.

4. The delayed picnic.

5. The missing slipper.

6. A misdirected letter.

7. A ride on a raft.

8. The rescue of Ezekiel.

9. A railway experience.

10. A soldier's soldier.

(Do you think the reader will form the images you wish him to form?

Consider what you have written with reference to climax. (See Section 7.) Have you needed to use figures? If so, have you used them in accordance with the suggestions on page 55? If you have used the word _only_, is it placed so as to give the correct meaning?)

+31. Determination of Meaning Requires More than Image Making.+--The emphasis laid upon image making should not lead to the belief that this is all that is necessary in order to determine what is meant by the language we hear or read. Image making is important, but much of our language is concerned with presenting ideas of which no mental pictures can be formed.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

This very paragraph will serve as an ill.u.s.tration of such language. Our understanding of language of this kind depends upon our knowledge of the meanings of words, upon our understanding of the relations between word groups, or parts of sentences, and especially upon our appreciation of the relations in thought that sentences bear to one another. Each of these will be discussed in the following pages. Later it will be necessary to consider the relations in thought existing among paragraphs.

+32. Word Relations.+--In order to get the thought of a sentence, we must understand the relations that exist between the words and word groups (phrases and clauses) that compose it. If the thought is simple, and expressed in straightforward terms, we grasp it readily and without any conscious effort to determine these relations. If the thought is complex, the relations become more complicated, and before we are sure that we know what the writer intends to say it may be necessary to note with care which is the main clause and which are the subordinate clauses. In either case our acquiring the thought depends upon our understanding the relations between words and word groups. We may understand them without any knowledge of the names that have been applied to them in grammar, but a knowledge of the names will a.s.sist somewhat. These relations are treated in the grammar review in the Appendix and need not be repeated here.

+33. Incomplete Thoughts.+--We have learned (Section 27) that the introduction of unfamiliar words may cause us to form incomplete images.

When the language is not designed to present images, we may, in a similar way, fail to get its real meaning if we are unfamiliar with the words used. If you do not know the meaning of _fluent_ and _viscous_, you will fail to understand correctly the statement, "Fluids range from the peculiarly fluent to the peculiarly viscous." If we wish to think precisely what the writer intended us to think, we must know the meanings of the words he uses. Many of us are inclined to subst.i.tute other ideas than those properly conveyed by the words of the writer, and so get confused or incomplete or inaccurate ideas. The ability to determine exactly what images the writer suggests, and what ideas his language expresses, is the first requisite of scholars.h.i.+p and an important element of success in life.

EXERCISES

_A._ The first step in acquiring knowledge is to determine what it is that we do not know. Just which word or words in each of the following sentences keep you from understanding the full meaning of the sentence?

Notice that a dictionary definition will not always make the meaning clear.

1. It is really more scientific to repeat a quotation from a political speech correctly, or to pa.s.s on a story undistorted, than it is to know of the rings of Saturn or the striation of diatoms.

2. The process of testing a hypothesis requires great caution in order to prevent mistakes.

3. The aerial foliage stem is the most favorable for studying stem structure.

4. Taken collectively, isotherms indicate the distribution of mean temperature over the region embraced in the map.

5. Vibrations of the membrane of the tympanum are "damped" by the ossicles of the middle ear, which also receive and pa.s.s on the auditory tremors to the membrane closing the oval window.

6. In the battle which followed, the mobile Roman legion, arranged in open order three ranks deep, proved its superiority over the ma.s.sive Macedonian phalanx.

7. The narrow and dissected forms have been attributed to the scarcity of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the water.

_B._ Make a list of words in your lessons in other subjects for to-day that you need to look up in order to understand the lessons. This should be done daily, whether a.s.signed or not.

34. +Choice of Words Adapted to the Reader.+--Words familiar to the reader should be used. Since the reader's ability to understand the thought of a paragraph depends to some extent upon his understanding of the words employed, it is necessary for the writer to choose words that will be understood by those whom he addresses. Of course we cannot tell whether a particular word will be understood by our readers, but, in case there is doubt, it is well to subst.i.tute one that is more likely to be understood.

When you have written anything, it is well to ask yourself the question, Have I used words with which _the reader_ is probably familiar?

+Theme XV.+---_Write a theme about one of the following subjects, using words that you think will be understood by your readers:_--

1. How we breathe.

2. How to make a kite.

3. The causes of the seasons.

4. Why wood floats on water.

5. The use of baking powder.

6. The difference between arithmetic and algebra.

(Have you said what you meant to say? Have you used words that your reader will understand? Find your longest sentence. Is its meaning clear? Notice the short sentences. Should some of them be united into a longer one?)

+35. Word Selection.+--There are many shades of meaning which differ but little, and a careful writer will select just the word that best conveys his thought. The reader needs to be no less careful in determining the exact meaning that the writer intends to convey. Exercises in synonyms are thus of double importance (Section 21).

Another source of error, both in acquiring and expressing thought, arises from the confusion of similar words. Some similarity of spelling causes one word to be subst.i.tuted for another. There are many words and expressions that are so often interchanged that some time may be spent with profit upon exercises in determining their correct usage. These usually consist of brief reports to the cla.s.s that set forth the meanings of the words, show their uses, and ill.u.s.trate their differences.

In preparing such reports, determine the meaning of the words from as many sources as are available. The usual meaning can be determined from the dictionary. A fuller treatment is given in some dictionaries in a chapter on faulty diction. Additional material may be found in many of the text-books on rhetoric, and in special books treating of word usage. After you are sure that you know the correct use, prepare a report for the cla.s.s that shall make that use clear to others. In the simplest form this will consist of definitions and sentences in which the words are correctly used. The following examples, handed in by pupils, will serve to ill.u.s.trate such reports:--

1. A _council_ is an a.s.sembly of persons convened for consultation or deliberation. _Counsel_ is used to indicate either (1) an opinion as the result of consultation or (2) a lawyer engaged to give advice or to act as advocate in court. Lewis furnishes the following example of the use of these two words: "The plaintiff's _counsel_ held a _council_ with his partners in law, and finally gave him as his best _counsel_ the advice that he should drop the suit; but, as Swift says, 'No man will take _counsel_, but every man will take money,' and the plaintiff refused to accept the advice unless the _counsel_ could persuade the defendant to settle the case out of court by paying a large sum."

2. The correct meaning of _transpire_ may perhaps be best understood by considering its derivations. It comes from _trans_, through, and _spiro_, to breathe, from which it gets its meaning, to escape gradually from secrecy. It is frequently used incorrectly in the sense of to happen, but both Webster and the Standard dictionary condemn this use of the word. The latter says that it is often so misused especially in carelessly edited newspapers, as in "Comments on the heart-rending disaster which transpired yesterday are unnecessary, but," etc. When _transpire_ is correctly used, it is not a synonym of _happen_. A thing that happened a year ago may transpire to-day, that is, it may "become known through unnoticed channels, exhale, as it were, through invisible pores like a vapor or a gas disengaging itself." Many things which happen in school, thus become known by being pa.s.sed along in a semi-secret manner until nearly all know of them though few can tell just how the information was spread.

_Transpire_ may properly be applied to such a diffusion of knowledge.

+Theme XVI.+--_Report as suggested above on any one of the following groups of words:_--

1. Allude, mention.

2. Beside, besides.

3. Character, reputation.

4. Degrade, demean, debase.

5. Last, latest, preceding.