Words and Their Ways in English Speech
Book Description
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 edition. Excerpt: ...we are dealing with a very real phenomenon in the operations of language. When a word has been long used in a particular sense, there cluster about it a great variety of traditional ...
MoreThis historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 edition. Excerpt: ...we are dealing with a very real phenomenon in the operations of language. When a word has been long used in a particular sense, there cluster about it a great variety of traditional associations,--religious, historical, literary, or sentimental, which, though not a part of its meaning, properly so called, are still a considerable factor in its significant power. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, no doubt; yet no other name would so vividly suggest to us its fragrance. The noun lily is no whiter, nor is it more graceful, than, for example, nilly. Yet if it were possible to substitute nilly for lily, it would be long before the new term would call up in our minds either the whiteness or the grace of the lily as the accustomed word presents them,--not by virtue of any inherent quality, but merely because of its traditional and poetic associations. The power of such connotations becomes very great when the word is an old one, which has been much used, and is in some manner, therefore, bound up with the most intense experiences of great numbers of men. Words like /after, mother, home, or the name of one's country, may have a tremendous effect in a great crisis. A mob may be roused to fury by the utterance of a single word; yet in all such cases it is of course not the word at all that produces the effect, but its associations. Csesar's mutinous army was reduced to tearful submission by the one word Quirites! ' fellow-citizens,' which reminded them that they were no longer commilitones, the ' fellow-soldiers' of their beloved leader. Indeed, language is sometimes translated into conduct. A figure of speech may even suggest a course of action. To ' bridle one's tongue' is an old and very natural metaphor. Is it too much to believe that it...
You must be a member of JacketFlap to add a video to this page. Please
Log In or
Register.
View James Bradstreet Greenough's profile