Chapter twenty seven, Growing a vocabulary quote, boys flying kites haul in their
white winged birds. You can't do that way when you're flying words. Careful
with fire is good advice. We know careful with words is ten times doubly
so. Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall back dead, but God himself can't kill
them when they're said unquote Will Carton, the First Settler's story. The term
the cabulary has a special as well as a general meaning. True. All
the cabulies are grounded in the everyday words of the language, out of which
grow the special vocabularies. But each such specialized group possesses a number of words
of peculiar value for its own objects. These words may be used in other
vocabularies also, but the fact that they are suited to a unique order of
expression marks them as of special value to a particular craft or calling. In
this respect, the public speaker differs not at all from the poet, the
novelist, the scientist, the traveler. He must add to his everyday's stock
words of value for the public presentation of thought. Quote. A study of
the discourses of effective orators discloses the fact that they have a fondness for words
signifying power, largeness, speed, action, color, light, and all
their opposites. They frequently employ words expressive of the various emotions. Descriptive words,
adjectives used in fresh relations with nouns, and apt epithets are freely employed.
Indeed, the nature of public speech permits the use of mildly exaggerated words,
which, by the time they have reached the hearer's judgment, will leave
only a just impression. Unquote footnote How to attract and hold an audience Jay
berg Asonvine Form the book note habit. To possess a word involves three things.
To know its special and broader meanings, to know its relation to other
words, and to be able to use it. When you see or hear
a familiar word used in an unfamiliar sense, jot it down, look it
up, and master it. We have in mind a speaker of superior attainments
who acquite as vocabulary by noting all new words he heard or read. These
he mastered and put into youths. Soon as vocabulary became large, varied and
exact. Use a new word accurately five times, and it is yours.
Professor Alberty Hancock says quote and authors. The cabulary is of two kinds,
later and dynamic latent those words he understands, dynamic those he can readily use.
Every intelligent man knows or the words he needs, but he may not
have them all ready for active service. The problem of literary diction consists in
turning the latent into the dynamic. Unquote, Your dynamic vocabulary is the one
you must especially cultivate. In his essay on a college magazine in the volume
Memories and Portraits, Stevenson shows how he rose from imitation to originality in the
use of words. He had particular reference to the formation of his literary style.
But words are the raw materials of style, and his excellent example may
well be followed judiciously by the public speaker. Words in their relations are vastly
more important than words considered singly. Quote. Whenever I read a book or
a passage that particularly pleased me, in which a thing was said or an
effect rendered with propriety, in which there was either some conspicuous force or some
happy distinction in the style, I must sit down at once and set myself
to ape that quality. I was unsuccessful, and I knew it, and
tried again and was again unsuccessful, and always unsuccessful. But at least in
these vain bouts I got some practice in rhythm, in harmony, in construction
and coordination of parts. I have thus played the sedulous ape to Hazlet,
to Lamb, to Wordsworth, to Sir Thomas Browne, to Defoe, to
Hawthorne, to Montaigne, that like it or not is the way to learn
to write, whether I have profited or not. That is the way.
It was the way Keeps learned. And there never a finer temperament for literature
than Keeps. It is the great point of these imitations that there still shines
beyond the student's reach, his inimitable model. Let him try as he please.
He is still sure of failure. And it is an old and very
true saying that failure is the only high road to success. Form the reference
book Habit. Do not be content with your general knowledge of a word press
your study until you have mastered its individual shades of meaning and usage. Mere
fluency is sure to become despicable, but accuracy never. The dictionary contains the
crystallized usage of intellectual giants. No one who would write effectively dare despise its
definitions and discriminations. Think, for example, are the different meanings of mantle,
or model, or quantity. Any late edition of an unabridged dictionary is
good and is worth making sacrifices to own. Books of synonyms and antonyms,
used cautiously, for there are a few perfect synonyms in any language, will
be found of great help. Consider the shades of meaning among such word groups
as thief, peculator, defaulter, embezzler, burglar, yeggman, robber,
bandit, marauder, pirate, and many more, while the distinctions among Hebrew,
jew Israelite, and Semite. Remember that no book of synonyms is trustworthy
unless used with a dictionary. A thesaurus of the English Language by doctor Francis
A. March is expensive, but full and authoritative. Of smaller books of
synonyms and antonyms there are plenty. A footnote a book of synonyms and antonyms
is in preparation for this series. The Writer's Library Study the Connectives of English
Speech. Fernard's book on this title is a mine of gems, unsuspected pitfalls,
line the loose use of and or for while, and a score of
tricky little connectives word derivations of rich and suggestiveness. Our English throws so much
to foreign tongues and has changed so much with the centuries that whole addresses may
grow out of a single root idea hidden away in an ancient word origin.
Translation also is excellent exercise in word mastery and consorts well with the study of
derivations. Phrase books that show the origins of familiar expressions will surprise most of
us by showing how carelessly everyday's speech is used. Brewers Addictionary of Phrase and
Fable, Edward's Word Facts and Phrases, and the Thorntons and American Glossary are
all good the last and expensive work in three volumes. A prefix or a
suffix mayes centrally change the force of the stem, as in Master four and
Master Lee contempt a ball and contemptuous, envious and envy a ball. Thus,
to study words in groups according to their stems, prefixes and suffixes is
to gain a mastery over their shades of meaning and introduce us to other related
words. Do not favor one set or kind of words more than another.
Quote sixty years and more ago, Lord Brewham, addressing the students of the
University of Glasgow, laid down the rule that the native Anglo Saxon part of
our vocabulary was to be favored at the expent of that other part which has
come from the Latin and Greek. The roar was an impossible one, and
Lord Brewham himself never tried seriously to observe it, nor in truth as any
great writer made the attempt. Not only is our language highly composite, but
the component words have in the quince's phrase happily coalesced. It is easy to
jest at words in osity and ation, as dictionary words and the like.
But even Lord Brewham would have found it difficult to dispense with pomposity and imagination
unquote footnote composition and rhetoric J. M. Hart. The short, vigorous
Anglo Saxon will always be preferred for passages of special thrust and force, just
as the Latin will continue to furnish us with flowing and smooth expressions to mingle.
All sorts, however, will give variety, and that is most to
be desired. Discuss words with those who know them. Since the language of
the platform follows closely the diction of every day's speech, many useful words may
be acquired in conversation with cultivated men, and when such discussion takes the form
of disputation as to the meanings and usages of words, it will prove doubly
valuable. The development of word power marches with the growth of individuality. Search
faithfully for the right word. Books of reference are tripled in value when their
owner has a passion for getting the kernels out of their shells. Ten minutes
a day will do. Wonders for the nutcracker quote. I'm growing so peevish
about my writing, says Flabet. I am like a man whose ear is
true, but who plays falsely on the violin. His fingers refuse to reproduce
precisely those sound of which he has the inward sense. Then the tears come
rolling down from the poor scraper's eyes, and the bow falls from his hand.
Unquote, the same brilliant frenchman sent the sound advice to his pupil Guidamo
passon quote. Whatever may be the thing which one wishes to say, there
is but one word for expressing it, only one verb to animate it,
only one adjective to qualify it. It is essential to search for this word,
for this verb, for this adjective, until they are discovered and to
be satisfied with nothing else unquote what a savage lander once wrote, quote I
hate false words and seek with care, difficulty, and moroseness those that fit
the thing. Unquote. So did sentimental Tommy, as related by James M.
Barry in his novel bearing his hero's name as a title, No Wonder
t Sanders became an author and a lion. Tommy with another lad is writing
an essay on a day in church in competition for a university's scholarship. He
gets on finally, until he pauses for lack of a word. For nearly
an hour, he searches for this elusive thing, until suddenly he is told
that the allotted time is up and he has lost. Barry may tell the
rest quote essay. It was no more an essay than a twig is a
tree for the gaucherd stuck in the middle of his second page. Yes,
stuck is the right expression, as his chagrined teacher had to admit when the
boy was cross examined he had not been up to some of his tricks.
He had stuck, and his explanations, as you will admit, merelyphasized his
incapacity. He had brought himself to public scorn for lack of a word.
What word, they asked testily, But even now he could not tell.
He had wanted a Scotch word that would signify how many people were in church,
and it was on the tip of his tongue, but would come no
farther. Puckle was nearly the word, but it did not mean so many
people as he meant. The hour had gone by, just like winking.
He had forgotten all about time. Whilst searching his mind for the word.
The other five examiners were furious, you little tatty Dooley. Cathro roared,
whether not a dozen words to while from? If you had an ill will
to puckle? What ailed you at mansie? Or I thought of mansie,
replied Tommy woefully, for he was ashamed of himself. But but a mansie's
a swarm. It would mean that the folk in the kirk were buzzing thegither
like bees instead of sitting still. Even if it does mean that, said
mister Duffy with impatience, what was the need of being so particular? Surely
the art of essay writing consists in using the first word that comes and hurrying
on That's how I did, said the proud McCloughlin, Tomy's second competitor.
I see, interposed, mister Gloak, that McCloughlin speaks of there being a
mask of people in the church. Mask is a fine Scotch word. I
thought of mask, whimpered Tommy. But that would mean the kirk was crammed,
and I just meant it to be middling. Four flow would have done,
suggested mister Lonimer. Flows, but a handful, said Tommy Curen.
Then you Jackanapes Curran's know enough. Mister Lorimer flung up his hands in despair.
I wanted something between Karen and mask, said Tommy, doggedly, yet
almost at the crying mister Ogilvie, who had been hiding his admiration with difficulty,
spread a net for him. You said you wanted a word that meant
middling full. Well, why did you not say middling full or fell mask?
Yes? Why not, demanded the ministers, unconsciously caught in the net.
I wanted one word, replied Tommy, unconsciously avoiding it. You jewel,
muttered mister Ogilvie under his breath. But mister Cathroe would have banged the
boy's head had not. The ministers interfered. It is so easy too to
find the right word, said mister Glogue. It's no, it's difficult as
to hit a squirrel, cried Tommy. And again mister Ogilvie nodded approval.
And then an odd thing happened. As they were preparing to leave the score,
Catherine, having previously run Tommy up by the neck. The door opened
a little, and there appeared in the aperture the face of Tommy, tear
stained but excited. I ken the word now, he cried. It came
to me at once. It is handel, mister Ogilvy said, in an
ecstasy to himself. He had to think of it till he got it,
And he got it. The Laddie is a genius. Unquote. Questions and
exercises One, What is the derivation of the word vocabulary? Two briefly discussed
any complete speech given in this volume with reference to a exactness, be variety
and see charm in the use of words. Three give original examples of the
kinds of words studies referred to on pages three, three seven and three three
eight. Deliver a short talk on any subject using at least five words which
have not been previously in your dynamic vocabulary. Five. Make a list of
the unfamiliar words found in any address you may select. Six. Deliver a
short extemporaneous speech giving your opinions on the merits and demerits of the use of
unusual words in public speaking. Seven. Try to find an example of the
overuse of unusual words in a speech. Eight have you used reference books in
words studies? If so, state with what result. Nine Find as many
synonyms and antonyms as possible for each of the following words excess, rare,
severe, beautiful, clear, happy, difference, care, skillful, involved,
enmity, prophet, absurd, evident, faint, friendly, harmony,
hatred, honest, inherent. End of Section twenty seven.