A Word or Two Before You Go....

Fülszöveg

Jacques Barzun
"Cobblers of new words, who probably think of themselves as great creators, have as good an opportunity to shine as their ancient predecessors, who gave us out of their experience so vast a treasury of common words and phrases. Many were specialists, in the sense that they plied a trade—sailing, or weaving, or carpentry. But they liked the common English tongue and they had a fine imagination. For example, some carpenter of genius, to designate a piece of wood or a hinge that is not sunk or recessed into another piece, decided that "it stands proud" in relation to that piece. What could say it better? We are not without minds of equal talent today, people who think with the language, instead of against it and stuff it with counterfeits. One such positive mind invented Icneeling bus and deserves a medal. Another type of mind in his place would have soiled the vocabulary with something like infra-receptor vehicle (IRV).
"Those of us who do not coin either false or... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Jacques Barzun
"Cobblers of new words, who probably think of themselves as great creators, have as good an opportunity to shine as their ancient predecessors, who gave us out of their experience so vast a treasury of common words and phrases. Many were specialists, in the sense that they plied a trade—sailing, or weaving, or carpentry. But they liked the common English tongue and they had a fine imagination. For example, some carpenter of genius, to designate a piece of wood or a hinge that is not sunk or recessed into another piece, decided that "it stands proud" in relation to that piece. What could say it better? We are not without minds of equal talent today, people who think with the language, instead of against it and stuff it with counterfeits. One such positive mind invented Icneeling bus and deserves a medal. Another type of mind in his place would have soiled the vocabulary with something like infra-receptor vehicle (IRV).
"Those of us who do not coin either false or sound currency can encourage the true minters by deliberately preferring the sound to the false till it becomes a habit, almost an instinct, of our speaking and writing selves. This too will have a by-product in the form of enjoyment, the savoring of verbal expression, enhanced by the knowledge of what makes it enjoyable. For example, note the grim irony in someone's recent description of the drug traffic as "the informal branch of the pharmaceutical trade": The wit resides in the simple word informal. Let us all try to work as deftly as this with the well chosen and well placed word, and there will be no more groaning about the decay of the mother tongue."
—from A Word or Two Before You Go----
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown, Connecticut
Jacques Barzun is a connoisseur of words and his concern is that their meaning should remain strong and clear. For several decades he has periodically called attention to tendencies he thought harmful to the English language. He does so now again. The language is still beset.
The real damage, Mr. Barzun thinks, does not come from the illiterate and ignorant but from the educated and pretentious. His brief, incisive comments on errors and confusions point out the hidden emotions and social attitudes that lead to jargon, pedantry, and highfalutin. Humor and wit season his sage and sound advice. His "case histories" of a malady do not call for new rules; rather, they invite—stimulate—speakers and writers to stop and think before speaking or writing before parroting speechways most in vogue.
A Word or Two Before You Go , a selection from Mr. Barzun's articles on language, spans the years 1943 to 1986. Varied in form and contents, it includes "malaprops" and "promiscuous pairs"; comparisons of English with other languages; assessments of pundits on the subject (Mencken, Partridge, Nancy Mitford); arguments with copy editors (one in dialogue form); and an Exercise Chart for developing discretion in speech—a set of horrors to conquer each weekday, with a reward for Sunday A final, moving essay states the case for the necessity for a common tongue.
After reading Jacques Barzun's book none of us will feel quite the same about the words we speak and write. Our expression will be more fit. The English language will be in safer hands. Vissza