investigators should be suffering from scarcity of food, or something equally strange. But if the speaker breaks the sentence after "chickens," the meaning is perfectly clear. Other sentences contain factors which must be combined in expression if the listener is to get immediately the correct impression. Consider, for instance, the sentence, "The attitude of the workmen who refused to accept the terms was denounced by their fellow employees.' To make the meaning clear at once, it is necessary to combine "The attitude of the workmen" and "who refused to accept the terms " in a single phrase. Now as to the second aim of proper phrasing-to aid in the concentration of attention upon the most important elements of our thought. In the first place, a feature which stands apart attracts notice by that very fact. Therefore, if any phase of our thought, whether it be embodied in a word, a phrase, or a clause, has an unusually significant independent value, we give it separate utterance. If it has no independent value, or if we do not wish to attach to it the significance which derives from separate phrasing, we group it with another unit, and depend upon inflection, or force, or rate variation to indicate the most important of the combined units. For example, let us take such a typical sentence as "At about ten in the morning when the dew was off the ground, we started for town but it began to rain and we had to return." There are in this sentence five thought units, ending respectively with "morning," "ground," "town," "rain," and "return." But it would probably be better to speak the sentence in three phrases, ending with "ground," " town," and "return," respectively, since the subordinate units would be given undue prominence by a more detailed phrasing. Each sentence presents its own particular phrasing problem, and the speaker must use his judgment as to what combinations and separations he should make in order to express himself most clearly and forcefully. Two faults in phrasing are of common occurrence, both of which tend to defeat the aims just stated. One fault may be termed jerkiness. The speaker proceeds without regard to the logical grouping of his words. He habitually progresses by spurts of two or three words, unmindful of the difficulty of the listener in readjusting the words in their proper relationships, unmindful of the nervous tension which the sound of such a style produces. To illustrate this style, the above sentence may be read as follows: "At about ten - in the morning when the dew-was off the ground we started for town - and we were obliged - but it soon began to rain Such a manner of speaking may in some cases be due to improper breath management, in which event the speaker should at once give his attention to this factor. In other cases the fault results from incoherent thinking, or failure to guide his utterance on the thought unit principle. The second fault in phrasing produces the same bad effect of making expression hard to understand and tiresome to the ear. But it does this in a directly opposite way, i. e., by habitually uttering without breaks long strings of words which frequently comprise several thought units. It is often possible to join two or more thought units in a single utterance, as has already been stated, but it should not be done habitually and without discrimination; for it is only where the thought units are in the closest relationship, or interdependent, that unbroken delivery is anywhere nearly as clear as judiciously interrupted expression. Notice how in the following sentence the phrasing determines the meaning for the listener. "The farm delegates who stayed at the hotel were not popular with the other working people at the convention." If we break the sentence after "delegates" and again after "hotel," the meaning will be that all the farm delegates stayed at the hotel, and were all unpopular. But if we do not break the sentence until" hotel," the meaning will be that only part of the farm delegates stayed at the hotel, and that these were the unpopular ones. Of course, if one were to read this sentence from print, and if it were properly punctuated to bring out the writer's meaning, the abscence of commas after " delegates " and "hotel" would indicate the proper phrasing. But punctuation is often wrong or not indicative of the best oral expression, and what is more significant we are chiefly concerned here, as elsewhere in this book, with preparation for extempore speaking, which is put in final form while the speaker stands before his audience. The study of phrasing may be carried on from the printed page, but the student must acquire the habit of thinking in complete units instead of composing word by word. The pause between such units is ordinarily short, but it affords an opportunity to think through the next unit before proceeding, and the time utilized for such thought will tend to increase with practice and experiIt would be well for the student to realize, however, that the experienced speaker usually takes more time in expressing himself than does the beginner; not that he needs it, but because he knows the value of ence. deliberate expression, and has the poise to act upon his knowledge. 66 Before proceeding to the practical application of the principles of phrasing, it is desirable to note one more type of construction which frequently occurs, namely, the single word unit. We shall examine two sets of typical examples. Men, women, and children were invited to sign the petition "; and "The lines were run into cities, towns, and villages, but the rural districts had no service." In such instances the speaker may desire to make each part of the analysis stand out in the mind of his hearers. To accomplish this he has only to deliver the analysis as three separate phrases; i. e., with a break after each member. By this means the first sentence becomes, in effect, a condensed way of saying, "Men were invited to sign the petition; women were invited to sign the petition; and children were invited to sign the petition." The same thing applies to "cities, towns, and villages" in the second example. At other times the speaker may wish to produce a single cumulative effect in expressing a group of concepts. For example, “The candidate promised political plums to every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the district;" or, "The lives of men, women, and children were not to be considered if only his factory wheels kept grinding out huge profits." In cases of this kind, a more telling effect is produced by grouping the units of the analyses rather than separating them into distinct phrases. EXERCISES NOTE 1: Study the sentences, and practice reading them aloud with such phrasing as will convey the meaning most clearly, and give proper valuation to the thoughts. NOTE 2: Let the thought rather than the punctuation determine the phrasing. I. Nelson directed him to say that, unless they were instantly delivered, he would instantly open his fire. (SOUTHEY) II. This event, which, from the moment that Spain had been compelled to make peace, was clearly foreseen, had now taken place. (SOUTHEY) III. Whenever these three signs are present, without some clear cause, such as a cold or unusual overwork or strain, especially if they be accompanied by a rapid pulse and a tendency to get out of breath readily in running upstairs, they should make us suspect tuberculosis. (HUTCHINSON) IV. This fact has, however, its encouraging side; for, since this habit of crowding together, which we call civilization, or "citification," has caused and keeps causing these diseases, it can also cure them and prevent their spread if all the people will fight them in dead earnest. (HUTCHINSON) V. To the Greeks life was so bright and joyous a thing that they looked upon death as a great calamity. (MYERS) VI. In some districts the barbarian invaders and the Roman provincials were kept apart for a long time by the bitter antagonism of race, and a sense of injury on the one hand and a feeling of disdainful superiority on the other. (MYERS) VII. The new Poor-Law is an announcement, sufficiently distinct that whosoever will not work ought not to live. (CARLYLE) VIII. There probably never was since the Heptarchy |