CHAPTER X. FURTHER DIRECTIONS UPON THE CHOICE OF 41. Provincialisms. PROVINCIALISMS should be avoided, or sparingly and discriminately employed. Some words are used in confined localities, and are unknown elsewhere. If they are substituted for other well-known words in the language, they should be discarded. If they express objects or customs peculiar to that locality, they should be tolerated and rendered respectable. There is no particular reason why a waistcoat in England should be called a vest in America, or why trousers, railway, autumn there, should be styled here respectively pantaloons or pants, railroad, fall:* and yet so numerous is the population in America that her peculiarities of speech promise to become permanent and the rule, while in some instances the older and perhaps purer English will become obsolete, even in England. The word clever in England signifies intelligent, intellectual, and able to succeed; in the United States it is often used to mean generous, amiable. 42. Americanisms.—It is often assumed that Amer * Used occasionally in Scotland (see Beattie's Life of Thomas Campbell, vol. i. p. 200). icans use many provincialisms, which have been called "Americanisms," though, in fact, no people use so few. Many of the inaccuracies that have been styled Americanisms have been imported, but have here obtained larger currency than at home, and are here oftener seen in print. There are of course some peculiar expressions, and always must be, of native. origin. The constant tendency in language to change, is introducing new forms of expression, all of which are provincialisms at first. From the multitude of newspapers in this country, and the ease with which almost any one may “see himself in print,” colloquialisms and slang terms which finished scholars would never repeat, are frequently printed. All such corruptions of language should be discountenanced. Thus calculate is sometimes used for intend, reckon and presume are substituted for think by persons who seldom think closely, or they would use words more accurately. 43. Vulgarisms.—Vulgarisms are words and phrases which, from their origin or general use, have a tendency to excite low and mean associations. "You can see with half an eye," "Go it blind," are instances. Similar to these are hackneyed words or phrases, sometimes called catch-words, which arise in particular places where a company of persons pursuing the same course are associated together, such as armyphrases, college-words, sailors' expressions, all of which should be sedulously excluded from dignified addresses or writings. + 44. Words used erroneously for Others similar in Sound.-Careless speakers and even writers sometimes mistake a word for another similar to it in sound, but more or less widely different in meaning. Ludicrous errors are thus made by ignorant persons. Thus it would not surprise us to hear that "the observation of Christmas as a holiday is commendable," while observance is evidently meant. Consciousness may thus be used for conscience, and many errors of this kind are often heard from uneducated or careless speakers. 45. Ambiguous Expressions. - Ambiguous words should be avoided. Words capable of having two or more meanings, or so employed as to admit of diverse interpretations, should never be used unless it is the deliberate intention of the author to leave the matter undecided and uncertain. "Solomon, the son of David, who built the Temple, was the best King of Israel.". It is not stated in this sentence who built the Temple. "Lysias promised to his father never to abandon his friends." It is impossible to decide whose friends are meant, whether those of Lysias or of his father. No language more abounds in ambiguities than the English. Indeed it may be doubted whether any ambiguity can be found in any language that may not be translated into English. Certainly it might be imitated and paralleled in our language. For this reason, great care should be taken to avoid it, but even after the utmost care it will sometimes occur. In all legal documents, such as constitutions, laws, treaties, contracts, wills, bonds, and deeds, ambiguity AMBIGUOUS EXPRESSIONS. 69 should be specially guarded against, for it has often led to heated contests, litigation, and even to war. Legal enactments have been rendered inoperative by a single ambiguous expression; constitutions have been perverted from their original design, and creeds have been made to teach precisely the opposite to what their authors believed. In such papers every other grace of composition ought to be sacrificed to perspicuity, which can be attained only by using the right word in the right place. The oracles of the heathen priests were generally capable of several interpretations. Thus when Pyrrhus applied to the priestess of Delphi to ascertain whether he should be successful against the Romans, he received the reply: "Aio te, Eacida, Romanos vincere, posse""I say that you, O thou son of Eacus, the Romans are able to conquer." Whether he should conquer, or the Romans, was still undecided. His self-love prompted him to adopt the former meaning, and, when overcome, the friends of the priestess claimed her infallibility, as indicated by the latter meaning. "Lovest thou me more than these?"—the question of Jesus to Peter-is, in our translation of the Bible, ambiguous, as it may mean, "Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these?" or "Lovest thou me more than these do?" The last meaning is evidently the one intended. In speaking, ambiguity may often be prevented by emphasis, and, in writing, by a judicious punctuation. In scientific papers, it is indispensable that the right words should be employed. No reader wishes to waste his time in studying productions which may be construed into several uncertain meanings. 46. Intentional Ambiguity.-Ambiguity may be intentional; and if it can be morally justified, it furnishes ample scope for ingenuity. Talleyrand, a famous French diplomat, is often credited with the proverb, "Language is intended to conceal, not to reveal thought." Willam Guthrie, in the preface to his translation of Quintilian, published 1775, says: "During such a state of the public, the business of rhetoric was to teach men not how to express, but how to conceal their thoughts." As an instance of ambiguity in playful composition, take the remark of the poet, Thomas Campbell, to a friend: "This is very shabby of you, after the sublime and pathetic ode which I addressed to you-a composition which will remain in the English language until it is forgotten!" A sufficient number of specimens of intentional ambiguity could easily be gathered from the writings and speeches of diplomatists and politicians. 47. Words symbolically Employed.-Those who are accustomed to think closely will observe that words are often employed, even by the ablest of speakers, as algebraists employ signs and symbols, without a conscious and full perception of their meaning, by a sort of manipulation or combination, and are finally thought out in the conclusion. In a treatise, for instance, on universities, commerce, war, agriculture, or any other subject, it is by no means true that the author every time that he uses the word has a full conception of it; but nevertheless hø |