New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-03-11
CORRUPT ENGLISH.
SOME PLAYFUL REMARKS BY A MASTER
OF THE LANGUAGE

Andrew Lang, in The London Morning Post.
The subject of the rapid corruption of Eng
lish is full of melancholy interest So Mr.
Edward Lyttelton writes in contemporary
serial I am firmly convinced that if anybody
tries TO show another person how thing should
be done-from skating upWard-the instructor
will succeed in failing TO do the thing right. Is
Mr.. Lyttleton's sentence right? What does he
want with one? The subject IS one full of
melancholy interest Perhaps we are intended
to remember that the subject is only one in a
crowd, all full Of melancholy interest Mr.. Lyt-
telton casts the eye of the mind over the sad
pageant Of mems miseries.' and selects for
mournful contemplation the rapid corruption
Of English" If this is not the exact sense-a
fine large sense, think-then it would have
been easier 10 write, the rapid corruption of
English is full OF melancholy interest Indeed,
l conceive that this is the more excellent way;
:, the readers consciousness is not tempted TO
cherish unavailing regrets for all the evils in
Pandora's box, of which the rapid corruption of
English is only one. and not perhaps the most
deplorable.
thinks, may stoop to folly. This is not sad
as it would be if highly educated people were
large and important class OF the community.
Their commonest error in English is the use of
calculated to- in the of likely to-" This
to be sure, is an unfortunate phrase. Though
educated, it were, within inch of my life,
thank whatever gods there be" that l do not
write, 1T is calculated to rain" when I mean
1T is likely to rain" The phrase, 1T is calcu-
lated to rain" seems to insist, gratuitously, on
the Argument from Design, as If Ahriman, or
some other untoWard power, had nicely pre-es-
CaDDShed atmospheric effects, from the very be-
ginning OF things, so as to spoil the wicket for
batsnnen and improve it for boWlers. This is
deplorably anthropomorphic theory Of things,
so /. for one prefer 1t is likely TO rain, to 1t
is calculated to rain Even the most highly
educated people probably do not often err by
saying 1T is calculated to rain" They
Calculated in another way, with reference TO
things controlled by human agency, and with
an ironical significance Such or such novel
rs calculated to act as a soporihc" You see
the irony! The author did not really calculate
on producing a slumbrous effect but the critic
archly insinuates that he did, and that he has
succeeded. This original Witticism is lost If the
highly educated critic writes this novel is
likely to act as a soporihc." So he writes rs
calculated" or, If he is very fond of a conVen-
tional phrase, he says, rs eminently calculated"
as Mr.. Lyttelton justly observes. But still there
is a nuance, a shade of difference of meaning,
between lis likely to- and lis calculated to-"
The latter phrase, especially plus "eminently,
is so hackneyed. so smooth worn that it offers
the line of least resistance to the human mind.
Indeed. much of the corruption OF our English
is due to mental Incidence. We do pick
phrases we DO not select a clean cut expression
rresh from the mint. we throw down the old
smooth, obliterated phrase, such as lis eminent
ly calculated TO-" or curious to say or, If we
novelists. here a strange thing occurred"
They all that cliche; would be grateful
to novelist who, if he invent nothing
fresher would leave the old strange thing
alone. Another bore Is "a glance at the map
will show" Nothing snort Of torture shall force
me TO write that glance at the map will show
anything. But what else you to say? THE
student who consults the chart will discover.
the map, when consulted, will reveal" If you
nave a map, ana can nnd the place on H. you
Will observe" None Of these is satisfactory
must not write none of these are satisfac-
tory''-but I cannot endure "a glance at the
map" Perhaps we are not so much worse than
our ancestors. Thackeray and Scott both abound
in the abuse OF 'and which, and I think that
I once found five Witches in one sentence of
Sir Walters Moreover. do not speak of a
member of the sex a female" any longer:
IAN elegant female" for example. Nobody even
then would have written Henry was a male
of military genius but Scott does write OF
Jeanne dare IAN unfortunate female" The
words elegant" and "genteer' We're overworked
in the early nineteenth century Ingenious
was in the eighteenth The ingenious Mr..
Milton" critics used TO say. but never write
about the ingenious Mr. Swinburne" The adj
verb vastly was also overdone. people en-