The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-01-04
TEACHING OF ENGLISH TONGUE.
Careless Introduction and Use of
Words Condemned.
New York Herald.

New York Herald.
Discussions now current in educational
circles concerning the manner in which
English shall be taught to pupils in acade-
mics and colleges direct attention once
more to the imminent need of proper edu-
cation for educational authorities. A pro-
cess of deterioration is at work in the Ian
guage, which is largely due to the careless
hospitality of our dictionary makers toward
the ugly and superfiuous in verbal innova-
tons or verbal resurrections. The importa-
ton Of slang by the vulgar, on the one
hand, and on the other the revival of OBJ
solete and obsolescent words by the affected
and the self-conscious, are alike a menace
to the vigor and purity of our speech.
Lingual orthodoxy must not, of course, be
too fanatically conservative or it will re-
suit in the stagnation which fanatieal con-
servatism has always brought down upon
orthodoxy. To a certain extent the exits
and entrances of words must constantly
be going on. in order that language shall
be kept vitality responsive to every contem-
porary need. But the procession to and fro
should be under the sternly repressive hand
of a wise master of ceremonies. "They
order this matter better in Franc" There
and examines the credentials of every ap-
plicant for admission or rejection. Here
the dictionary makers defer TOO much to
the sciolist and the unscientific. And thus
words are continually perverted from their
legitimate meanings or forced into new and
illegitimate usages.
Thus nouns are transformed into verbs,
either directly, as in ito knife" or ito
Ixyr,o fta MIL ;xxao
change, as in donate" from donation"
or ''burgle" or ''burgiarize," from burg
larry" All these uncouth words, it must be
remembered. are sanctioned. either condi-
tionally or Internationally. by the diction-
aries of greatest repute among American
scholars. In the way of revivals "verdical,"
which has no meaning beyond that packed
into the little word true, seems to be
useless waste of syllables. Moreover, it is
formed upon false analogy with the
French "veridique," which means truthful,
and is applied only to persons. Urquhart,
however used Ii in the seventeenth century
lin translation from the Frenchman RAJ
nineteenth-in an essay on the Frenchman
Voltaire. What Urquhart did and Car
lyle approved cannot be wrong'-is this
the new version Of Budgets famous lines?
Such words as "arrestation" for arrest"
and ''retraction" for 'retract' are likewise
ugly phonetic redundancies which have no
proper place, save as archaeological curiosi-
ties, in our language. But they are sup
ported by authority, therefore they cannot
escape the dragnetS OF the word fishers.
Now, no authority, not even that Of genius,
the cultivated classes. And it is only such
usage-the result of natural selection and
not of coercion-which decides whether
word is English or not.
During the middle ages hundreds of
Latinisms were introduced into the current
vocabulary. There were no dictionaries in
these many inventions perished as they de-
served to perish. Only the best and most
useful survived But the dragnets have
been tossed even into the waste places in
these Photographed days. Hence we see
for example, the resuscitation of such a
work as ''suscitate," because il was found
that the unread Ben Jonson uses it in it's
participial, and the forgotten Sir Thomas
Elyott in its indicative form.
Many years ago Richard Grant White
bemoaned the existence Of such perverse
melting of discordant meanings as occur in
the then common phrase, prominently
identified" The then common phrase con-
tinues to be common still, despite all that
can be said against II. OF course identity
(based the Latin idem) means same
ness. Prominent (from the Latin promi-
nensl means "lutting out from" standing
utterly homogeneous. Now when Won saw
that a man is identified with a cause or a
country you strain the limits of allowable
metaphor, but when you say that he is
prominently identified with 1t, you pass
clear beyond all possible boundaries
This is only one OF many solecisms that
would have shocked the ears of a more ac-
curate age, but which are allowed TO pass
unnoticed and unreproved to-day. 1t is
only another exemplification of that slim
shod method OF writing and speaking which
accepts a formula instead of a careful
definition, and repeats a revived archaism
or new slang phrase until repetition de-
prives il of all semblance of meaning, SO
that .opalescent or ''iridescence'' becomes
| as monotonous and. meaningless as the
| school girls awful the unchanging
| blasphemy of the lower classes