Evening star., 1903-07-06
MISSING WORDS.
Annoying Gaps in English Language
That Cause Inconvenience.

From London Answers.
The English language may fairly claim 10
be the most prolific in the world. NOT con-
tent with It's native riches. 1t possesses III d
special degree the faculty of assimia'ihs
everything useful from other tongues an
c,ept and modern II ought. indeed. 10 De
,,s most nerfect vehicle of thought in the
world and in some respects, no oouo''
il is.
Put curiously enough, there are dencien-
cies in English not to be found In far less
copious languages. While in many cases
we have half dozen words expressing 'he
same. or practically the same thing there
are. on the other hand. certain IDEAS tha'
have no appropriate words to express them-
In the words denoting relationship some
notable gaps are found. The most giaring
instance is the want of word TO distlfE
s,,,isb between a male and female cousin.
other languages such as French and ltai-
ian have a separate word for each, but In
English some addition or explanation is re-
ouired in order to make 1t clear when sex
is intended.
Some obvious deficiencies English shares
with other languages. The woro pro'hei-
in-law" is often applied incorrectly, for
want of a better word, to a more remote
relation Strictly speaking, brother-in-
law is either a wife's brother or sister
husband; but the word is frequently ex-
tended to denote the relationship existing
between two men who marry sisters. or be-
tween a man and his sisters brother-in-
law 1t would be convenient to have one
word to express such relationships, as we'll
az others that might be named Grand
fathers paternal and maternal respective
w. might surely be described by one word.
And why have recourse to French to desig-
nate the person to whom one is engaged?
We have fairly copious vocabulary when
we speak of animals. distinguishing nicely
the male the female, the young and even,
In certain cases. the aged. But one curious
deficiency appears The domestic fowl has
no good square word to describe II. Fowl
is common to any bird: so is Cock or
hen" which, besides. only applies to one
sex There Is really no word corresponding
to turkey or goose by which to desig-
nate the ordinary denizen of the farm yard
Curious gaps occur here and there In our
language if we look into 1t. The word
show expresses the idea of making to
see but there is no word for making tC
hear-a phonosraph, for example. Il took
the phonograph to my friend. and
What? Got him to listen to IT. would
probably be the inelegant finish to the sen.
tence.
On the other hand, audience" means
those who hear. and applies very well to
those present in lecture hall or concert
room. But what OF those who see a cricket
match. for instance? Spectators Is the
nearest word. but 1t does not correspond
exactly to audience" There is one de.
fciency in the language so awkward and
irritating that. even at this late hour. II
ought to be made good. Need 1t be said
that reference is made to indiscriminate te
use of the personal pronoun to denote ethel
the person speaking or the person spoken
Of? This may not be a defect peculiar tC
English. but IL is one from which the an
Client classical tongues are entirely free.
HE said he had offered him money which
he had declined" would be quite compre-
hensibe either In Greek or Latin, but ir
English il necessitates a number of brack
eted explanations which are positively an
noying and destructive of grace and fuency