The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-12-19

Some Examples OF the Insidious En-
croachmenfs OF Pencil Pushers-
Upon the Strength and Purity of
the Mother Tongue.

Guiding paragraph Of a recent editorial
entitled Infant Child, Again." in wnici
several points of grammar were dis
cussed. The paragraph referred ID is
as follows:
THE Chronicle is always glad to dis
cuss these questions with its /reaie-s,
for it makes no pretensions to literary
perfection itself and Ices not adni,
that literary perfection exists In any
printed publica.iLn. 1t can only feel
surprised that critics select things for
criticism which ram be defended and
overlook mucf worse things that are
absolutely defenceIess."
The meaning of this paragraph is
that there has grown up in the news-
papers Of this country within the last
ten years almost a new dialect of The
English language. which Is getting he
name of newspaper English" and
which is a complete departure from
the ordinary standards of the Ian
guage. 1t is confined, so far as we
know, to the daily newspapers, but in
that field is spreading and gaming
strength every Gay.
These solecislls consist in changes
Az III oESAA1A0 ~ "Oloo, Sh6 IA
the meaning of words, changes in
grammatical construction and changes
in the matter itself. 1t would take a
small volume to POINT them all out and
discuss them and we can only rarar
to a Few of them.
Two OF three are connected with
legal technicalities. 1t has become
quite common Il speak of "robblng
a bank or a rCstCfice Or an absent
man, when the word rob- means to
take something from a living pres
ent person by force or threats.
The word "accC1d" is a legal techHi-
cality, the full form being "accora
and satisfaction" It means a mutual
agreement satisfactory to both parties.
Etymologically it mean something
that proceeds from the heart AMI ii
should never be used in a bad sense.
Yet we constantly read in newspapers
of a mar who was kicked down he
steps and who afterward complained
bitterly Of the reception accorded
him.
A dead person is now referred to in
the newspapers as the "decedent." The
word being a legal technicality. For
centuries he word used in good Eng
lish was "deceased" and that is the
word still used everywhere except in
the newspapers aud in the law books.
Both words man "the departed, and
it is upaccountaD Die how it was found
out after centuries of usage that de
ceased" was a grammatical imprOD1I-
ETY..
The newspaper OF the day in describ-
ing a wedding ceremony refers to the
bride and groom as 1.-The contracting
parties which IS another legal express
sion. These words would be proper
enough in a divorce suit or in draw
ing up an ante-nuptial contract fer
the division of property, burt in writing
of a social anG religious function they
are as inappropriate as it would be to
say that the bride was accompanied
by her executor and devisee and that
there was a large posse present in tho
church.
One or two CT these solecisms consist
in misuse of propositions. There ia
nothing more lndefensible than the
substitution of stand for" in place OF
stand" To stand" a thing means u
endure it and to "stand for" a thing
means to represent it. The two TX
pressions are Us different in meaning
as fire" and cheese" and yet stand"
has been abolished and stand .or
| put In its place.
Just as bad is -Ie phrase"confess to-"
which seems to DE a mongrel compro-
mise between confess" and plead
guilty to-" Such an expression could
not probably be found between Chau-
| Ger and Macauley. except in the newa-
paper.
The most popular candidate for
| newspaper favor at the present day is
/ the word declare" For 1000 years
| and until two years ago this wo d
meant to asseVcrate Or to pronounce
| in a formal and emphatic manner,
but now it n:eans in the newspaper
simply to say" Formerly a man dc
| clared" that a statement was false in
every particular and declared" that
he would resist something at the cost
of his life" In our day the nurse
! declares that she has fed the baoy
and the milk man declares that he
will leave a quart of milk tomorrow.
The poor old word "say" has been
voted vulgar and destitute of exp.ss-
sion.
By far the worst of these solecisms
is the dislocat;on of the adverh in
connection with the compound moods
and tense of the verb, such as have
gone" might nave gone" or could
have gone" Good Brown, in his
Grammar of Grammars," says: "Ad-
verbs which belong to compound vefos
are commonly placed after the first
auxiliary, or. If they are enphaticai.
after the whole verb" Accordingly
if the adverb easily" be inserted In
the above mentioned verbs they wout.i
be "have easily gone" might easily
have gone"
OF course, the adverb was placed
after the auxiilary to show What it
qualified. For, compare the following
expressions: Only John ate the
pie," John only ate the pie" John
ate only the pie. obody denies that
occasionally a new angle is put On an
expression by shifting the adVerb. ont
the modern newspaper insists on pat
ting 1t invariably in front of the lux