The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-27
FEW WORDS USED
FOR CONVERSATION
About 400 Out of $4,000
Sufficient for Many
People

Boston, July 26- Especial. )-The major
ity of intelligent people possessing what
is called a good education currently use
only few hundred out of the $4,000 or
$4,000 words that an ordinary desk die
tionary of the English language contains
It seems that 800 or 400 words suffice to
express the meanings intended to be CON
veyed by most of the letters that go
through the mails
II you listen to an ordinary conversa-
tion you will quickly be convinced that
the same poverty of expression prevails
In the oral employment of language. In
this case it is not so easy to get the fig
ures as in that of writing and here the
dictograph might be a great aid to any
one who wished to discover the real facts
about the non-employment of the English
language by tho inheritors of its riches.
few dictographs placed in business Of
fees, clubs, public schools and places of
social assemblage would quickly tell the
story, and 1t Is certain that that story
would not be a creditable one.
Set phrases. including the same words
are used over and over by almost every
body. The thought, such as it is, is
merely sketched in bare outline. The
fewest possible strokes are used, with
almost no shading, Conversation often
becomes a kind of guessing match, and
different meanings may be read into
speakers words by different listeners
The immense wealth of the language
lies fallow as far as the ordinary person
IS concerned He knows the meaning of
thousands of words when he sees them
in print or hears them from some master
of speech, but they do not form a part
of his own mental equipment, and he
does not have them under control, ready
to serve him at any moment.
The result is painfully apparent when
ever the average man undertakes to pre-
sent a new thought, or when he wishes
to be particularly explicit with regard to
some statement. He cannot find the
words to say what he wants to say. His
tongue is tied, and he presents his
thoughts in SO blundering and fragmen-
tary a form that he himself loses his
grasp upon it and his mind goes wander
ing.
And yet he really knows the words
that could express his meaning when he
sees or hears them If some bystander
puts a needed word into his mouth he
seizes it with eagerness, but the next in
stant he is as much at sea as ever, be-
cause he has no command over the Ian
guage as a whole. He has only learned
few common. words and fixed express
sions like parrot. The chances are that
never in his life has he meditated upon
the meaning of a word or traced its ori-
gin, or learned to distinguish it from
others having a similar, but not precisely
the same significance Language for him
is a mere haphazard without any fullness
or precision.
The schools are largely to blame for
this In school the child is taught to
spell and pronounce great number of
words which 1t is never required to use.
The consequence is that these words ap-
pear to the learner to be a language apart
from everyday life, a language belonging
only in books.
The utilization of the words acquired
should be by speaking them in the most
natural way possible. The teacher should
make a point of employing. in an Off
hand way. in conversation with the class
the words which they have been study
ing. The children should be led insensi-
bly, to use new words in their play and
during their out school hours. Here, of
course, parents can aid Immensely, but
first they must themselves master a
wide range of verbal expressions.
Mere reading will not give this ready
mastery. A word must be acquired by
the organs of speech as we'll as by the
mind Unless the lips and the tongue are
accustomed to pronounce it. 1t will not
come promptly when wanted.
Words are tools, and they cannot be eff
fectively employed unless the bodily or
gans that have to handle them are
trained to their use. One of the best
rules that 1 have ever heard for the ac-
quirement of facility of speech is to make
use, by oral expression, of every new
word you learn, at the very first opportu-
nity and to continue to use 1t until it
springs of itself upon your lips when
the thought that it expresses comes into
your mind