Evening star., 1932-01-26
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Our interest in all this lies mainly
with a sentence from our correspond
! ent's letter in which he states we
| found an abundance Of high AUTHORITY
| for the usages," etc.
It is amazing to one who has not
made the search to discover how much
really high authority there Is Tor Varl-
GUS usages which off hand may STRIKE
a reader or hearer as poor or TO Dc
condemned wholly as wrong.
Split infinitives, for instance, often
inveighed against, are used by the best
writer's who ever wrote whenever they
wish to emphasize a particular word
! The writer here recalls most inter-
esting article which he read many years
ago in which many striking examples
| Of the use of the split infinitlVe by
Woodrow Wilson, a master OF a classic
sort of English style, were given, to-
gether with his favCrite use of par
ticiple to finish sentence with. (Heh
! hehD
All this comes around to q favorite
theme with uS-that language Is FOL
| the user. not the user for language
Words are things-things to express
| thoughts. That is their basic lnten-
ton. In the course OF the years they
have come to express many a playful
| thing in which thought Is not espe-
cially defined but their basic intention
remains, nevertheless.
1t is the thought process, and the
thought process alone, which gives
words their power. With sounds we dc
marvels. The animals talk with each
other, too, in their way There can be
| little doubt that every species has its
Language" but the thoughts which
| they so express are limited to funda-
mental necessities.
Cats have expressions (words, If you
Willis which express their anger. Squir-
rels clearly resent human beings, dogs
and cats, and express this resentment
or anger by a curious chattering noise
Monkeys sometimes make almost the
same noise when offended at certain
color
The thoughts of human beings, COM
pared with the thoughts of cats
monkeys. squirrels, dogs, are so tre-
menGously complex that there is nc
comparison at all. A 6-year-old child
is as far ahead of a monkey in this
respect as the monk is superior to 9
molluSc.
Human thoughts are so many and
varied that there is no enumerating
them. Our wants are multitudinouS
and each want, physical as we'll as
mental spiritual as well as mental and
physical, calls for words to help ex-
press it.
The great satisfaction of language
1t sometimes seems, is that with all Its
ability it perforce leaves something
yet to be expressed. No matter how well
one may understand words and their
uses, no matter how much a master OF
the use of the language he may be, he
still will feel in the depth OF his being
that something has escaped him which
he may yet capture. Verb form split
in order to emphasize the chance which
remains of realizing the ultimate ex-
pression)
There Is no great literature from
which the good reader does not arise
with wistful feeling that, despite It's
greatness, certain something Is lack
ing. Perhaps some one In the future
will find the missing thought, the pure
idea, which will turn our greatest
dreams to reality. This is the hope of
mankind, and it is thrilling to all of
us to think that if this should come
true 1t will come true through the
medium Of words. There is no other
way. We cannot think without words.
Without words, with all their implica-
tions-implication greater than their
very meanings-We should know little
more than physical sensations. Words
are too precious to permit ourselves to
be offended easily at those we do not
like. Every ugly duckling word may
turn out to be beautiful swan,