USE OF WORDS

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26383, 30 March 1951, Page 8

USE OF WORDS

MORE DISCRIMINATION URGED ADDRESS BY MR G. W. SOUTHGATE ‘‘The Danger of Words,” was the subject of a talk given by the officer m charge of adult education at Canterbury University College (Mr G. W Southgate) to a meeting of the Christchurch Area Federation of Townswomen’s Guilds yesterday. “It we wish to be able to express a reasonable opinion on anything, let us first gather and sift all evidence that we, as private citizens, can secure,” Mr Southgate said. “This ■ will involve listening dispassionately to both sides of any question. It is only then that we can decide whether the evidence is sufficient to enable us to reach a reasonable decision. If it is not, let us withhold judgment, regarding the case as not proved.” Mr Southgate emphasised the necessity of distinguishing between fact, opinion, and bias. “I think to-day that too many of us are strongly biased one wav or the other. We interpret the little evidence that comes our way, as our bias dictates,” Mr Southgate said. Cantion Against Bias Assertions made by an observer with a bias must be treated with reserve. “They may be right, but they are more likely to be wrong, since strong feelings prevent most people from being accurate observers,” Mr Southgate said. “To-day, more than ever before, it is most important to be able to discover the writer’s and speaker’s purpose, for this largely determines what he will select to say, and how he will say it. It also has a bearing on the worth of what is said.” Mr Southgate compared the speech or writing of a scientist, a journalist, a parliamentary candidate, and a poet. "The scientist is concerned only with communicating facts to people who want only facts. His language is exact and uncoloured by feeling,” he said. “The journalist, who wishes to compel the attention of his readers, as well as to inform them, will usually present his facts in a language and style coloured by some feeling. The parliamentary candidate, whose success depends on his ability to sway opinion, and who therefore tends to place the rousing of emotions before the giving of facts, will use a large amount of emotionally coloured language. The poet chooses words to communicate feeling, and he will choose the language that seems to him to do this precisely and feelingly. “In any reading and listening to-day, the words that are most difficult for us to manage are those of writers and speakers like parliamentary candidates and journalists. Faced wifh the problem of addressing large numbers of people whose interest and goodwill it is important for them to win and hold as firmly as possible, they introduce emotion into apparently factual statements, and often it is not easy to grasp what they have actually stated.”