TRUTH OR GRAMMAR

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 108, 9 May 1930, Page 11

TRUTH OR GRAMMAR

(To the Editor)

Sir, —In your leader last --aught .you touch up'o'ri a'point ef granfthJ ar:"' f'Mr. MacPonald said with a happy broach of grammar which was amply redeemed, if it required any redemption, by-its candour, our Navy is.-'.vs.'" Mr. MacDonald appears to. have..broken a..cardinal mle r - :but he-is'tfupporfjell-by a high autliority on grammar, who gives as an instance Charles the Second's expression'when. a portait of himself was unexpectedly shown-' '• to him, "That's -inc." The grammarian holds that the expression was not' :orily the right one but also good grammar. .It would have boo,!! -wrong foi":Gha,rles.. to say, "That is I," for it would'-not have expressed' his.thb'ught ami.feeling.; On the other'hand; wheY the Son' of Man. said, "It is I;" .bo other form of 'words could have carried the sense '.of-majesty and authority befitting the speaker and the occasion. . - - -; .-■.. ", ■ Mr; MaeDonald. might have expressed the idea in many ways,'but in none ..of. them with the same aptness; clearness;and force. "Our Navy-is we-, would be ridiculous,- and-"-.W.Q-arc our-.Navy?;'; would moaji something, quite different;, and all rbund-abpiit expressions f.wpuld • lack terseness arid effectiveness. ."""'"■; ' The principle is;that as languagois a vehicle of. communication the rules jro.' framed to ensure correct communca^ion.^ but the rules are,.guitles not )p,ws/ahd if any rule. some,time^7?taMs:;"fn, ;tlio way Of trite Communication.ftnesceptiqil must be.made".".'.Tlio:gr'aminariajO'efefr red to holds, and:J.think1 rightly.,"that such' an expression iis. Mr. iMcppJiald's is' a proper exception".'. .'ihe.'..exp_lan'a'tiftii seems to:i)e..tiraX,"ine >';aHd'.".u_s,'.';be-, sides being ■t!i.e.';obje,ctivd;casfe¥.6f l "'r.l'.'.. and "we,'' h.aye/a'p.Cjuirecl.a.m.Qfc-. jiitiy mate aiid\ 'familiar."';ineflniiigy...whielt necessitates' theiv. use..at .'c'ertaui'.'iimca. and places Yin "disregard" .o;f -.'£he/.Jgrairi:: niatical .r.Ulp.'-.-. , .''."■..'',.'.."'.'-~'^.'~^.\''....'. A stoi-y is told: of the"great,.Beiiijet, of New .YoiOc,; to . whom ,a m a" applied for the pusitioiL'.'of.rc.pdr.ter. ( Tho'appli-" cant: had ivjvdn.derjul.lviip,\yl.cdge,of...tlia city audits citizen's. aiili"sei:\fi.ees,.'but..irpwas weak oh "grammar.:. Eehiiet decidei to take.'him'on; Jiis e.ditbrfprotested," '' But Ids. grammar,.' 5ir."".... B.erihet." re-, plied: "Damn"gr.ammar.j giy"e]us<faets. | 7th May. ."'.-. :.'. ..,".' . :;'\;'-i. '/"'....,.L..' " ' v ~ " \:\ :f\:]:.:;:'R.cs:': , [The context, : of -Mr.- Ma.ePoli.alcli's.-.nei marks gives him.^.a- better.defence;thau that supplied by. -our ..correspondent,. What he. .said ,w.as:;..;"Our Navy- is 'no mere' Superfluity..;, to. us.. It IS The pedantry-:which might have, objected to the secondVsentence standLngalono must surely recognise that, as iui" echo of the grammatical''us" ia the'-previ-ous sentence,-"the"second- '^tls?- ""wasfully justified: v&cther "otherwise" gram^' matical or inofc.—Ed.} - ■■;-:": -!'-<--■- -'■-^'■■■■^