CAVEMAN’S INFLUENCE ON SPEECH

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 81, 6 April 1938, Page 13

CAVEMAN’S INFLUENCE ON SPEECH

was good enough for the caveman is good enough for moderns of 1938—at least, so it would seem on examination of figures of speech employed based on caveman existence. Mr. William Hawley Davis, Professor of English at Stanford University and editor of the Stanford University Press, has a collection of nearly 8,000 figures of speech that are “part and parcel” of everyone's vocabulary. “A surprising revelation made by a collection of everyday figures of speech,” Professor Davis said, “is that existence on the cavemen level is still so real to average persons. To the caveman, a 'bone of contention’ and 'cut-throat competition* meant more than they do to us; but we still use each freely. Literally, as we do figuratively, the caveman ‘wielded a big stick,’ ‘left no stone unturned,’ •kept an ear to the ground,’ ‘found ‘a bird in the hand worth two in the bush,’ ‘killed two birds with one stone,’ ‘let sleeping dogs lie,’ avoided •the dirty end of the stick,* caught culprits ‘red-handed,’ ‘vaulted over’ some difficulty, and ‘fell into a pit of his own digging.' ”

“In a similar way,” he maintained, “people still generally employ a large Humber of figures deriving irom horses. These include ‘raring to go,’ •prick up his ears,’ ‘hamstring,’ ‘take the bit in his teeth,’ and the cautions •rot to look a gift horse in the mouth,* and ‘not to swap horses while crossing a stream.’ ”

Other figures, Professor Davis continued, originated in city life. “Right down our alley,” “just around the corner,” “ground floor,” “window dressing,” “and man in the street” are examples. He explained that we preserve the notion of a flat earth by using the expressions “ends of the earth,” "jump-ir.g-off place,” “into the abyss,” “down

Colourful Figures

below,” and the “four corners of the globe.” The professor said he regards figures of speech as “indirect, but forceful, means of communication, eoch involving a resemblance between the point we are making and some matter usually more vivid in the recollection or the imagination of a speaker and hearer.” “Our neck of the woods,” “take to the tall timber,” “stump the district,” “stake out a claim,” “have him over a barrel,” “lift himself with his own bc-ot-straps,” “land-office business,” “grubstake,” “strike it rich,” and “make one's pile” were provided by American pioneer life. Professor Davis explained. He declared that a study of figures of speech emphasises the continually changing character of everyday speech. Some students, he said, “know ‘hook, line and sinker’ but do not know ‘lock, stock and barrel.’ Such expressions as ‘flash in the pan,’ ‘spike his guns’ or even ‘load to the muzzle’ will become as vague and colourless as ‘upshot,’ ‘other side of the shield’ and ‘hoist with his own petard’ already are.” Many expressions have changed in meaning, Professor Davis added. “ ‘Up in the air’ used to be a term of disapproval, as did ‘listening in.’ ‘Step on it’ used to have about the same meaning as ‘stamp it out’; it now has quite another.” A few figures of speech have, to use an old lumberman’s term, “stumped” Professor Davis. He welcomes help in finding the origin of such figures as “little end of the horn,” “not on your tintype,” “get down to brass tacks,” “galley-west” and “talking turkey.” Professor Davis is chiefly interested in the origin of figures of speech; he believes that they show the content of the social mind, and tend to make him understand people better.