OUR MOTHER TONGUE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22540, 3 October 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR MOTHER TONGUE

CCOONOROUS." This is stressed on the " nor," with the long sound as in " bore," and the first o is short, as in " not " or " obscure." Daniel Jones does record the pronunciation with stress on " son," but this is not in accordance with either tradition or the best usage. Words in " orous " form a rather puzzling little group, for " decorous " is allowed to be stressed on either the first or the second syllable, " timorous " must be stressed on the first and so must " odorous," though Milton rather pedantically stressed it on the " dor " in " Paradise Lost." " Casualty." A correspondent has hoard this pronounced with the "ca" long, as in " case," and asks about it. The first a is short, as in " as," the stress is on the " cas '' and tho " sn " is allowed by authorities to be sounded ■with n. clear z, as " zew," or with zh. the sound of s in " measure." " Usual " is in the same boat, both pronunciations being allowed, but " uzhle," with no true vowel between the s and the 1, is a vulgarism. " Obsequies." This is " obsiquiz," with stress on " ob." Unstressed e is generally pronounced as i, as in "ticket" or "secure," naturally, for the sound of long e in English is normally an i, as wo see in, for example. " machine," where tho " chine " is in English spelt " sheen." Respectably Old " Gorse." Reverting to my previous note on " goss " for " gorse," a correspondent sends mo a quotation from " Tho Tempest " (Pocket Falstaff Edition), " pricking goss and thorns," which shows that tho variant is respectably old. In Anglo-Saxon tho form was " gorst " and it was thus written till tho early seventeenth century, when " goss " or " gosso " (which is what Shakespeare wrote) became the common form, and this maintained itself till about tho end of tho eighteenth century. In Cowper (1784) it is still " goss!" From that time " gorse " has held the field. Tho surnames Gorst, Gosso and Goss remain as monuments of this history. I have been pressed to comment as severely ns I know how on " literally " in tho expression " it is literally a bloodless argument," meaning an unfeeling or cold-blooded argument, quoted from a leading article in a dnilj r newspaper. There aro reasons why I cannot be as severe as either my correspondent or I could wish, but I may say that " literally " is hero dreadfully abused, and in a manner which is all too common. Literally, quito literally, a bloodless argument can only mean one which has no blood in its veins, and that is nonsense. " Literally " is used properly only when tho writer means to emphasise that ho is using a word in its literal as distinguished from its figurative or metaphorical sense. Thus a man may properly be said " literally to havo flown to tho rescue of another " when ho has made tho journey in an aeroplane, for " fly" in the sense of " haste " was established long before the aoroplane was invented, so that there would bo ambiguity if " literally " were not used hero. My correspondent has even read of vessels being berthed " literally at a

Random Notes — No. xlvii.

By PROFESSOR ARNOLD WALL

man's doorstep." Let this abuse cease at once is my prayer, and I only wish I could make it an order. I have been appealed to for a decision on the question whether XXX is a word or not in such a sentence as " send me a barrel of XXX stout." This is an easy one, for it is obvious that XXX is here an adjective. A label like this, which is a mere arbitrary sign, with no intrinsic meaning of its own, when it is in repose on its bottle or barrel, is not a word any more than the fox terrier on an H.M.V. record is a word, but as soon as it is incorporated in a sentence, as above, it comes to life and becomes a word. A Similar Case An exactly similar case is 3x, as used by anglers for a particular grade of cast; another is A 1 in "A 1 population "; and another is C«1 in "C 3 intelligence in all these cases the label, unmeaning in itself, becomes an ordinary adjective. This does not, of course, refer to abbreviations of actual words, like N. 8., which are in a different class altogether. " The ones." There is a perfectly correct use of this, as in " those are tho ones I want," but in " the ones whose acts are blamcable," which was collected for me from a newspaper, it is not idiomatic English. " Tho persons," " the people " or simply " those " would be proper here. "Vogue words." This is Fowler's term for those words which, from time to time, become for many writers and speakers a perfect obsession, such ns—to take a correspondent's examples —" spectacular," " amazing," " prepossessing," and I will add my own particular bugbear, " absolutely," whose vogue has now lasted for a whole generation. Many people seem to be unable to say anything at all without using this word, which is called upon to act as a general amplifier, intensifier and emphasiser. "Absolutely " None Much fun has been poked at it, but lias this had any effect? "Absolutely " none. I nm inclined to be lenient with " spectacular," for, though it is undoubtedly overworked, it does say a lot in a small space. "A,i he was known." This represents a futile attempt to avoid a real difficulty. A person is " known as" So and So, nnd tho full expression would bo " as he was known as," which we feel to bo intolerable. "As he was called " will sometimes fill the hill, but not in all cases. It seems clumsy to say " by which name ho was known," yet something like this is demanded. "Any sort or kind." This is a case of Pleonasm, or " saying too much," nnd is treated by Fowler under this head. Ho classes it with "if and when," " unless and until," " save and except " and " in any shape or form," and I agree with him when he says " they are repeated with less nnd less of impressiveness until they end by boring instead of striking tho hearer.'' Tho deceptive " whom." An example is "a firm of carriers whom the union alleges dismissed a number of drivers." This is what is called a " mixed " construction, tho writer having fatally hesitated between two different forms, in this case between " who, the union alleges," nnd " whom the union nllcges to have dismissed." It is a result of mere befuddlement, and what is wanted is nioro brains.