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CHAPTER VI

VARIETY

There is nothing so uninteresting as monotony - sameness in people, in music, in scenery bores us, and our attention wanders. In writing or in speaking, the person who says the unexpected thing, or the usual thing in an unexpected way, the person who affords variety, arouses and compels attention and interest. We say that such a one is original"; this means, at least in part, that he thinks for himself, sees sincerely, and relates what he sees to his own experience; and also that he has at command definite and varied ways of saying things. If we think we are not endowed with great originality," all the more carefully must we study variety in expression that we may be interesting.

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Mere variety is, of course, in itself uninteresting and useless, like a great junk heap. Each expression must fit the thought so perfectly that it seems the only right clothing for it. The best style is that which makes the reader conscious only of the thought. But before we can attain to this high skill in fitting word to idea and sentence form to thought, we must increase the possibility of choice among our resources; we must get a large stock of words and sentence forms and ways of developing ideas so that we may have them ready to fit any thought that we wish to express. Notice what variety Mrs. Mason and Stevenson use in the passages quoted on pages 49 and 51. This chapter is intended to help in furnishing materials and tools, with some practice in the art of fitting.

A. VARIETY IN WORDS

EXERCISE 161 - Oral

DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN SYNONYMS

Some time ago you tried an exercise in distinguishing the meaning of words. Review this (page 72). Look up the meanings of the following words; be ready to state the distinction between them and to illustrate each in a sentence.1

1. Reveal, disclose, uncover, discover.

2. Annoy, exasperate, irritate, displease, disgust, madden.
3. Increase, aggravate.

4. Delightful, enchanting, pleasing.

5. Seize, grasp, take, apprehend.

6. Residence, house, home, dwelling.

The English language consists of more than 400,000 words. A large proportion of these, however, are technical or out-of-date, and hence not ordinarily of interest. But even

1 Every one should learn how the unabridged dictionaries, particularly the Standard, present synonyms and antonyms. Following is a bibliography of the subject: Crabbe, George: English Synonyms Explained in Alphabetical Order. New ed., Harper, 1892. $1.25. [Contains quotations illustrating the use of the words listed.] Fallows, Samuel: Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms. Revell, 1886. $1.00. [Contains in an appendix: Briticisms and Americanisms, prepositions discriminated, foreign phrases, list of abbreviations, colloquial phrases, and homonyms.]

Fernald, J. C.: English Synonyms and Antonyms; with notes on the correct use of prepositions. Funk & Wagnalls, 1896. $1.50.

March, F. A.: A Thesaurus Dictionary of the English Language. Historical Publishing Co., 1902. $12.00. [This is a dictionary of synonyms, antonyms, idioms, foreign phrases, and pronunciations.]

Roget, P. M.: Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases. New ed., Crowell, 1879. $1.50. [Contains extended lists of homonyms and antonyms.]

Smith, C. J.: Synonyms Discriminated. New ed., Holt, 1896. $2.00. [Discriminates more closely than others as to the use of words. Quotations from standard writers.]

Soule, Richard: Dictionary of English Synonyms and Synonymous Parallel Expressions. New ed., Lippincott, 1892. $2.00.

so, there yet remains a vast store hardly touched by most of us. The various estimates of the vocabularies of men are frequently misleading in that they do not distinguish the three vocabularies that every one has. These are a vocabulary of words that every one understands; another, within the first, of words used in speaking; and a third, largely overlapping the second, of words used in writing. What are five words that you use freely in talking but never write? What are five words that you might use in writing but never speak?

To increase our own power, then, we must do three things: (1) increase the number of words in our vocabularies, (2) use the words of one vocabulary freely in the others, and (3) understand exactly what the words mean and suggest. In a sense, the first statement alone includes the other two, for we may increase two of our vocabularies by borrowing from the largest and from each other, as well as by including words unknown before, and, of course, we are not really masters over words until we know exactly what they mean and suggest.

Words usually suggest more than they mean. Originally two words may have meant the same thing; but for some reason or other, custom associates one with formal, dignified, or technical language, the other with homely talk. After a while, as their suggestions become so different, it is impossible to interchange the synonyms. Examples are: paternal and fatherly; domicile and home; Sabbath, Lord's Day, and Sunday; corpus and body. What a different suggestion, even though the meaning be unchanged, comes from substituting in a sentence one of these words for its synonym! Note, too, the gain or loss of suggestion resulting from a change of "The Ancient Mariner" and "To a Waterfowl" to "The Old Sailor" and "To a Wild Goose."

It is good taste that must guide one in the selection of a word with the right suggestion, and good taste results largely from taking notice of the words used by good writers and speakers. The greatest danger of violating good taste in this matter lies in the inclination of some writers to use words that are too formal for common things. This you may see in the sentence "After an elegant repast had been served by our hostess and disposed of, we dispersed to our residences and retired to our slumbers," where the writer means simply "After we had enjoyed the supper served by our hostess, we went home to bed."

Each one of us is more likely to use too few different words than to use too many; we all get into ruts of speech, from which only he who cares and cares constantly will get out. To increase our power of expression we must increase the number of our servants, and, what is here of as much importance, we must use them so freely that they are constantly ready for our commands.

That you may increase your store of words, you must acquire an interest in them. When you find in your reading a passage that seems particularly effective, stop occasionally and consider exactly what every unusual or significant word means and why the author used precisely that word in that place. Also, you must learn to use the unabridged dictionary. In it you will find not only definitions of a word, but its derivation and illustrations of its uses. These illustrative passages should give not only the applied meaning but also the peculiar suggestion of the word. The mastery of this, the hardest thing in diction to learn, is called good taste. It results from much reading in the works of men who themselves have good taste, and from some critical observation as suggested in these paragraphs.

To increase your vocabularies of expression, however, you must do more than observe words and learn their definitions. You must use the new or unusual word at every opportunity, - even more, you must make opportunities for using the word and then use it.. Drag it into your talk, even though at first this causes you some embarrassment. Do it again and again. The embarrassment will very rapidly disappear, and, stranger still, the word will begin to occur in your speech almost without your knowing it. This possession of words will not result, however, unless you consciously try to use them repeatedly. The addition of only one new word a day or even one a week would in a year make a marked difference in your vocabulary.

Besides speaking the new words, write them. You need them in both vocabularies. Using the list from your note-book, write sentences that demand the various words. Do this over and over, partly trying to express ideas of your own that are worth while, but chiefly seeking a mastery over new tools. And whenever one of these new words tries to slip into a sentence that you are making, write it down, even though you discard it in the revision. New words are timid and need encouragement. Give them work, and they will develop into ready and useful helpers.

If you are studying a foreign language, use the opportunities which translation affords for careful discrimination in words. The student who has only one English equivalent for every foreign word will not only produce wooden and absurd translations but will gain no added insight into his own language. Such a mechanical student was the boy who translated insano incensus amore "burned by a crazy love." On the other hand, a student who has gained a sense or feeling for words and meaning finds that a word in the foreign

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