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Article THE USE AND ABUSE OF SPEECH. ← Page 2 of 4 →
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The Use And Abuse Of Speech.
For my part , I am sufficiently assured they have no sound but , what hath its proper meaning , and is well understood among themselves : for , not to argue from , the opinion , that Nature hath made nothing in vain , whoever hath heard a rook alarm his neighbours o . n the apprehension of danger , or the different sounds made use of by the hen , when she-would summon her chickens to their foodor warn them to
, shun an approaching hawk , must conclude that they have sufficient : , methods to convey the ideas of deli ght and terror to each other , nay , and to those of our species who live much among them , and ( if I maybe allowed the phrase ) converse intimatel y with them . Thc experienced huntsman knows , by the different notes of-the dogs , whether the game be fox or hare which they pursue . In short , a man who should
be thrown among a nation of people whose language he , understood not one word of , mi ght as rationall y conclude that they had none , and all that seemed such in them was nothing more than certain inarticu-. late accidental sounds , without any meaning , as he might those of the beasts to be so from the same reason . But though the very gift of speech itself doth not essentialldistinguish us from our
fellowy inhabitants of this globe , yet the manner in which we emplo y it , I , think , does ; or , in other words , though the use of speech be not peculiar to man , I believe the abuse of it is . Mr . Locke , in his chapter of The Remedies of the Abuse of Words , says , " That whoever shall consider " the errors and obscurity , the mistakes and confusion that are spread " in the-world by an ill use of words , will find-some reason to doubt
" whether language , as it has been employed , has contributed more " to the improvement or hindrance of knowledge amongst mankind . " I am inclined to believe , that if we could by a kind of chemical operation separate those parts of our ordinary conversation , which either leave any idea in the mind of the speaker , or convey any to that of the hearer , from those which do not , the former would be found scarce to bear the proportion of a tenth part to the latter .
To instance , first , in compliments , among the civilized part of mankind what a number of words hath the introduction of this custom stripped of the ideas , and in a manner annihilated ? What idea hath any man in his head , when he says to another , Sir , I am your most obedient humble servant : I am heartily glad to see you : How does your good family ? I am heartily sorry to hear of the death of your
father , & c . I believe there is scarce any well-bred man but hath thrown away half the words of his language in this manner ; nor is there any man either weak enough to intend or to receive flattery by this method . When one gentleman tells another he is His most obedient servant , it signifies no more , nor is any more understood b y it , than if he had said Barababathaor any other soundwhich in no
, , language that we know of has any meaning . A second way of squandering words in conversation , is the art of adorning your speech ( as some imagine the ancient Greeks to have done their language ) with expletives . This is a faculty which I have known some men possess in so eminent a degree , that they might themselves be properly called expletives in conversation . . A third way , and ' less innocent than any
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Use And Abuse Of Speech.
For my part , I am sufficiently assured they have no sound but , what hath its proper meaning , and is well understood among themselves : for , not to argue from , the opinion , that Nature hath made nothing in vain , whoever hath heard a rook alarm his neighbours o . n the apprehension of danger , or the different sounds made use of by the hen , when she-would summon her chickens to their foodor warn them to
, shun an approaching hawk , must conclude that they have sufficient : , methods to convey the ideas of deli ght and terror to each other , nay , and to those of our species who live much among them , and ( if I maybe allowed the phrase ) converse intimatel y with them . Thc experienced huntsman knows , by the different notes of-the dogs , whether the game be fox or hare which they pursue . In short , a man who should
be thrown among a nation of people whose language he , understood not one word of , mi ght as rationall y conclude that they had none , and all that seemed such in them was nothing more than certain inarticu-. late accidental sounds , without any meaning , as he might those of the beasts to be so from the same reason . But though the very gift of speech itself doth not essentialldistinguish us from our
fellowy inhabitants of this globe , yet the manner in which we emplo y it , I , think , does ; or , in other words , though the use of speech be not peculiar to man , I believe the abuse of it is . Mr . Locke , in his chapter of The Remedies of the Abuse of Words , says , " That whoever shall consider " the errors and obscurity , the mistakes and confusion that are spread " in the-world by an ill use of words , will find-some reason to doubt
" whether language , as it has been employed , has contributed more " to the improvement or hindrance of knowledge amongst mankind . " I am inclined to believe , that if we could by a kind of chemical operation separate those parts of our ordinary conversation , which either leave any idea in the mind of the speaker , or convey any to that of the hearer , from those which do not , the former would be found scarce to bear the proportion of a tenth part to the latter .
To instance , first , in compliments , among the civilized part of mankind what a number of words hath the introduction of this custom stripped of the ideas , and in a manner annihilated ? What idea hath any man in his head , when he says to another , Sir , I am your most obedient humble servant : I am heartily glad to see you : How does your good family ? I am heartily sorry to hear of the death of your
father , & c . I believe there is scarce any well-bred man but hath thrown away half the words of his language in this manner ; nor is there any man either weak enough to intend or to receive flattery by this method . When one gentleman tells another he is His most obedient servant , it signifies no more , nor is any more understood b y it , than if he had said Barababathaor any other soundwhich in no
, , language that we know of has any meaning . A second way of squandering words in conversation , is the art of adorning your speech ( as some imagine the ancient Greeks to have done their language ) with expletives . This is a faculty which I have known some men possess in so eminent a degree , that they might themselves be properly called expletives in conversation . . A third way , and ' less innocent than any