Rhetoric is the study of language with a view to obtaining some special
effect in the communication of ideas or feelings, such as
picturesqueness in description, vivacity in narration, lucidity in
exposition, vehemence in persuasion, or literary charm. Some of these
ends are often gained in spite of faulty syntax or faulty logic; but
since the few whom bad grammar saddens or incoherent arguments divert
are not carried away, as they else might be, by an unsophisticated
orator, Grammar and Logic are necessary to the perfection of Rhetoric.
Not that Rhetoric is in bondage to those other sciences; for foreign
idioms and such figures as the ellipsis, the anacoluthon, the oxymoron,
the hyperbole, and violent inversions have their place in the
magnificent style; but authors unacquainted with Grammar and Logic are
not likely to place such figures well and wisely. Indeed, common idioms,
though both grammatically and rhetorically justifiable, both correct and
effective, often seem illogical. 'To fall asleep,' for example, is a
perfect English phrase; yet if we examine severally the words it
consists of, it may seem strange that their combination should mean
anything at all.
But Logic only studies language so far as necessary in order to state,
understand, and check the evidence and reasonings that are usually
embodied in language. And as long as meanings are clear, good Logic is
compatible with false concords and inelegance of style.
§ 3. Terms are either Simple or Composite: that is to say, they may
consist either of a single word, as 'Chaucer,' 'civilisation'; or of
more than one, as 'the father of English poetry,' or 'modern civilised
nations.' Logicians classify words according to their uses in forming
propositions; or, rather, they classify the uses of words as terms, not
the words themselves; for the same word may fall into different classes
of terms according to the way in which it is used. (Cf. Mr. Alfred
Sidgwick's _Distinction and the Criticism of Beliefs_, chap. xiv.)
Thus words are classified as Categorematic or Syncategorematic. A word
is Categorematic if used singly as a term without the support of other
words: it is Syncategorematic when joined with other words in order to
constitute the subject or predicate of a proposition. If we say _Venus
is a planet whose orbit is inside the Earth's_, the subject, 'Venus,'
is a word used categorematically as a simple term; the predicate is a
composite term whose constituent words (whether substantive, relative,
verb, or preposition) are used syncategorematically.
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