Sec. 7. There seem to be several causes for this exceptional superiority
of certain long words. We may ascribe it partly to the fact that a
voluminous, mouth-filling epithet is, by its very size, suggestive of
largeness or strength; witness the immense pomposity of sesquipedalian
verbiage: and when great power or intensity has to be suggested, this
association of ideas aids the effect. A further cause may be that a
word of several syllables admits of more emphatic articulation; and as
emphatic articulation is a sign of emotion, the unusual impressiveness
of the thing named is implied by it. Yet another cause is that a long
word (of which the latter syllables are generally inferred as soon as
the first are spoken) allows the hearer's consciousness a longer time to
dwell upon the quality predicated; and where, as in the above cases, it
is to this predicated quality that the entire attention is called, an
advantage results from keeping it before the mind for an appreciable
time. The reasons which we have given for preferring short words
evidently do not hold here. So that to make our generalization quite
correct we must say, that while in certain sentences expressing strong
feeling, the word which more especially implies that feeling may often
with advantage be a many-syllabled or Latin one; in the immense majority
of cases, each word serving but as a step to the idea embodied by the
whole sentence, should, if possible, be a one-syllabled or Saxon one.
Sec. 8. Once more, that frequent cause of strength in Saxon and other
primitive words-their imitative character may be similarly resolved into
the more general cause. Both those directly imitative, as _splash, bang,
whiz, roar,_ &c., and those analogically imitative, as _rough, smooth,
keen, blunt, thin, hard, crag,_ &c., have a greater or less likeness to
the things symbolized; and by making on the senses impressions allied to
the ideas to be called up, they save part of the effort needed to call
up such ideas, and leave more attention for the ideas themselves.
Sec. 9. The economy of the recipient's mental energy, into which are thus
resolvable the several causes of the strength of Saxon English, may
equally be traced in the superiority of specific over generic words.
That concrete terms produce more vivid impressions than abstract ones,
and should, when possible, be used instead, is a thorough maxim of
composition. As Dr. Campbell says, "The more general the terms are, the
picture is the fainter; the more special they are, 'tis the brighter."
We should avoid such a sentence as:--"In proportion as the manners,
customs, and amusements of a nation are cruel and barbarous, the
regulations of their penal code will be severe." And in place of it we
should write:--"In proportion as men delight in battles, bull-fights,
and combats of gladiators, will they punish by hanging, burning, and the
rack."
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