"O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death- When, however, a writer desires to lay stress on each one of a number of objects enumerated in succession, he separates the names of those objects by conjunctions. For example: "Or other worlds they seemed, or happy isles, Pleonastic adjectives. A common form of pleonasm consists in the accumulation of adjectives, particularly of those which express something implied in the noun. When Homer speaks of "wet waves," "white milk," he uses superfluous adjectives; for, as everybody knows, waves are always wet and milk is always white. "Thus, too, in our own national songs, Douglas is almost always the doughty Douglas; England is merry England; all the gold is red; and all the ladies are gay."3 In Homer and the old English ballads such expressions are, however, a natural part of the style, for the substantive and the "constant epithet" together express a single idea. In a work that professedly imitates the ballad or the Homeric style, such expressions are allowable; but in modern prose they seem affected. The charge of affectation may fairly be brought against authors with whom the sun is always "glorious," moonlight always "soft," snow always "feathery," groves always "shady," impudence always "bold," heroes always "noble." Authors of this class, not content with a single adjective, habitually 1 Milton Paradise Lost, book ii. line 620. 2 Ibid., book iii. line 567. 3 Macaulay: Lays of Ancient Rome; The Battle of the Lake Regillus, Preface. use two, or even three, as if they expected to make a unit by putting cipher after cipher. So irritating is this form of pleonasm that some critics have made war upon the adjective, as if it were a part of speech peculiarly liable to abuse. They would have a young writer strike out of his compositions every adjective, as other critics advise him to omit every passage which he particularly likes. "I remember, when I was young," says Sir Arthur Helps, "writing some paper – about sanitary matters I think it was and showing it to an older and much wiser friend. I dare say it was full of the exuberant faults of youthfulness. He said to me, 'My dear fellow, I foresee that this is not the only thing you will write. Let me give you a bit of advice. Whenever you write a sentence that particularly pleases you, cut it out." "】 Such counsels are grounded on the unwarranted assumption that a young writer either has no judgment or is more likely to be bombastic than to be tame. Undoubtedly a young writer should avoid tawdry epithets; but he should be at least equally on his guard against uninteresting tameness. Undoubtedly the judgment of a young writer is less trustworthy than that of a writer of experience. Undoubtedly a young writer should submit his compositions to a competent critic; but a competent critic knows that to counsel him to total abstinence from this or that part of speech is to teach him temperance in nothing It would be as wise to prohibit the use of figurative language because mixed metaphors are worse than none as to recommend the disuse of adjectives because they are often misused.2 1 Helps: Social Pressure, chap. viii. 2 In pueris oratio perfecta nec exigi nec sperari potest: melior autem indoles laeta generosique conatus et vel plura iusto concipiens interim spiritus.Quintilian: Inst. Orator. ii. iv. iv. VERBOSITY is perhaps the most objectionable form of redundancy, because it is the most difficult to cure. Verbosity pervades a sentence or a paragraph so Verbosity. thoroughly that no excision of words or clauses will avail: the only remedy is to recast the sentence or the paragraph. One form of verbosity appears in paraphrases of texts of Scripture and popular proverbs. Sometimes a paraphrase brings out the meaning of a pithy Paraphrases. saying; but usually, like the cramp-fish or torpedo, it "benumbs what it touches." Dr. Campbell cites from Dr. Clarke a paraphrase of the following text: "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock." 1 66 "Now," says Dr. Campbell, "let us hear the paraphrast: 'Wherefore he that shall not only hear and receive these my instructions, but also remember, and consider, and practise, and live according to them, such a man may be compared to one that builds his house upon a rock; for as a house founded upon a rock stands unshaken and firm against all the assaults of rains, and floods, and storms, so the man who, in his life and conversation, actually practises and obeys my instructions, will firmly resist all the temptations of the devil, the allurements of pleasure, and the terrors of persecution, and shall be able to stand in the day of judgment, and be rewarded of God." " 2 "I remember," says Matthew Arnold, "the relief with which, after long feeling the sway of Franklin's imperturbable commonsense, I came upon a project of his for a new version of the Book of Job, to replace the old version, the style of which, says Franklin, 1 Matthew vii. 24, 25. 2 Campbell: The Philosophy of Rhetoric, book iii. chap. ii. sect. ii. 6 . has become obsolete, and thence less agreeable. I give,' he con tinues, a few verses, which may serve as a sample of the kind of version I would recommend.' We all recollect the famous verse in our translation: Then Satan answered the Lord and said: "Doth Job fear God for nought?" Franklin makes this: 'Does Your Majesty imagine that Job's good conduct is the effect of mere personal attachment and affection?' I well remember how when first I read that, I drew a deep breath of relief, and said to myself: After all, there is a stretch of humanity beyond Franklin's victorious good sense!'" 1 Such paraphrases are common in religious verse. Read, for example, a passage quoted by Wordsworth from Dr. Johnson : "Turn on the prudent Ant thy heedless eyes, Amidst the drowsy charms of dull delight, Till Want now following, fraudulent and slow, Shall spring to seize thee, like an ambush'd foe." 2 "From this hubbub of words," says Wordsworth, "pass to the original. 'Go to the Ant, thou Sluggard, consider her ways, and 1 Matthew Arnold: Culture and Anarchy, chap. i. The whole of this remarkable translation, which served as part of a political squib and was classed by its author among "bagatelles," may be found in Franklin's Works, vol. ii. p. 166 (Sparks's edition). It may be questioned whether Franklin regarded the language he used as an improvement on the old version. Mr. Arnold takes Franklin very seriously. 2 Johnson: Paraphrase of Proverbs vi. 6-11. be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O Sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.' "1 Another example may be taken from Thomson: "Observe the rising lily's snowy grace, Observe the various vegetable race; They neither toil, nor spin, but careless grow, Yet see how warm they blush! how bright they glow! What king so shining! or what queen so fair! "2 Paraphrases of this character are, it is to be hoped, less frequent nowadays than they were a century ago; but they are still in favor with a certain class of preachers, clerical and lay, whether writing in prose or in verse. Another form of verbosity is the circumlocution (or periphrasis 3). Circumlocutions. Usually circumlocutions are circuitous ways of saying what might better be said directly. They sometimes arise from an effort to avoid the repetition of a word, sometimes from would-be wit, and sometimes from an attempt to elevate the style.1 The lamp of day, the fair sex, patrons of husbandry, the morning meal, the dental organs, are weak ways of designating “the sun," "woman," "farmers," "breakfast," "teeth.” "At the time of the Irish Famine, no clergyman could bring himself to say the word 'potato' in the pulpit. Preachers called it 'that root, upon which so many thousands of God's creatures depended for support, and which in His wise purposes had for a time ceased to flourish;' or spoke of 'that esculent succulent, the loss 1 Wordsworth: Prose Works; Of Poetic Diction. 2 James Thomson: A Paraphrase on the latter part of the Sixth Chapter of St. Matthew. 8 From Tepí, around, and ppáċew, to speak. 4 See pages 102-104. |