The Grammar of English Grammars Part 181

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--The p.r.o.nunciation of the English language is confessedly very difficult to be mastered. Its rules and their exceptions are so numerous, that few become thoroughly acquainted with any general system of them. Nor, among the different systems which have been published, is there any which is worthy in all respects to be accounted a STANDARD. And, if we appeal to custom, the custom even of the best speakers is far from an entire uniformity. Perhaps the most popular directory on this subject is Walker's Critical p.r.o.nouncing Dictionary. The "Principles of English p.r.o.nunciation,"

which this author has furnished, occupy fifty-six closely-printed octavo pages, and are still insufficient for the purpose of teaching our orthoepy by rule. They are, however, highly valuable, and ought to be consulted by every one who wishes to be master of this subject. In its vocabulary, or stock of words, this Dictionary is likewise deficient. Other lexicographers have produced several later works, of high value to the student; and, though no one has treated the subject of p.r.o.nunciation so elaborately as did Walker, some may have given the results of their diligence in a form more useful to the generality of their consulters. Among the good ones, is the Universal and Critical Dictionary of Joseph E. Worcester.

OBS. 2.--Our modern accentuation of Greek or Latin words is regulated almost wholly by the noted rule of Sanctius, which Walker has copied and Englished in the Introduction to his Key, and of which the following is a new version or paraphrase, never before printed:

RULE FOR THE ACCENTING OF LATIN.

_One_ syllable has stress of course, And words of _two_ the _first_ enforce; In _longer_ words the _penult_ guides, Its _quant.i.ty_ the point decides; If _long_, 'tis _there_ the accent's due, If _short_, accent the _last but two_; For accent, in a Latin word, Should ne'er go higher than the third.

This rule, or the substance of it, has become very important by long and extensive use; but it should be observed, that stress on monosyllables is more properly _emphasis_ than _accent_; and that, in English, the accent governs quant.i.ty, rather than quant.i.ty the accent.

SECTION III.--OF ELOCUTION.

Elocution is the graceful utterance of words that are arranged into sentences, and that form discourse.

Elocution requires a knowledge, and right application, of emphasis, pauses, inflections, and tones.

ARTICLE I--OF EMPHASIS.

EMPHASIS is the peculiar stress of voice which we lay upon some particular word or words in a sentence, which are thereby distinguished from the rest as being more especially significant.[473]

As accent enforces a syllable, and gives character to a word; so emphasis distinguishes a word, and often determines the import of a sentence. The right placing of accent, in the utterance of words, is therefore not more important, than the right placing of emphasis, in the utterance of sentences. If no emphasis be used, discourse becomes vapid and inane; if no accent, words can hardly be recognized as English.

"Emphasis, besides its other offices, is the great regulator of quant.i.ty.

Though the quant.i.ty of our syllable is fixed, in words separately p.r.o.nounced, yet it is mutable, when [the] words are [ar]ranged in[to]

sentences; the long being changed into short, the short into long, according to the importance of the words with regard to meaning: and, as it is by emphasis only, that the meaning can be pointed out, emphasis must be the regulator of the quant.i.ty."--_L. Murray's Gram._, p. 246.[474]

"Emphasis changes, not only the quant.i.ty of words and syllables, but also, in particular cases, the sent of the accent. This is demonstrable from the following examples: 'He shall _in_crease, but I shall _de_crease.' 'There is a difference between giving and _for_giving.' 'In this species of composition, _plaus_ibility is much more essential than _prob_ability.' In these examples, the emphasis requires the accent to be placed on syllables to which it does not commonly belong."--_Ib._, p. 247.

In order to know what words are to be made emphatic, the speaker or reader must give constant heed to _the sense_ of what he utters; his only sure guide, in this matter, being a just conception of the force and spirit of the sentiment which he is about to p.r.o.nounce. He must also guard against the error of multiplying emphatic words too much; for, to overdo in this way, defeats the very purpose for which emphasis is used. To manage this stress with exact propriety, is therefore one of the surest evidences both of a quick understanding, and of a delicate and just taste.

ARTICLE II.--OF PAUSES.

Pauses are cessations in utterance, which serve equally to relieve the speaker, and to render language intelligible and pleasing.

Pauses are of three kinds: first, _distinctive_ or _sentential_ pauses,--such as form the divisions required by the sense; secondly, _emphatic_ or _rhetorical_ pauses,--such as particularly call the hearer's attention to something which has been, or is about to be, uttered; and lastly, _poetical_ or _harmonic_ pauses,--such as are peculiar to the utterance of metrical compositions.

The duration of the distinctive pauses should be proportionate to the degree of connexion between the parts of the discourse. The shortest are long enough for the taking of some breath; and it is proper, thus to relieve the voice at every stop, if needful. This we may do, slightly at a comma, more leisurely at a semicolon, still more so at a colon, and completely at a period.

Pauses, whether in reading or in public discourse, ought always to be formed after the manner in which we naturally form them in ordinary, sensible conversation; and not after the stiff, artificial manner which many acquire at school, by a mere mechanical attention to the common punctuation.

Forced, unintentional pauses, which accidentally divide words that ought to be spoken in close connexion, are always disagreeable; and, whether they arise from exhaustion of breath, from a habit of faltering, or from unacquaintance with the text, they are errors of a kind utterly incompatible with graceful elocution.

Emphatic or rhetorical pauses, the kind least frequently used, may be made immediately before, or immediately after, something which the speaker thinks particularly important, and on which he would fix the attention of his audience. Their effect is similar to that of a strong emphasis; and, like this, they must not be employed too often.

The harmonic pauses, or those which are peculiar to poetry, are of three kinds: the _final pause_, which marks the end of each line; the _caesural_ or _divisional pause_, which commonly divides the line near the middle; and the _minor rests_, or _demi-caesuras_, which often divide it still further.

In the reading of poetry, these pauses ought to be observed, as well as those which have reference to the sense; for, to read verse exactly as if it were prose, will often rob it of what chiefly distinguishes it from prose. Yet, at the same time, all appearance of singsong, or affected tone, ought to be carefully guarded against.

ARTICLE III.--OF INFLECTIONS.

INFLECTIONS are those peculiar variations of the human voice, by which a continuous sound is made to pa.s.s from one note, key, or pitch, into an other. The pa.s.sage of the voice from a lower to a higher or shriller note, is called the _rising_ or _upward_ inflection. The pa.s.sage of the voice from a higher to a lower or graver note, is called tbe _falling_ or _downward_ inflection. These two opposite inflections may be heard in the following examples: 1. The rising, "Do you mean to _go_?" 2. The falling, "_When_ will you _g_?"

In general, questions that may be answered by _yes_ or _no_, require the rising inflection; while those which demand any other answer, must be uttered with the falling inflection. These slides of the voice are not commonly marked in writing, or in our printed books; but, when there is occasion to note them, we apply the acute accent to the former, and the grave accent to the latter.[475]

A union of these two inflections upon the same syllable, is called a _circ.u.mflex_, a _wave_, or a "_circ.u.mflex inflection_." When the slide is first downward and then upward, it is called the _rising circ.u.mflex_, or "the _gravo-acute circ.u.mflex_;" when first upward and then downward, it is denominated the _falling circ.u.mflex_, or "the _acuto-grave circ.u.mflex_." Of these complex inflections of the voice, the emphatic words in the following sentences may be uttered as examples: "And it shall go _h~ard_ but I will _se_ the information."--"_o_! but he _pa~used_ upon the brink."

When a pa.s.sage is read without any inflection, the words are uttered in what is called a _monotone_; the voice being commonly pitched at a grum note, and made to move for the time, slowly and gravely, on a perfect level.

"Rising inflections are far more numerous than falling inflections; the former const.i.tute the main body of oral language, while the latter are employed for the purposes of emphasis, and in the formation of cadences.

Rising inflections are often emphatic; but their emphasis is weaker than that of falling inflections."--_Comstock's Elocution_, p. 50.

"Writers on Elocution have given numerous rules for the regulation of inflections; but most of these rules are better calculated to make _bad_ readers than good ones. Those founded on the construction of sentences might, perhaps, do credit to a _mechanic_, but they certainly do none to an _elocutionist_."--_Ib._, p. 51.

"The reader should bear in mind that a falling inflection gives more importance to a word than a rising inflection. Hence it should never be employed merely for the sake of _variety_; but for _emphasis_ and _cadences_. Neither should a rising inflection be used for the sake of mere '_harmony_,' where a falling inflection would better express the meaning of the author. The _sense_ should, in _all_ cases, determine the direction of inflections."--_Ib._

_Cadence_ is a fall of the voice, which has reference not so much to pitch as to force, though it may depress both; for it seems to be generally contrasted with emphasis,[476] and by some is reprehended as a fault.

"Support your voice steadily and firmly," says Rippingham, "and p.r.o.nounce the concluding words of the sentence with force and vivacity, rather than with a languid cadence."--_Art of Speaking_, p. 17. The pauses which L.

Murray denominates the suspending and the closing pause, he seems to have discriminated chiefly by the inflections preceding them, if he can be said to have distinguished them at all. For he not only teaches that the former may sometimes be used at the close of a sentence, and the latter sometimes where "the sense is not completed;" but, treating cadence merely as a defect, adds the following caution: "The closing pause must not be confounded with that fall of the voice, or _cadence_, with which many readers uniformly finish a sentence. Nothing is more destructive of propriety and energy than this habit. The tones and inflections of the voice at the close of a sentence, ought to be diversified, according to the general nature of the discourse, and the particular construction and meaning of the sentence."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 250; 12mo, p. 200.

ARTICLE IV.--OF TONES.

Tones are those modulations of the voice which depend upon the feelings of the speaker. They are what Sheridan denominates "the language of emotions."

And it is of the utmost importance, that they be natural, unaffected, and rightly adapted to the subject and to the occasion; for upon them, in a great measure, depends all that is pleasing or interesting in elocution.

"How much of the propriety, the force, and [the] grace of discourse, must depend on these, will appear from this single consideration; that to almost every sentiment we utter, more especially to every strong emotion, nature has adapted some peculiar tone of voice; insomuch, that he who should tell another that he was angry, or much grieved, in a tone that did not suit such emotions, instead of being believed, would be laughed at."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 333.

"The different pa.s.sions of the mind must be expressed by different tones of the voice. _Love_, by a soft, smooth, languishing voice; _anger_, by a strong, vehement, and elevated voice; _joy_, by a quick, sweet, and clear voice; _sorrow_, by a low, flexible, interrupted voice; _fear_, by a dejected, tremulous, hesitating voice; _courage_, by a full, bold, and loud voice; and _perplexity_, by a grave and earnest voice. In _exordiums_, the voice should be low, yet clear; in _narrations_, distinct; in _reasoning_, slow; in _persuasions_, strong: it should thunder in _anger_, soften in _sorrow_, tremble in _fear_, and melt in _love_."--_Hiley's Gram._, p. 121.

OBS.--Walker observes, in his remarks on the nature of Accent and Quant.i.ty, "As to the tones of the pa.s.sions, which are so many and various, these, in the opinion of one of the best judges in the kingdom, are _qualities_ of sound, occasioned by certain vibrations of the organs of speech, independent _on_ [say _of_] high, low, loud, soft, quick, slow, forcible, or feeble: which last may not improperly be called different _quant.i.ties_ of sound."--_Walker's Key_, p. 305.

CHAPTER III.--FIGURES.

A Figure, in grammar, is an intentional deviation from the ordinary spelling, formation, construction, or application, of words. There are, accordingly, figures of Orthography, figures of Etymology, figures of Syntax, and figures of Rhetoric. When figures are judiciously employed, they both strengthen and adorn expression. They occur more frequently in poetry than in prose; and several of them are merely poetic licenses.

SECTION I.--FIGURES OF ORTHOGRAPHY.