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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 1920)
Correct Instead of Pure English Present Need Say Professrors Article by Brander Matthews Causes Comment Among Rhetoricians; Coined Words, When Expressive, Are Favored. University professors of English are interested in an article. "A Campaign for Pure English.” by Hrander Matthews, published in a recent number of the New York Times Book Ileview and Magazine. They agree with hint in most respects, but think what is needed is a campaign for correct English rather than pure English. Matthews gives a short history of the Society for Pure English, which began in England in ]!)]”>. “There is a peril,” he notes, “to the proper development of the language in offensive affectations.” While opposing whatever is slipshod and careless the society intends to op pose also “the tyranny of schoolmasters anif grammarians both in their pedantic conservatism and in their ignorant en forcement of new fangled ‘rules,’ based not on principle but merely on what has come to be considered correct usage.” Foreign Words Approved. Matthews holds that foreign words are no menace to the purity of a language, if they are completely naturalized. Im . bedding of alien terms with a tongue without the removal of foreign pronun ciations is held as detrimental. The principle which ought to govern, he says, is simple. “Either a word is English dr it isn’t. If it isn’t English, the necessity for employing it is doubt ful at best; when we are writing English we had better write in English. And if a word is English it ought to he wholly English, aptly adapted and wholly as similated. Ho regrets the use of media, fora, stadia and curricula by Professor Bliss Perry, Mr. Galsworthy, and Pro fessor Abbott, instead of mediums forums, stadiums and eurriculums, which he says are surely citizens of our vo cabulary.” The Society for Pure English advo cates not only the the complete assimila tion of foreign words; it advocates also the making of necessary new compounds not from Latin and Greek, hut from Eng liuli .'foil Errors Too Common. Dr. E. S. Dates, head of the depart ment of rhetoric, on rending Brander Matthews’ article, said. “Yes, I agree with him. I think, however, that what we need is a campaign for correct Eng lish rather than pure English.” The lang lish people, generally speaking, use bet ter English than we do. in, the opinion of Dr. Bates. They do not make the grammatical errors which are so |fre val'ent among us. not only on the street but among university students. Such mistakes as “I come to school this morn ing”, “I been there before”, and many others, Dr. Bates says, are not uncom mon among seniors on the campus, to say nothing of underclassmen. Dr. Bates believes that a large part of this incorrect usage is spread by our foreign population. These people, lie says, must not he too severely cen sured for their use of incorrect English, because of the difficulty of learning the language, and the fact that they hear us use English carelessly. They take up our incorrect expressions as well as our correct ones and pass them on. lie says. He agrees, too, with Brainier Mat thews on the use of foreign words, but he says, “There is a period in Aim amal gamation of foreign words, when they are applicants for citizenship, during which they must retain their foreign spelling and pronunciation.” Atlantic Is Criterion. “Pure English”, lie says, “is a vague term to define. General usage is the ultimate tribune. I should say”, he con tinued, “for a usage to appear in tile At lantic, or to bo generally used by six or seven of our best writers would .justify its use h.v all of us.” Dr. Bates, like Brander Mini thews, thinks the greatest and best coinage of words comes from the mass of people rather than from men of letters and col lege professors. On being asked what he thought of American membership in this society, which Brander Matthews says is appar ently solidly established in Great Britain. I >r. Bates said. "In another twenty-five years, I think, we’ll he ready for such a campaign. At least 1 hope so." Miss Mary Perkins, professor of Eng lish. said on reading Matthews’ article: “It is progressive.” She likes to have students realize that language is demo cratic and must change as a people pro gresses, she says. “A certain literary class always acts as self appointed censors of the lan guage of the great mass of people”, con tinued Miss Perkins. This tends to act against the flood of new coinage and new usage and hold ii hack. The text hooks, too”, she said, "have lagged behind the growth of the language”. Many Laughable Errors. In regard to foreign words. Miss Per kins says she thinks our practice of an glicizing is good. “However", she says, “we <lo make many laughable errors, such as adding an “s” and saying che rubinis. when cherubim is the jtlui'al form”. She mentioned, also, the words alumnus and alumni. ”1 don’t suppose.” she laughed, "that any of us would ever say alumnuses. Those of us who have occasion to use that word at all know its forms.” Miss Perkins thinks it is interesting to meet people from different parts of the United States and enjoy their sectional usages. For instance the expression "like I do”; Miss Perkins says nine tenths of the people west of the Missis sippi say “like I do”. As the usage is so common she says she is not sure that it is not a waste of time to try to eradi cate that. She would rather let that and similar things go, and devote the time to increasing the vocabulary, adding new words which are expressive and inli vidual. The work that is being done in this country, Miss Perkins says, is along the line of making speech correct and pleas ing rather than pure in the sense of the English organization. She called atten tion to the efforts of the National Coun cil of Teachers of English in their cam paign last year. The first week in No vember was designated as "Better Eng lish Week”. The plan was not merely to correct mistakes, but to cultivate a (better speaking voice, and to gain a wider vocabulary. The Council (dans to carry out the same plan this year. Miss Perkins is a member of this council. Vocabulary Is Necessary. (Miss .Titian Burgess, professor of Eng lish, thinks in the acquirement of vocab ulary we should seek the things which make for vividness and clearness of meaning, but in the matter of construc tion of sentences we should be very con servative about taking up the lax prac tices of a few modern writers who some times use a group of words as a sentence when the predicate verb is lacking. Miss Burgess is somewhat dubious about the practice of some modern writers in tak ing up certain apparently illiterate ex pressions and giving them publicity even though this is done in a humorous way. She mentioner, "I could of gone” in this connection. She thinks that if such expressions as (his are allowed to •become of common usage, it will be be cause the teachers of English relax their efforts to preserve correct and pleasing English. She is not in favor of changes which tend to lower the fine sense of meaning. As for foreign words with their for eign spellings. Miss Burgess thinks that retaining the foreign spelling preserves the origin of the words. She would be pleased if the average person knew enough < Jrook and Latin to truce origins, lml she says the majority of Americans at present do not know or care much about that. Miss Burgess likes*'the coined words such as “pussyfooted”. They are clever, entertaining, and expressive, she says, but ithei'e is danger of overusing them, especially if wo make pets of certain ones. She thinks every student should be a sleuth about finding and bringing in new words, but this should be done dis criminatingly. She says we should be on the alert to pick up words that will give our speech greater richness and power as well as greater flexibility and greater exactness. lexi hooks Are tyrannical. (Miss Grace Edgington, assistnnt pro-1 fosser of rhetoric, says she tliinks the makers of text hooks are very tryan nieal. She sees no reason, she says, why foreign words should not he anglicized. As for tin* coinages, she says some are suitable for straight prose; they often give strength and expression obtained in no other way. They are not. she added, all of equal standing, however. Professor \Y. 1<\ G. Timelier of the de partment of rhetoric, says schoolmasters must he conservative. “If they are not”, he continued, "who will be?” lie went on to say that teachers are bound to follow to a certain extent the rules laid down in the texts that are handed them, regardless of their per sonal feelings in the matter. “Much of the English teacher’s time", says Professor Thacher. “is spent in combating incorrect usages. The habit", | he says, “is formed very early, and seems all hut ineradicable”. Professor Thacher. like the others, likes the vivid, expressive terms that fit aptly into sueecli. “I do thslike", lie added emphatically", in spoken English, anything that savors of the literati or predramntic.” Written English is something that re-1 mains, he says, and most people have a, “written vocabulary” that is different! from the spoken vocabulary. “Speech is so dramatic”, says Profes-' Kiir Thacher. -‘that 1 doubt if such a so ciety cun have any effect on the great body of the English language.” Action Is Urged. Miss Ida Turney, professor of rhetoric expressed herself as follows: If tht1 society for pure English would do something besides issuing tracts phrased with conscious superiority, I’tl tie 'strong for it'. 'Merely complaining about the "‘comprehensive ignorance’ of the history of the English language,,,even though this ignorance is certainly the cause of tht ‘peril to the proper develop ment of the language’, will accomplish little. If we are ever to acquire that much-to-be-desired word sense, to say nothing of sentence sense, we must be gin to weave the simple and faeinating story of our language into the word building exercises in the primary school. Some of the blessed might prepare a manual explaining matters about the his tory and growth of the language which are essential to comprehensive under- ■ standing for the use of the teachers in the. elementary schools. A year course, at least, in Greek and Latin roots with exercises in word analysis might be planned for the junior high schools. Then the Society for Pure English might un dertake to see that colleges and normal schools refuse to grant certificates to teach (or A. B. degrees) to persons com prehensively ignorant of their o>vn lan guage. 1 If the S. P. E. will consider my re commendations I will join it—or them, provided I shall not lie asked to accept ‘juice’ (I particularly object to juice) nor to split my infinitives. I approve the judicious use of slang, and Brander Matthews is my ‘favorite author’ on the subject. Nationalism Feared. Mr. Andrew Fish, of the department of rhetoric, after reading Matthews, says: “The scheme might easily degen erate into a mere narrow nationalism. But. the promoters seem to have guarded against that by providing for foreign words and also, for new words coined by ourselves”. “I would say”, lie continued”, that it would be altogether good if it serves to inspire men to careful use and to guard against falling too much into colloquial isms”. To stand too rigidly for what lias been established would be bad. ami would not admit of progress, said Mr. Fish. He does not believe in discriminating against foreign words, tint he does be lieve in anglicizing them. The more words taken over from other lan guages the better, lie said, provided they express our ideas. It is a matter of utility, and if a word of foreign origin is bettor than an English word, why not use it? J0UR1LISM OFFICE TO MOVE NEXT WEEK Remodeled Outdoor Gym to Give Additional Room The women’s outdoor gymnasium, which is being remodeled for the use of the department of physical education and the school of journalism, will be ready for occupancy next week, according to H. M. Fishei*. superintendent of grounds. The building is divided, the northern part is to be used by John F. Ilovard, dean of the college of physical education. The remaining four rooms will be con nected with the journalism annex by a covered passageway and will be used for the offices of Dean Eric W. Allen. Al fred Powers, assistant director of the extension department, and a general of fice with desks for the secretary of the school of journalism and the editor of the Oregano. Another room will be used for classes at present, though it is ulti mately to be a bindery. The entrance of the annex building is ro be changed to the side, where the passage-way will connect the two build ings. forming a hall of the present copy desk room, which in turn will be moved to the large class room. Professor George S. Turnbull and Professor W. E. G. Timelier will exchange offices so that Professor Turnbull's office may connect with the copy-desk. The hall is to be made into a room which will be used for typewriters and for the city desk of the Emerald. The I newspaper file room will be unchanged. I Y. M. HUT TO HAVE HEAT Installation of Radiators Will Lend Warmth to Study Rooms. The chilly atmosphere of the “Y” hut has been changed to one of cozy com fort by the extension of the Fniversity heating system to that building. Seven teen radiators distributed about the hut spread an abundance of heat. Fp to the present time, the only com fortable place to study in the lint was around the fireplace in the lounging room: and with the phonograph play ing, and two or three exciting chocker games in progress. The installation of heat has made pos sible tie use of several small rooms, each provided with several desks DRIVE ON THIS WEEK FOR GIRL GMSTS Women’s Athletic Association Increasing Roster MEETING FOR TUESDAY University Gives No Letters to Women Not Members AH girls who are at all interested in athletics are invited to join the Women’s Athletic Association this week. A mem bership drive is being carried on in the various organizations at the present time. “We are going to have a bigger and better organization this year.” said Mar garet Russell. vice president, of the as sociation. “Everyone who is at all in terested in sports should join.” A girl who achieves distinction in any athletics must be a member of the or ganization before she can receive her letter. During the past years numbers of girls have forfeited their rights to the trophies and letters offered as prizes for winners, because they were not mem bers of the association. For this rea son, girls who are at all interested in any branch of athletics are urged to join the association this week. Dues for the entire year are fifty cents. The girls in charge of the membership drive are: Georgia Benson, Margaret Smith, Carolyn Cannon, Marion Dunham. Vivian Chandler. Winifred Hopson, Au drey Roberts, Florence .Tagger, Echo Baldarree, Victoria Case, .Naomi Rob bins. Ruth Tuck,Charlotte Howells', Jean McEaehern, Muriel Myers, Emily Perry and Doris Parker. The first, meeting of the association will be held in Guild hall next Tuesday afternoon at 4 o’clock. Plans for the year will be discussed and the purpose of the organization explained to the new memhers. EXTENSION SPEAKERS TRAVEL. John C. Almack, director of the ex tension division, and F. L. Stetson, pro fessor of secondary education, left Tues day noon for Medford, where they are scheduled to speak at the Jackson county teachers’ institute which is in ses sion Wednesday. Thursday and Friday They are expected to return Saturday. MICHIGAN HAS CRICKET. Criekel has I ecu introduced at Mich igan as the outdoor sport for freshman and si piiomore women. Homecoming Plans To Be Presented (Continued from page 1.) to miss their lunch. This is in accor dance with the custom this year. The student body officers have been very much pleased with the attendance so far this year and as this is the most important assembly of the fall term, a good program has been arranged and no one is expected to cut. ■ The assembly will be presided over by Carlton Savage. Immediately following there will be a meeting of the freshmen class. Phone 141 City Messenger Service Messengers 39 E. 7th ,T. C. GRANT, Mgr. Dry Goods DTIDCIf P^^G Men’s Notions 1 VlVJuLl I l) Furnishings and Shoes 115 Eighth Ave. W. Shoes Everything In WEARING NECESSITIES FOR STUDENTS. Special discounts given to Students who ask for it. Give Your Child a Chance It might make school work much easier now and prove a great blessing later in life, if you would have your child’s eyes thoroughly exam ined right now to make sure that he is capable of doing his school work without the aid of glas ses. I am well equipped to perform this service for von. I shall not advise glasses unless they are absolutely * necessary. Make an appointment now. Sherman W. Moody 881 Wilamette Street. Eugene, Oregon. ANNOUNCEMENT Prices Drop We have been informed by the headquarters that the price of instruction books has been cut 50 per cent. This enables us to reduce the price of our course. 12 lessons and instruction books may now be had for the low price of $32.00. This may be paid $10.00 down and $2.00 each lesson taken. You have 12 weeks to pav on ly $32.00. REMEMBER We teach popular’ music and ragtime piano play ing with full harmony bass in 12 lesspns. Beginners and students accepted. Pianos to practice on. EN ROLL NOW! Read Our Ad in the November “Etude” WATERMAN PIANO SCHOOL ESTABLISHED 1900 BOY J. WHITE £ 917 Willamette Street Phone 543 m You Will Be Delighted to find that all the fountain specials prepared here are watched and ai e put up \\ ith the utmost care. It you can*t get your favor ite dish any place else, come here, we can fix it up for you. We not onl\ piepaie the old reliable dishes, but we originate them ;,lso- .'.ttfcM SELECT YOUR FAVORITE PIE and relish the best that human hands can produce. \ ' \ Apple Cream Lemon * ’ Pumpkin Fruit \ \ The Rainbow H. Burgoyne, Proprietor. ^ Mince