Close your eyes, dear reader, and enjoy the music of words
THIS column is about words and how we use them. Each one of us has our own personal style and we all use words in many ways.
Some of us have made a career of it, speaking words out loud, on the radio or in voice-work, such as narration for documentaries or TV adverts.
Others write books or work in newspapers, magazines and on the internet.
Without even realising it, every person has several dictionaries sitting on an imaginary shelf inside their head. Our vocabularies expand as we grow older and learn more about different situations and topics.
When you think about it, our communication skills are not only remarkable, they are also instantly adaptable.
The words we use when we talk to our doctor, our boss or our bank manager, for example, are very different from those we use when we are talking to friends and family.
You may say “Hello,” “Howzit!” or “Eita!” as you greet your colleagues, but when you talk to the boss or someone you don’t know very well, you will normally adopt a style of modest politeness, using phrases such as “Good morning,” “Hello,” or “Nice to meet you.”
Just as readily, when a mood shifts or some insulting statement is made, we are likely to deliver terse, cutting retorts drawn from our personal stock of phrases.
We make those shifts in attitude and vocabulary without even thinking about it. Most people can rapidly change from a personal style that reflects affection and intimacy in one situation to a style appropriate for, say, formal public utterance, such as a speech or a lecture, in another.
Inevitably, we all, at some point, resort to sharp, vulgar words spoken in anger and contempt.
The idea for this column began with a good friend whose daughter is studying at the University of Cambridge in England. She regularly sends the Cambridge Alumni Magazine to her mother and when she is done with it, she passes it on to me. In it, I always find something different and interesting to think about.
As I flipped through it recently, I came across an article entitled “Straight Talking” by Dr Michael Hurley, in which he says: “Plain speech has its virtue but for real precision, you need style.”
I find that an interesting idea. Without style or elegance, all we have to offer are terse, provocative words — what you may call “plain speech”, but words that can easily swerve into abuse and aggression.
While I was writing this column, I was watching the TV coverage of the election in Harare, which had just ended. I guess South Africans will be looking ahead to our next elections in 2014 and it will be interesting to see how next year’s party leaders will address the nation.
Every person has several dictionaries on an imaginary shelf in their head
It takes just one great speech — think, for example, of Nelson Mandela’s famous skills — to energise a nation and deliver a sense of power and energy.
I found myself wondering if we can expect such excitement as we go to the polls next year, but I am not holding my breath.
Now, back to that phrase, “for real precision, you need style”. Dr Hurley also offered us another phrase by the great poet, Alfred Tennyson.
He wrote: “People do not understand the music of words.” Hurley set out to reach people by showing them the importance, value and “music” in the words.
Here’s an example. Tennyson had a great fan in Queen Victoria. She sought comfort and strength from Tennyson’s epic poem In Memoriam after the death of her beloved husband, Albert.
It was considered to be Tennyson’s best work and when the widowed monarch bestowed honours on Tennyson for writing it, it became an iconic British poem.
Another major character was Cardinal John Henry Newman, a towering figure in both the church and at Trinity College, Oxford.
For all his preaching and writings, he was also deeply drawn into “the music of words”.
At the end of his life, he said: “I felt I had something to say upon theory and religion, yet whenever I attempted, the sight I saw vanished, plunged into the thicket, curled itself up, like a hedgehog, or changed colours like a chameleon”.
I think that’s interesting. Here’s one of the most influential cardinals in England but instead of saints and angels, he wrote about hedgehogs and chameleons.
So, the next time you pick up a book or a magazine, don’t only look for a storyline or useful information. Take a leaf out of Tennyson’s book and say: “Plain speech has its virtue, but for real precision you need style.”