A civil tongue means to me a language that is not bogged down in jargon, not puffed up with false dignity, not studded with trick phrases that have lost their meaning.
It is not falsely exciting, is not patronizing, does not conceal the smallness and triteness of ideas by clothing them in language ever more grandiose, does not seek out increasingly complicated constructions.
It treats errors in spelling and usage with a decent tol- erance but does not take them lightly. It is direct, specific, concrete, vigorous, colorful, subtle and imaginative when it should be, and as lucid and eloquent as we arc able to make it. It is something to revel in and enjoy.
Unfortunately, it is also only a dream, for an ironic thing is happening in the United States. As we demand more and more personal openness from those in public life, our lan- guage becomes more and more covered, obscure, turgid, ponderous and overblown.
Nelson Rockefeller, for example, when asked whether he would be nominated at the 1976 Republican convention, said, "1 cannot conceive of any scenario in which that could eventuate."
A Civil Tongue 65
Won't things improve when the younger generation of politicians takes over? No.
California's Gov. Edmund Brown. Jr., 39, asked whether his 1976 Presidential candidacy was really aimed at 1980, replied, "My equation is sufficiently complex to admit of various outcomes." Declining to ride to a money-raising dinner in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes, he explained, "I cannot relate to that material possessory consciousness," and used an unwashed Ford instead.
Stuffiness and fake erudition are being substituted for reality and clarity. Instead of teachers encouraging our schoolchildren, according to a study in the Journal of Ed- ucational Psychology, teachers are "reinforcing" the chil- dren by a process of "emission." The educational advantage ;n saying emitting reinforcers rather than encouraging chil- dren—or, for that matter, calling a teacher a facilitator or enabler, a teaching period a module, and a classroom a learning station—escapes me.
Fortunately, practitioners of a civil tongue do exist. A reporter asked APL-CIO head George Meany about the elec-
tion of November 1974. What was the people's mandate? Said Meany: "I don't believe in this mandate stuff. A guy runs for office and gets elected. All of a sudden he's got a mandate. Two less votes and he's nothing."
A civil tongue knows when to remain silent. In Septem- ber 1974, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada decided not to come to the United Nations ar.d speak because he had nothing sufficiently important to say. At the Democratic convention in 1976. a reporter asked eight-year-old Amy Carter whether she had a message for the children of America. Said Amy: "No." Such gestures deserve more notice.
1 once went to Sauk Centre. Minn., for a television story about a festival honoring Sinclair Lewis, who was born there. A local resident said of a task that was facing us. "It's more than the horse can pull.' vVe city boys thought that amusingly bucolic, but HI seven words it's hard to say more.
Usually our use of words is extravagant. The waste has 'two cuu:,es. One is the feeling that rn idea is more eifective i! it is repeated and reinforced I his is why Jimmy Carter
22 WORD f OWER
says that he had a "deeply profound" religious experience. (At any rate, I want to believe that that is why 1 would hate to learn that he thought that deep and profound are different.) In 1975, Sen Charles Percy of Illinois warned fellow Republicans against choosing a Presidential nominee not in the "centrist mainstream" of U.S. politics. Dr. .John Lungren, looking after Richard Nixon, said in January
1975, "He still tires and fatigues very easily."
The second cause of waste in our use of words is an apparent failure to understand what they mean If it knew what surprise meant, the New York Times could not run a headline about an "unexpected surprise" from Japan. Lt. Gen. James F. Hollingsworth, former U.S. commander in South Korea, said that if the North Koreans attack, "our firepowei will have a tremendous impact on their ground troops, breaking their will to fight in addition to killing them."
The sports and business worlds make their contributions to the nonsense around us. Broadcasters tell us about the baseball team "with the worst record won and lostwise," about the football player who incurs a penalty and becomes the "guilty culprit." An airline stewardess urges her pas- sengers to "have a nice day in Cincinnati or wherever your final destination may be taking you." And an investment company writes: "We have exceptional game plan capabil- ities together with strict concerns for programming suc- cessful situations."
American English, drawing on so many regional differ- ences, so many immigrant groups, and such a range of business, farming, industrial, athletic and artistic experi- ences, can have an incomparable richness. Instead, high crime? and misdemeanors are visited upon it. and those who commit them do not understand that they are crimes against themselves. The language belongs to ail of us. We have no more valuable possession.
Foreigners often have a peculiar talent for using English in an original way. After an earthquake in Italy, a local resident described the scene. "Dogs were complaining." he said, "and animals were shouting." 1 am trying not to shout, but I am complaining. Civilly. Most of the time
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER ®
Word Power
Test No. 6
Words From Reader's Digest
BY PETER FUNK