Chapter 19

Comment on tautology¹ and grammar(Written in 1898)

May 6. . . . I do not find that the repetition of an important word a few times--say, three or four times--in a paragraph troubles my ear if clearness of meaning is best secured thereby². But tautological³ repetition which has no justifying⁴ object, but merely exposes the fact that the writer's balance at the vocabulary bank has run short and that he is too lazy to replenish⁵ it from the thesaurus--that is another matter. It makes me feel like calling the writer to account. It makes me want to remind him that he is not treating himself and his calling with right respect, and, incidentally, that he is not treating me with proper reverence⁶. At breakfast, this morning, a member of the family read aloud an interesting review of a new book about Mr. Gladstone in which the reviewer used the strong adjective "delightful⁷" thirteen times. Thirteen times in a short review, not a long one. In five of the cases the word was distinctly the right one, the exact one, the best one our language can furnish, therefore it made no discord⁸; but in the remaining cases it was out of tune⁹. It sharped or flatted, one or the other, every time, and was as unpleasantly noticeable as is a false note in music. I looked in the thesaurus, and under a single head I found four words which would replace with true notes the false ones uttered by four of the misused¹⁰ "delightfuls"; and of course if I had hunted under related heads for an hour and made an exhaustive search I should have found right words, to a shade, wherewith to replace the remaining delinquents¹¹.
I suppose we all have our foibles. I like the exact word, and clarity of statement, and here and there a touch of good grammar for picturesqueness¹²; but that reviewer cares for only the last mentioned of these things. His grammar is foolishly correct, offensively precise. It flaunts¹³ itself in the reader's face all along, and struts¹⁴ and smirks¹⁵ and shows off, and is in a dozen ways irritating and disagreeable. To be serious, I write good grammar myself, but not in that spirit, I am thankful to say. That is to say, my grammar is of a high order, though not at the top. Nobody's is. Perfect grammar--persistent, continuous, sustained--is the fourth dimension, so to speak; many have sought it, but none has found it. Even this reviewer, this purist, with all his godless airs, has made two or three slips. At least, I think he has. I am almost sure, by witness of my ear, but cannot be positive, for I know grammar by ear only, not by note, not by the rules. A generation ago I knew the rules--knew them by heart, word for word, though not their meanings--and I still know one of them: the one which says--which says--but never mind, it will come back to me presently. This reviewer even seems to know (or seems even to know, or seems to know even) how to put the word "even" in the right place; and the word "only," too. I do not like that kind of persons. I never knew one of them that came to any good. A person who is as self-righteous as that will do other things. I know this, because I have noticed it many a time. I would never hesitate to injure that kind of a man if I could. When a man works up his grammar to that altitude, it is a sign. It shows what he will do if he gets a chance; it shows the kind of disposition¹⁶ he has; I have noticed it often. I knew one once that did a lot of things. They stop at nothing.
But, anyway, this grammatical coxcomb's review is interesting, as I said before. And there is one sentence in it which tastes good in the mouth, so perfectly¹⁷ do the last five of its words report a something which we have all felt after sitting long over an absorbing book. The matter referred to is Mr. Gladstone's boswellized conversations and his felicitous¹⁸ handling of his subject.
One facet¹⁹ of the brilliant talker's mind flashes out on us after another till we tire with interest.
That is clearly stated. We recognize that feeling. In the morning paper I find a sentence of another breed.
There had been no death before the case of Cornelius Lean which had arisen and terminated in death since the special rules had been drawn²⁰ up.
By the context I know what it means, but you are without that light and will be sure to get out of it a meaning which the writer of it was not intending to convey.

1 tautology   

n.无谓的重复；恒真命题

参考例句：

• Modern logicians regard it as little more than tautology.现代的逻辑学家仅仅把它看作同义反复。
• What's the first excellence in a lawyer? Tautology. What the second? Tautology.律师最擅长的是什么？是同义反复。其次呢？同义反复。再其次呢？同义反复。

2 thereby   

adv.因此，从而

参考例句：

• I have never been to that city,,ereby I don't know much about it.我从未去过那座城市，因此对它不怎么熟悉。
• He became a British citizen,thereby gaining the right to vote.他成了英国公民，因而得到了投票权。

3 tautological   

adj.重复的；累赘的

参考例句：

• "Safe" and "reliable" are tautological.稳妥和可靠，意思是重复的。
• Modern logicians think it is tautological.现代的逻辑学家认为它是同义反复的。

4 justifying   

证明…有理( justify的现在分词 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护）

参考例句：

• He admitted it without justifying it. 他不加辩解地承认这个想法。
• The fellow-travellers'service usually consisted of justifying all the tergiversations of Soviet intenal and foreign policy. 同路人的服务通常包括对苏联国内外政策中一切互相矛盾之处进行辩护。

5 replenish   

vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满

参考例句：

• I always replenish my food supply before it is depleted.我总是在我的食物吃完之前加以补充。
• We have to import an extra 4 million tons of wheat to replenish our reserves.我们不得不额外进口四百万吨小麦以补充我们的储备。

6 reverence   

n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• We reverence tradition but will not be fettered by it.我们尊重传统，但不被传统所束缚。

7 delightful   

adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的

参考例句：

• We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
• Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。

8 discord   

n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐

参考例句：

• These two answers are in discord.这两个答案不一样。
• The discord of his music was hard on the ear.他演奏的不和谐音很刺耳。

9 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

10 misused   

v.使用…不当( misuse的过去式和过去分词 )；把…派作不正当的用途；虐待；滥用

参考例句：

• He misused his dog shamefully. 他可耻地虐待自己的狗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had grossly misused his power. 他严重滥用职权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 delinquents   

n.（尤指青少年）有过失的人，违法的人( delinquent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The robbery was committed by a group of delinquents. 那起抢劫案是一群青少年干的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There is today general agreement that juvenile delinquents are less responsible than older offenders. 目前人们普遍认为青少年罪犯比成人罪犯的责任小些。 来自辞典例句

12 picturesqueness   

参考例句：

• The picturesqueness of the engineer's life was always attractive to Presley. 这司机的丰富多彩的生活，始终叫普瑞斯莱醉心。
• Philip liked the daring picturesqueness of the Americans'costume. 菲利浦喜欢美国人装束的那种粗犷的美。

13 flaunts   

v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的第三人称单数 )；有什么能耐就施展出来

参考例句：

• He flaunts his queer style as a savage might flaunt a top-hat retrieved from somebody's dustbin. 他对自己那种怪异的文体加以夸耀这恰似一个野人从别人的垃圾箱里捡出一顶礼帽时那种洋洋得意的样子。 来自辞典例句
• He is a drug addict who flaunts his addiction and refuses to get treatment. 他嗜药，并以此为荣甚至拒绝治疗。 来自电影对白

14 struts   

（框架的）支杆( strut的名词复数 )； 支柱； 趾高气扬的步态； （尤指跳舞或表演时）卖弄

参考例句：

• The struts are firmly braced. 那些支柱上得很牢靠。
• The Struts + EJB framework is described in part four. 三、介绍Struts+EJB框架的技术组成：Struts框架和EJB组件技术。

15 smirks   

n.傻笑，得意的笑( smirk的名词复数 )v.傻笑( smirk的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Eighteenth-century wigs are still worn by the judiciary and nobody smirks. 法官至今还戴18世纪的假发套而没有人嘲笑。 来自互联网
• Once a league laughingstock, nobody even much as smirks at the Hornets anymore. 曾经联盟的笑柄，没人再去嘲笑蜜蜂了。 来自互联网

16 disposition   

n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署

参考例句：

• He has made a good disposition of his property.他已对财产作了妥善处理。
• He has a cheerful disposition.他性情开朗。

17 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

18 felicitous   

adj.恰当的，巧妙的；n.恰当，贴切

参考例句：

• She played him--sometimes delicately,sometimes with a less felicitous touch.她吊着他--有时温柔地，有时手法就不那么巧妙。
• You need to handle the delicate matter in a most felicitous manner.你需要用得体的方式处理这件微妙的事。

19 facet   

n.(问题等的)一个方面；(多面体的)面

参考例句：

• He has perfected himself in every facet of his job.他已使自己对工作的各个方面都得心应手。
• Every facet of college life is fascinating.大学生活的每个方面都令人兴奋。

20 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。