Читать книгу Plain English - Marian Wharton - Страница 7

6. Our feelings and desires are not the only things we wish to communicate. The natural language satisfies a child for a time, but as the child grows he begins to think, then he feels the need of a more effective means of expressing himself. You can express your feelings to a certain extent by the natural language. You can make one know that you are glad by the expression of the face, the attitude of the body or the tone of the voice. But could you make anyone understand why you are glad, by these signs and gestures?

7. To express thoughts and ideas, man had to devise another sort of language. So the language of words grew up out of the need to communicate ideas to other people. As man's ability to think grew, so his language grew. At first, this language was only a spoken language. The ideas of one generation were handed down to the next by the spoken word. Gradually a crude form of writing was invented from which our written language has developed. This has made it possible to put the wisdom of the ages into books for the benefit of the world.

8. Hence, language is the means of expressing thought and feeling. It has grown out of our need for expression.

A word is a symbol of an idea. It is a sound or combination of sounds which we use to represent an idea. The use of words makes it possible for us to readily convey our thoughts to other people.

Through the medium of words we are able to communicate to others our thoughts, not only of the external world about us, but also of the mental world in which we live. We can tell of our loves, our hates, our dreams and our ideals. Animals find the natural language of looks and tones and gestures sufficient because they live almost wholly upon the physical plane. But man lives in a mental world as well as in a physical one, and must have a spoken and written language by which to express his thoughts.

Exercise 1

Select from the following sentences those which it is possible to express by a look or tone or gesture, and those which can not be expressed without words:

1. I am glad.

2. I am glad because men are struggling for freedom.

3. I am hungry.

4. I am hungry for the chance for an education.

5. Come.

6. Come, let us reason together.

7. I am afraid.

8. I am afraid that we must wait long for peace.

9. Go.

10. Go, search the world over for the truth.

11. I am disgusted.

12. I am disgusted with those who will not think for themselves.

13. I am tired.

14. I am tired of these petty squabbles among comrades.