but only in the meanings given them by the most fastidious writers of the period. In this book, the tests of correctness will be construed somewhat more liberally.

24. Local Usage. - Oftentimes words or expressions perfectly familiar in one locality, and currently used there by intelligent and educated people, are not used throughout the country, or by other bodies of English-speaking people. In the United States, for example, we say elevator, baggage, editorial, whereas in Great Britain the same ideas are expressed by the words lift, luggage, leader. The first set of words we may call Americanisms; the second, Briticisms. Similarly, an Englishman may say "I fancy" in the sense of "think," where a Yankee might say "I guess," and a Southerner, "I reckon." It would be straining a point to call such local expressions incorrect. Slight differences of this sort often add a pleasing individuality to local speech. In writing to the public at large, however, one should obviously be careful not to allow such peculiarities to become so prominent as to render him laughable or unintelligible.

25. Authority as to Usage. The student will naturally ask how he can discover whether any particular word is correctly or incorrectly used in any particular sense. It may be replied that he must depend upon observation, inquiry, and his own good sense. Obviously, his first source of information and authority will be the body of intelligent and educated

people with whom he comes in contact. If he follows their usage in matters of language, he cannot go far astray. A surer test is that of usage in literature. Words or expressions which a number of reputable writers deliberately use can surely not be called wrong. Dictionaries are also useful, for they are the great storehouses of English usage. Finally, whenever usage seems to differ, one's own taste and sense must be called into play. The present writer pleads for a considerable degree of tolerance in such matters. If we know what a man means, and if his usage is in accordance with that of a large number of intelligent and educated people, it cannot justly be called incorrect. For language rests, at bottom, on convention or agreement, and what a large body of reputable people recognize as a proper word or a proper meaning of a word cannot be denied its right to a place in the English vocabulary. Particularly in questions of pronunciation, where our language frequently recognizes two usages, we should be careful not to assume that the usage which custom or taste has made natural to us has any authority beyond that of local or individual preference.

26. Dictionaries. The best English dictionaries for school use are Webster's, Worcester's, the Century, and the Standard. Each has peculiarities that render it particularly valuable; each is a thoroughly reputable authority. Whatever any of them says as to the pronunciation, meaning, or use of a word is sure to be the usage sanctioned by a large body

of intelligent and educated people. Wherever they differ, all are likely to be right; that is to say, wherever usage differs, these dictionaries may differ. Abridged editions of Webster's, Worcester's, and the Standard, especially adapted for the use of pupils, are also issued. If possible, one dictionary should, as a matter of convenience, be chosen as a standard in each school.

EXERCISE 5

Write out answers to the following questions. Each answer should consist of at least two complete sentences.

1. How do words get their meanings? 2. Do all English-speaking people use the same words in the same senses? 3. What is the difference between literary English and colloquial English? 4. Between colloquial English and vulgar English? 5. Is it is hern vulgar or colloquial? 6. Is that's a cinch vulgar, colloquial, or literary? 7. What is a dialect? 8. Is the language employed in Burns's To a Mouse, the first stanza of which is given below, vulgar, colloquial, or literary?

"Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,

O, what a panic's in thy breastie !
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi' bickerin1 brattle2!

I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring battle!

9. Give two instances of disputed usage.

to know when our expressions are correct? we to decide in disputed cases?

10. How are we

II. How are

1 Rapid. 2 Hurry.

3 Stick for cleaning the plough.

CHAPTER IV

INCORRECT ENGLISH

27. NEW WORDS. - EXERCISE 6.-28. MISUSED WORDS. — EXERCISE 7.-29. DISPUTED WORDS. - EXERCISE 8.-30. INCORRECT GRAMMAR.-31. ARTICLES. - 32. NOUNS: FORMATION OF THE PLURAL.-33. NOUNS: FORMATION AND Uses of thE POSSESSIVE.— 34. PRONOUNS: NOMINATIVE AND OBJECTIVE CASES. — EXERCISE 9. -35. PRONOUNS: THE POSSESSIVE CASE. — 36. RELATIVE PRONOUNS. -37. PRONOUNS: NUMBER. EXERCISE IO. - -38. VERBS: NUMBER. EXERCISE II. - 39. VERBS: SEQUENCE OF TENSES.

40. VERBS may, can; lie, lay; sit, set; rise, raise.—EXERCISE 12. — 41. OTHER COMMON ERRORS. — EXERCISE 13.-42. Shall AND will. -43. Shall AND will IN FUTURE TENSES. — EXERCISE 14.-44. Shall AND will IN VERB-PHRASES. EXERCISE 15.-45. Shall AND will IN QUESTIONS. EXERCISE 16.46. Shall AND will IN DEPENDENT CLAUSES. - EXERCISE 17.-47. MISTAKES IN THE USE OF shall AND will. EXERCISE 18.

27. New Words. As language exists for the purpose of communication, it is plain that a new word runs a great risk of not being understood by the general public. Like novel or striking things in dress or custom, it runs also the risk of seeming indecorous or vulgar. Almost every family has in its private vocabulary certain words of domestic manufacture which are understood perfectly by the members of the family, but which would be puzzling to other people. In the same way new words appear from time to time among larger groups of men, and attain a wider currency. Sometimes such words are

caught up by the general public, and made a part of our ordinary language; sometimes they continue for a time to exist in vulgar or colloquial English, but die out before gaining even a foothold in literary English. These new words (technically called barbarisms, i.e. foreign or barbarian words) are of three kinds :

(1) Words arising as jocose expressions, just as nicknames do; e.g. dude, swipe (college slang), bulldoze, boycott.1 Of these examples, dude, which appeared about fifteen years ago, and swipe retain their place in vulgar and local English; bulldoze has become established in colloquial English, and boycott has even reached literary usage. Under this heading may also be classed many of those violently figurative slang expressions which lend so much color to colloquial and vulgar English at the present time, particularly in America; e.g. cinch, grind. Most of these slang expressions, to be sure, are not based on words that are absolutely new to the language, but they give to old words such totally new meanings as to render them practically new.

(2) Words made necessary by new inventions or circumstances; e.g. cablegram, typewriter, electrocute. It should be noticed that it is acceptance by the public that make such words valid. Much objection was made by scholars, for instance, to telegram, which does not mean, according to the Greek words from which it is derived, precisely what we wish it to

1 From Captain Boycott, the first prominent victim of the system. The first three examples are of unknown or uncertain origin.