Sta,—" The worst enemies of the English language," writes Mr.
Alan Phillips, " are the English people." After reading his article one is inclined to say rather that the worst enemies of English are its self- appointed champions. For although he makes some useful and pertinent criticisms, the main weight of his protest seems to be directed against the genius of the language itself rather than against its abuse. " Let us make away with useless adverbs and prepositions." But it is one of the most valuable aptitudes of English (as the prdtnoters of Basic English have so clearly seen) that the preposition combined with the simple verb becomes the effective expression for new meanings. And most of the offending examples he cites could be defended. To " win through," for instance, is not the same as simply to " win ": it conveys the added suggestion of surviving an ordeal and emerging into final security. We may " face" the future prospect with hope, or despair, or resigna- tion: if we are invited to " face up to " it an attitude of sturdy defiance, as though we were " squaring up to " it, is implied.
Again, it is a strength in English that nouns can be simply conjoined alongside one another to form a new substantive, and so long as ambiguity is avoided it is difficult to cavil at the tendency. Would Mr' Phillips really prefer us to speak of a " room for refreshment in the station of a way of rails " instead of a railway station refreshment room? " Inventors of words should be scrupuous in their derivation." Let us, however, avoid pedantic fastidiousness in the matter of hybrid forms. If Saxon, Danish, Norman, Latin and Greek word-derivatives can jostle one another harmoniously in the same English sentence, why should we object to the process being carried further and inveigh against the happy knack of English in combining a prefix of one type with a root or suffix of another? It may not be illogical, but it is surely senseless and useless to try to remake our language by freeing it from such hybrids (including the four words italicised). Mongrel dogs are the most docile, and mongrel words often prove to be the most useful.
With Mr. Phillips's concluding exhortation there can be no quarrel. Let our champions of English concern themselves less with carping at new words and new idioms and more with exposing the intolerable jargon that comes from the careless or pretentious use of the language, the cumbrous circumlocution, the slipshod phrase, the staled cliché.—
Yours faithfully, J. W. HARVEY. 6 Claremont Road, Headingley, Leeds, 6.
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