laugh giggle, chuckle, shrieked with laughter, snicker
Like common or popular words and learned words, general and specific words are not good or had in themselves. Some situations demand the use of generalities, others the use of specific terms. Political speeches, for instance, are seldom specific in praise or blame, unless purposely so. Delivered to a wide audience composed of people of different classes, races, and beliefs, they usually contain only general references.
(1) \see that in many things that life is very great. It is incomparably great in its material
aspects, in its body of wealth, in the diversity and sweep of its energy, in the industries which have been conceived and built up by the genius of individual men and the limitless enterprise of groups of men. It is great, also, very great, in its moral force. . .
But the evil has come with the good, and much fine gold has been corroded. With riches has come inexcusable waste. We have squandered a great deal of what we might have used, and have not stopped to conserve the exceeding bounty of nature, ... We have been proud of our industrial achievements, but we have not hitherto stopped thoughtfully enough to count the human cost. . . \
(W. Wilson: First Inaugural Address, March, 4,1913)
(2) This tendency toward irresponsibility persists in many of us today; our rivers are poisoned by
reckless dumping of sewage and toxic industrial wastes, the air of our cities is filthy and dangerous to breathe from the belching of uncontrolled products from combustion of coal, coke, oil and gasoline. Our towns are girdled with wreckage and the debris of our toys -- our automobiles and our packaged pleasures.
(John Steinbeck: America and the Americans)
Of course, for most student writers, to be specific mostly means to be clear, vivid and lively in their writing, avoiding frequent use of such overworked words like ask, said, run, walk, good, great, fine, nice, lovely, wonderful, etc. The passage below, for example, contains many specific words that make the description vivid:
（3） We trotted on, we crept up Constitution Hill, we rattled down into Lamas street, and the
tailor still rang his bell and a dog ran, squealing, in front of his wheels. As we clip-clopped over the cobbles that led down to the Towy Bridge, I remembered Grandpa?s nightly noisy journeys that rocked the bed and shook the walls, and I saw his gay waistcoat in a vision and his patchwork head tufted and smiling in the candlelight. The tailor before us turned round on his saddle his bicycle wobbled and skidded. ―I see Dai Thomas‖, he cried.
(Dylan Thomas: The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog)
6. Concrete or Abstract Words
Concrete words: words used to describe the identifiable qualities of particular things, feelings, events
Abstract words: words referring to characteristics that many things have in common
Like general and specific words, these words are opposite terms. Concrete words are really a special kind of specific diction: they describe the identifiable qualities of particular things, feelings, events. Abstract words refer to characteristics that many things have in common, e. g. beauty, strength, power, intelligence, cruelty, as well as the concepts like love, hate, faith, democracy, freedom, equality, integrity, etc.
Abstract concepts are usually defined in concrete terms, and concrete words may help to explain abstractions. In philosophical writings, more abstract words will be used. In describing sensations of sight, hearing, smell, taste or touch, concrete words are generally employed. The two passages below illustrate the difference.
(1) ... Pericles said that Athens stood for freedom and for thought and for beauty, but in the Greek way, within limits, without exaggeration. The Athenians loved beauty, he said, but with simplicity; they did not like the extravagancies of luxury. They loved the things of the mind, but they did not shrink from hardship. Thought did not cause them to hesitate, it clarified the road to action. If they had riches they did not make a show of them, and no one was ashamed of being poor if he was useful. They were free because of willing obedience to law, not only the written, but still more the unwritten, kindness and compassion and unselfishness and the many qualities which cannot be enforced, which depend on a man's free choice, but without which men cannot live together. (Edith Hamilton: \
(2) As the corpse went past, the flies left the restaurant in a cloud and rushed after it, but they came back a few minutes later.
The little crowd of mourners -- all men and boys, no women -- threaded their way across the market place between the piles of pomegranates and the taxis and the camels, wailing a short chant over and over again. What really appeals to the flies is that the corpses here are never put into coffins; they are merely wrapped in a piece of rag and carried on a rough wooden bier on the shoulders of four friends. When the friends get to the burying-ground they hack an oblong hole a foot or two deep, dump the body in it and fling over it a little of the dried-up, lumpy earth, which is like broken brick. No gravestone, no name, no identifying mark of any kind. The burying-ground is merely a huge waste of hummocky earth, like a derelict building-lot. After a month or two no one can even be certain where his own relatives are buried. (George Orwell: \
Passage (1) contains many abstractions, as the writer describes ancient values she admires
Passage (2) is a pure factual description. There is hardly a single abstraction. People die and are buried; only the flies are distracted, or attracted, and only momentarily.
Technical writing, and some forms of legal and military writing, also contain few abstractions, as the contents must be clearly and concretely stated, to avoid ambiguity.
7. Referential or Emotive Words
Referential words: words used to refer to things or ideas; or the denotative words, the meaning of which is what the word refer to, as described in a dictionary definition
Emotive words: also called affective words, words connoting feelings or emotions about things or ideas
Synonymous words may be referential or emotive. Take small and little, for example:
\
\little house.\
In objective, scientific or factual writing, words are mostly referential; in personal narration, subjective description or in poetry, more words are likely to be emotive. However, both types of words are often found in one piece of writing, as the writer switches from one attitude to another. Emotive words are often used to move the feelings, to impress or to persuade. The following passages illustrate the different uses of referential and emotive words. Find out emotive words used in each passage.
(1) On land and sea the stream of life poured on. New forms evolved; some old ones declined and
disappeared. On land the mosses and the ferns and the seed plants developed. The reptiles for a time dominated the earth, gigantic, grotesque, and terrifying. Birds learned to live and move in the ocean of air. The first small mammals lurked inconspicuously in hidden crannies of the earth as though in fear of the reptiles. (Rachael Carson: The Sea Around Us)
(2) But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One
hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
(Martin Luther King, Jr.: \
The use of persuasive emotive words is common in advertisements:
(3) With its unique rotating paper cassette, Sharp's SF—7850 Copier saves you money and time.
The advanced paper cassette senses the original's orientation, and automatically rotates 90° to match it. It doesn't keep you going round in circles trying to figure out which way to feed in the original. And Sharp's SF--7 850 also encompasses 8 intelligent features.
(Ad. For Sharp's SF--7850, News-week, 20.7. 92)
8. Choice between Synonymous Words
English has a wealth of synonymous words, a result chiefly of it's intensive borrowing from Latin, French and Greek. Thus for the English king, there is the Roman emperor and the French monarch. And the English house could be a French mansion or a Roman villa. Adding to the complexity has been the continuous influx of American English words into the language.
All synonymous words have a common base meaning, but through long usage, many have acquired different shades of meaning or subtle associations, which make them no longer true synonyms which can be interchanged at random. For instance, big and large are interchangeable when we say a big table, a large table, or a big or large amount. But whereas we can say a big occasion, we cannot say a large occasion (x). Neither can we say a large disaster (x) or a large loss (x). We use big instead. This is because large retains mainly its association with size, while big apart from size, has acquired connotations of importance or significance. The two words share some collocations, but not all, and big has a much wider field of meaning than large. It is only within a given context, with the meaning limited, that synonymous words can be interchangeable.
For Chinese students of English, the problem is compounded by the fact that very often synonymous words are translated into Chinese in the same way. The list below illustrates the point:
big, large (大) high, tall (高) little, small (小) fat, stout (胖) thin, lean (瘦) wide, broad (宽)
In English, of course, the words in each pair have similar and dissimilar connotations and collocations. As referential words, little and small have different collocations. We can say a little money, a little water, a little time, but not a small money, a small water, a small time. But we can say a little house or a small house, but then little is no longer referential, but emotive. Similarly we can say a high building or a tall building, but we cannot say high persons or tall heels. We have to reverse them into tall persons and high heels. It would be wise, therefore, if in doubt about which word to choose, to consult a dictionary of English synonyms, and not just to rely on the Chinese translation alone.
Another feature of English synonyms that often cause confusion to Chinese students is the fact that synonymous words may have shades of meaning bordering on the favorable or the unfavorable. For instance, slender, thin, and skinny all mean \fat,\but slender, applied to a person, is definitely
more complimentary than thin, which in turn is better than skinny. And to call a person plump is more flattering than to say he/she is fat, which borders on the pejorative.
The words mixed, motley, heterogeneous are synonymous. Motley literally meaning ''many-colored,\as in motley dress, has, however, through usage, acquired the connotation of ―disharmonious, discordant,‖ and is now used in a derogatory sense. Thus we can talk of a mixed or heterogeneous crowd at a party, meaning people of all types, but if we say a motley crowd, we imply a less favorable crowd of people.
It is important, therefore, to be aware of the complimentary or pejorative implications of words: Complimentary Pejorative firm, determined obstinate
thrifty, frugal miserly, niggardly trusting, na?ve gullible易受骗上当的，轻信的 proud haughty, arrogant strong-willed wilful group gang accumulate, amass hoard
routine, ordinary mundane世俗的、庸俗的, dull old, elderly senile
3.2.3 Principles for selecting words and phrases
Selecting words and phrases here refers to the use of words (often called \involves choice based on the following four principles:
1. Accuracy/Clarity
准确性：正如有句英语俗语说称：
―Do not write so that your words may be understood, but write so that your words must be understood.‖
又如马克.吐温所说：
―The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is as great as that between lightning and lightning bug.‖
? Choose the word that will convey your meaning as exactly as possible.
E.g.
? He put his head in his hands and began to cry. ? I know I‘m going to weep at the airport.
? There was a girl sitting and sobbing in the corner.
? The woman gathered around the coffin and began to wail, as was the custom in the region.
The choice of synonyms with difference connotative meanings is often concerned with the speaker‘s /writer‘s tone, which reveals his/her attitude or emotion. Compare the following two paragraphs:
(1) After vacillating for as long as he could and taking refuge in the supposed ambiguities of the state constitution, the mayor has finally yield to pressure and agreed to try to do something.
(2) After careful examination of the constitutional and other issues involved, the mayor, responding to the people‘s wishes, has announced that he will take immediate action.
Practice
Replace the underlined words with a correct one:
1. Sam and Dave are going to Bermuda and Hauppauge, respectfully, for spring vacation.
2. Maxine Hong Kingston was rewarded many prizes for her first two books, The Woman Warrior and China men.
3. In her childhood Kingston was greatly effected by her mother‘s tale about a pregnant aunt who was punished by villagers.
Blank filling
1. Channel 5 __ Oshu the winner before the polls closed. (advertised, declared, broadcast, promulgated) 2. AIDS is a serious health __.
(problem, worry, difficulty, plight)
3. Once the virus has entered the blood system, it __ T-cells. (murders, destroys, slaughters, executes) 4. The __ of T-cells is to combat infections. (ambition, function, aim, goal)
5. Without enough T-cells, the body is nearly __ against infection. (defenseless, hopeless, desperate, helpless)
6. To prevent exposure to the disease, one should be especially __ in sexual relationships. (chary, circumspect, cautious, calculating)
? Keep balance between general/abstract words and specific/concrete words.
Analyze the following paragraph and see how abstract words and concrete words are used:
(1) Technology has impacted every aspect of life in our society today. (2) Millions of residents in both the country and the city have had the Internet services installed in their homes. (3) Now even an old man in a small village can simply order almost everything on the Internet from the comfort of his home instead of traveling to the nearest shopping center.
Practice
Rewrite the following sentences with concrete words. 1. The old woman moved slowly away.
2. One shopper seemed to be selecting greens for a salad.
3. Shutting the door carefully, the young woman turned away from the house and walked down the street.
? Distinguish figurative meaning from literal meaning.
Literal meaning is direct, not emotive; figurative meaning is indirect and connotative. Compare these two sentences:
? The farm has a good many acres that are virtue swamp. ? The student was sunk in a swamp of discouragement.
?Avoid cliché.
Trite expression or cliché refer to those that have been used repeatedly again and again over long period of time and have been outdated and lifeless. Figurative language is in itself fresh, original and lively. However, when it is used repeatedly, it will lose originality. In English such expressions are numerous:
apple of one’s eye happily ever after beggars can’t be choosers in the same boat