The art of communication

I read the following lines in a book a few decades ago:

“Great minds discuss ideas,
Average minds discuss events,
Small minds discuss people.”

Whoever who wrote them, they are loaded with meaning. How many of us discuss ideas? Very often we discuss events such as a bomb explosion. Then we are well known for discussing people. What happens in work places and August assemblies is deplorable. They discuss people and throw mud at one another. Some years ago the Hanzard was full of ideas expressed by eminent politicians. Where are they now?

We also note how the language is abused by its users. When you read some articles published in newspapers you might wonder whether they have been written by sesquipedalians who use long and ponderous polysyllabic words.

The trouble with some writers is that they try to impress the reader with long words the average reader does not understand. In order to understand some articles in today’s newspapers, you may need not only an Oxford English Dictionary (OED) but also a Dictionary of Latin and Dictionary of French.

When you use uncommon English or Foreign words in your writing, communication fails. The latest trend in writing is to use short and simple words. In fact, Mark Twain once said “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning bug and lightning.”

The average reader does not want to know how big a vocabulary you have. Therefore, it is counter productive to use long-winding, bombastic words. English is a rich language and a good writer can express any idea using simple words.

Some of the Indian writers have set an example of writing in simple language. For instance, R. K. Narayan is one of the best English writers Indian has produced. His books - “ Swami and Friends” (1935), “The Bachelor of Arts” (1937), “The Dark Room” (1938), “The English Teacher” (1945), “Mr Sampath (1949), “The Financial Expert” (1952), “Waiting for the Mahatma” (1955), “The Guide” (1958), “The Vendor of Sweets” (1967), The Painter of Signs” (1976), ‘A Tiger for Malgudi” (1983), and “Talkative Man” (1986) can be read and enjoyed even by a school drop-out.

“The Guide” won the prestigious National Prize of the Indian Literary Academy. When you read “The English Teacher” you will note that he uses a limited vocabulary well within the average reader. This is evident even in his other novels. It does not mean that he did not know high sounding polysyllabic words. He simply did not want to use them in his books for obvious reasons. Narayan, therefore, is a good model to follow.

It is worth quoting a few lines from “The English Teacher” to show his skills as a great communicator: “An hour later, he drew up the blanket and packed his bag. I stood and watched in silence. All through this .he wouldn’t speak a word to me, I stood like a statue.

After reading such a simple passage, try to go through a chapter in a prize-winning novel published here or abroad. I am sure you will get a linguistic shock.

The English language keeps on borrowing words from other languages. As a result, its vocabulary keeps on expanding everyday. Only about half the English vocabulary could be rightly called Anglo-Saxon in origin. So, English writers are compelled to use some words borrowed from Latin, French or even Spanish. However, careful writers take the trouble not to use Foreign borrowings haphazardly.

Language is a vehicle for communication. When it is overloaded, communication suffers a lot. This is one reason that translation of English words into Sinhala turned out to be a mockery sometime ago. Sometimes, the older generation might remember some of the mistranslations coined by pundits: “Sarvaloka Puttuva” for the universal joint and “Albert Chandravanka” for Albert Crescent.

Even if you use English words while teaching a particular subject in Sinhala or Tamil, the communication does not suffer. That is how it is done in other countries. For instance, all over the English speaking world, and also in countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Russia, medicine is taught in their own languages. While retaining the Greek and Latin words. If they had tried to translate Latin and Greek words into their own languages, you can imagine what would have happened.

Apart from that, English is a respectable language with a standard system of grammatical rules and generally agreed usage. However, it is tragic to note that English is being used without having any regard to its grammar and usage. I have noted the following recurring howlers in English publications including text book published locally.

Once I read a news item in a national daily: “A man got away with Rs. three and half lakhs from two police officers after having duped them by engineering a fake vehicle transaction at the supreme court complex yesterday.” Apart from its cumbersome syntax, the word “lakhs: appears to be non-standard. It is not used in British Standard. English (BSE). However, “lakh” means “one hundred thousand” in Indian English.

Then there was a headline in a weekend newspaper: “Kithul - the wish - conferring tree.” The word “confer”, according, to OED, means “give an official title, honour or advantage to someone.” For instance, an honorary doctorate can be conferred on a politician. On the other hand, wishes are fulfilled. Therefore, the kithul free may be a wish-fulfilling tree. But I do not know what wishes it can fulfil except giving us toddy and its by-product treacle and jaggery.

The word “late”, instead of “the late”, has begun to surface in some of our newspapers. If you do not attend a function on time, you are late. “The late” means “no longer living”. Once a newspaper headline read: “A tribute to late Lady Elina Jayewardene”. As far as I know, the good lady never arrived late to public functions.

There seems to be considerable American influence over our English writers. Very often we read “two storied buildings” in newspapers. According to BSE it should read as “two storeyed.” Another howler is the misuse of “robbed”. The OED says that “rob” means to “take property from a place or person illegally. So, you can rob a bank or a man. Usually, you rob a person or things or money. Although the usage is clear, we come across sentences such as “The van was robbed.”

“Deceased” is another word that is misused very often. In formal English and law the deceased is a person who has died recently. It can also be used as an adjective: My deceased father or mother. However, we read some funny sentences in newspapers: ‘The witness had seen the deceased crossing the bridge”, or “While the deceased and some others were in the process of pulling down the half severed tree, a branch struck by the falling tree fell on the head of the deceased. “

A private educational institute has a name board which says that “English tution” is available. Meanwhile, an international school inserted an advertisement in a newspaper with the following sentence: If pay in advance, you will be with a discount till your child’s education lasts.” Is this the kind of English they are going to teach?

When you make blunders in speech and writing, communication suffers. As a result, many misunderstanding and complications can occur in society. If something is not done immediately to improve the standards of teaching English in schools and higher educational institutions, you will continue to see dead people crossing bridges and half-baked tutors giving “English tution”.

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