C. E. M. Joad

How to Write, Think and Speak Correctly C. E. M. Joad

INTRODUCTORY - The man who said that language was given to us to conceal our thoughts was a diplomat and a cynic. Admicdly, diplomatists, politicians and propagandists find it expedient to put vvhat they have to say in language which can be interpreted in different ways and there are occasions when most of us ordinary Folk are glad to take advantage of the opportunity language gives us to disguise our true feelings or intentions. But if this were the sole object of language, or if we were to use it with this object habitually, the confusion of Babel would be worse confounded, and ordinary human relations would soon be reduced to complete chaos, until a nore reliable form of oral and written comnunication was devised. No, the cynical diplomat I referred to just now was not really in earnest in fact, he was only drawing attention to an accidental or acccidental defect in an instrument which has been devised and orged by the labour of generations to enable people to understand me another. Language indeed is the best instrument for intelligible communication we possess. It is not perfect by any means it has ts defects and it has its drawbacks. Its drawbacks are naturally inherent in the spoken and written word we may not be able to remove thern, but we can do our best to neutralize them. But its iefects and shortcomings we can all help to remove. We can each of us in our own humble way help to improve and perfect language, with the object of making it a fuller, clearer and more rational means of reaching mutual understanding.