Brown D. / Браун Д. - Helping ESL Students Master American English Pronunciation / Гид по произношению английского языка [PDF, ENG]

The Clues of Unnecessarily Difficult Language
We have remarked that every author, if he is to succeed in communicating his ideas, must address himself to his chosen audience in its own language. This fact may suggest to you that the obligation is all on the writer’s side; that all you have to do is allow him to impart his information and his arguments to you, in your terms. This is not true. You must go halfway to meet your author, whoever he is; as should be abundantly clear by now, intelligent reading is in no sense a process of passive absorption. Every reader, however, may expect a writer to express himself as clearly and directly as he can. Whenever he encounters language which seems unnecessarily difficult, he should follow this procedure:
1. Find out what is said-be use of context, dictionary, and brains.
2. Try to restate the meaning in simpler language, without using much more space-using less, if possible-and without changing or sacrificing any essential idea. If this experiment is successful, two preliminary conclusions may be made: (a) The difficult language is not justified because it saves space. Sometimes oversized words are chosen because the ideas they embody otherwise can be expressed only by awkward, space- and time- consuming clauses or sentences. Rightly used, this is a perfectly legitimate sort of shorthand. But if the big words can be replaced by short synonyms, obviously no space has been saved. Furthermore, if some words or phrases can be omitted without loss, space is being wasted. (b) The difficult language is not called for by the complexity of the idea. In culture like ours there are many ideas which cannot possibly be expressed by the familiar, short words of our everyday vocabulary; they require the use of longer words, many of which were created expressly to stand for such ideas. If, however, you can be sure that your paraphrase in simpler language does preserve the sense of the passage, you have demonstrated that the language is unjustifiably complicated.
If, on the other hand, after conscientious effort you have failed to simplify the language of the passage, you probably have proved that difficult language which the author used was necessary-and you have no choice but to dig in and try to understand him by learning his terminology. He cannot come any farther to meet you, so you must work toward rapport with him by equipping yourself with his vocabulary.
But if your experiment has proved that the author’s use of difficult language was not justified-what then? Several possible inferences follow:
1. The writer’s mind does not function clearly and precisely, and this lack of clarity and precision is reflected in his attempts at communication. If a man’s thinking is muddled, his writing is likely to be muddled, too.
2. The writer may be a fairly incisive thinker, but he honestly assumes the he can convey his ideas only by the use of outsized words and roundabout expressions. He should be listened to with respect, because his ideas may be valuable; but he should be pitied for his ignorance of the art of communication.
3. The writer knows better than to clothe his ideas in language that is too big for them, but he goes ahead and does it anyway because he thinks he will impress his audience. He may be right. The uncritical reader will think, “Gosh, what complicated language; he must be a brilliant man to be able to write like that.” But the critical reader will be impatient and suspicious: “Who do you think you are? I can write like that too, but I have more sense.”
4. The writer is deliberately using such language, not to display his own talents (which may be pretty dubious anyway) but to hide something-perhaps his own ignorance, perhaps an idea of which his audience would not approve were he to express it so that they would immediately recognize it.
There is also a fifth inference, which may well accompany any of the preceding four. That is, the writer who uses an unnecessarily wordy or obscure style may have little sensitivity to the beauties of language. Writing that is full of polysyllabic words and hard knots and clusters of phrases is likely to offend not only the intellect but also the ear.
(стр. 74-76)
The question of authority
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“Does the man know what he is talking about?” is, then, a question that must remain uppermost in our minds as we read anything that purports to give information or to offer an opinion. Again and again we must conclude that the writer knows no more about his subject than do we, who also read the newspapers, and that therefore his data and opinions may be ignored without loss.
“What is his motive in saying what he does?” is a second, equally important question. In many cases the motive is easily apparent: the writer of a magazine article on the outlook for interplanetary travel, for example, probably wants to make some money. But what of those numerous articles and books on more controversial subjects, such as politics, economics, religion, social affairs, education? Although the superficial reader may seldom be aware of it, nearly all of them are written from a particular viewpoint. Few are impartial or disinterested; the great majority are biased, if only because the subjects with which they deal can scarcely be discussed at all without taking sides.
…
(стр. 171)
Preface to Critical Reading (Richard D. Altick, 1956)