11 December 2019

LINGUISTIC INSIGHT: ENGLISH IS AN EASY LANGUAGE?

Compared to many other languages such as Russian with its six cases or German with its convoluted word order, English does not have a very rigid structure. This makes it easy to learn initially but at the same time, makes it difficult to truly master on a more sophisticated level. The benefit of this simplicity is that it makes English a very practical language. You can start to use it for practical purposes even if you are not very advanced. Unlike German, for example, where there is a lot of structure to absorb before you can even begin to say relatively simple things. If you violate the structures of German you will sound much more uneducated than when you violate the structures of English.

Another consequence of this lack of rigidity is that English is, in my view, well-suited to innovative thinking and the expression of innovative ideas. It is thus well-suited to intuitive personalities. It is not a coincidence that the English have a tolerance and affection for eccentricity. The English concept of ‘good style’ is closely related to this cultural value of individuality and innovation. Thus, if you want to speak or to write in a sophisticated English, it is much less about the pedantic use of particular structures and particular vocabulary. English is not ornamental in the way French is, for example. In English culture, highly ornamental language can be perceived as excessive and perhaps a cover for lack of real thought.

Sophisticated English is about using apparently simple (i.e. elegant) vocabulary and structures in a targeted or evocative way. You will not necessarily sound more intelligent by using unusual vocabulary or very long sentences, even in academic writing. You will be much more impressive if you can express yourself concisely and elegantly. To do this, however, requires a massive exposure to English usage in many contexts. Since there are few rules, style is mostly absorbed through the observation of patterns over time, i.e. reading and listening.

Here is a poem by E.E. Cummings, an American poet known for his idiosyncratic style and disruption of conventional forms. The vocabulary is simple but its use is elegant and evocative.

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands