For the most part, at least, language is an art, not a science. Languages evolve more or less haphazardly; they are not deliberately developed. The "rules" of grammar may attempt to keep language specific and precise, but they are regularly broken for the sake of convenience and in order to make the language more beautiful. In some languages, the development has not been helpful, e.g., the Chinese language in which a single character is used for a word, thus making things agonizingly contrived.
As we individually study language, we ought to be trying to distill the best of what we find. Which writers are the clearest and most precise? Which have the most beautiful flow to their language? Which are most forceful?
"Behind the Armies and Fleets of Britain and
France gather a group of shattered States and bludgeoned races: the Czechs,
the Poles, the Norwegians, the Danes, the Dutch, the Belgians -- upon all of whom
the long night of barbarism will descend, unbroken even by a star of hope,
unless we conquer, as conquer we must, as conquer we shall."
1 comment:
Sounds like Churchill
A
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