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The world of words has its jungles and mountain gorges, meadows and marshes, and vast stretches of both arid waste and fertile land. The seasoned traveller knows his way around and his/her progress is made less arduous by the work of pioneers. To put it plainly, care in word selection can be overdone so that spontaneity of expression is lost. ‘In human discourse, infinitely varied as it is, so much must ever depend on “who” speaks to “whom”, in what mood and upon what occasion’. All three – wide reading, close observation and deep reflection on what is read and observed – are important in composition. We have to come to terms with both the mongrel elements of the English vocabulary and the preponderance in it of words of classical origin. But English grammar is neither borrowed nor mixed. The construction and meaning of sentences depend upon the use of grammatical inflections of native origin and these serve to make the English element the most important part of the language. Hazlitt, in his piece on Cobbett, describes him as ‘unquestionably the most powerful political writer of the day’ and as ‘one of the best writers in the language’. He ‘speaks and thinks plain, broad downright English’. And he adds, ‘He is one of those writers who can never tire us – not even of himself; and the reason is, he is always “full of matter”. He never runs to lees, never gives us the vapid leavings of himself, is never “weary, stale, and unprofitable”, but always setting out afresh on his journey, clearing away some old nuisance, and turning up new mould’. In short, Cobbett, were he alive today, would be the envy of every newspaper columnist. Vocabulary, as I have said again and again, is a great help. To quote Cyril Connolly, ‘the vocabulary of a writer is his currency, but it is a paper currency and its value depends on the resources of mind and heart which back it’. Let us not forget this truth as we look up this or that word in the dictionary. Today we shall take up ‘extenuate’ and ‘attenuate’, both originating from the Latin ‘tenuare’ (to make thin), from ‘tenuis’ (thin). ‘To extenuate’ (guilt/offence) means ‘to lessen or attempt to lessen the magnitude or seriousness of the guilt/offence, especially by providing excuses’; to weaken the force of crime, guilt, fault, ills or accusation. The word finds formal use in Law. The literal (archaic) sense of the word is ‘to make something thin or emaciated’/’to reduce its strength’. A third meaning, now obsolete, is ‘to belittle or disparage’. The adjectives are ‘extenuating’ and ‘extenuatory’. The noun forms are ‘extenuator’ and ‘extenuation’. Examples: The (historians’) plea in extenuation of guilt and mitigatory punishment is perpetual. The High Court accepted his plea of ‘extenuating circumstances’ and reduced the sentence given by the trial court. ‘Yet hear me Samson; not that I endeavour/ To lessen or extenuate my offence’ (Dalila). (I am not trying to make light of my offence or to reduce my culpability). ‘Attenuate’ (transitive verb) (from ad+tenuare) means ‘make slender, fine or small’. To attenuate something is to weaken it, to reduce its force, value, amount or degree. Examples: The drought attenuated the river to a narrow channel. The injections attenuated the virulence of the infection. In intransitive senses, ‘attenuate’ has the meaning, ’to become thin, weak or fine’. Example: Newspaper size has attenuated with each passing year, thanks to the fall in advertisement revenue and competition from the electronic media. Published on 13th April 2002 Readers' response/inputs can be e-mailed to mhdevan@chennaionline.com.
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