Grammar for Smart People

 

 

수년 전 대전에 있는 한 국립대 어학연구소에서 하는 영어과정을 수강한 적이 있었다. 그때 가르치시던 교수님 중의 한 분이 수업 중에 Thesaurus 사전을 하나씩 사서 공부하는 것이 좋다는 말씀을 하신 적이 있다. 지금도 잘 하기 어려운 발음이고, 물론 그 당시에는 처음 듣던 단어였다. 좋다고 하셔서 인터넷 서점을 통해 구입을 하긴 했었는데, 도대체가 어떻게 사용해야 하는지 막막했다. 우리 말로 "동의어 사전" 쯤 이라고 할 수 있겠는데, 예컨대, start라는 단어와 같은 의미의 단어인 begin, initiate, establish, lauch 등 단어에 따라서는 수십개의 단어를 나열하기도 하고, 좀 더 친절한 사전은 각각의 단어가 갖는 차이별로 예시문장을 제시하기도 한다.

 

그런데... 그럼 어쩌란 말이냐구요???

 

그 이유를 영어로 공부하고, 영어로 글 쓰는 과제를 하면서 알게 되었다. 얘네들의 글쓰는 습관이나 관행은 같은 말을 가급적 쓰지 않는 것이 문장을 좀 더 고급스럽게 보이게 하는 방법 중의 하나라는 것을 듣게 되었다. 특히나, 학술적으로 쓰는 글들은 같은 문장이나 단락에 혹여 같은 단어가 있으면 어떤 수를 쓰더라도 - 즉 다른 단어를 쓰거나, 숙어를 쓰거나, 문장 구조를 바꾸는 방법 등으로 - 동의어를 회피하라는 조언을 많이 받았고, 실제 글쓰는 책에서도 그런 말이 나온다. Thesaurus 는 바로 그런때 유용한 사전인 셈이다.

 

MS사의 Word 프로그램만 보더라도, 영어 단어를 입력하고 마우스의 오른쪽 버튼을 누르면 동의어, 혹은 synonyms라고 해서 같은 의미의 단어를 쭉... 제시한다. 

 

  <MS Word 프로그램 캡쳐 화면>

 

 http://www.thesaurus.reference.com 에서의 검색 화면

 

그런데, 나의 이 블로그에 글을 쓰면서, 일기처럼 급 낮은 글을 쓰기는 하지만, 그러면서도 같은 단어를 회피하는 버릇을 발견하게 된다. 언젠가 해커스닷컴 (www.hackers.com)에 한 유학생이 자기도 영어가 아닌 우리 말로 글을 쓰면서 그런다고 하는 것을 읽은 적이 있는데, 나도 제 버릇 뭐 못줘서 그런지 영어로 글을 잘 쓰는 것도 아니면서 못된 (?) 버릇만 배웠다. 

 

하지만, 우리 책이나 신문 같은 것을 읽어 보아도 그런 경향이 있는 것 같다. 가급적 비슷한 뜻의 다른 말을 쓰면 읽으면서 좀 덜 지루한 감이 있고, 쓰는 사람도 다양한 어휘를 사용하려고 노력하게 되는 장점도 있지않나 싶다.

 

얼마 전 빌린 "Grammar for Smart People"이란 책을 보니, 동어반복 회피 법칙도 모든 경우에 반드시 지켜야 하는 것은 아니라고 말하고 있다 (아래 4번). 하지만 설명을 읽어 보니, 그 법칙이 필요없다는 얘기보다는 문장을 활력있게 보이게 할 경우 등과 같이, 오히려 예외적인 상황을 말하고 있는 듯 하다. 즉, 많은 경우에는 가급적 동의어를 피해서 사용하는 것이 좋다는 말이겠다.

 

가만.. 지금까지 쓴 글 중에 겹쳐 쓴 말이 없나...

 

 

 

 

 

Six grammar rules you can safely bend

 

 

1. Never End a Sentence with a Preposition

 

Neither Dryden nor the grammarians who promoted his views envisioned the extent to which many of the most commonly used prepositions – on, to, in, about, over, of, etc. – would hook up with verbs to become common idioms. Nor did they take into account the awkwardness that results when you run one of these verb-preposition idioms through the never-end-a-sentence-with-a-preposition wringer.

 

Examples:

Ophelia is someone everybody looks up to.

Ophelia is someone up to whom everybody looks.

What are you talking about?

About what are you talk?

Generally, though, your ear will tell you when to follow John Dryden’s advice and, more important, when it is advice to which you do not have to pay attention or about which you do not have to worry (just kidding!).

 

2. Never Split an Infinitive

Still, no grammarian today sees any value in having an official sanction against splitting infinitives, and everyone agrees that it was a silly rule to adopt in the first place. Even if the rule didn’t exist, split infinitives would rarely occur; that’s because we rarely split them in conversation. on the other hand, there are certain situation in which splitting the infinitive produces precisely the effect you want to produce, which is to put less emphasis on the action conveyed in the infinitive and more on the modifier.

Examples:

                I would now like you to slowly and precisely tell me what happened and how it happened. (Splitting the infinitive positions the adverbs slowly and precisely immediately before the verb tell and puts the emphasis on these two words.)

 

3. Never Use Two Negatives in the Same Sentence

The logic behind this rule is that two negatives in the same construction cancel each other out. When we say, “We never did nothing,” what we are saying, in effect, is that “At no time did we ever do nothing,”which means that at all times we did something. Something like that, anyway.

The problem with this otherwise logical rule is that it fails to make a crucial distinction: the difference between double negatives that occur in the same clause, and double negatives that occur in a sentence that has two clauses, each with its own negative ｅxpression.

Here’s an example:

It is not that we do not favor your plan to open a new branch office in Bratislava. It is just that we think your plan has too many complications. (This is acceptable English because the two negatives in the first sentence are part of different clauses.)

We never intended not to share with you the results of our study. (Again, the two negatives are part of different clauses.)

But:

We never wanted no trouble from you. (Not acceptable English because both negatives are part of the same clause.)

 

4. Don’t Repeat Words; Use Synonyms Instead

Going out of your way to avoid using a world you have already used a few words earlier was useful advice when you were writing school papers and one of your agendas was to impress your English teachers with the size and range of your vocabulary. It is also a good principle to follow when it comes to certain types of words and ｅxpressions – phrases such as “on the other hand,” “to make a long story short,” “of course” – and, in particular, “like” and “you know.”

In general, though, going out of your way to avoid repeating words – this practice is sometimes referred to as “elegant variation” – is counterproductive. Repeating a key word several times in a paragraph is often the glue that gives a well-written paragraph its cohesion. And repetition can work effectively as a rhetorical device. It can produce a nicely balanced flow to your sentences and can give added impact to key points. Consider whether the following examples would have the same impact if the speakers had followed the advice contained in this rule.

We have nothing to fear but alarm itself.

You can fool all the people some of the time and a few individuals in every instance; but it is impossible to trick each human being in the absolutely largest number of situations.

We shall not flag or fail. We shall fight in France, we shall battle on the seas and oceans, we shall contend with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall contest on the beaches, we shall struggle on the landing grounds, we shall make combat in the fields and in the streets, we shall duel in the hills; we shall never surrender.

 

5. Avoid the Use of “I” in Business Correspondence

There are three reasons why many people find it difficult to use the first-person pronoun in anything other than a love letter.

Reason number one is the ill-conceived and clearly out-of-date notion that business correspondence is too dignified a means of communication to warrant the use of a word as common and plebeian as “I.”

Reason number two is the equally ill-conceived notion that if you use “I” in a memo or letter, people will think you are stuck on yourself.

Reason number three is that it is grammatically “wrong” to use the word “I” in anything other than a personal letter or a first-person essay.

These are all myths. The probable explanation behind them is that many elementary and high school English teachers, in an effort to get their pupils to differentiate an opinion from a fact, often forbid their students to use I.

Whatever the reason, this is one principle whose validity is limited to only a handful of situations, chiefly among them technical and financial reports, and formal proposals. Going out of your way to avoid “I” in any correspondence in which you have been asked to offer opinion is silly. Avoiding “I” in sale correspondence is worse than silly, it is bad business. In most sales writing, your main objective is to establish a strong personal connection between you and your reader. I and you are better suited for that job than other two words in the English language.

 

6. Never Start a Sentence with And or But

Nobody seems to know how or where this widely espoused principle of “good writing” ever got off the ground. The best explanation is that it takes root when teachers try to disabuse grade-schoolers from stringing together every sentence they write with one and after another.

Here, again, we have a guideline worth keeping in mind but self-defeating if you follow it to the letter. Starting an occasional sentence with and is an easy and effective way to smooth out the transition from one sentence to the next. If there were anything grammatically unhealthy about the practice, the Bible would be forbidden reading in most grammar schools.

As for but, it is a simple and forceful way to start any sentence whose information contradicts or qualifies the information conveyed in the previous sentence – much better, by the way, than however. That’s why it is used so often in newspaper and magazine articles.

Should you go out of your way to start sentences with and or but? No. Using either of these words to open a sentence is simply a device, and like any device, it will lose its impact and is likely to become distraction if you use it too often. But never using either of these words at the beginning of a sentence doesn’t serve either your best interests or the best interests of your readers. (pp. 137-143)