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818 s4s4s4s4s4 c h a p t e r 1 6a How American Democracy Has Modified the English Languageb If what I have said previously concerning letters in general has been well understood by the reader, he will easily imagine what type of influence the democratic social stateand democraticinstitutionscanexerciseonlanguage itself, which is the first instrument of thought. a. 1. Modification that English has experienced in America. 2. Democratic cause of that: 1. Democratic peoples constantly change their words, because among them things are constantly shifting. Thus, great number of new words, character of democratic languages. 2. Character of these new words. Most of them are relatedto theneedsof industry, to the science of administration. 3. Origin of these words. Little of learned etymologies. Some borrowings made from living languages. Above all, gain from itself. Three means of gaining from itself: 1. Put forgotten terms back into use. 2. Make expressions belonging to a science or to a profession enter into general circulation with a figurative meaning. 3. Give to a word in use an uncommon meaning. That is the most widely used and easiest method, but also the most dangerous. By doubling the meaning of a word in this way, you make it uncertain which one you are leaving aside for it and which one you are giving to it. 4. What makes dialects and patois disappear with democratic institutions. 5. What makes all artificial and conventional classifications of words disappear as well in the same period. 6. Why democracy multiplies abstract words, generalizes their use and leads to the abuse of them (YTC, CVf, p. 17). b. On the jacket of the manuscript: “The review of this chapter was extremely tiring for me; I do not know if this explains why I currently consider the chapter as too long and boring and miss the original draft, fragments of which I will find moreover in the rubish. “Read this chapter to men of the world and study their impressions.” the english language 819 American authors live more, truly speaking, in England than in their own country, since they constantly study English writers and take them daily as models. It is not like this for the population itself; the latter is subjected more immediately to the particular causes that can have an effect on the United States. So you must pay attention not to the written language, but to the spoken language, if you want to see the modifications that the idiom of an aristocratic people can undergo while becoming the language of a democracy.c Educated Englishmen, and judges more competent to appreciate these fine nuances than I am able to be myself,d have often assured me that the c. In the margin: “⫽So the language of a people is an excellent indicator for judging their social state, just as knowledge of the social state is sufficient to judge the state of the language in advance.⫽” d. They said that the Americans showed even more propensity than the English for making new words; that when the Americans made a new word, they never looked for its root in learned languages; that they borrowed it from foreign languagesoreven from their own language by changing the meaning of an already known word or by makingawordmovefromtherealmeaningtothefigurativemeaning.Theseeducated Englishmen added that most of these borrowings were made from the vocabulary of artisans, of businessmen, of political men rather than from that of philosophers, so that language had a kind of tendency to become materialized. Finally, they said that the Americans often used indiscriminately the same words in very diverse circumstances ; so that the Americans employed on a solemn occasion an expression that the English would have used only in the most ordinary cases and vice versa. Letter to Mr. Hall (on letter paper, Rubish, 1). The letter to Basil Hall, from which Tocqueville drew this fragment, is found in the library of Princeton University and says this: Château de Baugy, 19 June 1836./ I cannot thank you enough, Sir, for the letter you kindly sent me on the 4th of this month. I accept with a great deal of gratitude all that it contains of flattery and usefulness. Your opinions on America and on England will alwayscarrya greatweight in my view and I love knowing them, even when they do not exactly conform to mine. Controversy between men who esteem one another can only be veryprofitable. I will prove that your letter pleased me greatly by answering it at great length.I would...

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