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Advances in Linguistics

Charles C. Fries

College English, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Oct., 1961), pp. 30-37.

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30 COLLEGE ENGLlSH
when it happens to conflict with our own next forty-seven dealing with exceptions
prejudices; and we should take the time brought up by brilliant nuisances who
and trouble to examine a good deal of don't need the rule anyhow, most of the
this evidence. W e shall then be in the value and all of the comfort evaporate.
position to give an honest opinion about And if we try to doctor the rule to make
the status of a given item as well as its it waterproof we only make it too com-
structural implications; and we ought to plicated for any general use-without
have a pretty fair idea about when to ever quite stopping all the leaks.
insist on conformity and when to allow A teacher can do a reasonably good
free choice. job even with a "traditional grammar" if
5. Perhaps most important of all, we he realizes its limitations and uses it only
should remember Edward Sapir's won- for what it is worth. I think he can do
derful statement that "all grammars leak."
At best their rules are generalizations of a better job with any of several modern
something less than perfect accuracy. A grammars because they fit the language
simple statement that is about ninety- better and base their explanations on evi-
eight percent true can be of great value dence that the students can more easily
and comfort to a class. But if we explain understand. But it is a little early to be
it in three minutes, and then spend the using any of these as sacred texts.

Advances in Linguistics

For many of the present members of center of study, Literary Criticism, with
the National Council of Teachers of a broad and very active interest in the
English the term linguistic sciezce (often knowledge and understanding won b y
interchanged with the term linguistics) modern linguistic science. This was Pro-
has the ring of something very new. It fessor Fred Newton Scott (in whose
seems to stand for something that has seminar in Literary Criticism I studied
grown up quite recently and for some- in 1915). Let me recommend to you the
thing concerning which the writers of address he made to this Council 44 years
articles recently published in the Coun- ago, in 1916, entitled The Standard of
cil's journals show the most violent dis- American Speech.l
agreement. What w e call "modem" linguistic
Now, as a matter of fact, matters per- science is, however, a young science, but
taining to the more scientific study of b y no means an infant. A t the time of
the English language are, b y no means, the founding of the Council, fifty years
new to the National Council. T h e first ago: the beginnings of the techniques
President of this Council (the only Presi- which made a scielzce of linguistics were
dent to be elected for two terms), one of already ninety years old. I am assuming
the prominent founders of this organiza- that the mark of a "science" is its cumu-
tion, fifty years ago, combined his chief lative and inzpersonal nature,-impersonal
Professor Emeritus at the University of 'It appeared afterward in the English Journal
Michigan and vice president of the Ninth In- and was reprinted in a little volume of twenty-
ternational Congress of Linguists, Mr. Fries four of his articles published a t the end of his
has written many books o n modern linguistics. career, entitled T h e Standard of American
His latest book is Foundation for English Speech and Other Articles. Of these articles
Teaching (1961). half must be counted as linguistic.
A D V A N C E S IN LINGUISTICS 31

in the sense that the techniques used ( 3 ) In 1925 Sapir's paper on Sound
must lead to generalizations that are Patterns in Language in America (and
verifiable by all competent persons, and de Saussure's lectures in Switzerland) in-
cz~mulative in the sense that all new troduced the beginnings of structural
contributions must build upon or take linguistics.
cognizance of all that has preceded. I have noted the chronology of these
Every now and then, in the efforts to periods of special development in Modern
push out the boundaries of our cumula- Linguistic Science in order to make cer-
tive knowledge, a break-through into tain that no one (in this audience, at
new understanding necessitates a reori- least) will any longer believe that what
entation of the knowledge gained pre- we call Modern Linguistic Science is
viously. In linguistic science such break- the private theory of a small group of
throughs have occurred several times. irresponsible radicals devoted t o a pro-
(1) With Erasmus Rask's p a p e r gram of undermining all the defenses of
( 18 19), and with Grimrn's Germanic "accurate and elegant expression," who
Grammar (1821), the beginnings of the hold as their first principle "Accept what
new techniques in Indo-European com- comes and in time we shall have a class-
parative study made the first great ad- less speech corresponding to the usage
vance in language study from the time of the most n u m e r o ~ s . " ~
of the ~ r e e k ~ ~ 6 l o s o ~Ithintroduced
~rs. For each of the three periods of the
the period of linguistic science charac- development of Modern Linguistic Sci-
terized by the exploration of genetic ence we have had men of international
relationships between languages, and reputation who have attempted to sum
the beginnings of language history. This up and explain for the educated lay
period of linguistics saw the start of reader the progress in linguistic knowl-
work upon the great historical diction- edge that has been achieved. For the
aries-for German, Grirnm's Worter- first period we have two books by Wil-
buch undertaken in 1837 (and still in liam Dwight Whitney, Professor of San-
progress) : for English, T h e Oxford Eng- skrit at Yale during the third quarter of
lish Dictionary undertaken in 1858 (fin- the nineteenth century. Language and
ished in 1928). The first period of
Modern Linguistic Science thus, was
the Study of Language: Twelve lectures
on the principles of Linguistic Science
from 1820 t o 1875. was delivered first at the Smithsonian
(2) In 1875, Karl Verner's paper and Institution in Washington early in 1864,
the work of Leskien (and of the other then at the Lowell Institute in Boston
Jung-Grammtiker, or Neo-Grammari- in December 1864 and January 1865,
ans) introduced a period of much greater and first published in 1867. There were
rigor in dealing with the generalizations at least five editions of this book. A
concerning "sound-change." This period second book by Whimey, published in
saw also the development (a) of phonet- 1875 was Life and Growth of Language:
ics (the scientific analysis of speech A n Outline of Linguistic Science. For
sounds both in respect to the muscular the second period there were Hermann
movements, the articulations, by which Paul's Principien der Sprachgeschichte
they are made, and in respect to the (Principles of Language History) first
vibrations that produce their acoustical
effect), (b) of fing-uistic geography, (c) published in 1880, with the fifth edition
of the recording and analvsis of un- in 1920, Otto Jespersen's Language: Its
written language;. This, the kecond peri-
od of hlodern Linguistic Science ex- 'Jacque Barzun,The Houre of Intellect, p.
tended from 1875-1925. 241.
32 COLLEGE ENGLISH
Nature, Development and Origin, in serve to give these important features
1923, and Holgar Pedersen's, Linguistic their relative prominence.
Science in the Nineteenth Century, (tr.
by Spargo) 1931. For the third pe-
riod there have been Edward Sapir's Lan- 1. a body of knowledge and under-
guage 1921; L e o n a r d Bloomfield's standing
Language 1933, and now Kenneth Pilte's 2. (knowledge and understanding)
Language (in Relation to a Unified concerning the nature and functioning
Theory of the Structure of Human Be- of human language
havior), Part I in 1954; Part I1 in 1955; 3. (this knowledge and understand-
and Part I11 in 1960. ing) built up out of information about
Scholars devoted to Modern Linguistic the structure, the operation, and the his-
tory of a wide range of very diverse
Science in this country founded the human languages
Linguistic Society of America in 1924. 4. (this knowledge and understanding
That society has grown from a body of built up) by means of those techniques
270 members to a membership of over and procedures that have proved most
1600. Abroad there have been the Lin- successful in establishing verifiable gen-
guistic Circle of Prague (Czechoslovakia) eralizations
and the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen 5. (verifiable generalizations) con-
(Denmark). T h e International Congress cerning relationships among linguistic
of Linguists, organized in the late twen- phenomena.3
ties, at its eighth meeting in Oslo, Nor- Every science has developed its own
way in 1957, was attended by 525 invited special techniques for investigation, anal-
linguists from 43 different countries, ysis, and the testing of generalizations
from Japan and Australia to the West concerning the data it accumulates.
Jndies, from Ghana and South Africa to Modern linguistic science began early in
Russia and Scotland, and from Argentina the nineteenth century with the use of
to the United States and Canada. sets of phonological correspondence as
What then is this linguistic science a means of exploring and proving genetic
and what is a linguist? A linguist is relationships between different languages.
one whose special field of scholarship These techniques became more refined
is linguistic science. Linguistic science and more rigorously controlled after
is here understood to be a body of 1875. Later came the develo~ment of
knowledge and understanding concern- sound techniques for languagZ history,
ing the nature and functioning of human for linguistic geography, for the analysis
language, built up out of information and description of unwritten language,
about the strucrure, the operation, and for finding and checking the structurally
the history of a wide range of very significant contrasts that make the s p e
diverse human languages by means of cia1 signals of each different language.
those techniques and procedures that T h e validity of the basic approach to
have proved most successful in establish- language through these techniques has
in verifiable generalizations concerning been verified again and again, and the

ena.
f
re ationships among linguistic phenom-
'Only as the study of language turned away
from introspection and chance observation to
In this much loaded and complicated seek a broad informational basis of verifiable
definition there are five essential features facts, and, away from the attempt to establish
that cannot be separated, for each suc- relationships between linguistic phenomena and
such matters as race, chmate, and nationality,
ceeding feature is a qualifier of what has to the effort to find verifiable relationships
preceded. Perhaps the following arrange- within the linguistic phenomena themselves, did
ment of the parts of this definition may that study begin to make real scientific progress.
A D V A N C E S IN
techniques themselves have been and are The facts of language histo
being constantly improved by rigorous the myth of a golden age

experimentation and criticism. But the


heart and substance of linguistic science
is not simply in the techniques of op-
in perfection at some time in the
a perfection from which it has ete-

riorated.

rt,

eration-not in the tools of linpistic ( 3 ) It became clear that the most


analysis. T h e heart and substance of lin- stable features of a language were its
guistic science is rather in the growing sounds-not its vocabularv. not its
understanding of certain features of the grammar. Linguistic science :h the first
nature and functioning of human lan- period of its modern development set up
guage itself, that have become clear as "laws" or generalizations of "sound
the unexpected results of the use of change." These were generalizations
these techniques and tools, i n the study concern in^ corres~ondencesof "sound"
of a great variety of languages. features getween 'several languages, or
Some of these results that constitute between different periods of a single
our present knowledge are the follow- language. They were correspondences
ing. that could be grasped in statements ap-
(1) It became clear that all the lan- plicable to the whole body of the native
guages investigated were always, and words in the languages concerned. I t
had been always in a state of constant was these correspondences of "sound"
change. There has, for example, never features that established a riizorous basis
0
been a time in English during the last for the treatment of etymology.
thousand vears when the recorded ma- (4) It became clear that the only
terials do h o t show evidence of change basis for "correctness" in a language had
in progress-evidence of divided usage to be the usage of the native speakers of
in some features of the language. that language. Perhaps the best exam-
( 2 ) It became clear that these changes ple of the gatherin of the facts of usage
could not have been accidental and law-
less corruptions arising from the igno-
k
is the Oxford Eng zsh Dictionary, earlier
named A N e w English Dictionary o n
rance of the speakers. These changes Historical Principles.6 Language history
have shown themselves to be astonish- provided the evidence to identify new
ingly regular and systematic-large pat- forms and older forms. T h e studies in
terns of change that stretched over long linguistic geography showed the lan-
periods of time. guage characteristics of different lan-
It may be urged that change in lan- guage and dialect areas, and the centers
guage is due ultimately t o the deviations of language dispersion. Together, lin-
of individuals from the rigid system. But
it appears that even here individual devi- wL ..
. It was proposed that materials should
ations are ineffective; whole groups of be collected for a Dictionary which, by the
speakers must, for some reason unknown completeness of its vocabulary, and by the
appl~cationof the historical method to the life
to us, coincide in a deviation, if it is t o
result in a linguistic change. Change in and use of words, might be worthy of the
language does not reflect individual vari-English language and of English scholarship.
ability, but seems to be a massive, uni- With this view, it was resolved to begin at the
form, and gradual alteration, at every beginning, and extract anew typical quotations
for the use of words, from ail the great Eng-
moment of which the system is just as lish writers of all ages and from all the writers
rigid as at any other time.4 on special subjects whose works might illustrate
the history of words emplo ed in special senses,
'Leonard Bloomfield, Review of Jespersen's from all writers whatever lefore the 16th cen-
Philosophy of Grammar, in lournal of English tury, and from as many as possible of the more
and Germanic Philology, Vol. 26, (1927) W - important writers of later times.
446.
.. !' (Oxford
English Dictionary, Vol. I [1888], p. v.)
34 COLLEGE ENGLlSH
guistic history and linguistic geography characteristic^.^ T h e increasing accuracy
led to a much clearer understanding of and completeness of the recording, re-
the significance of dialect differences in production, and transmission of vocal
a language and of the basis for the spc- sounds grew out of the work of the
cia1 prestige through which one regional honet tics laboratories. In other words.
dialect out of many becomes the "stand- iinguistic science, through the tech:
ard" language. niques of phonetics, has now successfully
(5) I t became clear that "standard" been able to isolate, describe, produce,
and "literary" languages are not the and control mechanically a great many
bases from which "dialects" diverge of the specific features that comprise
through mistakes, lawlessness, and incom- the total complex of human speech
plete learning. "Standard" l a n g u a g e sounds.
arises out of a "dialect." On the whole, ( 8 ) I t has become clear, with the de-
the language forms of colonists tend to velo ments in linguistic science during
keep more of the older patterns than do
the speakers who stay in the homeland.
P
the ast forty years, that the habits that
constitute the control of one's own na-
In similar fashion, the differing gram- tive language are not habits concerning
matical forms of the uneducated are items of lanpuape
U U
as separate items- i.e.
I
often more conservative or older than of separate segments of sound as repre-
those of the educated. sented by the letters of an alphabet or
(6) It became clear, from the more of individual grammatical forms. Prac-
than seventy-five years of work upon tical Ianpuape
U U
habits are alwavs habits
i

the great historical dictionaries, that concerning contrastive shapes of lin-


guistic items, in s t r u c t u r a l patterns,
multiple meanings for words is normal, functioning in a system. N o item has
not "queer." W e must everywhere in linguistic significance by itself. Its sig-
a language expect to find that the most nificance can arise only out of its con-
frequently used words have a variety of trast with other items in the structural
meanings-not just one literal meaning patterns that function as signals in a par-
and a few so-called "figurative" mean- ticular language system. "Structural" lin-
ings. Words cover whole areas of mean- guistics has attempted to discover and
ing, and, except for highly technical describe
words, there are no words in two lan- (a) the basic contrastive sound features
guages that cover precisely the same that function in identifying or separating
areas. T h e number of different meanings the various meaning units (morphemes
for each of the commonly used words or words) in a linguistic community-
pan from pen and pin and pun.
in English, as recorded and illustrated ( b ) the basic contrastive features that
by verifiable quotations in T h e Oxford identify and separate the grammatical
Dictionary, is just unbelievable. units that function in the patterns that
( 7 ) I t became clear, with the develop- signal structural meanings.
ment of the work in phonetics, that all ( c ) the basic contrastive arrangements
and forms of these functioning grain-
the "mysterious" qualities of the sounds
and "accents" of human language are
'See Kenneth L. Pike, Phonetics: A critical
matters that can be analyzed and de- annlysis of phonetic theory and a technic for
scribed in terms of the physical move- the practical description of sound, University
ments by which they are produced, and of Michigan Publications in Language and
Literature, XXI, (1943); and Martin Joos,
also in terms of the specific kinds of Acoustic Phonetics, Linguistic Society of
vibrations that make up their acoustic America, Language Monograph No. 23, (1948).
A D V A N C E S IN L I N G U I S T I C S 35
matical units that identify and separate a second language as an adult a very
the patterns that signal the structural different matter from the learning of
meanings of a language. the first language.
I t is assumed that all the significant ma- A l t o g e t h e r a tremendous body of
terials that signal linguistic meanings knowledge and understanding has been
are matters of contrast within a limited won by linguistic science during the last
number of patterns. 140 years. In this cumulative body of
(9) I t has become clear, then, that basic knowledge concerning the nature
that which is objectively the same ut- and functioning of language there is
tered sound will be perceived and re- much that ought to be of use in helping
sponded to very differently, in accord to deal with practical teaching problems
with the specific patterns of the partic- that have not yet been satisfactorily
ular native language of the hearer. Or, analyzed. Considerable resistance to its
in other words, the same phonetic dif- use arises out of the fact that it con-
ferences may have (usually do have) tradicts many of the older views of
entirely different structural values from 1a n g u age which are still vigorously
language to language. In general, there maintained. But the path from the
are no language sounds that are easy knowledge and understanding of the
or difficult in themselves. Ease or diffi- nature and functioning of human lan-
culty of pronunciation or of hearing guage to the using of this knowledge in
turns out to be a function of the way dealing with the practical problems of
the phonetic material patterns in a per- teaching is a very thorny and difficult
son's native language. Native speakers of one, and we have made comparatively
English respond easily to the sound con- little real progress along that path. There
trasts which distinguish river from liver, exists a great gap between knowing and
pray from play, correction from col- doing.
lection, variable from valuable, storing 1,inguistic science like all science is
from string. hTativespeakers of Japanese, concerned with knowing and under-
in the first stages of learning English, standing, not with doing. As science, lin-
not only find it difficult to produce guistics is not concerned with the teach-
these significant differences consistently; ing of English or of foreign language or
they cannot hear them. T h e child in of reading. In the other fields also, sci-
learning his native language must not ence, as science, does not concern itself
only develop great facility and accuracy with building better machines for trans-
in responding to the limited number of portation or for mass communication,
contrastive physical features that iden- nor with improving the food supply,
tify the functioning units of the struc- nor with the curing of diseases. Of
tural patterns of lis particular language; course the knowledge and understand-
he must learn to ignore all those physical ing won by science in its various fields
features that are not relevant to those has been of the greatest use t o man in
patterns. His great facility and accuracy his struggle to control the conditions
in recognizing and producing the sig- of his living. Some scientists have at
nalling patterns of his native language times helped to interpret the significance
is thus bought at a price. H e develops of the knowledge they have won and
blind spots for a whole range of phys- have often filled the double role of both
ical difference that form the signalling scientist and engineer. But it is the func-
devices of other languages. Thus the tion, not of the scientists but of our pro-
power or force in the structural ar- fessions-the doctor, the teacher, the
rangements of the first language (our engineer-to take the knowledge and
native language) makes the learning of understanding that has been achieved
36 COLLEGE ENGLISH
by science and to explore its usefulness siastic assertions of those with very little
for man. W e must not assume or expect direct contact with the productions in
that the scientists themselves can or linguistic science, who, in the manner of
should be able to lead the way in prac- science fiction, imaginatively rojecr the
tical applications of the knowledge of claims for linguistic science Par beyond
their science, or even to take the respon- anything that science is at present able
sibility for explaining its practical si -
nificance. The applications of scienti c
knowledge to the practical problems of
a to deliver. This linguistic-sclence fiction
helps to stimulate an even more extrav-
agant anti-linguistic-science fiction from
invention, of construction, of disease, of those of greater ignorance of the facts
learning and teaching, demand their own who have built up a hideous mask to
types of research and must be done by hide the real face of the linguistic sci-
those who know and understand both entist. This anti-linguistic-science fiction
the practical problems and the results of is doing much to muddy the stream of
science. discussion and thus to help keep away
Thus to insist upon the separation of from the teachers the aid they need.8
science, as the search for Itnowledge But there are those real leaders of the
and understanding, from the struggle to teaching profession who have patiently
make full use of all that is known, is not tried to understand the not always easy
to belittle the importance of either. In writing of the linguistic scholars and to
our modern society, however, technol- find in it helpful materials to report and
ogy, the application of science, "doing," explain to class-room teachers? These
receives much g r e a t e r consideration must form the nucleus of the group we
than "mere knowing." W e tend to meas- need to undertake the cooperative task
ure the worth of what we know only of using to the full the solid achieve-
in terms of doing, not in terms of under- ments of more than a century of lin-
standing or intellectual freedom. And guistic research. For this cooperative
modern linguistic science is no excep- effort we must have
tion. W e must in some way learn to (a) some of the producing scholars in
make this appli~ation.~ the English language who are willing t o
I shall not-here enumerate all the ob- struggle hard t o understand the practical
stacles that lie in the way. Let me just problems of the broad field of English
name one, in passing to something more teaching,
important. There are the overly enthu- (b) some of the leaders of the teach-
ing profession devoted t o the task of
understanding both the problems of Eng-
"'The National Council of Teachers of Eng- lish teaching and the contributions of
lish supports the scientific study of the English linguists,
language, and, realizing the importance of the
results of that study in freeing our teaching ( c ) some of the best class-room teach-
from wasteful and harmful practices, recom- ers who will t r y t o understand the signif-
mends that in the training of teachers, both icance of the work of both the linguistic
prospective and in service, opportunities be scholars and the professional leaders and
provided to acquaint En lish teachers with the then assume the chief burden of the task
principles, methods, resU fts, and a plications of of putting the results of that work into
modern linguistic sclence. ~unRcrrnore, the specific materials for the guidance of
National Council of Teachers of English be- text-book writers. This will be a long
lieves that the schools should teach those forms hard task but one worthy of a top leveI
of the English language which sound descrip-
tive research has shown to be the practice of commission.
Standard English in the United States." Reso- - -

lution Passed by the National Council of 'See College English for February 1960.
Teachers of English at the general business 'See W. W, Hatfield, "Will Structural Grarn-
meeting November 22, 1951. mar Help?" in College English, Dec. 1958.
A D V A N C E S IN L l N G U l S T l C S 37

Such a group must have available for achievements of linguistic science. Per-
their work those who have achieved haps this is the the reason that some of
understanding and control of the tre- those teachers of English who have
mendous body of material produced by earnestly sought help in linguistic
a host of workers in the field of En lish
language-from Old English to an% in-
cluding the descriptive analysis of
courses have come away greatly disa
pointed because they found nothing 1-
rectly applicable to their needs.
r
present-day English. This material is not The Conference of 1958, in the Pam-
a11 easily available and nicely laid out. phlet T h e Basic Issues in the Teaching
Great masses of it are in a form that of English ("Issue" 1 3 , p. 9) raises the
needs to be reworked and restudied in question of the pan linguistics should
the terms of our recent developments in have in the teaching of English, in the
"structural" linguistics. following manner.
Teachers can not be equipped to pro- "Up to the present only a few text-
vide the "applications of lingustic books have attempted to adapt the up-
science" to the problems of teaching proach of the structural linguists to use
English by taking "one or two courses in the classroom. Nevertheless, we must
in linguistics." It seems to have been as- ask whether this new nzethod offers a
sumed that everybody knew what sub- clue to a better correlation of the knowl-
ject-matter content any course of study edge of language structure with writing
labelled "linguistics" would include, and ability. How much, if any, of such lin-
that any course with a "linguistics" label guistic knowledge is appropriate for each
would provide the necessary enlighten- level? How may teachers best be trained
ment. As a matter of fact, however, to develop this knowledge in their pu-
"linguistics" covers a very wide range pils?" [The italics are mine.]
of material and one cannot predict even
what an introductory course will stress. This paragraph seems to suggest that
Very frequently, "training in linguistics" "the approach of the structural linguist,"
as recommended to language teachers his methods and techniques, might be
has meant mastering only the tools, tech- adapted "to use in the classroom" as "a
niques and p r o c e d u r e s of linguistic new method" for achieving "a better
analysis. Many "introductory" courses correlation of the knowledge of lan-
are set up to offer what is thought to guage structure with writing ability."
be the necessary first steps for those It then raises the question of "how
who aim to become practitioners in the much, if any, of such knowledge" of
analysis of an unknown language. Some language structure "is appropriate for
"linguists" seem to believe, or they act each level," and how best to train teach-
as if they believed, that the tools, tech- ers to pass on "this knowledge" to their
niques, and classificatory definitions pupils. I believe we need something
alone constituted the substance of the quite different. In my view, it is not
science of linguistics. I do not want to the tools and the techniques of linguistic
belittle the scientific importance of ade- science that should be brought into the
quate tools, sound techniques, and sharp classroom; but, in some way, the sub-
classifications. I should like, however, to stance of the knowledge and under-
insist that one can achieve a sufficient standing w o n by linguistic science must
mastery of these tools and techniques be thoroughly assimilated and then w e d
of linguistic analysis without any real to shed new light upon the problems
understanding of the significance of the that arise wherever language is concerned,
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Advances in Linguistics
Charles C. Fries
College English, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Oct., 1961), pp. 30-37.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-0994%28196110%2923%3A1%3C30%3AAIL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9

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[Footnotes]

9
Will Structural Grammar Help?
W. Wilbur Hatfield
The English Journal, Vol. 47, No. 9. (Dec., 1958), pp. 570-572.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-8274%28195812%2947%3A9%3C570%3AWSGH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0

NOTE: The reference numbering from the original has been maintained in this citation list.

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