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One of the joys of reading is that it expands your vocabulary, but do you find big words sometimes distracting? And by big words, I mean difficult or obscure words, not just long ones.
For me, I guess it's kind of how the language flows with the tone of the rest of the story. For an example, without actually having the book next to me to quote, I recently read Krull (Sorry don't know author offhand and it wasn't on Amazon in the 10sec I allowed myself to search, but people who bought the movie also bought Ice Pirates and Flash Gordon ). It's not a complicated book, it's written like a simple linear fairy tale. And every once in a while he'd throw in these words that I had never heard before. For me, it was like <wrrrgh - record stopping sound>. Ok, useless without a quote from the book, I'll try and remember it tomorrow.
Was it necessary? Do you conciously try to incorporate new language into your writing? Have you ever been jarred out of a story with a word you dind't know or by a word that didn't seem to fit?
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I'm sorry, but I have difficulty concentrating on what you said in your post because you misspelled tintinnabulation.
Posts: 1517 | Registered: Jul 2003
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So, it's not just the words themselves, it's the type-o's too. Hmm, that's a different thread altogether. Well, like I said before, thank God for spell check.
edit: Ok, I think everything is spelled right in this post now.
[This message has been edited by Lorien (edited July 15, 2004).]
[This message has been edited by Lorien (edited July 15, 2004).]
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I don't consciously try to use new words in my writing, but I do consciously try to expand my vocabulary. I do this mostly by reading with a dictionary. I also have a notebook I keep with me as I read and jot down those relatively short and relatively common words I know, but do not use. I reveiw this list occasionally.
You must understand that you have two kinds of vocabulary--an active vocabulary, made up of words that you use, and a passive vocabulary, made of up words you know but don't use. (It's like knowing how to both read and speak French as opposed to just knowing how to read French.) The goal, I think, is to increase your active vocabulary as you can. Once a words moves into your active vocabulary, you'll be able to use with without consciously thinking about it.
PS -- But big words aren't necessarily the best words. What's George Orwell's rule? Don't use a big word if a smaller word will do the same job.
[This message has been edited by Balthasar (edited July 15, 2004).]
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What's a short word for antidisestablishmentarianism?
Joke aside, I read with a dictionary next to me. I can't keep reading when i am not familiar with a word. I don't TRY to use that new word, but I've notice they happen to pop by from time to time.
That said, I do use big words, yes. (Haven't antidisestablishmentarianism yet)
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Then there's the question of what's a big word. I've had some folks flag things as "five dollar" words that are things that I use in conversation.
The only time a long word throws me is when its, either, rhthymically wrong for the sentence, or, at a point where it is impossible from context to figure out what it means.
I have yet to be able to use my favorite word, "alacrity," in a story because it has fallen out of style and now needs a very specific context to work. Alas.
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I think it depends where the words are used in a story. If it's an action scene with a fast pace I want the reading to be easy with short simple words and sentences, if the scene is discriptive and lush then unusual words are wonderful. My new favorite word is- scut- which is the white fur under an animal's the tail, specifically the hair seen as the deer or rabbit is running away . Try and use that one. Posts: 397 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Then there's the question of what's a big word.
Well, perhaps the phrase "big word" isn't a good one. How about difficult or obscure words--words that are not relatively common.
My own thought is that you have to use the best word--the most precise word--you can, whether is common or not. But I think you should always use a more common word if you can. Though I read with a dictionary, that doesn't mean I like to stop to look up the words I don't know.
A problem some writers have is that they focus so much on "expanding" their vocabulary the S.A.T. and G.R.E. way that they don't work on "improving" their vocabulary by striving to master the vernacular.
BTW -- I too like the word alacrity, but my favorite "big word" is officious, which I have been able to employ in my writing (I've used alacrity as well).
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I don't mind the so-called 'big words' for the most part. If it helps me expand my vocabulary, so much the better and most of their meanings can be deduced by looking at context. But every once in a while you just get the feeling that the writer is using the big words to show off. I hate that. I picture them sitting at the computer with their Oxford dictionary randomly choosing obscure words and forming the story to fit them in.
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If anyone's interested, I subscribe to a word-a-day newsletter. Today's word was 'facile.' Meaning: Easy, simple, supreficial, fluent. Yesterday it was 'philodox.' Meaning: Someone who loves his or her own opinion. A dogmatic person.
You can subscribe by signing on to www.wordsmith.org. It's free. And don't be overly fearful of the ad adendum. Their ads consist of two line mentions of products and the links you can go to to find them. No pictures, no hype. Low key.
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I always liked the word "halcyon" as an adjective. "A halcyon summer," I think Fitzgerald used that quite a bit. Anyway, it's not necessarily a "big" word, just one you don't hear too often anymore (Unless you live in Halcyon, CA).
Amidst our arms as quiet you shall be As halcyons brooding on a winter sea. --Dryden.
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If I come across a word I don't know, and I can't work it out from the context of the sentence it is in, then I will usually get up and look it up in the dictionary. I don't think I'm "jarred" out of the story, however... just pausing, really.
Still, I think word usage in stories should be equivalent to your actual vocabulary. That isn't to say you shouldn't learn new words, tho... A thesaurus is an excellent resource, especially when you are reusing the same words or phrases over and over again. At that point, it may become a necessity to learn new words -- even "big" words.
I find here in the UK that people have quite an extensive vocabulary -- far greater than the 'average' American. Some of it is cultural words, and others are not. Additionally, being a "wordaholic" and playing more games of online Scrabble per week than any normal human should, I can easily find a use for obscure and big words. But, I don't want my writing to sound pretentious... so I usually won't put in words like "Queachy" when I'm writing... tho' that's a great scrabble word.
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Stephen R Donaldson is the author who comes to mind for me when this topic comes up.
I ran across something like fifty words that I had to look up in THE WOUNDED LAND (for example) and was rather irritated to find that many of them were obscure and archaic synonyms for simpler and better known words in modern usage.
It seemed to me that he was showing off, and I didn't appreciate that, even though I learned some new words that I felt were worth knowing.
(Rather than stop each time and look the word up in the dictionary, I kept a list which had the word, the page on which it first appeared and whether it was in the top, middle or bottom third of the page--so I could find it and read it in context once I had looked the word up.)
Algis Budrys has suggested that reading works with words that you don't know may be part of what is called "sense of wonder" among science fiction and fantasy readers. He says this is because many such readers started reading books for adults while they were still children and thus experienced many works with words they didn't know. This experience of not knowing all the words may add a kind of mystique to such works, a sense of something more, something beyond knowing, that contributed to the "sense of wonder" and that feeling contributed to an interest in reading more such works.
Maybe Donaldson was writing the way he did in THE WOUNDED LAND because of a similar theory. <shrug>
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This may be slightly OT, but one thing that bothers me is when words suddenly become politically incorrect, and people who use them end up apologizing for a word the uneducated masses don't know the meaning of!
For example, the word "niggardly."
And I like using the dictionary to look up unfamiliar words while I'm reading-- the 1838 dictionary! (But then again, I mostly read the classics...)
*sigh* I guess I'm just old-fashioned...
[This message has been edited by Lullaby Lady (edited July 16, 2004).]
quote:Notwithstanding the obsequious overtures of her mate, the hind flipped her scut at the hart as she leapt into the foliage.
Personally, I like it, but I'm betting the average reader's eyes would glaze over at that one. Say, it really DOES sound rather like Discovery Channel!
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“Lookit her! Sashaying down the path flippin her tail around like that! There ought to be a law! Why, I can see her scut!”
Posts: 497 | Registered: Jun 2004
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speaking of synonym & cinnamon... (Although I don' know how we got here) The hardest line I ever had to deliver onstage was in The Phantom Tollbooth. I had to say, "Here, try a synonym bun." It required deep, concious thought of my tongue and lips to keep from saying cinnamon.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Jul 2003
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Yikes, that one's a bit of a tongue-twister. I just tried it twice and can't say it all: I keep coming up with synonym bum, instead.
WRT Stephen Donaldson, I've only read one of his books ("The Mirror Of Her Dreams"), but didn't find him using archaic words in that (that I noticed). Perhaps he was just trying to set an archaic tone for the book you read?
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). It's not a complicated book, it's written like a simple linear fairy tale. And every once in a while he'd throw in these words that I had never heard before. For me, it was like <wrrrgh - record stopping sound>. Ok, useless without a quote from the book, I'll try and remember it tomorrow.
(But then again, I mostly read the classics...)
