GRAMMAR OF ELOCUTION. CHAPTER I. DEFINITION OF ELOCUTION AND OF THE FIVE ACCIDENTS OF SPEECH. - PAUSE. ELOCUTION, in the modern sense of the term,* is that pronunciation which is given to words when they are arranged into sentences and form discourse. As a part of Rhetoric it relates simply to delivery. Rhetoric, or the art of persuasion, may be considered in three lights, as relating either to the matter of what is delivered, to the style, or to the manner of delivery. In the two former views, it refers to the selection and arrangement of such arguments, illustrations, and language, as are most likely to have the effect of convincing or persuading those whom the * Cicero uses Elocutio, to denote the choice and order of words; and in this sense the term Elocution has been applied by many of our own writers: but it is now generally used to denote oratorical pronunciation or delivery, without any reference whatever to style. 12 THE FIVE ACCIDENTS OF SPEECH. speaker addresses; in the third it includes the tones of voice, the utterance, and enunciation of the speaker, with the proper accompaniments of countenance and gesture. The art of Elocution, therefore, may be defined to be that system of rules, which teaches us to pronounce written or extemporaneous composition with justness, energy, variety, and ease; and agreeably to this definition, good reading or speaking may be considered as that species of delivery which not only expresses the sense of the words so as barely to be understood, but at the same time gives them all the force, beauty and variety of which they are susceptible. As there are in written language nine sorts of words, called, in Grammar, parts of speech, so are there in spoken language five accidents, or properties. These five accidents of speech are Pause, Inflection, Quantity, Emphasis, and Force. PAUSE is the interval of silence or rest between words and sentences. INFLECTION* denotes the turn or slide of the voice either upwards or downwards. QUANTITY denotes the relative value of sounds, and also of pauses, in duration of time. EMPHASIS is the stress which distinguishes syllables or words from one another. * This accident of speech is commonly called Accent, but the term Inflection is here preferred as being less ambiguous. FORCE OF QUALITY is the loudness or soft ness with which spoken sounds are uttered. With respect to Pause it will probably be supposed that there is little to be learnt from any Elocutionary rules, since we have already in the grammatical points sufficient guides for all the pauses necessary in reading: but very slight observation will shew that these points are not sufficient as guides in reading. In the first place, even supposing them to be placed as accurately as possible with reference to the grammatical structure of the sentence, they do not occur half so frequently as good reading requires. This it will be easy to demonstrate. Thus with respect to the comma, Bishop Lowth, one of the most eminent of our grammarians, has told us, that a simple sentence, (that is, a sentence which has but one subject and one finite verb) admits of no point by which it may be divided or distinguished into parts. This he illustrates by the following example : The passion for praise produces excellent effects in women of sense. Here the passion for praise is the subject or nominative phrase (as it may be called) to the verb produces, and excellent effects in women of sense is the object, with its concomitant circumstances or adjuncts of specification, as Bishop Lowth very properly terms them. "This sentence," he says, " is a simple sentence, and admits of no point by which it may be distinguished into parts;" and, as far as Grammar is concerned, we will admit (for the sake of argument at least) that it does not. We will also admit that it is possible to pronounce this sentence without once drawing the breath : but every one will allow that, if a short pause be made after the word praise, not only is the sentence read more easily, but its sense is more clearly and forcibly expressed; and also that, if another pause be made after effects, the reading is still further improved. Thus, The passion for praise, produces excellent effects, in women of sense. But the necessity for additional pauses to those specified by the points in Grammar will be more apparent, if we take a simple sentence of greater length than the former. Thus, A violent passion for universal admiration produces the most ridiculous effects in the general behaviour of women of little sense. This is strictly a simple sentence, for it has but one subject and one finite verb: it does not, therefore, according to Bishop Lowth, admit of a pause between any of its parts. But it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to read this sentence without drawing the breath once at least, if not twice. Some pauses therefore are necessary: the most necessary would be after the words admiration and effects; and good reading requires one also after passion and behaviour: thus, A violent passion, for universal admiration, produces the most ridiculous effects, in the general behaviour, of women of little sense.* The grammatical points are also insufficient as guides in reading, because their quantity, that is their duration in point of time, does not suit all the variety of passages to which they are applied. The points used by grammarians are the Comma, the Semicolon, the Colon, and the Period. The Comma represents the shortest pause; the Semicolon a pause double that of the Comma; the Colon double that of the Semicolon; and the Period double that of the Colon; or, according to others, the The Semicolon represents double } triple } the time of the quadruple Comma Whichever of these ratios of relative length we assign to the grammatical pauses, it will be clear * Mr. Murray allows that "a simple sentence, when it is a long one, and the nominative case is accompanied by inseparable adjuncts, may admit of a pause immediately before the verb." Still he lays it down as his first rule for the comma, "With respect to a simple sentence, the several words of which it consists have so near a relation to each other, that, in general, no points are requisite, except a full stop at the end of it: as, 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' 'Every part of matter swarns with living creatures." But in the two instances here adduced, good reading, or even the taking of breath, requires a pause after the nominative phrase. |