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are in the closest relationship, or interdependent, that unbroken delivery is anywhere nearly as clear as judiciously interrupted expression. Notice how in the following sentence the phrasing determines the meaning for the listener. "The farm delegates who stayed at the hotel were not popular with the other working people at the convention." If we break the sentence after delegates" and again after “hotel," the meaning will be that all the farm delegates stayed at the hotel, and were all unpopular. But if we do not break the sentence until "hotel," the meaning will be that only part of the farm delegates stayed at the hotel, and that these were the unpopular ones. Of course, if one were to read this sentence from print, and if it were properly punctuated to bring out the writer's meaning, the abscence of commas after " delegates " and "hotel" would indicate the proper phrasing. But punctuation is often wrong or not indicative of the best oral expression, and what is more significant we are chiefly concerned here, as elsewhere in this book, with preparation for extempore speaking, which is put in final form while the speaker stands before his audience. The study of phrasing may be carried on from the printed page, but the student must acquire the habit of thinking in complete units instead of composing word by word. The pause between such units is ordinarily short, but it affords an opportunity to think through the next unit before proceeding, and the time utilized for such thought will tend to increase with practice and experience. It would be well for the student to realize, however, that the experienced speaker usually takes more time in expressing himself than does the beginner; not that he needs it, but because he knows the value of

deliberate expression, and has the poise to act upon his knowledge.

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Before proceeding to the practical application of the principles of phrasing, it is desirable to note one more type of construction which frequently occurs, namely, the single word unit. We shall examine two sets of typical examples. Men, women, and children were invited to sign the petition "; and "The lines were run into cities, towns, and villages, but the rural districts had no service." In such instances the speaker may desire to make each part of the analysis stand out in the mind of his hearers. To accomplish this he has only to deliver the analysis as three separate phrases; i. e., with a break after each member. By this means the first sentence becomes, in effect, a condensed way of saying, "Men were invited to sign the petition; women were invited to sign the petition; and children were invited to sign the petition." The same thing applies to “ cities, towns, and villages" in the second example. At other times the speaker may wish to produce a single cumulative effect in expressing a group of concepts. For example, "The candidate promised political plums to every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the district;" or, "The lives of men, women, and children were not to be considered if only his factory wheels kept grinding out huge profits." In cases of this kind, a more telling effect is produced by grouping the units of the analyses rather than separating them into distinct phrases.

EXERCISES

NOTE 1: Study the sentences, and practice reading them aloud with such phrasing as will convey the meaning most clearly, and give proper valuation to the thoughts.

NOTE 2: Let the thought rather than the punctuation determine the phrasing.

I. Nelson directed him to say that, unless they were instantly delivered, he would instantly open his fire. (SoUTHEY)

II. This event, which, from the moment that Spain had been compelled to make peace, was clearly foreseen, had now taken place. (SOUTHEY)

III. Whenever these three signs are present, without some clear cause, such as a cold or unusual overwork or strain, especially if they be accompanied by a rapid pulse and a tendency to get out of breath readily in running upstairs, they should make us suspect tuberculosis. (HUTCHINSON)

IV. This fact has, however, its encouraging side; for, since this habit of crowding together, which we call civilization, or "citification," has caused and keeps causing these diseases, it can also cure them and prevent their spread if all the people will fight them in dead earnest. (HUTCHINSON)

V. To the Greeks life was so bright and joyous a thing that they looked upon death as a great calamity. (MYERS)

VI. In some districts the barbarian invaders and the Roman provincials were kept apart for a long time by the bitter antagonism of race, and a sense of injury on the one hand and a feeling of disdainful superiority on the other. (MYERS)

VII. The new Poor-Law is an announcement, sufficiently distinct that whosoever will not work ought not to live. (CARLYLE)

VIII. There probably never was since the Heptarchy

ended, or almost since it began, so hugely critical an epoch in the history of England as this we have now entered upon, with universal self-congratulation and flinging up of caps. (CARLYLE)

IX. A painter told me that nobody could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree; or draw a child by studying the outline of its form merely, but by watching for a time his motions and plays, the painter enters into his nature and can then draw him at will in every attitude. (EMERSON)

X. Ever since I was a boy I have wished to write a discourse on Compensation; for it seemed to me when very young that on this subject life was ahead of theology and the people knew more than the preachers taught. (EMERSON)

XI. Clowns and country people are more amused, are more disposed to laugh and make sport of the dress of strangers, because from their ignorance the surprise is greater, and they cannot conceive anything to be natural or proper to which they are unused. (Hazlitt)

XII. On the contrary, in the long run the politics of fraud and foulness are unpractical politics, and the most practical of all politicians is the politician who is clean and decent and upright. (ROOSEVELT)

XIII. Every great nation owes to the men whose lives have formed part of its greatness not merely the material effect of what they did, not merely the laws which they placed upon the statute books or the victories they won over armed foes, but also the immense but indefinable moral influence produced by their deeds and words themselves upon the national character. (ROOSEVELT)

XIV. The chief thing necessary in America in order that she should let all the world know that she is pre

pared to maintain her own great position is that the real voice of the nation should sound forth unmistakably and in majestic volume, in the deep unison of a common, unhesitating national feeling. (PRESIDENT WILSON)

Pause

In treating the subject of pause separately, the purpose is to deal with a longer, more marked hesitation than is ordinarily required for the break between phrases. The location of this longer pause is not limited to phrase ends, but may occur in the midst of a thought-unit, between sentences, anywhere. It is to be observed at the outset that many who phrase their speaking fairly well are sometimes deficient in the use of the special pause. That deficiency is, indeed, one of the outstanding characteristics of the unpracticed speaker. His chief aim appears to be to get on, to get through somehow, without regard to the value of the thoughts expressed, or to the impression which they are making upon his audience. This is usually due, not to a lack of appreciation or of desire to impress, but rather to a lack of poise. Now pause is closely related to poise, and it is safe to say that the cultivation of the pause is one of the things that will tend to increase the speaker's self-control before an audience.

What are the chief objects of the marked pause? First, it is an important means of emphasis. Occurring before a significant expression, it intensifies the attention for that which is to follow; it constitutes a signal to the audience to be especially alert. When used after the striking word or phrase, it holds the listener to the preceding expression, and indicates the speaker's valuation of it. The effect is, of course, intensified by using

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