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“I mean to say …”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ralph Footring*
Affiliation:
British Journal of Psychiatry
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You might regard words as dependable things, that never do anything more tricksy than linger overly long on the tip of your tongue. But beware – don't let them gang up on you, or you'll be left with phrases.

George Orwell (1946) wrote in ‘Politics and the English language’ that:

“prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together … the ready-made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you – even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent – and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself.”(pp. 145, 152, italics in original)

Type
On writing
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 1992

References

Orwell, G. (1946) Politics and the English language. Currently available in Inside the Whale and Other Essays. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
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