Handy words to make our English more immediate and more forceful

As the fourth in a series of pointers for crafting more readable and compelling compositions, I am posting in this week’s edition of the Forum the essay below, “Using the demonstrative reference words,” that I wrote for my weekly English-usage column in The Manila Times in early 2004. The discussion focuses on those handy words we can use so we don’t have to repeat ourselves to drive home a point and, even more important, to make what we are saying more immediate and forceful. They are, of course, the demonstrative adjectives, the demonstrative pronouns, and the demonstrative adverbs. All of us are supposed to have already internalized these reference words in our conversational English as early as in grade school, but if you happen to be one of those who had not become totally proficient in using them for one reason or another (perhaps due to youthful inattention or an ineffective grammar teacher), this review should be able to fill whatever gaps there might be your mastery of them. (July 29, 2012)

Using the demonstrative reference words

This time, our back-to-the-basics review of English composition brings us to the demonstrative reference words—those handy words we use so we don’t have to repeat ourselves to drive home a point and, even more important, to make what we are saying more immediate and forceful. As some of you may recall, the three categories of these reference words are the demonstrative adjectives, the demonstrative pronouns, and the demonstrative adverbs.

Demonstrative adjectives. This category consists of the modifiers “this,” “that,” “these,” and “those.” These words belong to the class of function words called determiners, which serve to either identify nouns or word groups functioning as nouns or give additional information about them (the non-demonstrative determiners “a,” “an,” and “the” also belong to this class). We will remember that the demonstrative adjectives always agree in number with the nouns they modify—“this” and “that” for singular nouns, as in “this apple” and “that woman,” and “these” and “those” for plural nouns, as in “those apples” and “those women.”

The demonstrative adjectives “this,” “that,” “these,” and “those” are also called the pointing words. They indicate how near or far an object is from the person describing it, and are particularly useful in spoken language, where the speaker can actually point to the objects or allude to them by tone of voice. See the big difference these pointing words make: “That car salesman over there is recommending this model to me instead of that model over there, but I think all of these models offered by this dealer are priced much higher than those offered by the other dealer downtown.”

Look at the statement now without the demonstrative adjectives: “The car salesman is recommending one model to me instead of another model, but I think all the models offered by the dealer are priced much higher than the models offered by the other dealer downtown.” The sense of identity, immediacy, and proximity evoked by the first sentence is gone, clear proof that the judicious use of demonstrative adjectives truly gives verve to language.

The demonstrative adjectives work as well even if the speaker or writer isn’t actually present at the place where the objects being described are found. When adroitly used in narratives or expository writing, these pointing words can actually allow the reader to relive the writer’s experience, as if the reader himself was present at the scene.

Take this narrative passage:

There was this lovely woman beside me at the bus stop during this pounding rain, and right in front of us were these three men who looked like thugs, eying us with a menace that you could actually feel. Those moments made me think that it was the better part of valor to flee—never mind what could happen to that woman beside me—but these two thoughts stopped me from taking that action: “What will happen to this woman if I left her behind? Will I ever get over this shameful act of cowardice that I am about to do now?”

Demonstrative pronouns. When the reference words “this,” “that,” “these,” and “those” point to specific things independently without latching on to specific nouns, they function as demonstrative pronouns instead. This is the case with the pointing words in the following sentences: “This is the variety of apples I mentioned to you last night.” “That is the director that launched a thousand acting careers.” “I don’t like these any more than you do.” “Those are a few of my favorite things.”

We can clearly see that demonstrative pronouns are particularly suited to spoken prose, when the speaker can actually point to the objects he is describing, whether near or far from where he speaks. In writing, however, we can’t point as easily to a particular object or noun, so we need a clear antecedent noun to establish the identity of the object that the demonstrative pronoun has replaced: “The man’s eldest son passed the entrance test to the state university. That made him easily the happiest father in the small farming town.”

When such a link to an antecedent noun can’t be clearly established from the preceding sentences, it becomes advisable to supply a new noun. This is where the demonstrative adjectives come in handy; they modify the new or repeated nouns instead of replacing them: “That feat of his son made him easily the happiest father in the small farming town.”

Demonstrative adverbs. This class of reference words includes such adverbs as “here,” “there,” “then,” “thus,” and “hence.” These words can handily take on the role of those places or situations that the listener or reader already knows, or those earlier described in a narrative and other forms of expository prose, thus avoiding the need to present them again: “As I told you before, I want you here, not there. You were a free agent then, but not anymore. You will thus be reporting to me directly until six months hence, when your contract expires.”

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From the weekly column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in The Manila Times, January 7, 2004 issue © 2004 by The Manila Times. All rights reserved. This essay subsequently appeared as Chapter 56 of the author’s book Give Your English the Winning Edge © 2004 by Jose A. Carillo. All rights reserved.

Basic but powerful grammar devices for cohesion and clarity

As the third in a series of pointers for crafting more readable and compelling compositions, I am posting in this week’s edition of the Forum the essay below, “Using repeated action and sequence words,” that I wrote for my weekly English-usage column in The Manila Times in early 2004. The discussion focuses on simple but powerful grammar devices in English for giving greater cohesion and clarity to writing and speaking. As I’m sure many of us already know, what these devices do is to represent or point back to ideas, elements, events, or situations presented or described earlier in the composition—thus sparing the reader or listener from the tedium of going through the same set of words and phrases all over again. The happy result is, of course, more concise and more lucid expositions.

Find out now if, in fact, you haven’t been using the whole repertoire of these repeated action and sequence words all these years. If so, it’s not too late to make them give punch and sparkle to your written and spoken English. (July 22, 2012)

Using repeated action and sequence words

For a much better handle on English usage, let’s go further back this time to the basics of English composition. Let’s review the uses of the so-called repeated action words and sequence words, those simple but powerful grammar devices for giving greater cohesion and clarity to writing.

Repeated action reference words. These words become standard equipment very early among English-language learners: “so,” “that,” “these,” “those,” “such,” “too,” “does,” “do,” and “did,” “the same,” “likewise,” “either” and “neither,” and “not.” What they do is to represent or point back to ideas, elements, events, or situations presented or described earlier in the composition. We must always keep in mind, though, that these reference words shouldn’t be used by themselves alone; they should be judiciously combined with important words or phrases previously used in the sentence or paragraph.

Let’s now review how these repeated action reference words work:

“So.” A statement might look like this in its full-blown form: “Everybody is learning how to use the personal computer. You should also be learning how to use the personal computer yourself.” By using “so” as a repeated action reference word, that repetitious statement can be made more concise and forceful: “Everybody is learning how to use the personal computer; so should you.”

“That.” Take a look at this overwrought statement: “He has been in turns a farmer, bus driver, newspaperman, communication specialist, and entrepreneur. The shaping of his unique world view by having been all of these things is what he considers the story of his life.” See how the reference word “that” makes short shrift of the repetitious statement and gives the sentence more drama: “The shaping of his unique world view by having been in turns a farmer, bus driver, newspaperman, communication specialist, and entrepreneur—that he considers as the story of his life.”

“These” and “those.” These two reference words efficiently emphasize enumerative sequences: “Coffee, toast, orange marmalade, and fried eggs—these are the only things I take for breakfast.” “A villa in Palermo, a castle in Austria, a resort house in Capri, a townhouse in Athens—all those the marauding government official had to give up when he was convicted of plunder.”

“It.” This familiar, all-purpose pronoun can be used as a reference word for inanimate things or concepts previously mentioned in a composition: “He ran for public office thrice and lost each time; it was the worst humiliation of his life.”

“Such.” This word is a highly emphatic recapitulating device: “She bought five books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, three by Isabel Allende, and one by Pablo Coelho all at once—such was her fascination with Latin-American literature.”

“Too.” An excellent word for avoiding a repetition of similar attributes: “The woman’s vagabond lover was convicted of the grisly crime; the woman, too, got convicted.”

“Does,” “do,” “did.” These repeated action reference words eliminate the need to restate previously mentioned actions: “The groom loves riding horses; so does his bride.” “Not a few people want an intelligent president; so do we.” “She left right after midnight; so did I.”

“The same” and “likewise.”  These two work in practically the same way: “We ordered six cases of champagne yesterday; we want double of the same today.” “Our team worked overtime on New Year’s Eve; their team did likewise.”

“Either” and “neither.” These words efficiently recapitulate the acceptance or rejection of two previously mentioned choices: “Between the astral blue or apple-red sedan, either will do.” “Hong Kong or Singapore at this time of year? I want neither.”

“Not.” Negation of a statement can be done very efficiently by this repeated action reference word: “Most think that going to Baguio City at this time of year is great; not me.”

Sequence words. As we all know, “the former” and “the latter” are the two most common reference words for concisely showing the order of two previously mentioned elements, situations, and events. Both words imply a certain relation between those elements, situations, or events: “Christmas Day and New Year’s Day came and went, the former with a burst of piety and generosity, the latter with a bang and expectations of better things to come.” The reference word “former,” of course, refers to “Christmas Day,” and the reference word “latter,” to “New Year’s Day.”

We can see that repeated action reference words and sequence words not only tie up sentences and paragraphs neatly together, but also help emphasize the ideas being put forth in the composition. For beginning writers, this is as good a start as any towards concise, emphatic writing.

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From the weekly column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in The Manila Times, January 9, 2004 issue © 2004 by The Manila Times. All rights reserved. This essay subsequently appeared as Chapter 55 of the author’s book Give Your English the Winning Edge © 2004 by Jose A. Carillo. All rights reserved.