Published: November 02, 2007 04:07 pm            

KISSEL: The undeniable power of words

Politicians — and others — use them to start little fires, trying to fan the flames of public opinion.

Lawyers use them to recast the truth in court and create cryptic legal documents that supposedly have the weight of law yet few outside their high-priced club can understand.

And actions always, always speak louder than words, they say.

Still, in words there is undeniable truth and joy – and power, which like anything else can be used for good or bad.

My love affair with the English language started in junior high, when my English teachers started giving me those lists of words to memorize, filling my young mind with delightful and unusual words.

More than just an easy A, though, many studies have shown there is a direct correlation between people with excellent vocabularies and high paying, high-level jobs — no matter what your profession. People with strong vocabularies, in fact, are said to earn up to three times as much as their colleagues with poor word power.

That’s good news for me, otherwise I’d be earning the equivalent of about one video rental an hour.

In terms of usage, there are three ascending levels of word power: the words you can recognize in writing and speech, what you use in your own writing, and most challenging, the words you command in conversation.

The first rule of thumb regarding word choice is that it should be natural and inviting. Like bad breath in bed, words can alienate, or used by a pompous academician or lawyer, they can also intimidate.

Beginning writers are often prime word offenders as well.

A good piece of advice for any writer is to take your thesaurus and leave it in Jurassic Park with all those other big, lumbering and dangerous words you don’t understand and can’t control. If you’re unable to pull a word from the top of your head, you have no business using it, and invariably, your writing will suffer.

Conversely, when you have mastery of a challenging word and it originates within the pages of your own mind, chances are the unusual word’s context in writing or conversation will amply draw and provide its meaning.

For the English language, with about three million words, is a very big box of crayons. The second richest language, German, weighs in with about 185,000 words, and French and Spanish have about 100,000 words.

Part of the magnificence of English is its open nature, constantly integrating new words and phrases and inviting those from other languages to join the party. French, on the other hand, as beautiful as it is, actually has an advisory board deciding what words will and won’t be allowed into its lexicon.

Scholars say Shakespeare used up to 30,000 different words in his collected works. The educated person, in contrast,, has a total vocabulary of about 20,000 words and may use 2,000 during a week’s worth of conversation.

Although it’s crass and materialistic, the phrase ‘he who dies with the most toys wins’ can be applicable to one’s vocabulary. No matter who you are, your vocabulary can always be enriched.

One of the best ways to magnify your word power is to become a free subscriber of two daily e-mail vocabulary services. At two words a day, that’s about 700 new words a year!

The best service is Wordsmith at wsmith@wordsmith.org, which also throws in a pithy thought of the day. Merriam Webster’s Word A Day, at word@merriam-webster.com, is also very good. (As a note to those wary of joining such services, it’s completely free, and in the several years I’ve been a subscriber, I’ve never received one piece of junk e-mail.)

Another way to expand your verbal horizons is to simply keep small notebook with you and write down any words you may encounter that you don’t understand. When you have ten words, use a dictionary, define them, and use a few minutes of downtime each to commit them to memory.

There are also innumerable excellent books in the reference section of your local bookstore that will help you enrich your vocabulary.

Whatever path you take, or encourage your children to, your vocabulary can be a powerful tool that helps advance many facets of your life.

More important than the clothes you wear, the car you drive, or the house you live in, your word power is with you always, and it can never, ever be taken away.

Joseph Kissel covers Grand Island for the Record.

        

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