Here is an excerpt from a great blog post at the Toynbee Convector:
"The grammar and the syntax of these three languages [Latin, Attic Greek, and Pre-Ataturk Ottoman Turkish] work together not only to allow, but to demand, a style that leaves the reader in no doubt about the logical connexion between the words and phrases in which the writer is addressing him. A writer employing such logical linguistic media as these can and should bring out clearly the distinction between subordinate clauses and the main clause on which they logically depend. And, if it is Latin or Attic Greek that he is writing, he also can and should link sentence to sentence by conjunctions expressing precise and finely differentiated logical relations. If one has been brought up on languages of this kind, and on the highly articulated structural style that comes natural (sic) to him when he writes in them, he will feel that the Western vernaculars, and the style in which, nowadays, they are usually written, are inferior inasmuch as they throw upon the reader the work of establishing the logical relations that it is the writer’s business to indicate."
The rest of the post is wonderful, especially for a Classically educated soul like me. Read the rest here.
3 comments:
Thank you for the link. This passage really refers to one disadvantage, though I refer to disadvantages in the plural.
There are, in fact, two passages referring to “unfortunate effects”. He heads this passage “Effects on my Writing of English”. There is a subsequent, and much longer, passage headed “Effects on the Range of my Knowledge”, which I will quote later.
Yes, true. But when you're a Classics nerd like me, there are plenty of "disadvantages" to go around! :)
Writing really has gone downhill, hasn't it? (I mean, for those who know how to write.) You should see what lots of the middle school kids write like where I work. Makes one question how literate we are as a society. And it's not just that it's hard to find quality writing, it's hard to find people who like to write!
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