Father and Son
O Book Shop is back in Christchurch, a little fuddled after its journey from Auckland, convinced that Margaret Garland' is Joan Wood. I’m sorry to lose Sarah Campion, but I’m looking forward to new examples of Arnold Wall’s exuberant habit of flying off at some totally irrelevant but wholly delightful tangent. He and his father use the language very differently. Professor Wall does not wanton with words. He uses them with cool precision and efficiency,
and no more of them than is absolutely necessary. I suppose he could scarcely allow himself more latitude, even if he wanted to, without neglecting some of his large correspondence. How amazingly passionate we get about our language and how convinced we all are that our prejudices are scientifically based. We’re certainly convinced that the pronouncements of an Authority have authority. I’m not sure to what degree this is true, but at least Professor Wall wears his mantle with scholarship and sense. He may, as we all do, loathe abominations which, rationally considered, are not really so at all; but he is quite ready to admit changes into the language when they are useful and expressive, and he is less ready to condemn than most of his correspondents. These are surprising attributes in a man of his years.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570125.2.32.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 911, 25 January 1957, Page 14
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216Father and Son New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 911, 25 January 1957, Page 14
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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