PARLIAMENTARY ENGLISH
Sir,-Perhaps it might be useful to give further examination to some of the points made in the article on page 19 of The Listener of October 16. What is the objection to stressing the second syllable in "illegible"? Where should the stress fall if not there? To accent the second syllable of the verb "comment" is, I understand, a Scottish practice. Members of the New Zealand Parliament are surely entitled to use the English pronunciation, Is it not improper to use the Scottish work "ilk" as equivalent to "sort" or "kind" or "class"? The Oxford English Dictionary calls this use etroneous; Fowler’s Concise Oxford Dictionary dismisses it still more unkindly. Perhaps the most interesting part of the article is that concerned with the
Gettysburg speech. I agree that in the phrase "government of the people" no stress is required on the word "of" but I’ suggest that none is required on the word "people" either, Lincoln not being concerned here to draw distinctions between government of the people and other sorts of government. The whole contention seems to be that the governing should be done by, and for the benefit of, those governed. Is it so unreasonable then to think the important words are the "by" and the "for"? If "almost all" members of our Parliament do indeed take that view, must we necessarily conclude that it is thev who are out of
step?
NOBODY IN PARTICULAR
(Eastbourne).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1054, 6 November 1959, Page 11
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240PARLIAMENTARY ENGLISH New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1054, 6 November 1959, Page 11
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