A Dictionary of Cont..

OdY
trary, the sentence says “no adults believe this.”
(The adjective only in this sentence would refer
to children who have no brothers or sisters and
would not be used except after a definitive
adjective such as these, .some, such.)
In most cases only is a sentence adverb and
qualifies the entire statement. When used in this
way its natural position is before the verb, as
in but now I only hear its melancholy, long,
withdrawing roar. This word order is standard
literary English and should be followed unless
there is a very good reason for placing only
somewhere else in the sentence.
It is not true that when only stands between
the subject and the verb it qualifies the verb
alone. One might as well argue that never qualifies
saw rather than the full statement in I
never saw a purple cow. It is no more necessary
to place only after hear and say I hear only its
roar than it is to place never after saw and say
Z saw never a cow. Only may be placed later.
But when it is, it puts special emphasis on a
subordinate part of the sentence, and this is
often undesirable. The original sentence quoted
above, which is by Matthew Arnold, says that
at the moment there is nothing in the world for
him except this melancholy sound. It does not
say that he only hears and does not see. And if
only is placed after hear to avoid this imaginary
ambiguity, roar is given undue importance. We
may be left feeling that he heard the roar but
not the other sounds that went with it.
Nor is it true that only standing in this position
may be understood as qualifying the subject.
If it is intended to qualify the subject,
something must be doni:: to make that clear. It
may be placed ahead, ;:ts in only Z hear, or it
may be followed by a comma, as in Z only, hear.
Or the word alone may be used instead, as in
Z alone hear.
Like other negative adverbs, only must be
placed ahead of its natural position if it is to be
made emphatic. When only brings an adverb
into the first position in ,a sentence, it also brings
the verb ahead of its a,ubject, as in only then
did he realize. In only less, as used in only less
free than thou, we also have a pre-placed only.
What is meant is less free than only (nothing
except) thou.
Only may also be used as a conjunction (or
preposition). It cannot be used in place of the
word except, as it is in do not cross the railroad
tracks only by the bridge. But it may be used
in place of but, as in many a man would have
become wise, only he thought he was so already
and we would have co,me, only the car broke
down. Some grammarians condemn this construction.
It has been literary English for six
hundred years and so cannot be considered an
innovation. Perhaps it is falling into disuse in
some parts of the country. If so, it should be
classed as old fashioned in those areas. But in
many places the construction is used freely by
all kinds of people and is therefore still standard
English.
only too; more than. Whether one is only too
glad to be of assistance or only too willing to
338
help or only too ready to give advice when it
is asked for, he betrays in the confused excess
of the phrase a certain doubt or reluctance inconsistent
with the warmth of the assurance.
Literally only too glad must mean that there
are degrees of gladness beyond this excessive
gladness which we recognize but to which we
do not propose to yield ourselves. The whole
phrase is rather silly. It is better simply to say
Z am glad or, if one is not glad, Z am willing.
To say that one is more than pleased or more
than happy to do something is a part of the
same sort of excessive talk but in these phrases
there is at least a sort of sense. One says, in
effect, “I shall pass beyond a state of happiness
or pleasure into one of rapture or ecstasy.” Few
listeners would take such an assurance literally
and it is, as we say, “merely a manner of speaking.”
But it is not a good manner of speaking
because like all excesses it tends to defeat its
own purpose. The only possible aim of such a
protestation could be to assure the listener of
the warmth of our feelings towards him, but
the exaggeration is likely to lead him to doubt
our sincerity and hence our warmth altogether.
onomatopoeia is the technical name for the formation
of a name or a word by imitating some
sound associated with the thing designated.
Cuckoo and whippoorwill are probable examples.
Bang, fizz, burp, rattle, smack, fZop, sneeze
are others. There are hundreds of such words
in the language.
As a device, onomatopoeia often appeals to
poets and their use of it ranges from Vachel
Lindsay’s
Beat an empty barrel with the handle of a
broom
Hard as they were able,
Boom, boom, BOOM.
With a silk umbrella and the handle of a
broom,
Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM.
to Swinburne’s With lisp of leaves and ripple of
rain, in which the sound of the wind and the
rain is suggested in an appropriate combination
of standard words.
In its wider application, onomatopoeia is a
fitting of the sound to the meaning. Alexander
Pope in his Essay on Criticism gave a famous
pronouncement on this subject with a series of
brilliant illustrations:
‘Tis not enough no harshness gives offence,
The sound must seem an echo of the sense:
Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers
flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent
roar.
When Ajax strives some rock’s vast weight to
throw,
The line too labours, and the words move slow:
Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o’er th’unbending corn, and skims
along the main.