They are marvelous, those English monosyllables. Their fidelity is so perfect that one is tempted to think English words are the right and proper names which acts are meant to have, and all other words are pitiable failures. How could one improve upon splash, smash, ooze, shriek, slush, glide, squeak, coo? Is not the word sweet a kiss in itself, and what could suggest a more peremptory obstacle than stop?
—Salvador de Madariaga, Spanish author and diplomat, From 1928; quoted in Constance Hale, Sin and Syntax, 1999

Posted on July 10, 2000 at 8:22 AM

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