Microsoft Word Revised Syllabus Ver doc

Concretes to Express Abstractions 
There is another way refreshing verbal concepts besides reminding readers of the 
component parts of abstract terms. It is to make bold substitution of entirely concrete simple 

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terms for the vaguer abstract ones which are actually intended. “Protection” is a colorless 
word. It becomes more vivid if you are reminded that it means a covering-over in behalf of 
someone. It becomes poignantly immediate it is translated into the still more concrete image 
of “Roofing over”. The disadvantage is however, that the implied abstraction, although still 
essential be sacrificed to immediacy. “He gave me the roofing over me” is a heart function of 
protection-in-general. It may be taken as a bald statement of a mere night’s shelter – limited, 
literal, and unsymbolic. Gerald Manley Hopkins is a master of the successful transposition of 
abstract into concrete. The implications of generality, even of universality, are never missed 
when he intends to suggest them through a tangible word. 
Abstractions to Express the Concrete 
If the use of limited concrete word heightens vivid immediacy, the use of an abstract 
one for a concrete situation will heighten the general sense of importance and significance in 
the situation. Much of the vague awe and reverence attendant upon the religious vocabulary 
in English is due to its formation out of Latin abstract nouns with no homely connotations in 
ordinary speech. In other languages with a more homogenous vocabulary this may not be 
true. A German child learning the term unbefleckets Empfangnis may recognize in the first 
word the humble word Flecke, “spot,” which he first learned when he spattered mud or 
grease over his clothes The correlation will help clarify the semantic situation for him, but it 
may somewhat reduce his sense of awe. An English-speaking child has no similar experience 
to fall back on when he learns the august phrase “immaculate conception.” The vagueness of 
the connotations may therefore heighten his sense of mystery in dealing with the phrase. 
Juxtapositions 
All words are surrounded by an aura of connotations in addition to the precise 
denotations. When two words with similar connotative spheres are put together they 
strengthen each other so far as factual information is concerned, but they do not offer a 
challenge to the attention or a marked stimulus to the imagination. It is otherwise, when two 
words are juxtaposed out of different connotative spheres. The element of conflict enriches 
the expression. A simple form of the usage has long been practiced by English poets. It 
consists in placing together two words belonging to two different realms of physical sense. 
Milton’s “blind mounts” is an example and E.E.Cummings speaks of “Eyes which mutter 
thickly” of something “noise colored”, and a “roly-poly voice”. The general device is being 
widely employed today. T.S. Eliot is past master of this technique, which harmonized with 
his larger purpose of contrasting moods and cultures deliberately by way of satiric 
commentary. 

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