A Part of Speech or Speech Apart
Do you ever notice a particular idea or concept popping up in your life? It is as if a new movement in life’s symphony has begun and it has a reoccurring theme? It keeps showing up in unexpected places. It was never there before, but keeps presenting itself in one form or another. So it has been for me lately with the idea of the adjective. Once
we get beyond grammar school, we don’t spend much time contemplating parts of speech. We tend to let our words be what they are and fall where they may. Contemplating the adjective, however, has proven to be instructive.
My adjective awareness started when I read about Leo Burnett, one of the great Chicago advertising agencies. We can thank Burnett for such cultural icons as Tony the Tiger, the Marlboro Man, Pillsbury Doughboy and The Jolly Green Giant. Burnett wrote that the “excess use of adjectives makes for dull, exaggerated and ineffective advertising copy.” That reminded me of a sermon by a hero of mine, Carlyle Marney. Marney was one of the great theological minds of the twentieth century. A Georgia born Baptist preacher he was an activist in his words and a gentleman in his spirit. He instructed to never elevate an adjective to the level of a noun.
Adjectives do tend to muddy the water. Straight forward nouns bring clarity. Adjectives qualify, confuse and confound, especially when applied to people. Adjectives “male,” “female,” “black,” “white,” “gay,” “straight” “Jew,” “Christian,” “Muslim,” “homeless,” “wealthy,” “Republican,” or “Democrat,” are partial descriptions of whole and the far more important nouns — “human being,” “person,” or “friend.” When adjectives are given the power of nouns, people and nations inevitably get in trouble. Sometimes fights and even wars can breakout, just because the adjectives are given too much authority. Most of us have nouns in common. It is the adjectives that divide us.
Mark Twain said, “A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.” Today is probably a good day to listen for adjectives and to do as Mark Twain also suggested, “…when in doubt, strike it out.”
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