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CHOOSING LE MOT JUSTE

A very common view of style is that it is a matter of the careful choice of exactly the
right word or phrase, le mot juste.

The simplest way of looking at this is in terms of SYNONYMS. In a fairy tale, do we say
ass or donkey? In the office, do we say short-hand typist or stenographer? At the
optician’s do we say glasses or spectacles? At Christmas do we say present or gift? At
the meeting, chairman, chairperson or chair?

Synonyms

In actual speaking or writing synonyms are not such straightforward entities as may
appear from a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms. This is because although two words
may be very similar in meaning there are almost always differences of nuance,
differences of impact on a listener or reader. Saying spectacles is not quite the same as
saying glasses. Saying chairman has a different impact from saying chair.
Since so-called synonyms are never quite equivalent we cannot simply say that style is
‘same meaning different words’. What we might say is that words such as glasses and
spectacles overlap a good deal in their meaning, and that the study of style is the study of
finer shades of meaning within a more general commonness.
These ‘finer shades’ may be of different types. For example, two words referring to
the same thing may do so from different points of view, as when the same person is
referred to as a terrorist by enemies, and as a freedom fighter by friends. Sometimes the
difference between synonyms will be related to the kind of text in which they occur, as
when a horse is termed grey by those who habitually live and work with horses, but white
by an outsider. Synonyms may differ from the point of view of politeness, as when
someone says excrement to avoid a four-letter word. They may differ from the point of
view of formality, as when we say rodent operative rather than rat catcher. Or they may
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differ in assertiveness or emphasis, as when someone answers right when they might
have said yes. Or synonyms may differ from the point of view of economy of space as
with UK as against United Kingdom. This example also illustrates that there may be more
than one reason for opting for a particular synonymn. Thus UK not only takes up less
space to write, it is also slightly less formal.
Choosing the right word is also a matter of how we focus on what we are talking or
writing about. For example the same motor vehicle may be referred to as a car or a
Toyota. Toyota is more specific, a closer focus, as it were, and also more economical
since it includes the meaning ‘car’. It is a matter of focus, again, when we choose to refer
to something by mentioning just a part of it, as when the gangster demands wheels,
meaning a whole car. This again is an economy provided the listener follows the
meaning.
Other options, such as saying old banger for car, or metaphors such as pig for a
person we dislike, bring in personal evaluation, or make a gesture of informality to the
reader or listener, and are connected to the TENOR of what we are saying or writing, that
is, the personal and power relations involved.

Tenor

Let us look at an imaginary situation. You want to sell your car. You decide to write a
small advertisement for your evening paper. Naturally this requires a number of decisions
about wording. Let us concentrate on just one. You want to make a sentence in which you
mention your car and then say ‘for sale’. How will you fill in the blank in ‘——for sale’.
On the back of an envelope you try out some wordings. In these, you are referring to the
same thing, your car, but you are not expressing exactly the same meaning. Looked at in
this way, style is a matter of presentation. Consider:
(a) car
(b) motorcar
(c) automobile
(d) family saloon
(e) Fiesta
(f) banger
(g) wheels
These overlap in meaning in different ways. The first three are very close, but differ (in
the British context) in the effect they generally produce. Car is the most casual everyday
term, motorcar is slightly more formal and dignified, automobile more so, and perhaps a
shade archaic in Britain.
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Examples (d)–(g) still cover the general meaning ‘car’ but refer to types of car.
Example (f), banger, is also informal, and jokey, and (g) perhaps suggests a ‘gangster’
jargon.
The choice of items for inclusion in an advertisement depends on how you want to
represent the car and in doing so how ‘economical with the truth’ you want to be, and it
also depends on your judgement as to who the likely buyer might be and what approach
might appeal to such a buyer. What do you say?
(h) Car for sale.
(i) Dream car going for a song.
(j) Do you want a lovely car?
(k) Buy this car before someone else snaps it up!
(l) Car. One owner. 17k miles. As new.
These all have the same purpose, to persuade a reader to come and look at the car. But
they ‘come on’ in different ways, (h) is a neutral announcement, (i) is informal and
colloquial but still announcing, (j) moves from announcement to a question and the
somewhat emotive ‘lovely’, (k) gives a kind of command to the reader, and a warning.
(1) lists important selling points.
There are a large number of ways in which something can be represented. It will be
useful, however, to bear in mind two general categories when thinking about the choice
of words. These are:
(a) choices of words to do with what is selected for focus of attention (Toyota rather than
car or vehicle);

(b) choices that establish a relationship with the reader or listener (banger rather than car
or automobile). EXERCISES
1.1 Assess the following pairs of words from the point of view of their stylistic
differences. Concentrate on differences in focus. For example:

Is a detail used to suggest a whole? Or vice-versa? Example: hand for worker.

Is the difference one of evaluation or ideological point of view? Example: terrorist for
freedom fighter.
Is the difference to do with formality/informality? Example: residence for home.
Is the difference one of emotional involvement/detachment? Example: home for
house.
Is it a matter of ‘in’ jargon/everyday wording? Example: tabs for curtains (in a
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theatre).

Naturally some of the examples will differ in more than one way, and you should
point that out. For example ‘tabs’ is both an ‘in’ term for stage curtains, and is also more
informal.
(a) dinner, dindins
(b) a bite, a meal
(c) traveller, hippy
(d) His Excellency the Life President, that stomach-full-of-bilge
(e) f.y.i.a., for your immediate attention

(f) Pat, Patricia

(g) for the fuller figure, for fat women
(h) Get your arse over here, Please could you come here
(i) white horse, grey
(j) very palatable, yummy
1.2 A cafe owner wants to attract children to her cafe. She has devised an ice-cream dish
with cream, chocolate sauce, strawberries and dessicated coconut in it. Invent three
different two- or three-word phrases for
(a) the title for the cafe (specially catering for ice cream, for children);
(b) the name of the ice cream (on the menu, containing cream, chocolate sauce,
strawberries and dessicated coconut).
You may invent new words, provided their meaning is clear, and/or you may use
unconventional spellings. The three examples you devise should differ as to:
(i) focus of attention (e.g. on taste, size, ingredients, stylishness);
(ii) relation to the reader (e.g. degree of assumed familiarity, decorum, flattery as to
status).
The same example can be looked at from the viewpoints of (i) and (ii). For example
Whoppa focuses attention on size (i), and assumes a familiar slangy relation to the reader
(ii).
1.3 Rewrite the following made-up headlines so as to make them less formal and more
‘tabloid’. You may use fewer letters and spaces between words than the examples given,
but not more.
(a) TEENAGERS BURN CAR
(b) YOUNG CHILD ABDUCTED
(c) VAT POLICY REVIEW
1.4 Imagine these are the opening sentences of short stories. The author uses the
technique of mentioning significant parts or aspects of things and leaves the reader to
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work out the whole. Give glosses on what is left unsaid. Suggest a person and place.
(a) High heels came clicking down the corridor.
(b) I change to fifth and put my foot down.
(c) When the green light flashed, she put the green bit of wood with 8 on it on the hook
and went in.
1.5 Here are some pairs of words which are very close in meaning and which have a
different ‘feel’; but this is very difficult to account

for and you may feel that anything you say is subjective. Discuss the examples and try to
make your responses explicit. Make a note of any example where you began feeling that
the difference was subjective but conversation made things feel less so.
(a) football, soccer
(b) sweater, jumper
(c) sofa, settee
(d) signal, sign
(e) rubbish, refuse