Affected and Effeminate Words
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8727883 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John M Steadman (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1938 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 13-13 |
| Publication date | 1938-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Speech (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-1283 • E-ISSN: 1527-2133 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/451362 |
| OpenAlex | W2330915888 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
ACHORUS of many voices has for some years been inveighing against youth for its 'fear of excellence' and its inability-or its unwillingness-to use any words except the most familiar. Essayists, teachers, and at least one novelist have joined in denouncing this timidity in the use of language. James Truslow Adams's famous essay, 'The Mucker Pose, contains perhaps the most searching analysis of the reasons why the gentleman in America fears the appearance of being cultured. This distrust of culture, which reveals itself most strikingly in the deliberately slovenly speech of many Americans, Mr. Adams attributes to several causes. (1) The domination in the development of American civilization of the lower and middle classes, who are often insensible to all fine discriminations, who are uncertain of or indifferent to culture, and who slavishly follow public opinion. (2) The influence of the frontier, which stressed the more tangible and primitive virtues, equated culture and effeminacy, and treated both with derision. (3) The fact that America, starting with no old traditions, no rigid institutions, no fixed social castes, put a premium on rugged individualism and so made impossible the existence of any cultural upper class who cherished intellectual values and discriminating tastes and judgments. (4) The democratic form of government, under which the citizen showed that he was as good as anybody else-or better-by denying the value of any qualities he himself did not possess or did not admire. Unfortunately, democratic leveling has been downward. The triumph of democracy has also resulted in the emergence of a tremendous mass power-a power which cares nothing for subtle discriminations, for exquisite sensibilities, or refined tastes.2 Mr. Adams's reproaches become even more significant when one finds them expressed independently by other commentators upon American culture.3 These onslaughts upon the
Linguistics · Education Systems and Policy · Political theory and Gramsci · Psychology · Themes in Literature Analysis · Communication · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,09 |
| Citation span | 1983 - 2015 (33) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |