1. Make a list of the words in class two of your own vocabulary, and
similar lists for classes three and four. (To make a list for class one
would be but a waste of time.) Procure if you can for this purpose a
loose-leaf notebook, and in the several lists reserve a full page for each
letter of the alphabet as used initially. Do not scamp the lists, though
their proper preparation consume many days, many weeks. Try to make them
really exhaustive. Their value will be in proportion to their accuracy and
fulness.
2. Con the words in each list carefully and repeatedly. Your task is to
transfer these words into a more intimate list--those in class four into
class three, those in three into two, those in two into one. You are then
to promote again the words in the lower classes, except that (if your
judgment so dictates) you may leave the new class three wholly or
partially intact. To carry out this exercise properly you must keep these
words in mind, make them part and parcel of your daily life. (For a
special device for bringing them under subjection, see the next exercise.)
3. To write a word down helps you to remember it. That is why the normal
way to transfer a word from class four into class two is to put it
temporarily into the intermediary class, three; you first _see_ or
_hear_ the word, next _write_ it, afterwards _speak_ it.
The mere writing down of your lists has probably done much to bring the
words written into the circuit of your memory, where you can more readily
lay hold of them. Also it has fortified your confidence in using them; for
to write a word out, letter by letter, makes you surer that you have its
right form. With many of your words you will likely have no more trouble;
they will be at hand, anxious for employment, and you may use them
according to your need. But some of your words will still stubbornly
withhold themselves from memory. Weed these out from your lists, make a
special list of them, copy it frequently, construct short sentences into
which the troublesome words fit. By dint of writing the words so often you
will soon make them more tractable.
4. Make a fifth list of words--those you hear or see printed, do not
understand the meaning of, but yet feel you should know. Obtain and
confirm a grasp of them by the successive processes used with words in the
preceding lists.
<The Definition of Words>
Another means of buttressing your command of your present vocabulary is to
define words you use or are familiar with.
Do not bewilder yourself with words (like _and, the_) which call for
ingenuity in handling somewhat technical terms, or with words (like
_thing, affair, condition_) which loosely cover a multitude of
meanings. (You may, however, concentrate your efforts upon some one
meaning of words in the latter group.) Select words with a fairly definite
signification, and express this as precisely as you can. You may
afterwards consult a dictionary for means of checking up on what you have
done. But in consulting it think only of idea, not of form. You are not
training yourself in dictionary definitions, but in the sharpness and
clarity of your understanding of meanings.
About the only rule to be laid down regarding the definition of verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs is that you must not define a word in terms of
itself. Thus if you define _grudgingly_ as "in a grudging manner,"
you do not dissipate your hearer's uncertainty as to what the word means.
If you define it as "unwillingly" or "in a manner that shows reluctance to
yield possession," you give your hearer a clear-cut idea in no wise
dependent upon his ability to understand the word that puzzled him in the
first place.
Normally, in defining a noun you should assign the thing named to a
general class, and to its special limits within that class; in other
words, you should designate its genus and species. You must take care to
differentiate the species from all others comprised within the genus.
You will, in most instances, first indicate the genus and then the
species, but at your convenience you may indicate the species first. Thus
if you affirm, "A cigar is smoking-tobacco in the form of a roll of
tobacco-leaves," you name the genus first and later the characteristics of
the species. You have given a satisfactory definition. If on the other
hand you affirm, "A cigar is a roll of tobacco-leaves meant for smoking,"
you first designate the species and then merely imply the genus. Again you
have given a satisfactory definition; for you have permitted no doubt that
the genus is smoking-tobacco, and have prescribed such limits for the
species as exclude tobacco intended for a pipe or a cigarette.
In defining nouns by the genus-and-species method, restrict the genus to
the narrowest possible bounds. You will thus save the need for exclusions
later. Had you in your first definition of a cigar begun by saying that it
is tobacco, rather than smoking-tobacco, you would have violated this
principle; and you would have had to amplify the rest of your definition
in order to exclude chewing-tobacco, snuff, and the like.