The problem arises when advocates of plain English imply that their ‘style’ of expression reveals something deeper, and truer, about the way language and meaning work.

P.S. I would happily recommend your book on speechwriting to anyone with an interest in the subject!

The Ancient rhetoricians – Aristotle, Demetrius et al – all distinguished between a plain style and a stately style in rhetoric. I cover this in my book – Speechwriting: The Expert Guide (published by Robert Hale) – forgive the plug. The Ancient Greeks had fine advice, e.g. ‘For the sake of lucidity we must often repeat ourselves. What conciseness gains by being attractive it loses by being obscure. As men running past us often pass unrecognised, so language, too, is not taken in if its movement is rapid.’

The true battle lies not between rhetoricians and plain speakers but between pedants and plain speakers. A pedant would never have stood for Obama’s ‘Yes we can.’ They would probably have recommended instead, ‘It is perhaps true to say that certain collections of American people are capable of achieving certain things together in certain circumstances, but it is by no means true all of the time, as recent events have proved.’ It was the brevity and simplicity of ‘Yes we can’ that gave it its rhetorical force.

Cheers,

Simon

Julie: Sadly, that seems to be the case for some people. It’s not enough for them that language is taken seriously in serious contexts, but any hint of ‘improper’ play with words is to be frowned and harrumphed upon. What are we, children!?

Winston Churchill said that “short words are best and the old words when short are best of all”, and the famous passage you refer to is a good example of this philosophy in action.

But the passage is highly rhetorical and would be ridiculed by advocates of plain English if it appeared in a public service announcement. It is a brilliant example of anaphora: a rhetorical term in which a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of successive sentences or phrases. Churchill builds towards a powerful emotional climax by repeating the phrase “we shall fight”.

“We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills …”

Using short, easily understood words is not the same as using plain English. If you look at many of the greatest examples of oratory – especially from the 20th century – you’ll find they are full of short, old – i.e. Anglo-Saxon – words.