One of his observations was that mispronunciations may come about through carelessness, they also happen because of people’s mistaken desire to be careful… But the thing that sticks most in my mind is his observations to the effect that nobody for years and years has succeed in inventing a completely new word.
“Whatever somebody comes up with a so-called new word,” he said, “it is almost always based on an old one. Modern words like ‘television’ and ‘microwave’ are just two word-bits struck together. The only word I know of that owes nothing to a precedent is ‘gas’ , and I think the man who invented it did say later that he almost certainly had the word ‘chaos’ at the back of his mind”
彼の観察によると、発音の誤りは不注意で生じることもあれば、慎重になろうとする思い違いの意欲でも起こりうるとのことである…しかし、私にとって最も印象的だったのは、何十年経っても完全に新しい単語を生み出すことに成功した人はいないという彼の観察結果だ。
「いわゆる新語というものを思いついたとしても、それは大抵古い言葉を基にしている」と彼は言う。 「‘television’ や ‘microwave’ のような現代語も、2つの言葉を合わせただけだ。私が知る中で先んずる語のない唯一の単語と言えるのが'gas'だ。そして私が思うに、この単語を発明した人は、頭の片隅に'chaos'という言葉が確かにあったと後々語ったに違いない」
