CHAPTER XIL

Implication, with Exercises for Practice.

108. THE preceding exercises having given the perfection of habit in the articulation of elements, the enunciation of syllables, and the correct pronunciation of words, the implication, or linking together, of words, follows in sequence. This may be defined as the vocal union of words graphically separated, and by which, without injury to the distinctness of the words, all differences of auditory impressions between monosyllabic and polysyllabic compositions are removed.

RULE. All words, though graphically separated, are to be implicated or connected as they succeed each other, except the sense be interrupted by cæsura or other pauses. The exception does not apply, however, to pauses which merely suspend the sense.

If the words in a phrase or sentence are not joined or implicated, the utterance will be constantly deformed by recurring hiatus, becoming staccato when it ought to be legate, thus:

“Oh, could I flow like thee and make thy stream."

In this line, the O, in the word oh, (for the h is not sounded), is implicated with the c, of the word could; the

protraction, where no pause, either of sense or for effect, is required.

The cause of the fault above alluded to is either a want of power and pliability in the organs of the reader or speaker to continue a terminal sound, and, in addition, to start with ease and readiness to the position for the succeeding initial sound, obliging him to stop, after having uttered one word, in order to make preparations for sounding the next; or it proceeds from his inability to distinguish in any other way the finishing of one word and the beginning of another, when final and initial sounds are in danger of being mistaken by a hearer.

What is the difference between the pronunciation of the following phrases, if no pause is made between the words?

Sad angler,

The same arrow,

To obtain either,

Goodness enters in the heart,

Sad dangler.

The same marrow.

To obtain neither.

Goodness centers in the heart.

The difference is made as follows: in the former sentences the consonant sound is not protracted, and the organs separate without effort to utter the vowel which begins the next word; in the latter, it is necessary to dwell upon the consonant, and to make its effect manifest before the latter word by a renewed exertion of the organs, which, however, must not be for a moment detached from their position.

If, instead of a subtonic or a simple aspirate, an abrupt atonic ends and begins the words, there must be a cessation of voice, as in the phrases, a ripe pear, a black cow, a fat turtle. This cessation must be equal to what would have been the length of a vocal or aspirate sound; and the organs are to keep their position after finishing the former word until they separate, with renewed exertion, to pronounce the next.

The habit of what may be called the "click" of the organs on the "vocule" of the abrupt elements can not, however, be watched with too great care, as it is apt to become over-precise and distinctive in effect. The true idea of the energetic practice given on these sounds is to secure a distinctive or emphatic enunciation; but in light or familiar speech, or in emphatic utterance where the language requires implication, this vocular "click" will give it an affected and pedantic character. Nothing can be more out of place or offensive to an ear of just discrimination than this exaggeration of the distinctness of the vocule where the peculiar emphasis does not demand it.

On the other hand, if the former word ends with a subtonic or atonic, and the next begins with a tonic, the sound of the former is simply held upon the organs without renewed exertion of the latter, until they pass quickly to the clearly defined initial of the succeeding tonic, as in the phrases: a tall ozier, to inform carly, to fain innocence, bare elbow, to loathe envy, chief object, to give openly, red ointment, to big earnestly, mad ex, to leap over, a mock orator, great honor, great example.

III. In combinations where the former word ends with a tonic sound, and the latter begins with a subtonic or atonic, there is but little difficulty in making it apparent, without hiatus, which is the final sound of one word and which the beginning of the next, as in the sentences: His cry moved me. The tea refused to flow. He will pray to nobody. He could pay nobody. The row proved long.

There will be but little danger of the consonant being supposed to belong to the foregcing word, because the tonic with which it ends will have received its full length of sound before the atonic or subtonic begins,—the latter immediately opening into its own word.

A hiatus, or meeting of two tonic sounds without the intervention of an atonic or subtonic, frequently causes a

If no

reader to make an improper pause between words. cessation be here made, we almost always slightly insert w or y', subtonics, which prevents the hiatus; as, the arbor, high and low, two hours, new onset, joy and merriment, gay age, to convey under, now or never. In such phrases, nothing is more natural than that the organs should fall into this action, slightly introducing y and w almost as if written the-y-arbor, high-y-and low. Great care should be observed, however, not to make the w ory so positive as to become the initial of the second word. It is a delicate intermediate sound, and its exact use will readily be detected by a few repetitions, avoiding the hiatus, on the one hand, and the grossness of the error just pointed out, on the other.

112. The most perfect effects in implication, and the most frequent of occurrence, are accomplished by the continuous murmur of the terminal subtonic sounds, although a highly agreeable implication is also affected by the extension of the vanish of a tonic previous to an initial subtonic.

The beauty and grace of this movement is best exhibited in the appropriate utterance of the language of repose, tranquillity, sublimity, dignity, and grandeur; where the quantities are long, and the time slow, allowing for the most delicate attenuation of each vanish previous to the opening of the concrete with which it is implicated.

Implication, however, is not always accompanied by the delicate attenuation of the vanish, but is effected in certain forms of intensified utterance by holding the terminal part of the concrete on the organs in the grasps of final or thorough stress, by which the word, especially if it terminates in a subtonic sound, seems to be welded, as it were, with great strength to the next utterance.

The simple implication of ordinary smoothness, however, should be the object of the exercises to follow; this

M. E.-11.

once at command, the intensified forms of its application will be easily acquired and will enter into our study of the expressive application of force.

Of course, all language does not demand an equal degree of implicative treatment, as some expression requires exactly the reverse movement, consisting of the staccato separation of words in certain forms of light, tripping utterance; or, where a peculiar passionative emphasis may demand the forcible disjunction of the verbal constituents of a phrase or sentence.

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In all forms of utterance, however, there must be some implication arising from the natural grouping" of words between the pauses required either by the sense or the expression.

“A thorough practical understanding and application of the principle of implication demonstrates the fact that our oral language is neither harsh nor monosyllabic in its structure. These graces once acquired, we shall not hear the melodious versification of Shakespeare injured by the pronunciation of words as monosyllables which he pronounced as dissyllables; nor will the rich, magnificent, and exquisitely collocated measures of Milton be sep arated into chaotic fragments from an ignorance of the true prin ciples by which its utterance should be regulated.”—Barber.

113. It should be further remembered, in this connexion, as a general principle of taste or fitness, that the ordinary conversation, or the familiar reading of commonplace subjects, does not, on the one hand, require the same exactness or

· The two writers who have written the most satisfactorily, or indeed at all explicitly, upon the important element of a finished enunciation comprehended in implication, or the junction of words, are Smart and Barber. We are indebted to both for much that is contained in the present chapter, which, as here applied in the light of the present philosophy of vocal effects, will be of invalu

able aid to the student.