99

BASIC ENGLISH AND ITS USE IN GEOLOGY(In Basic English).

By ALAN WOOD, Ph.D., EG.S.

[Received 29th October. 1943.][Reod 4th December, 1943.]

THE NEED FOR AN INTERNATIONAL LAi"lGUAGE IN SCIENCE.

BETWEEN the years ]800-1900 it was possible for the man of scienceto get a good idea of what was being done in other countries. The

.number of workers in one branch of science was small, and almost allof them gave their results in one of three languages, French, German or English.At the present time the position is very different. The countries of the Easttake a greater part in the work of science. Though their output is small atpresent it is certainly increasing and will do so more quickly in the future .The best brains of the East now come to one of the chief European countriesfor training, but, in the future, when the level of science teaching in theircountrie s becomes higher, this will no longer be necessary. It will be naturalfor teaching to go on in their languages, and accounts of new discoveries willbe given in them. Such a tendency is certainly present, and if things went onin this way discoveries of the greatest value to other workers might be keptsecret for years in a mist of words. Work done in one country would bedone again in another and .. International Science" would be only a namefor a dead idea.

The time to do something is now. At present a great number of the specialwords used in science are international, because the import ant discoveries havebeen made in three or four countries, and the East has taken over the nameswhile learning the sciences. The making of new words is not the right of anyone country; there is a natural tendency for the man who makes a discoveryto make use of strange new names. Before the damage is done, while mostof the words of science are still international , is the time to take this tendencyin hand and to see that the development of science in the future is on the rightlines.

It is frequently said that English, French and German are the three languagesof science and attempts are made at international science meetings to givethe results in one of these languages. Spanish has to be used, however, inmeetings of American countries. and even if no other language was ever used,these three would be more than enough. Even for those whose natural languageis one of them the time taken up by learning the others is great. In add ition,the worker is not generally so happy with the other languages, and it is commonfor his reading to keep almost to the one. Proof that this is true even at thehighest levels may readily be given.

For example, it may be said that certain branches of geology are inter­national, in the sense that interest in them is not special to anyone country.Such things as the origin of igneous rocks, the structure of the earth shells,and the theory of isostasy are of general interest. This being so, it is clearthat writers on such questions will, in theory, give lists of earlier papers witht he same distribution among the three languages, whatever the . country ofthe writer That is to say, every expert will have taken note of all the importantwork which has been done before, inside the limits of the three internationallanguages. Let us see if this is ·done.

In the last ten years two very noted writers have given an account of thestructure of the earth. They give long lists of earlier papers , but the distributionof the papers among the three languages is very different. Professor B.

100 A. WOOD,

Gutenberg, a German, in "Geotektonische Hypothesen "1 gives a list of 88papers in German, 35 in English and 2 in French. On the other hand, theAmerican, Dr. H. S. Washington, in "The Crust of the Earth and its Relationto the Interior "2 gives a list of 126 papers in English, 30 in German and 9 inFrench.

Though these writers may be making observations on some branch of thequestion which has had special attention in their country, the papers are sowide in their outlook that this will have had little effect. In general there isno doubt that the reading of these writers has been given a special directionbecause a certain country was, by chance, their birthplace. The reasons forthis limited reading are clear. They are, firstly, that it is hard to go througha paper in a strange language quickly, to take note of any special points ofinterest. Probably an English reader takes as long to go through one Germanpaper as four English ones. Secondly, in a number of places it is hard to getall the desired papers from other countries.

However this may be, the fact that international reading so clearly doesnot take place even inside the limits of these three languages makes it certainthat if writing went on in almost every language a number of discoveries whichwould be most important to other workers would go unnoted for years.

The international distribution of " abstracts," though better than nothing,is not enough, for a small, seemingly unimportant, part of a paper may be apointer to some law of great general value when gone over by a new mind,coming to it from a different angle.

The need, then, is for some international language which may be used asa second language in all the countries of the earth, and which will become thecommon instrument for the exchange of views among men of science. It willnot have to be hard to become expert in such a language, or its learning willtake more time than the common man is able to give. In addition, it willhave to be clear and have fixed rules, or changes will be made by persons withoutauthority and it will no longer be the same language for all. Lastly, thestructure of the language has to be such that it may be used as a frameworkfor those words which are now international for the purposes of science. BasicEnglish is such a language, and the greatest chance of a general change willcome straight after the war, when the design for a new way of living will beworked out.

WHAT BASIC ENGLISH IS.There are well over 200,000 words in the English language, while Basic

English has 850 for general use. It is interesting to see how this small selectionhas been made.

The English language is made up to a great degree of words whose specialpurpose is that of producing a feeling in the reader by the connections they havein his mind. Political ideas are generally "put across" by the use of suchwords, but they take an important part in the talk and writing of commonmen. Such words are in fact shorthand words for complex ideas. In BasicEnglish such words are not present. They are broken up into a number ofsimple words which give the same idea, and this in itself makes it possible toget on with a much smaller number of different words. In addition, wordswhich have almost the same sense as some other word in the list are taken out.Examples are • large,' • big,' • huge,' . immense,' • gigantic,' • tremendous'and so on, whose sense is given by the word 'great' together with such aword as 'very' when necessary.

I Handbuch der Geophysik; 3, p. 4t2, Borntraeger, Berlin.2 Physics 0/ the Earth, vii, p. 91. McGraw Hill, New York.

BASIC ENGLISH AND ITS USE IN GEOLOGY. 101

The same shorthand tendency of English is seen in its 'verbs' which arefrequently words for complex ideas. Again these may be broken up into anumber of simpler words and in fact there are only 18 ' verbs' in Basic. Forexample' to excavate' (a drain) would be to get the drain up, and to excavate(a fossil) would be to get the fossil clear of the rock. In the same way' tovisualise' is to see in the mind's eye, and' to verify' is to make certain thatsomething is true. Again this makes Basic much more simple, for " verbs"with their different forms are specially hard for the learner, and the numberof words is made much smaller. It might seem that Basic would be a veryroundabout way of saying things, but this is not so. Nine times out of tenthose words which have special connections or shades of sense are used bychance. Only a small number of great writers make use of the right wordin' the right place. The work of most other writers may be put into Basicwithout any marked change in the sense, and without making it much longer.The paper which comes after this took up almost the same space in Basic as inwider English, the Basic account being in fact some lines shorter.

Basic English, then, is an attempt to keep down the number of wordsused as much as possible, and to make the rules for their use simple, so thatthere will be less trouble in learning the language. There are only 850 wordsin Basic English for everyday purposes of which 18 are' verbs.' In addition,the English names of numbers, days of the week and months of the year areused and any truly international words. A list of 100 general science wordsis given for use when writing about any science, as well as a long list of inter­national ones, and in addition every branch of science may have a special listof 50. The special words for geology are given later (p. 102). A number ofendings are made use of as in wider English. Such are the's' form fornumber (together with a small number of forms which are not regular-foot,feet, leaf, leaves), the addition of ted,' -er,' -ing ' to' nouns' (design, designer,designing, designed), and '-Iy' to 'adjectives' to form 'adverbs.' Thenumber of words which may be used is increased in this way, while learningis not made much harder. A knowledge has to be got of the forms for com­parison, the forms of • pronouns' and the forms of . verbs.' The last thingis to get an idea of the expansions of sense which go with most words. Hereagain there are fixed limits. In wider English the same word may have anumber of senses and shades of sense which frequently have little or no .clearconnection with one another. Take the word' to bear,' which may be used ofbabies, with the sense ' give birth to,' of pain, to put up with pain, of news,to take the news somewhere, and of behaviour, as in " he bore himself well."Again, his' proud bearing' is as different from his' lost bearings' as a " bear­ring" with fighting animals is from a ring 'borne' on the finger. Such wordsare a danger to those learning English. The Basic uses are limited to a selectionof those which have a clear connection with the root sense. So the word­, light' may not be used of weight, or the word' even' for' level' and a ' ring'has nothing to do with a bell, or a ' start' with a jump.

It will be seen that Basic English is as simple as possible, cutting downthe number of words which are necessary as well as the rules for their use.Anything simpler becomes ' Pidgin ' English, while every word more is anotherweight on the memory of the learner.

BASIC AND ESPERANTOThe persons who give support to one or other of the made-up languages

say that no language in current use may be made international because allare so hard for the learner. The rules are complex, and the number of • strongverbs' are an ever present trouble. We have seen how these points are over­come in Basic. In addition, it is said that the country whose language was

102 A. WOOD,

made international would have a better chance than the others, in trade forexample, and that other nations, fearing this, would take care that no livinglanguage was made use of for the international exchange of knowledge andideas. This is taking a very low view of men's feelings, and even if thesepersons are right it is no argument against Basic, for the English themselveswould have to take the trouble of learning Basic before they were in a positionto make use of it. In fact, in some ways an Englishman might even havemore trouble in learning to say things without error in Basic than a man ofanother country. Again, it takes such a short time to get a knowledge ofBasic that this point becomes less important.

Esperanto is a made-up language based on six European languages. Itseems that learning Esperanto is simple for a European, but this does notseem to be so for those whose natural language is very different in structure.Asiatics and Africans do not seem to be deeply interested in it.

Lastly it is clear that the learning of Basic is a step in the learning of widerEnglish. All the rules and words which have been given are part of the Englishlanguage, and the learner may go on learning new words whenever he has theneed for them. Esperanto and other such languages do not make one free ofsuch a storehouse of great writing, however expert one may become in theiruse.

BASIC AND GEOLOGY.We are in the happy position of having a great number of international

words in current use. Geology is such a young science, and the most notedgeologists have so frequently been men whose language was English thatEnglish words make a great part of this international list. It is clear that thelearning of these words is the learning of Geology, not of language as such,and their use does not make the learning of Basic harder for those whosenatural language is not English. Such words as • plutonic' or • porphyritic 'have to be got into the heads of Englishmen, Americans and Asiatics equally,and would have to be part of any international language.

However, a number of the more common words are not international.This is so in every science, for words taken by the early workers from every­day language will be different in every tongue. Fifty special words which arenot international may be used when writing about Geology in Basic English.They are: Accessory, Birefringence, Cast, Cave, Clay, Cleavage, Contour,Desert, Dip, Drift, Dyke, Erosion, Eruption, Extinction, Fan, Fault, Flint,Flood, Flow, Foliation, Fracture, Glacier, Gravel, Ground, Hill, Igneous,Inclusion, Intercept, Interpenetration, Intrusion, Lake, Limestone, Mud, Ore,Outcrop, Outlier, Overlap, Plain, Scarp, Schist, Sedimentary, Shale, Shore,Sill, Slate, Strike, Texture, Twin, Unconformity, Valley.

Lastly, there is the question of coming to a decision as to which wordsare truly international. The present writer, naturally, has not the necessaryknowledge or authority to do this. Only a committee ofexperts in every branchof Geology would be able to make these delicate decisions. It will be seen inthe future ifit is possible for such committees to be formed. The need is certainlyto make our special language more simple so that the reading of papers onGeology may be a pleasure to everyone. A general view of the different branchesof Geology, to see how far their language is international at present, may now begiven.

(a) Physical Geology.This is clearly one of the most complex branches of geology from the

present point of view. Every language has its special names for the differentparts of the everyday countryside. These are so much a part of the verythought of the nation that it is hard to make them give place to others. The

BASIC ENGLISH AND ITS USE IN GEOLOGY. 103

way in which the names' Cwm,' , Coombe' and ' Corrie' are kept for certaindry valleys is an example of how one may have an unreasoning feeling for aname simply because one is used to it. If as in this example it is not possibleto get agreement among the geologists of one nation it is not probable that adecision will ever be made on the value of names given by different nations.Any words may, however, be used in the writing of Basic, if a clear accountof their sense is given in Basic at the same time. If, for example, it is necessaryto put the word 'Corrie' into a paper it is no trouble to say "these valleyswhich are cut into the Chalk hills and whose sharply sloping sides make almosthalf a circle round their flat floors are given the name carries by A. J. Bull."This is not a waste of paper, such an account gives a much clearer pictureto the mind than does the use of the word 'corrie' with its uncertain values.Though it is probably not possible to get the same names used everywhere inPhysical Geology, with its complex processes and unending range of landforms, the use of such outline accounts of any words which are not Basic willmake the chance of error much smaller.

(b) Petrology, Mineralogy, Crystallography.These sciences have a long list of international words. However, the names

of the commoner minerals are not the same everywhere. They were takenfrom the language of mining men, and together with most of the commonmining words are different in almost every country. A paper by Dr. L. J.Spencer' gives a very clear idea of what has to be overcome in any attempt toget international agreement on the names in use in the last two sciences.Different names for the same thing, even the same name for different things,different ways of giving the symbols for the crystal faces and the names of thecrystal systems, make a complex twisted network which seems as if it willnever get straight again. One comes across the same trouble in Petrology asmay be seen from the ever-increasing number of rock names. In these sciences,however, the things which are worked with are seen as separate bodies withmaterial existence, while those things which take all the attention of physicalgeologists are in comparison complex and unclear in outline. The outcomeof this is that chemical formulae may be used together with the mineral names,and it makes possible the healthy tendency of giving a list of the chief mineralsin the rock name. This will go far in the direction of making these sciencesinternational. In addition a short account of the sense of any word not inBasic may be given, as in Physical Geology, and the same points may be madein support of this.

It is quite simple to put the language of Petrology into Basic as may beseen from this example.s Professor Read says: "The rock varies in degreeof foliation, from slightly deformed porphyritic granite to plane-foliatedribboned pink and grey rock. In slices the felspar phenocrysts are orthoclasewith microclinic patches, microperthite and acid plagioclase. The last namedis filled with tiny muscovites and epidotes. The margins of the felspars areusually rounded or embayed, while in almost all slices the crystals are seen tobe broken and displaced, the fractures being healed by quartz." The Basicaccount might be : " Different degrees of foliation are seen, from little changedporphyritic granite to a rock with parallel light red and grey bands. In section,the felspar phenocrysts are orthoclase with microcline inclusions, microperthiteand acid plagioclase. The last is full of small muscovites and epidotes. Theedges of the felspars commonly have curving outlines, inlets being sometimesseen, while in almost all sections the crystals are broken, the parts being out ofposition and joined together by quartz."

, .. International Agreement in Mineralogical and Crystallographical Nomenclature."Minera/og. Mag., 1925, vol. xx, p. 353,

2 Read, H. H ... The Metamorphic Geology of Unst in the Shetland Islands," Quart. JournGeol. Soc., London, vol. xc, 1934, p, 677.

104 A. WOOD,

(c) Palaeontology and Stratigraphy.The use of the Linnean System and the "law of priority" have made

much of Palaeontology international. Only the names for the different partsof shells and bones are not fixed-clearly because the names for these partscome from the language of common men. The names of parts of animalsnot now living are much more international, because they were given by menof science to things which were never part of common knowledge.

Palaeontological accounts go well into Basic, as may be seen from thepaper which comes after this one. Another example, which at first seems asif it would be hard to put into Basic, may be taken from the works of Spath :" It has been seen that the incontrovertible evidence of stratigraphy does notfavour this view that there was a persistent unspecialised, ancestral, capricornstock, giving rise to a number of progressive branches that, after a meteoriccareer, disappeared one by one as a result of over specialisation. On thecontrary; the tendency to close coiling which resulted in the early, suturallyspecialised sphaerocones initiated a stream of evolution which at its acmeshowed rapid differentiation and great plasticity, resulting in at least oneunsuccessful experiment (Beaniceras); but the specialized, ancestral stockpersisted, and even the simplified capricorn branches, in spite of their fargreater abundance in individuals, were doomed to extinction before the rarersphaerocones (Liparoceras) disappeared."! The Basic account might be:" It has been seen that the undoubted facts of stratigraphy do not give supportto the view that there was an unchanging, simple group of capricornammonites, giving off a number of increasingly complex branches, which, aftera quick evolution, went out of existence one by one because their adjust­ment to outside conditions was so complete. Quite the opposite: thesame tendency to tight growth which gave the early sphaerocones with theircomplex sutures put into motion a current of evolution which at itsquickest was made up ofa number of different readily changing forms, of whichone at least came to nothing (Beaniceras); but the complex early group kept onwithout change, and even the simpler capricorn branches, though they werepresent in much greater numbers, were marked out for destruction before thesphaerocones (Liparoceras) came to an end."«

The greater number of the chief names used in Stratigraphy are international.Though the names of the divisions lower than the Systems are frequently notin international use, this is caused by the way in which the facies of the bedsbecomes different from point to point and so it is a necessary outcome of thespecial qualities of the science itself. The use of the names of small countryplaces for divisions of the lowest degree is necessary and will not get ill the wayof the international distribution of knowledge. However the use of a systemof lettering taken from the first letter of the name of a special fossil seems tothe present writer to have much to be said for it. The letters and the fossilmimes are international and the use of such a name as Kinderscoutian, newlyput forward by Dr. R. G. S. Hudson, instead of Rj, is a step back from thispoint of view.

'GENERAL SUGGESTIONS.

It will have been seen that while a great number of words used in Geologyare international, a number are not. The use of Basic seems to be the best

I Spath, L. F. (1938). The Ammonites of the Liassic family Liparoceratidae . British Museum(N.H.), p, 27.

2 The words ~, over specialization" may have some other sense than that given to them, butit is not clear in what way they are to be taken. _ In addition two words which are probably notinternational are made use of (' capricorn' and ' sutures '), but though it would be simple to givetheir sense in Basic, it would make comparison between the two accounts less simple. without anyspecial profit.

BASIC ENGLISH AND ITS USE IN GEOLOGY. 105

way of getting free from troubles and arguments coming from the use ofwords whose sense is not clear. The fact that new words, or older words notin Basic, may only be used when their sense is made clear seems to makecertain that anyone with a knowledge of the science will be able to go throughany paper with profit. If the new name , or the old one, is truly necessary itwill by degrees come into use and will become part of the international languagefor the science. This idea, so simple in theory, may give trouble in use. Whois to say which is the best name for a certain thing? The hope for thefuture-the great Idea-is to have a truly international language of science,in which there will be only one name for one thing and its sense will be clearto all. The suggestion is here made that it would be a good rule to give firstplace to the first use ofa word in a Basic paper with a clear account of its sense andit would then become the form used by everyone. If the word is not necessaryit will come to a natural end. The rule of taking the first name put forwardhas done what it was designed to do in Palaeontology and Zoology, eventhough the early work was done without attention to the needs of later workers .If writers of Basic science papers were conscious that any uncertain step madeits mark on the language, and that they were writing for those coming after,more care might be taken. Writers would be conscious that it was necessaryto make use of the best words, and the outcome might well be a better languagethan any now in existence. From this point of view Basic is a new language,and the time when such a language comes into existence is the time to givethought to the future, for no man is able to say how far the use of Basic maygo in time or space.

Basic will have its best chance in the first years after the war. The nationsof the earth will be ready to get a knowledge of English and Basic is the firststep in this direction. In the" Interim report of the British Association Com­mittee on post-war Education '" attention was given to the question of aninternational language , and it was said that men and women at our Universitiesmight well give some time to the learning of such a language. Basic seemedto be right for this purpose, but the system would have to be looked into indetail. The Prime Minister has said at Harvard that some language suchas Basic English would be of great use, and a decision is being made as to itspossible value after the war.

In the end our business as Geologists is the writing of more and betterpapers, so that a knowledge of Basic. if Basic gets support, will be necessaryto everyone. This paper, and the one which comes after, are given in the hopethat they may be of some little help in this direction.

NOTE.-For more details of Basic English see .. Basic English," .. The A.B.C.of Basic English," .. The Basic Words" and" Basic for Science," all by C. K.Ogden, and" Basic for Geology ., by P. M. Rossiter (Kegan Paul Ltd., London).In addition the .• General Basic English Dictionary ., (Evans Bros., London),giving the sense of over 20,000 words in Basic English, is of great value toanyone making a start with Basic.

DISCUSSION(Not in Basic Engli sh).

MR. A. WRIGLEY thought that the use of Basic English might greatly improvemany scientific papers where a lack of clear thought or of really original matteris too often concealed by a fog of pretentious words, to an extent which requiresa new Pope to write another Dunciad. .It is tempting to use simple Englishword s like tip for apex, beak for rostrum, front and rear for anterior and posterioruntil one remembers that the longer words of Latin origin will more readily beunderstood by most European readers . Although Basic is not intended to

r Advancement of Science, 1942, p, 256.

106 BASIC ENGLISH AND ITS USE IN GEOLOGY.

replace standard English, there is a danger that it may injure our native tongue,in the analogy of Gresham's law of an inferior coinage supplanting good money.If, as many philosophers maintain, we think only in and by words, an importantquestion arises. The ambiguity of terms may be amended by their definition,but our language, especially in its verbs with their ascription of power, has aconcealed skeleton which we inherit from a very distant past, and the adoptionof Basic will require or will condition a new sort of thinking.

THE AUTHOR, in reply, agreed with Mr. Wrigley that the writing of papers inBasic English was a very good test of clarity of thought. He was not competentto discuss the philosophical problems involved. In order to clear up somemisconceptions which had arisen, he wished to point out that we could not expectforeigners to write or speak Basic unless we ourselves were prepared to writepapers intended for an international audience in Basic, and were able to carryon a conversation within the limits of the Basic vocabulary when the need arose.If we, the English people, were prepared to do this, the spread of Basic mightwell be rapid, with great advantage to the world in general.