DICTION
charged in such a context. More positive would be "a stout
[or plump] man with rosy cheeks."
Levels of Usage
Levels of usage refers to the kind of situation in which a word
is normally used. Most words suit all occasions. Some, how-
ever, are restricted to formal, literary contexts, and others to
informal, colloquial ones. Consider three verbs which
roughly mean the same thing: exacerbate, annoy, bug. Talking
among your friends, you would not be likely to say, "That
person really exacerbated me." On the other hand, describing
a historical episode you wouldn't (or shouldn't) write, "The
Spartan demands bugged the Athenians." But you could use
annoy on both occasions, without arousing derision in either
friends or readers of your work.
The three words differ considerably in their levels of usage.
Exacerbate is a literary word, appropriate to formal occasions.
Bug (in this sense) is a colloquial, even slang, term appropriate
to speech and very informal writing. Annoy is an all-purpose
word, suitable for any occasion. When in the next chapter we
discuss the practical problem of appropriateness, we shall use
the labels formal, and general to distinguish these
broad levels of usage.
From the more theoretical viewpoint we are taking here,
we may think of level of usage as a peripheral part of a word's
connotation. As with connotation in general, it is not easy to
look up the level of usage of any particular word. Dictionaries
label an occasional term "colloquial" or "slang," but not in
every case; and they do not label formal words like exacerbate
at all. You have to depend on your own knowledge as a guide.
In recent years the line between formal and informal usage

In selecting his or her words, a writer may be concerned
primarily with any of the three areas of the triangle: writer-
topic, writer-reader, or These areas correspond
to the three modes" of meaning. We shall call them
respectively: "referential," "interpersonal," and "directive."
The Referential Mode
Referential meaning connects writer and topic. In this mode
the writer chooses words the exactness and economy with
which they signify, or refer to, what he or she observes,
knows, thinks, short, what is in his or her mind.
Most writing involves chiefly this mode of meaning. Here are
three examples:
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MEANING
Mary [Queen of Scots] had returned to Scotland in a young
widow of nineteen, after an absence of thirteen years in
France. ... D. Harris Willson
The principle of verification is supposed to furnish a criterion by
which it can be determined whether or not a sentence is literally
Alfred Jules Ayer
Calculus is a lousy subject. student
In all these cases the writers select words for their refer-
ential value, to make clear what is in their minds. The histo-
rian, aiming to be factually accurate, and the philosopher,
aiming to be conceptually exact, chose diction on the basis of
denotation: "in 1561," "a young widow of nineteen," "veri-
"criterion." The student, expressing how he feels,
selects "lousy" for its connotation; and while it would be
more difficult to unravel all the implications of "lousy" than
to explain the meanings of "widow" or "criterion," the word

to or an unseen presence, a hidden voice of which
readers are aware, sometimes dimly, sometimes with acute
consciousness, and which we call the persona (see page 58).
Since a persona is inevitable, you had better strive for an at-
tractive one. Modesty, for instance, is generally a virtue in a
writer. An occasional expression like I think, it seems to me,
to my mind suggests to readers that here is a modest writer,
undogmatic, aware of his or her fallibility. The following pas-
sages illustrate such interpersonal diction (the italics are
added):
What, then, can one learn from [Samuel] Johnson in general? First,
think, the inestimable value of individuality. F. L. Lucas
Whether this of traffic will cause a great or a small
loss of national income is, / am told, a point on which expert econ-
omists are not agreed. Max
That this is so can hardly be proved, but it is, / should claim, a
fact. J. L. Austin
Such personal disclaimers are not always a virtue. At times
modesty may strike a note that is weak or false. At times a
subject may demand an impersonal point of view, making the
use of /, my, me impossible. Even when modesty is called for
and a personal point of view is possible, a few I thinks and in
my opinions go a long way. Used in every second or third
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MEANING
sentence they may well draw too much attention and annoy
the reader. Still, occasionally acknowledging your limitations
is one way of creating a favorable impression upon readers.
Beyond suggesting a nonassertive persona, you
can also use words in the interpersonal mode which gra-