ABSTRACT
As far as words are concerned style presents but one main problem to our consideration-that of the principle of selection. It is a query that naturally arises when we find ourselves sifting at the one time for words of quite various purpose and personality. Thus in Joyce whose maltreatment of language largely prompted this study I find at the same period, in the same volume a predeliction for lightsome and delicate words, homely words, and sonorous Miltonian words so that all these lie side by side-one might almost say-within the same covers: girdle, eucharistic, dawning, hymn, incense, crucifix, light, fragrance, unrest, dung, snot, bile, arrogant, lavishlimbed, all without the least discord but on the contrary as most people who
have read the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, will agree with very beautiful results….
