-Al, -Ic, -Ical
Richard Dale Sjoerdsma · Journal of Singing · 2008
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. (Ralph Waldo Emerson) Consistency is the last resort the unimaginative. (Oscar Wilde) Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead. (Aldous Huxley) (Since my tennis game remains unmarred by the quality consistency, I should have these quotations permanently inscribed on my racquet.) Writing about the arts poses challenges encountered few other disciplines. Scientists document experiments and report observations concentrated, precise terms. Historians cite facts and record interpretation language that is studiously unequivocal . . . or equivocal, as the occasion demands. Mathematicians rely on numbers that do not lie. The inherent subjectivity the arts, on the other hand, presents communication problems, especially, it seems to me, the field music. To be sure, history and theory enjoy a measure precision communication found those disciplines cited above, but the performance arena is quite another matter. What does a steely mean? Is it a positive quality? Is there an inherent beauty steel? Most would agree that the validity such descriptions depends upon individual perception. What one person describes as a deep burnished timbre another may call a hooty, covered sound. To bring the discussion to studio pedagogy, terms such as placement, support, focus, and the like, carry different meaning with different students and teachers. Thus, an arena where imprecision language is commonplace, it is necessary, I think, to pursue accuracy wherever possible. We NATS already have made some strides that direction. For some time already, and with very good anatomic reason, we consistently have used folds to replace the older, less accurate cords. Similarly, voice has replaced vocal many combinations, such as pedagogy, science, care, quality, etc. In fact, probably most instances that substitution readily can be made to better effect. Additionally, it appears that the term music theater instead the less precise, more precious musical theatre is gaining wider currency. My concern with -al, -ic, -ical usage began some time ago, was fortified through a series conversations with my journalistic mentor Richard Miller, and has solidified following a great deal thought, research, and further discourse with respected linguists. I hope that the dialectic which I engage is more than personal quirk, more than tomato vs. tomahto, for example, or, to return to the quotations with which this essay began, does not reveal through foolish consistency my mental hobgoblins. The basic premise is that suffixes -al and -ic have distinct and distinguishable meanings, but that -ical is largely redundant. The first, -al, is a suffix with the general sense the kind of, to, the form or character of that named by the stem, occurring loanwords from Latin (autumnal; natural; pastoral) and productive English or the Latin model, usually with bases Latin origin (accidental; seasonal; tribal) . . .1 The second, -ic, is a suffix forming adjectives from other parts speech, occurring originally Greek and Latin loanwords (metallic; poetic; archaic; public) and, on this model, used as an adjective-forming suffix with the particular sense having some characteristics of (opposed to the simple attributive use the base noun; in the style of (Byronic; Miltonic); pertaining to a family peoples or languages (Finnic; Semitic; Turkic) . . .2 Fowler's suggestion that, for those pairs -ic and -ical suffixes where there is no apparent difference meaning, -ic forms are favored American English and -ical ones British English, is one with which I cannot agree. …