Literary notes about articulate (AI summary)
In literature, the term articulate is employed in a multifaceted manner that extends from describing the clarity and precision of spoken words to alluding to natural or even anatomical articulation. Writers often use it to depict a character’s ability—or sometimes inability—to express thoughts clearly, as seen where struggles to articulate words underscore emotional or physical distress ([1], [2], [3]). At other times, articulate denotes effective and graceful expression in both speech and gesture, reflecting intellectual finesse or even a certain elegance of form ([4], [5], [6]). Additionally, some authors broaden its scope to include the connection of parts, as in the anatomical sense, thereby linking the clarity of expression with structural organization in nature ([7], [8]). This rich versatility allows authors to weave the concept throughout narrative and expository passages, illustrating both the power and the frailty of communication ([9], [10], [11]).
- He tried to say “Come in,” but his tongue refused its office, and he could not articulate a sound.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay - He was seized with a sort of trembling, and remained a few moments without being able to articulate a word.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - He wished to articulate a last farewell, but his tongue lay motionless and heavy in his throat, like a stone at the mouth of a sepulchre.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - He spoke often to me, but the sound of his voice pierced my ears like that of a water-mill, yet his words were articulate enough.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World by Jonathan Swift - But distinctness may be improved by practice; the musical qualities, by imitating those who speak with smooth and articulate enunciation.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero - I found that these people possessed a method of communicating their experience and feelings to one another by articulate sounds.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - The anterior and posterior limbs in each member of the vertebrate and articulate classes are plainly homologous.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - SEGMENTS.—The transverse rings of which the body of an articulate animal or annelid is composed.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - He is by His nature continuously articulate.
— from The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer - Cha-no-yu is more than a ceremony—it is a fine art; it is poetry, with articulate gestures for rhythm: it is a modus operandi of soul discipline.
— from Bushido, the Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe - Languages intricately articulate, flaming mythologies, metaphysical perspectives lost in infinity, arise in remarkable profusion.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana