th and with such a history, is able long to keep united. We are together on the field of a great event in that war. We have come to give a part of that field as a last resting−place for those who went to their death so that that nation might go on living. It is in every way right and natural for us to do this. But in a wider sense we have no power to make this place an offering in their name, to give any mark of our respect, any sign of our belief. Those men, living and dead, who had no fear in the fight, have given it a name far greater than our poor power to make additions or to take away. The future will take little note of what we say here; will not long keep it in mind. But what they did here will never go from memory. It is for us, the living, to give ourselves here to the work which is not ended, which they who were in the fight have taken forward to this point so well. It is for us to give ourselves here to the great work which is still before us, so that from these dead who are in our hearts we may take an increased love of the cause for which they gave the last full measure of their love; so that we may here come to the high decision that these dead will not have given themselves to no purpose; so that this nation, under the Father of All, may have a new birth in the hope to be free; and so that government of all, by all, and for all, may not come to an end on the earth.[#ここで斜体終わり]*

 * C.K. Ogden : Basic English and Grammatical Reform[#「Basic English and Grammatical Reform」は斜体](1937), p.74

[#底本ではここにリンカーンの演説の矢内原忠雄による日本語訳が載っているが、矢内原忠雄の著作権は現在保護期間中なので、省略する。]

 このリンカンの演説は一般に英語の最も單純なる散文の一つと考へられてゐるやうであるが、それでも Basic が排除した動詞が25個ある。即ち、bring, conceive, dedicate, create, engage, can, endure, meet, live, fit, shall, consecrate, hallow, struggle, add, detract, note, remember, forget, fight, advance, remain, resolve, die, perish. である。其の外に Basic が代用語句を見出さなければならなかつた語が30個*ある。しかもこれ等の語が幾度か繰返し用ゐられてゐるのが分るであらう。

 * score, age, forth, continent, liberty, proposition, civil, whe
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