It is often said that, provided we are not of the unfortunate minority of people who have

pathological language defects, our language mechanism automatically equips us to say anything we need to say. This does not mean that I can talk about all the technicalities of company law or of central heating with the glibness of a solicitor or a plumber. What it does mean is that if my job or my hobby entailed knowledge of these activities, my language would rise to the occasion. We thus have the general truth that any normal person has the language tools to handle anything he needs to handle. But there are odd little exceptions. Let us consider, for instance, forms of address to strangers. Quite often we need to draw a persons attention to something that has just dropped out of pocket or handbag, or to the fact that he is just going to walk into a plate glass door. Not merely does English lack anything corresponding to the French attention, but we do not have the equivalent of Msieur or Madame or even Mademoiselle.