The Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage phần 9 pps

redundancy Reduced forms of words and contractions are usually unsuitable for formal writing, and need to be replaced by the full forms. The same applies to elliptical syntax. What can be understood between conversation partners cannot be left out of a monologic written text. Reduced forms always suggest informality, and so are counterproductive if dignity and authority are the overtones you’re trying to write into your prose. reductio ad absurdum In Latin this means “reducing (it) to the absurd”. It is an argumentative tactic in which an extreme deduction is made from a proposition, one which is obviously contrary to common sense and accepted truth. The technique is used in formal logic to show the falseness of a proposition, but it’s also used more informally to discredit someone else’s position. For example, those who would insist on a “White Australia” policy sometimes argue that allowing more Asian immigrants in here will result in the “Asianisation of Australia”. The argument thus stretches a proposition (that more Asian immigrants might come to Australia) to an extreme possibility (Australia will be overrun by them), without attempting to consider the issues. redundancy is a matter of using more words than are needed to express a point. Sometimes it’s matter of sheer repetition as in: They waved a greeting and they went on. The second they seems redundant and clumsy because English grammar allows us to read the subject of the second clause from the first in a coordinated sentence where the two subjects are the same. (See ellipsis section 1.) Very occasionally a writer may wish to repeat something which is normally ellipted for the sake of emphasis, but usually it makes for redundancy. Redundancy also arises through the overlap of meaning between different words which are combined in the same phrase or sentence. Compare “the four members of the quartet” with all members of the quartet, where the second version avoids redundancy. (See further under pleonasm.) Redundant information and strategic repetition. Yet another kind of redundancy can occur in communicating information—as when irrelevant details are included, or a detail is reported twice over. To remove irrelevancies you need a clear idea as to the purpose of the whole document, and what its readers need to know. Avoiding unnecessary repetition is a matter of careful organisation, structuring the contents to ensure that things are said at the most productive moment, and not too early so that they have to be repeated. Still a writer may want to foreshadow things at the start of a document, and to summarise them at the end. Redundancy is then avoided by ensuring that the foreshadowing section or summary presents things in more general terms than when they are the focus of discussion. 683 reduplicatives reduplicatives Some English compounds consist of two very similar words, only differing in their first consonants, or their vowels. Examples of the first kind are: fuddy-duddy hanky-panky heeby-jeebies mumbo-jumbo razzle-dazzle walkie-talkie And of the second: chitchat crisscross dillydally dingdong mishmash riffraff tittletattle zigzag One of the two parts of a reduplicative (often the second) may be a meaningful word, and the other then plays on its sound. The connotations of reduplicatives are usually casual and offhanded, and can be derogatory. In a small number of cases, English reduplicatives involve identical words, as in: fifty-fifty goody-goody hush-hush never-never pooh-pooh pretty-pretty tut-tut As the examples show, they are always the informal word for the concept they refer to. They differ thus from the reduplicative loanwords from Aboriginal languages, which are standard vocabulary in Australian English: bandy-bandy gang-gang mia-mia nulla-nulla willy-willy wonga-wonga The Aboriginal use of reduplication also comes to us in certain placenames, such as Wagga Wagga and Woy Woy, found in all states and especially Victoria. For all Australians, the hypothetical remote outback place is Woop Woop. reek or wreak See wreak. referencing Writers of reports and scholarly papers often have to refer to other publications to support their own statements and conclusions. There are conventional ways of doing this, so as to provide necessary information for the reader while minimising the interruption. The four main systems are: r short title r footnotes or endnotes r author–date references, also known as the Harvard system, or running references r number system (including Vancouver style) The short title system is used in general books, while the others are associated with academic publications. The footnote/endnote system is mostly used in the humanities, including history and law. Author–date references are used in the sciences and social sciences, and the number system in science and especially medicine. Some publications use a combination of systems, with author–date references for citing other publications and occasional footnotes for a more 684 referencing substantial comment by the writer or editor. Until recently, footnotes were rather difficult to set or adjust on wordprocessors, and this has probably encouraged wider use of author–date references. Other things being equal, author–date references are preferable to a number system, because they give some immediate information to the reader. 1 Short title references are cut-down variants of full references, with enough distinctive information to remind readers of the identity of the work being invoked (see short titles). They have long been used in footnotes (see below, section 2), but now increasingly within the text itself. With the abbreviated title and (optionally) its date, they provide more immediate information than either author–date references or numbers which take readers away to footnotes or the bibliography. They still depend on full references being given in an accumulated reference list. 2 Footnotes and endnotes keep reference material out of the ongoing discussion. Only a superscript number intervenes to guide your eye to the bottom of the page, or to the end of chapter/book when you’re ready. The numerals for footnotes can recommence with every page, or run through a whole chapter as is usual for endnotes. Occasionally the enumeration runs through the whole book with the notes all accumulated at the back. Either way the Australian Government Style Manual (2002) calls it the “documentary note style”. Some writers use footnotes/endnotes to discuss a particular point which might seem to digress from the main argument. These are substantive footnotes. But mostly footnotes/endnotes serve to identify source publications, and so must include whatever the reader needs to track them down. In the first reference to any source, it’s important to name the author, title, date of publication and the relevant page numbers. Unless there are full details in the bibliography, the footnotes should include the place of publication and also the name of the publisher: G. Blainey Tyranny of Distance (Melbourne: Sun Books, 1966) pp. 23–31 Note that the author’s name or initials come in front of the surname (not inverted as in a bibliography). Questions of punctuating the titles and the order of items are discussed under bibliographies (see Points to note). Second and later references to the same work can be cut back, as can endnotes grouped together for the same chapter. The author’s name may be sufficient: Blainey, pp. 95–6 However if another work by the same author is cited in the same group of footnotes/endnotes, a short title should be added: Blainey, Tyranny, pp. 95–6 The use of Latin abbreviations (ibid., loc. cit., op. cit.) is discussed under their respective headings. 685 referendum 3 Author–date references explain in passing what source publication is being alluded to, but the reference is kept to the bare essentials: just the author’s surname, the date of the publication, and the relevant pages indicated by numbers only, with no pp. The information is enclosed in brackets, and followed by a comma, full stop etc. as the sentence requires: Regional usages often stop at state borders in Australia, as did the earliest railway developments (Blainey, 1966:95–6). Note that final punctuation is never included inside the final bracket of a running reference, even if it would with other kinds of parentheses (see further under brackets). If reference is made to two or more authors with the same surname in the course of an article or book, a distinguishing initial must be added into the basic reference. And if reference is made to more than one publication by the same author in the same year, the two need to be distinguished, as 1966a and 1966b, in the running references as well as in the bibliography. The second and subsequent references are identical to the first, except in the case of publications with joint authors. The first reference normally gives the surnames of all authors, unless there are four or more of them, in which case only the first author is named, followed by et al. This is the regular practice for second and later references. The author-date system relies very heavily on a full list of references to supply details of the author(s), titles, and the publishing information. 4 The number system uses a sequence of superscripts or bracketed numbers on the line of text to refer the reader to publication details in the reference list. The system, used especially in science and medical writing, is often referred to as the Vancouver style. It is now fully recognised in the Australian Government Style Manual (2002), as well as the Chicago Manual (2003) and New Hart’s Rules (2005). More than one number may be used at the same point. Some writers, according to Webster’s Style Manual (1985), use the brackets to contain both a reference number and a page number, the two being separated by a comma, with the first in italics and the second in roman (e.g. 4, 216). The reference numbers fix the order of titles in the bibliography, so that they are not alphabetically arranged as for the other referencing systems. See further under bibliographies. referendum The plural of this word is discussed under -um. referred or refereed On first sight they make a strange pair, but each is regular in its own way. Referred is of course the past tense of the verb refer, with the final r doubled because the syllable it’s in is stressed. (See further under doubling of final consonant.) Refereed is the past tense for a verb made out of the noun referee. It loses its final letter (e) before the past suffix is added. See -ed section 2. 686 reforestation or reafforestation reflection or reflexion See under -ction/-xion. reflective or reflexive The first of these can be used in many contexts, all those where reflection itself is used in reference to light, heat or sound, as in a reflective surface, or in connection with images and thoughts, as in an unusually reflective mood for a sportsman. Reflexive is only used in grammar, in reference to such things as reflexive pronouns and reflexive verbs. See next two entries. reflexive pronouns The pronouns ending in -self or -selves are reflexive, and typically refer back to the subject of the sentence. They include: myself yourself him/her/itself oneself ourselves yourselves themselves (For themself and theirselves, see themself.) Reflexives are selected to correspond in person and number (and for the third person singular, in gender) with the subject: I must see for myself He shot himself in the foot. They came by themselves. In cases like those, the reflexive pronoun serves as the object of a verb or preposition, and its position in the sentence is fixed. Reflexive pronouns can also be used to emphasise any other noun or name in the sentence, standing immediately after it: They talked to the premier himself. You yourselves might go that way. Note however that in shorter sentences where the reflexive underscores the subject, it can also appear at the other end of the sentence: You might go that way yourselves. reflexive verbs A reflexive verb has the same person as its subject and object. In English it can be formed out of an ordinary verb with a reflexive pronoun as object: The boss cut himself shaving. But only a handful of English verbs must be constructed in that way, like: She acquitted herself well at the meeting. They didn’t behave themselves properly. In other languages such as French, German and Italian, many common verbs are reflexive in their construction. The verb remember, for example, is reflexive in all three (se rappeler/sich erinnern/ricordarsi), but is certainly not reflexive in English. reforestation or reafforestation See reafforestation. 687 refurbish or refurnish refurbish or refurnish Both these words involve you in renovating. But with refurnish you’re buying new furniture and perhaps soft furnishings. With refurbish you’re sprucing up and polishing what you already have. refute According to standard dictionary definitions, this word implies the use of a proof to reject a claim or a charge. Yet the word is often used simply to mean “deny”, without any counterevidence or logical disproof being supplied: They refuted the suggestion that it was negligence, and changed the subject. This looser use of the word is confirmed incidentally in larger dictionaries, in the usage notes of the American Heritage Dictionary (where it’s given as a synonym for “deny”), and in a set of citations given in the Oxford Dictionary (1989) which show how refute . . . allegation(s) has become a regular idiom, although it calls it “erroneous”. Webster’s English Usage (1989), which also has citation evidence for the usage, notes that the objections to it are stronger in Britain than America. Yet the Australian Oxford (2004) notes that it is “now widely accepted”, and the Macquarie Dictionary (2005) lists it without comment regrettably and regretfully Both involve regret, but in regretfully the feeling is more straightforwardly expressed: I must regretfully decline, or else attributed directly to a third party: He spoke regretfully of his retirement. In either example the regret is expressed openly. Regrettably is more academic and implies that regret is called for: Regrettably he was not there to speak for himself. It puts in the writer’s evaluation of a situation, and a view which s/he hopes the reader will endorse. Regrettably is one of a set of attitudinal adverbs which can be deployed for interpersonal contact in writing. The fact that many of those adverbs end in -fully (delightfully, mercifully, thankfully etc.) helps to explain why regretfully gets mistakenly used for regrettably. regular verbs In English these are the ones which simply add -ed to make their past forms, as with departed and rolled. In the same very large group are all those which add the -ed subject to other standard spelling rules, such as: r dropping the final e before the suffix (arrived, liked) r doubling the final consonant before the suffix (barred, admitted) See -e section 1, and doubling of final consonant for more about those rules. The regular verbs are very numerous because they include not only all newly formed ones, but also most of those we’ve inherited from Old English. The number of irregular verbs has been steadily declining over the centuries, and many which were once irregular have acquired the regular -ed past form, at least as an alternative. (See further under irregular verbs.) Note that in Old English, and in discussing other Germanic languages, the regular verbs are referred to as “weak” and the irregular ones as “strong”. 688 relative clauses reindeer The plural of this word is most often just like the singular, i.e. reindeer, in keeping with the word deer itself. Many other kinds of wild animals have zero plurals like this (see under that heading). However the regularised plural reindeers is also used occasionally, and is recognised in all major dictionaries. relaid or relayed Relaid is the past tense of re-lay “lay again”: The railway sleepers had to be relaid after the floods. Relayed is the past of relay “communicate by a radio or electronic network”: The program was relayed to country TV stations. relation or relationship The choice between these becomes an issue when you want to refer to an abstract connection, because there is some stylistic difference. Data from the Australian ACE corpus shows that relation in this sense is very much a scholarly word, hardly used outside academic texts, whereas relationship is used in this sense equally in general and academic writing. Relationship is also used in a wide variety of references to personal, social and political connections e.g. married relationship, loving relationship, where relation could not appear. By the same token, relation reigns supreme in the idiom in relation to. relations or relatives Both can refer to your “sisters and your cousins and your aunts”. In British English relations still has the edge, while in American and Australian English it’s relatives. In the Australian ACE corpus the instances of relatives outnumbered relations in this sense by 31:7. One advantage of using relative in this way is that it lightens the load borne by relation, and leaves it with mostly abstract meanings. It also prevents any temporary ambiguity over whether your “political relations” are your cousins in parliament or your contacts with people in power. relative clauses Otherwise known as adjectival clauses, these serve either to define, or to describe and evaluate the noun to which they’re attached. They stand right next to it, even if this delays the predicate of the main clause: The old computer that we bought at the markets has never given any trouble. 1 Relative clauses and pronouns. Relative clauses are usually introduced by one of the relative pronouns (that, which etc. See next entry.) But in certain stylistic and grammatical circumstances there may be no pronoun at all. In all but the most formal style, the pronoun can be omitted from relative clauses of which it’s the object: The old computer we bought at the markets has never given any trouble. But it never happens when the pronoun is the subject, whatever the style: The old computer that came from the markets has never given any trouble. 689 relative clauses Try deleting that in that sentence and it undermines the whole structure of the sentence. The reader needs the pronoun to signal the relative clause. 2 Relative clauses and relative adverbs. Some relative clauses are linked to the main clause by adverbs such as where and when: You remember the place where we met. I remember the time when we made chocolate chip damper. Both adverbs act as relators of the second clause to a noun in the first one. In fact the relative when can be replaced by that (“the time that”) or even be omitted altogether: I remember the time we made chocolate chip damper. The choice between when/where, that and the complete omission of the relative word makes a scale from formal to informal style. 3 Sentence relatives. These are relative clauses which relate to the whole preceding clause, not to any one noun in it: They wanted to go home by ferry, which I thought was a good idea. Sentence relatives are always prefaced by which. Some style guides warn against them, and occasionally it’s unclear whether the relative relates to the whole sentence or the last noun in it. Provided there’s no such ambiguity, sentence relatives are no problem, and they serve to add the writer’s comment on the main statement or proposition of a sentence. 4 Restrictive and nonrestrictive relatives. Relative clauses which serve to define or identify something have often been called “restrictive”—which makes “nonrestrictive” all the other kinds which describe or evaluate or add writers’ comments. (Alternative names are defining and nondefining relatives.) Compare the following: People who sign such agreements are crazy. I met his parents, who signed the agreement. In spite of their similarity, the two relative clauses differ in that the first one defines the previous noun, whereas the second simply adds descriptive information about what happened. The distinction between a relative clause which defines and one which does something elseisnotalways as clear-cut asinthat pairof sentences, and grammarians note ambiguous cases. The tendency to mark restrictive clauses with commas is often overstated (see next entry). Note also that the use of commas with nonrestrictive clauses is more predictable for those which are parenthetic than those which are not. Compare: I met his parents, who signed the agreement, to discuss why he had joined up so young. 690 relative pronouns To discover why he had joined up so young, I met his parents who signed the agreement. The general trend towards lighter punctuation also means that, other things being equal, we’re less likely to use a comma with either type of clause. relative pronouns Most relative clausesareintroduced by relative pronouns, such as who, which, whom, whose, that. That can be used as an alternative to any of the wh- ones except whose, and is not reserved for human antecedents: The doctor who/that came from Sri Lanka The box which/that contained the TV A woman whom/that I’d never seen before The nurse whose face would cure a thousand ills (For more about whose, see under that heading.) The choice between that and the wh- relatives is sometimes said to depend on whether it prefaces a restrictive or a nonrestrictive relative, with that for the restrictive type and which for the other (see previous entry). This is an oversimplification of Fowler’s original (1926) suggestion that the two could be used that way, though even he admitted: “It would be idle to pretend it was the practice either of most or of the best writers.” Later style commentators note that while which is indeed preferred for nonrestrictive relative clauses, both that and which can be found with the restrictive type. Special uses of that. There are contexts in which that reigns supreme, or at least predominates: r after superlatives: the best wine that I ever drank r after ordinal numbers: the first pub that you come to r after indefinites (some, any, every, much, little, all): I’ll have any that you can buy r in a cleft sentence: It’s the label that has a bird on it r when the antecedents are both human and nonhuman: Neither man nor dog that had come to the rescue were anywhere to be seen. That is sometimes said to lend an informal flavor to prose: and when conversing we undoubtedly use it more than which in relative constructions. It saves us some decisions about who versus which (not to mention who versus whom). But that has its established place in writing, in all those special contexts just listed, as well as in restrictive relative clauses. So long as that gives way occasionally to which, it will not mark the style as informal. Sensitive writers notice the need to alternate them in structures such as: He asked which was the one that took my fancy. That’s the one which appeals most. 691 relayed or relaid Writers can also choose between which and that according to their relative bulk. Which is slightly longer and more conspicuous, and so it’s the one to use for a relative clause that needs attention drawn to it. That draws less attention to itself, and is useful when you want the clause to merge with the main clause. relayed or relaid See relaid. relevance or relevancy See -nce/-ncy. remodeled or remodelled For the spelling of this verb, see -l/-ll Renaissance or Renascence The first spelling Renaissance is the slightly older spelling, on record since 1840. In its form it’s pure French, whereas the later Renascence (first recorded around 1870) is latinate and is more strongly linked with historical scholarship. Without the initial capital, either can be used of a rebirth or revival. But with capitals both are strongly associated with the flowering of European culture which began in Italy in the fourteenth century and reached Britain in the sixteenth. It marked the end of medieval culture with its emphasis on tradition; yet it was at least partly stimulated by the rediscovery of classical scholarship from Greece and Rome. The reading of classical authors brought many Latin and Greek words into English, and occasioned the respelling of many French loanwords acquired during the previous centuries, according to their classical antecedents. (See further under spelling.) The relationship between Renaissance and Renascence is the same phenomenon, happening in the nineteenth century. renege or renegue Dictionariesandpeople, spelling and pronunciation are at sixes and sevens over this word. Four centuries after its first appearance it still seems a misfit. Its nearest relative in English is renegade, though reneg(u)e itself seems to be a clipped form of the medieval Latin verb renegare “deny”. In its earliest use in the sixteenth century, reneg(u)e had dire overtones of apostasy, and it was only towards the end of the seventeenth century that the word is recorded in association with card-playing. The general meaning “go back on a promise or commitment” appears towards the end of the eighteenth century. However there’s little record of it until the twentieth century, perhaps because of the slightly informal flavor that still hangs around it. About 25% of the American Heritage usage panel found it was unacceptable in writing. From its links with renegade and the Latin renegare, we might expect the spelling reneg, but it has only been recorded once or twice, according to the Oxford Dictionary. Instead the earliest spelling was renege, showing the sixteenth century predilection for adding e to the ends of words. In this case the final e is anomalous, suggesting a soft “j” sound though the word is always pronounced with a hard “g” sound. 692 [...]... Dictionary ( 198 6) and the Macquarie (2005), and there are citations for it in the Oxford Dictionary from 194 9 on, though they’re said to be “erroneous” The citations in Webster’s English Usage go back to 192 6, and it’s described as a “standard secondary variant”, common in speech The Oxford Dictionary ( 198 9) also notes the form restauranter (without censure), a further reconstruction which makes the word... will scarcely want to go to the polls after that Used in tandem with another conjunction, scarcely compares the timing of two events: Scarcely had they finished the roof when it began to rain Scarcely had they finished the roof than it began to rain The first sentence which uses the temporal when is the only correct way of putting it, according to some style commentators Yet the use of the comparative than...repertoire or repertory The seventeenth century tried to rectify things with the spelling renegue which is much more satisfactory as regards the final sound, and it’s the spelling endorsed in the Oxford Dictionary ( 198 9) However it’s not recognised at all in American dictionaries And because the word seems to have re-entered standard English from the US, the American spelling renege is the best... injuries in the machine shop) If not it’s a good idea to compile your own brief, and to include it at the front of the report, to show the framework 695 requiescat in pace within which the work has been done If recommendations and a management plan are the expected outcome of a report, these too need to be presented in summary form at the front (often called an executive summary), before you go into the details... Two other details to note are that the Method may be subdivided into subjects, apparatus and procedures; and that the conclusions may be appended to the end of the Discussion, or else set apart with their own heading: Conclusions The IMRAD format ensures that scientific experiments and investigations are reported in such a way as to be replicable, and allow the reader to separate the facts of the research... plain, watch the gathering of an Adelaide harvest, or mingle with the orderly crowd which throngs to a Melbourne Cup race, and deny, if you can, that there is here the making of a great nation (Marcus Clarke, 1884) Even from the printed page, the rhythmic effects of well-written prose strike the ear and reinforce the message of the words The key to writing rhythmical prose is tuning in to the sound of... formal style, but the second is commonly used sanatorium or sanitarium The first is the traditional spelling in Britain for a hospital or residential centre for the chronically ill The second, according to some, refers to a health resort But in the US sanitarium is the primary spelling for both, according to Random House ( 198 7), while a minority use sanatorium for them People’s uncertainty as to which vowel... sentences: Their three sons Tom, Dick and Harry are respectively the butcher, the baker and the garage proprietor of the town 697 rest or wrest rest or wrest See wrest restaurateur, restauranteur or restauranter Strictly speaking, the person who runs a restaurant is a restaurateur—at least if we prefer to use the word in the form in which it was borrowed from French in the eighteenth century Yet the form... too well read, or too accomplished; but it is equally true that the young men of the same age are no better (Marcus Clarke, 1868) Overall the two matching parts of the sentence seem to give the final word on the younger generation Yet the three matched phrases within the first part also suggest a breadth of reference points, in a subject fully considered Part of the effect is the careful grading of the. .. or reverential Both involve showing reverence, and there’s little to choose between them, except that reverent seems to be applied to people and their ordinary behavior: Reverent visitors to the chapel spoke in hushed whispers Reverential recognises more abstract forms of reverence, as in a reverential rather than critical approach to the classics 699 reversal or reversion In terms of frequency reverent . Dictionary ( 198 6) and the Macquarie (2005), and there are citations for it in the Oxford Dictionary from 194 9 on, though they’re said to be “erroneous”. The citations in Webster’s English Usage go back to. be added into the basic reference. And if reference is made to more than one publication by the same author in the same year, the two need to be distinguished, as 196 6a and 196 6b, in the running references. reference material out of the ongoing discussion. Only a superscript number intervenes to guide your eye to the bottom of the page, or to the end of chapter/book when you’re ready. The numerals for footnotes can