The Penguin Dictionary of American English Usage and Style_9 pptx

Although most writers do not display such voracity for bad language, that clumsy barbarism, “s——,” is polluting the English tongue. A radical weekly uses it regularly along with a grotesque plural version: Spokespeople for most of the groups he attacks agree that his fac- tual research is often . . . accurate. The correct word, of course, is spokesman, plural: spokesmen. A spokesman, i.e., one who speaks for an- other or others, may be either male or fe- male. See -MAN-, MAN. The three sample sentences below all use the correct word. The first (referring to Mrs. Clinton) is from a television fo- rum on PBS. The other two are from The New York Times. She’s no longer a national spokesman for him [President Clinton]. Kathy Pherson, a spokesman for the C.I.A., refused in a telephone in- terview to confirm or deny the C.I.A.’s involvement in training or advising the Honduran police and army. Justice Brennan, 82 years old, hit his head and received stitches to close the wound, said Kathy Arberg, a spokesman for the court. The Times and Associated Press style manuals instruct staff members not to use “spokesperson.” The two passages below, from other papers, are embodiments of illogic: At its Tuesday/22 general meeting, the club will host White Panther spokesman Tom ——— and a spokesperson for the mayor. . . . Only $400,000 worth of that ad- vertising was aired before the end of the reporting period on Sept. 30, said Steven M. ———, spokesman for the Committee to Conserve the Courts. . . . But Janet ———, spokesperson for Crime Victims for Court Reform and Californians to Defeat Rose Bird, said momentum is on the side of the anti- Bird campaign. One of each pair is a “-man” and the other is a “-person”? Nonsense. Each is a spokesman. 2. “-WOMAN” Some journalists and broadcasters who cannot abide the gracelessness and ignorance represented by that illegiti- mate word are drawn to another three- syllable word: In Washington, the State Depart- ment’s spokeswoman, Margaret Tutwiler, said Kohl was “responding to the deepest aspirations of his people for German unity.” “The Sandinistas . . . realize their brand of communism is bankrupt and obsolete,” said the State Department spokeswoman, Margaret Tutwiler. If you consider it necessary to describe the Brontë sisters as “authoresses” and “poetesses,” you will probably want to use “spokeswoman.” Modified in the manner of the final example however, it could be mislead- ing: . . . Some outsiders have also said that as the chief spokeswoman, she rein- forced the image of the White House as a preserve of the young and inexpe- rienced. “Chief spokeswoman” could suggest that she was the chief only of the White House’s female spokesmen. The in- spokesman 395 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 395 tended meaning probably was that she served as the chief spokesman for the White House; that is, the person in charge of speaking for the president. The Associated Press manual con- dones “spokeswoman.” The Times man- ual says to use spokesman for both men and women. STAFF. A recording tells callers to a city library, “All of our staff are helping others.” It is not wrong, though it has a British flavor. Staff is would be the more customary way in the United States. Staff is a collective noun meaning the employees, assistants, or officers who carry out the work of a particular enter- prise or organization. The plural in that sense is staffs. A staff is also a flagpole, walking stick, or rod; or the set of five parallel lines that music is written on. In those senses, the plural is either staffs or staves. A musical staff is sometimes called a stave. An informal term for a member of a staff is a staffer. Regarding that word, The New York Times tells its own staff, “Do not use for staff member(s) or mem- ber(s) of the staff.” See also Collective nouns, 1; WHO and WHOM, 1. STAND and RUN. See RUN and STAND; Pronouns, 3. STANDARD. See CLASSIC. STANDARD-BEARER. See Joining of words. STAR and SUN. The discovery of a distant galaxy prompted a news agency to issue this dubious statement: “The core apparently contains at least 30,000 closely packed suns. . . . ” No more precision characterizes a dis- cussion of galaxy clusters in a book of popular astronomy: “But not even our galaxy, with its 100 billion suns, is inde- pendent and self-sufficient. . . . ” In both instances, stars would be preferable to “suns.” A star is a celestial body that emits its own light. A sun is a star that is the center of a system of plan- ets, the way the Sun, the star closest to us, heads our solar system. (The Sun is often spelled with a lower-case s: “The sun suddenly emerged from the clouds.” In an astronomical context, a capital S may be appropriate.) A planet is a large celestial body that is illuminated by reflected light from a star and revolves around it. STATEMENT. See FACT. STATIONARY and STATION- ERY. See Homophones. Statistics. See Comparison, 1; FRAC- TION; LIFE EXPECTANCY and LIFE SPAN; MEAN (noun); Numbers; Range, true and false, 1, 2. STATUTE, LAW, and REGULA- TION. See REGULATION, STAT- UTE, and LAW. STATUTE MILE. See KNOT. STAVE(S). See STAFF. Stealing. See CRIME, MISDE- MEANOR, and FELONY; Crimes, 3. STEREOTYPE. See Clichés. STICK UP, STICKUP, STICK-UP. See Crimes, 3. STEVEDORE and LONGSHORE- MAN. The awkwardness of the sen- tence to be quoted here, from a book on language, is not the main point. One word particularly interests us. Clipped forms [such as ad and gym] . . . have much common use, 396 staff 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 396 from stevedores to executives, in our spoken language and informal written language. The intended meaning is that those forms are often used by people of all classes, including laborers and execu- tives. That is not the literal meaning. A stevedore is a type of executive. Many people, lexicographers among them, misconceive him to be a laborer who loads and unloads ships. That is not the way a stevedore is likely to use the word. He sees himself as a contractor who ar- ranges the loading and unloading of ships. He does not do the actual labor- ing; he hires men to do it. The working- men call themselves longshoremen. Note the difference between the names of the companies, such as Steve- doring Service of America and Metropolitan California Stevedore Co., and the names of the labor unions: the International Longshoremen’s Associa- tion (in the East) and the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (in the West). STINT. “Quayle says he’s healthy now despite two recent stints in the hos- pital,” a newscaster announced over a radio network. The former vice presi- dent did not become a hospital worker; he was a hospital patient. The broad- caster wrongly used “stints” when stays would have been a better choice of words. A stint (noun) is usually an allotment of work or piece of work. For instance, “He finished his daily stint at the fac- tory.” A stint can be also a limitation, of- ten an undue limitation. To stint can mean to limit or restrict one (verb, transitive) or to limit or re- strict oneself, to get along on a trifling al- lowance (verb, intransitive). STOMACH. The host of a radio talk show spoke of a woman’s “carrying that baby in her stomach.” And a movie re- viewer wrote that a character resented that he had to “share his woman with that baby in her stomach.” The stomach is an organ of digestion. Unless each woman had been emulating the dining behavior of a mythological monster, the anatomical reference in each instance was misplaced. If neither the radio man nor the movie reviewer had the stomach for womb or uterus, each could have got by with abdomen, belly, or middle. Of those three nouns, abdomen, the part of the trunk between the chest and the pelvis, is the most sci- entific; middle is the vaguest. Belly is a standard word, but much of the public feels that it is unrefined. Tummy is baby talk for stomach. As a synonym for the abdomen, “stomach” is suitable only for casual conversation, if that. It is best to avoid using one organ as a synonym for an- other organ, particularly when talking to one’s physician. An old saw has it that “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” If you believe it, don’t think of being a sur- geon. STRAIGHTFORWARD. See Ad- jectives and adverbs. STUDENT. See PUPIL and STU- DENT. Subject. See Clauses; Complement; Nouns, 4; Pronouns, 4, 6, 10; Sentence fragment, 1; Verbs, 1A, 3. Subjective case. See Pronouns, 10; Pronouns’ classification. Subject(ive) complement. See Com- plement; Verbs, 1F. Subject-verb agreement. See Verbs, 3. Subjunctive. 1. Among the moods. 2. Forms of the subjunctive. 3. Mistakes. subjunctive 397 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 397 1. Among the moods Of the three moods, the subjunctive mood is used least frequently. For gener- ations, writers on language have been declaring the subjunctive “moribund” / “almost disappeared” / “just about dead.” As long ago as 1860, a writer found “good reason to suppose that it will soon become obsolete altogether.” While the subjunctive has declined over the centuries, it stubbornly refuses to ex- pire. Most English-speakers handle the subjunctive at some time or other. Every- one does who has scrawled “Wish you were here” on a postcard; sung “If I Were a Rich Man” or used a variety of other sentences containing if; uttered or understood such idioms as be that as it may, come what may, heaven forbid, and perish the thought; or attended formal meetings, which commonly make use of expressions like “I move that members be notified. . . . ” Whereas the indicative mood deals with facts or supposed facts and the im- perative mood directly commands a sec- ond person, the subjunctive mood essentially concerns ideas. It presents an action or state of being as a mental con- ception, not as a fact. More specifically, it expresses contingencies, desires, ex- hortations, hypotheses, impossibilities, orders (indirectly), prospects, requests, suppositions, and wishes. The subjunctive (from the Late Latin subjunctivus) was so named because it was considered suitable for subjoined clauses; that is, subordinate clauses. To subjoin is literally to append. See also Mood. 2. Forms of the subjunctive The subjunctive mood may be compli- cated in some respects, but its conjuga- tion of verbs is simple: A verb does not change with the person, whether first, second, or third, singular or plural. Verbs have three forms in the subjunc- tive. (They resemble and therefore are named after tenses in the indicative mood, but the term tense would be mis- leading in the subjunctive, which lacks clear time distinctions.) We list the three verb forms (A, B, and C) followed by a number of common auxiliary verbs that also express the subjunctive mood (D). A. The so-called present subjunctive uses the root, or basic version, of a verb. It appears in clauses following the verbs advise, ask, beg, demand, insist, order, recommend, request, require, sug- gest, urge, warn, and so on. Often such a clause contains the word that. “The boss ordered that she work late tomorrow.” / “The committee recommended that the bill pass.” / “Is it necessary that the office be closed?” / “We request that the audi- ence remain standing.” / “I suggest he think twice about it.” Clauses containing lest use that form. “We must strengthen the levee, lest the river flood us again.” The same form is found in many Bib- lical passages, like the following. (Sub- junctive verbs are emphasized.) “. . . I fear him, lest he come and slay us all. . . .” / “For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again. . . . Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud. . . . ” B. The so-called past subjunctive uses what in the indicative mood would be the past tense. But the verb be takes were for all persons. Often would appears in the sentence. The past subjunctive appears in clauses that follow the verb wish. “I wish I had a million dollars.” / “She wishes she lived in Paris.” It is also found in poetic sentences expressing the mean- ing of wish in other ways: “Would God I were the tender apple blossom.” / “O, that I were a glove upon that hand. . . . ” It appears also in many conditional sentences: those sentences in which one action depends on another. Such sen- 398 subjunctive 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 398 tences may contain if and would. The if- clause may be contrary to fact, hypothet- ical, impossible, or unlikely: “If George Washington returned today, he would be shocked.” / “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” A conditional sentence in which the if- clause expresses a possibility may use that pattern (although it does not have to): “If an emergency arose tomorrow, we would be ready.” / “Would you keep it confidential if I told you a secret?” As an option, such a sentence may be cast in the simple future tense of the indicative mood. “If an emergency arises tomor- row, we will be ready.” / “Will you keep it confidential if I tell you a secret?” C. The past perfect subjunctive is the only one of the three forms to pertain to time. The time is the past. Resembling the past perfect tense of the indicative mood, it uses had and a past participle. Its use implies that what is said about a past action or condition is contrary to fact. “If he had run just a bit faster, he would have escaped.” / “I wish that Wintergreen had won the election.” / “Had we bought the land then, we would be rich today.” D. Various auxiliary verbs can also express the subjunctive mood. Among them are could, ought, may, might, must, should, and would. The action or condition that one of those auxiliary verbs pertain to may be either contrary to fact or possible. “I could have danced all night.” / “She ought to have said no.” / “The dog may be a biter.” / “It seemed for a while as though the argument might get violent.” / “You must have been a beautiful baby.” / “If you should get lost, give me a call.” / “We would need to pay more.” See also MAY and MIGHT; WAS and WERE. 3. Mistakes The Stephen Foster song “Dixie” and the folk song “Cindy”—which say “I wish I was in Dixie” and “I wish I was an apple”—demonstrate a common de- viation from subjunctive form. We will not try to revise those famous old songs. Just be aware that to say “I wish it was better news” or “I wish I was in his posi- tion”—instead of “it were” and “I were”—may be judged at best colloquial and at worst illiterate. Furthermore, the meaning can hinge on the choice of mood. The consequence of choosing the wrong one can be misun- derstanding. Let us illustrate through two similar sentences. A. “She suggested that he attend meetings regularly.” Using the subjunc- tive, the sentence means that she sug- gested (proposed) his presence at the meetings. B. “She suggested that he attends meetings regularly.” Using the indicative, the sentence implies that he goes to the meetings already, a fact disclosed by her suggestion (hint). The following two examples come from a book of travel reminiscences. (They are taken out of context deliber- ately to demonstrate the grammatical er- rors in both.) Both use the past tense when they should use the present sub- junctive. I suggested we flew along. . . . But he had insisted they tried again. . . . Each sentence seems to say that the sub- ject made a factual statement about something that had already happened: that we had flown along and that they had tried again. The context shows the meaning that was intended; in each case the subject was making a proposal for future action: “I suggested [proposed that] we fly along. . . . ” / “But he insisted [urged that] they try again. . . . ” (The “had” was unwarranted.) The sentence below, from an autobi- subjunctive 399 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 399 ography, contains a similar error in the choice of verb form, although the mean- ing is not compromised. I got a call from Senator Sam Nunn’s secretary telling me to make sure that on the next afternoon I watched C-Span, the cable TV chan- nel. . . . It should be “to make sure that . . . I watch C-Span. . . . ” The secretary was recommending future action, not bring- ing up past action. Each of the following three sample sentences, from news reports, seems to be part subjunctive and part indicative. Such switching of moods within a thought will not do. OTS Director Ryan imposed mild restrictions that would apply to Bush if he again becomes a director of a bank or savings and loan. President Clinton made his opposi- tion clear and the measure would face almost certain veto if it passes the Sen- ate in its present form. Newly elected Prime Minister So- suke Uno said today that he was deeply concerned that China could be isolated internationally if it does not move to end the violence. In the first sentence, change “becomes” to became. In the second sentence, change “passes” to passed. (As an alter- native, make each sentence wholly in- dicative: “restrictions that will apply to Bush if he again becomes . . .” and “the measure will face almost certain veto if it passes. . . . ”) In the third sentence, change “does” to did. The following sentence contains es- sentially the same error: disagreement in mood. The fact that part of it is a quota- tion makes no difference. If an adult picks up their lingo, “teen- agers would consider it contaminated and stop using it,” Chapman says. Change “picks” to picked. (An alterna- tive is to change “would” to will but ex- clude it from the direct quotation: “If an adult picks up their lingo, teen-agers will ‘consider it contaminated. . . . ’ ”) The appended attribution, “Chapman says,” does not affect the main thought. The error in the following example is a superfluous word. It’s recommended that the elderly and those having trouble should stay in- doors. Omit “should.” Alternatively, keep “should” but omit “It’s recommended that.” Using the subjunctive in place of the indicative is a relatively uncommon er- ror, one that is found in a book on word usage. It’s in the very nature of oral com- munication between human beings that much of it be tentative, inexact, finding its way. The statement is presented as a fact. It has none of the elements that call for the subjunctive. Change “be” to is, thereby recasting the sentence in the indicative mood. After the auxiliary verb could, may, might, must, should, or would, some- times the have is erroneously replaced by “of.” See HAVE, HAS, HAD, 2. See also Tense, 4C. SUBSEQUENT TO. See AFTER. Substantive. See Nouns, 1 (end). SUCCESSOR. See PREDECESSOR and SUCCESSOR. 400 subsequent to 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 400 SUCH. 1. Adjective, adverb; SUCH A. 2. Pronoun; AS SUCH. 3. SUCH AS. 1. Adjective, adverb; SUCH A This sentence is correct: “There is no such thing as a ghost.” After no such, the article “a” or “an” is not needed. Such is usually an adjective, as in the preceding example. It has acquired an adverbial use too. “I never before saw such tall peaks” and “saw peaks so tall” are now equally idiomatic. Some people use such adverbially in sentences like this one, which to others may seem incomplete: “I had such a good meal at that restaurant.” It be- comes complete when we add, for in- stance, “that I intend to go there again tomorrow.” 2. Pronoun; AS SUCH The use of such as a pronoun is re- sisted by grammarians, though it goes back centuries. Among Biblical uses: “and of such [livestock] shall be my hire [wages]” and “Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such [any adulter- ess] should be stoned. . . . ” The critics are vague in scorning “Such is life” or “They serve pizza, spaghetti, ravioli, and such.” One finds it too casual, another too formal. The strongest objection is to such in place of ordinary pronouns, particularly personal pronouns. Accordingly in “I have all- spice and often use such in cooking,” change “such” to it. In “We have a cat and a dog and love such,” change “such” to them, or perhaps just add ani- mals, depending on meaning. This is one of two uses of as such: “The situation is a hot potato and we should treat it as such.” Some critics would replace “as such” with one or that. Others would accept it as id- iomatic. As such is unquestionably an id- iomatic phrase when it means in itself, as in “He craves power as such.” 3. SUCH AS The phrase such as precedes an exam- ple. It is superfluous to add “for exam- ple” / “for instance” / “and the like” / “and so on.” A book says, “The power bases in the music business aren’t con- centrated in any one group (such as, for example, the major agencies . . .).” Delete “for example” and the two com- mas. Such as normally introduces a noun, not a preposition: “They have per- formed in leading cities of Europe, such as in Paris and Rome.” Delete the second in. Another faulty use goes this way: “I brought only such tools that I needed for the job.” Make it such . . . as or change “such” to the. Modern idiom rejects the pairing of such with “that” (or “which” or “who” or “where”) in that type of construction. But such that is proper here: “The rigors were such that most contestants failed to finish.” In the first instance, such precedes the noun; in the second, such follows the noun and a linking verb. SUFFER. That which lacks feeling cannot suffer. Only a living person or creature can suffer. Despite that truism, we hear on the news: A nuclear submarine has suffered some kind of accident in the Norwe- gian Sea. A vessel, even when moving and called “she,” is not animate. Find a substitute for “suffered” (such as been in or had) or restructure the sentence. (“Some kind of accident has happened to . . .” or “has befallen. . . . ”) From the North Atlantic theater, we move to northern California, where a victim of earth movement “showed city engineers the damage his house has suf- fered” and a temblor struck two play- houses: suffer 401 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 401 . . . [The] Geary Theater suffered earthquake damage when plaster fell from its proscenium and a lighting grid collapsed. . . . The Golden Gate Theatre suffered damage to a stair- well. Proper wording (“. . . the damage to his house” and “The earthquake dam- aged . . .”) would not require us to sus- pend our disbelief in the suffering of inanimate objects. See also SUSTAIN. Suffix. See Adjectives and adverbs (-ly); Gerund (-ing); -IZE ending; Participle; PEOPLE as a suffix; Plurals and singu- lars; Pronouns, 3, 4, 5 (-self, -selves); Punctuation, 4D (hyphenated forms); Spelling, 1, 3; UP, 3; -WISE ending; -Y ending. SULTRY. Oppressively hot, swelter- ing weather, days, or air may be de- scribed as sultry, particularly if humid. Sultry is applied also to figurative heat, such as feverish passion or temper. That adjective serves loosely in other ways, such as a euphemism for sexy. A movie reviewer so used it: “Jessica . . . looks and sounds so sultry . . . that Roger and Eddie find her equally alluring.” A restaurant reviewer turned to it for help in expressing her fervor for an Ital- ian appetizer: “The sultry eggplant was especially good with the fresh sourdough bread dipped into the marinade.” A flowery writer might metaphorically pic- ture some Mexican or Asian foods as sultry, but the bland eggplant? SUN. See STAR and SUN. SUP. See DINE. Superlative. See BETTER and BEST (etc.); Comparative and superlative de- grees; MORE and MOST; MOST with superlative; Numbers, 10D. SUPPORTIVE. Supportive has been an established adjective. It means pro- viding support or help; e.g., a supportive group. Now we hear the faddish phrase “supportive of.” A mayor of New York wrote, “I have always felt very supportive of civil rights.” Before such a circumlocution be- came a popular habit, he might have written simply, “I have always supported civil rights.” The phrase is wishy-washy at best and grammatically dubious. It is like “Lord, be helpful of us” instead of “Lord, help us.” More illustrations follow. John A—— . . . called the book “a pioneering effort. I’m very supportive of the book.” John should have ended with “support- ive” and left out the rest. McCarthy . . . was supportive of this proposal. . . . The rest of the board of direc- tors . . . has been supportive of Mr. A——. . . . The editor of the Hindustan Times, a paper generally supportive of the Government, said. . . . Tightened versions would say, “Mc- Carthy supported this proposal” / “. . . The rest of the board of direc- tors . . . has supported Mr. A——” / “a paper generally supporting the Govern- ment.” Possibly using “supportive of” as a model, some writers have brought forth the abnormity below. In Baku . . . one historian who took part in a meeting with Dr. Sakharov was dismissive of the physicist and Nobel Peace Prize winner. 402 suffix 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 402 Weinberger’s antagonist, George Shultz, was dismissive of Cap’s ap- proach. Change “was dismissive of” to dis- missed. SUPREMACY, SUPREMACIST. A community had prohibited a demon- stration by a racist group and a come- dian was proposing a compromise: “Any white supremist who wants to enter the square should first be able to spell the word ‘supremist.’ ” The trouble with his joke was that no such word existed. He needed the word supremacist. A supremacist is one who believes in the supremacy of one race or social group or either of the sexes. A common example is that of the white supremacist, a believer in white supremacy; that is, the leading role of the so-called white race. Changing one letter in supremacist gives us suprematist, an adherent of suprematism, an artistic movement em- phasizing abstract, geometric forms. The Russian painter Kazimir Malevich started it in 1913. He was best known for his painting “Suprematist Composi- tion,” consisting of a white square on a white background. Except for the coinci- dental emphasis on whiteness, supremacists have nothing to do with suprematists. SURE. Being sure (adjective) means having no doubt that something is true or will come about. Thus it was a con- tradiction for a national TV reporter to say (about the possibility of lawsuits that claim discrimination based on looks), “I hope we don’t have these lawsuits, but I’m sure we will.” If he was sure that something would happen, how could he reasonably hope that it would not? A woman called a radio doctor to ex- press fear about possible thyroid cancer. Recommending an examination, he re- marked, “I’m sure it’s not gonna turn out to be anything, but you always want to be sure.” His “sure” was not so sure as hers would be. If he was really sure of her symptom’s benignity, there need not have been any “but.” Uttered by loose lips, “sure” can amount to little more than guessing. Whether it is used strictly or frivolously may not be apparent, so enfeebled has the word become from misuse. To em- phasize certainty, a more reliable adjec- tive may be certain, which implies that one’s conviction is based on evidence or experience. If it is based on faith, con- sider using confident. Sure and secure both originate in the Latin securus, free from care, safe. SURNAME. See LAST NAME and SURNAME. SUSPECTED. See ACCUSED, AL- LEGED etc. SUSTAIN. To sustain a loss or injury is to endure it or experience it. An inani- mate object does not endure or experi- ence anything. Therefore “sustained” does not suit this sentence: Hundreds of San Francisco build- ings may have sustained hidden dam- age in Tuesday’s temblor. . . . ” Better: “. . . may have received” or “Hidden damage may have been done to hundreds. . . . ” Some authorities shun sustain, even for people, in the sense of suffering a spe- cific injury. “He sustained a broken arm” is a modern, journalistic locution. They would reserve sustain for a special, traditional meaning: to bear up under, to stand against without yielding; e.g., “An explorer had to sustain hardship.” / “His troops sustained the siege for a month.” Accordingly, to “sustain” an injury is contradictory when it is fatal. sustain 403 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 403 Sustain (verb, transitive) has other senses: to maintain, prolong, support, or uphold as valid; e.g., “She sustains my faith in humanity.” / “I had no desire to sustain the conversation.” / “He sustains himself by odd jobs.” / “Objection sus- tained.” See also SUFFER. SWAMPED. See INUNDATE, IN- UNDATED. SYMPATHY. See MERCY and PITY. Synonymic silliness. 1. “Elegant variation.” 2. How it causes confusion. 1. “Elegant variation” H. W. Fowler called it “elegant varia- tion,” probably in sarcasm. Usually more silly than elegant, it is a conspicu- ous introduction of synonyms, stemming from the misbelief that repetition per se is undesirable and repeating a word in a sentence or paragraph (or other unit) is an evil. It is characteristic of journalists but not restricted to them. Six newspa- pers, a magazine, and a book supplied the examples in this section. Fifth-seeded Todd Martin beat 10th-seeded Mark Philippoussis 6–3, 7–5. . . . Sixth-seeded Michael Stich overwhelmed Andrei Medvedev 6–4, 6–1. . . . Defending champion Jana Novotna ousted Anke Huber 6–4, 6–4. In the absence of any clear-cut distinc- tions among the beating, the overwhelm- ing, and the ousting, we must conclude that the three tennis victories were func- tionally equal. As concert halls became bigger, and audiences larger, music became gradu- ally more and more difficult to under- stand at first hearing. Similarly, “bigger” does not appear to differ substantially from “larger” in that excerpt, from a magazine article. On the East Coast, cocaine supplies are dwindling and prices are jumping. On the West Coast, the white powder is readily available but prices have rocketed. In a story about precipitation in the win- ter, “the white powder” may be snow. In the excerpt above, it is probably cocaine. The writer just could not bear to repeat the word. Note too that on the East Coast prices jump, while on the West Coast they rocket. Hernandez said all ivory revenue must go toward the conservation of elephants and development programs for communities whose crops, homes and lives are threatened by the world’s largest land mammal. The writer’s substitute for elephant(s) was “the world’s largest land mammal,” but he could have used them. (Some writers’ favorite elephant substitute is “pachyderm,” a term that includes the hippopotamus, the rhinoceros, and other thick-skinned beasts.) The paragraph below is the fifth in a news story about Suffolk County, New York. At a news conference here, Mr. Halpin said that the bill would cost the county on eastern Long Island businesses millions of dollars for addi- tional worker benefits—principally for eye care—and that it had already discouraged many new companies from settling in Suffolk and made sev- eral existing ones consider relocating. The writer had used the name “Suffolk” three times. He wanted to refer to Suf- folk businesses but felt that he simply 404 swamped 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 404 [...]... plural adjective and a singular noun Any of these work: those kinds of law or that kind of law or laws of that kind See also KIND OF, 1; Pronouns, 2 (misuse of them); THESE and THOSE THEMSELVES and SELF.” See Pronouns, 5 “THEM- THEN See FORMER; THAN THEORY See HYPOTHESIS and THEORY 430 there, anticipatory THERE, anticipatory See Expletives THERE confused with THEIR See Homophones THERE in contractions... hauled off and punched W—— in the face The punching followed the yelling and cursing Therefore it is most clearly described in the past tense For example: “Incredibly, within a minute, the lieutenant hauled off ” Next, the sequence of two events is mistakenly reversed by the use of the present perfect instead of the past perfect: The Mohajir group called the strike to demand the release of more... when the nouns pertain to one person or idea: the lord and master” / the vice president and general manager” / the pain, pleasures, and satisfactions of life.” More than one person or idea gets a separate the: the chairman and the president” / The Prince and the Pauper / the star and the planet.” The may occasionally be repeated for emphasis when not essential to the meaning: “Here she is: the. .. TO and COMPARED WITH, 1; REALLY.) The final quotation is from a magazine essay by a professor of English, protesting the lowering of standards of behavior: “ Common decency has not been all that common for long stretches of human history.” May one also protest the lowering of standards of English usage and all that fuzziness? THAT and WHICH 1 The difference 2 Indiscriminate WHICH; mix-up of THAT and. .. Contractions, 1 If it is a Thermos, it gets a capital T; if an imitation, it may be called a vacuum bottle, vacuum jar, or the like THESE and THOSE These is the THEREFORE and THEREFOR Although they look similar and are both adverbs, the three-e word and the two-e word have different accents and meanings The first syllable is emphasized in THERE-fore, the second syllable in there-FOR Therefore means as a result,... statement in a theater review that “actors balance thermoses in the sand” and by suggestions for take-out meals in a cookbook: Put one of the sauces in a small, wide-mouthed thermos and use as a dip Put your favorite soup in a plural of this Those is the plural of that A book says, about the renaissance madrigal, “Both Lassus and Palestrina enriched the literature of the form during these years.”... Examples: the apple, the ooze, the M-1 Before consonants, the is pronounced THUH, voiced, with almost no vowel: the car, the watermelon, the yellow In a problems, 4; Pronouns, 2 “THEIRSELF” or “THEIRSELVES.” See Pronouns, 5 THEM and THEY See Pronouns, 10; Pronouns’ classification THEM and THOSE Let the grizzled prospector of story exclaim, “There’s gold in them hills!” Were his English corrected, it... whether to tell his story in the past tense or the present tense, so he used both He then took off at breakneck speed and as I zoomed down the road at 60 mph this guy pulls alongside and points at the laundry The passage is fairly clear but untidy It is as though the writer wore one black shoe and one white He should have chosen one tense or the other and stuck to it, at least for the duration of the. .. ” Now and then shall is otherwise needed: “Shall we dance?” / “Shall I draw up the papers?” (The formal use of the two words, now 411 obsolete in the United States and even disappearing in England, prescribed shall for the simple future in the first person and for determination, obligation, inevitability, etc in the second or third person Will was used the other way: for the simple future in the second... not D Distortion of meaning More than grammatical tidiness may be involved Confusion of tenses made the two excerpts opaque and misleading The directors of the Nicaraguan Resistance, the Contra alliance, said at A Be sure of the participle and use it with an H-word The past perfect tense uses (1) had and (2) the past participle of a verb (“They had eaten, so they were not hungry.”) The present perfect . mem- ber(s) of the staff.” See also Collective nouns, 1; WHO and WHOM, 1. STAND and RUN. See RUN and STAND; Pronouns, 3. STANDARD. See CLASSIC. STANDARD-BEARER. See Joining of words. STAR and SUN. The. hauled off. . . . ” Next, the sequence of two events is mistakenly reversed by the use of the present perfect instead of the past per- fect: The Mohajir group called the strike to demand the release. by news media:) “Off the record is off the record.” (Of the president and his aides:) “To the extent that they should be held accountable, they should be held accountable.” Most of us, authors