The Cambridge Guide to English Usage The Cambridge Guide to English Usage is an A–Z reference book, giving an up-to-date account of the debatable issues of English usage and written style Its advice draws a wealth of recent research and data from very large corpora of American and British English – illuminating their many divergences and also points of convergence on which international English can be based The book comprises more than 4000 points of word meaning, spelling, grammar, punctuation and larger issues of inclusive language, and effective writing and argument It also provides guidance on grammatical terminology, and covers topics in electronic communication and the internet The discussion notes the major dictionaries, grammars and usage books in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, allowing readers to calibrate their own practices as required CGEU is descriptive rather than prescriptive, but offers a principled basis for implementing progressive or more conservative decisions on usage Consultants JOHN ALGEO University of Georgia JOHN AYTO University of Surrey DAVID CRYSTAL University of Wales, Bangor SIDNEY LANDAU Fellow of the Dictionary Society of North America KATIE WALES University of Leeds The Cambridge Guide to English Usage PAM PETERS Macquarie University cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521621816 © Cambridge University Press 2004 This publication is in copyright Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press First published in print format 2004 isbn-13 isbn-10 978-0-511-19563-1 eBook (NetLibrary) 0-511-19563-x eBook (NetLibrary) isbn-13 isbn-10 978-0-521-62181-6 hardback 0-521-62181-x hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate Contents Preface vii Overview of Contents and How to Access Them A to Z Entries Appendix I x 1–592 International Phonetic Alphabet Symbols for English Sounds 593 Appendix II Geological Eras 594 Appendix III Perpetual Calendar 1901–2008 Appendix IV International System of Units (SI Units) Appendix V Interconversion Tables for Metric and Imperial Measures 595 596 597 Appendix VI Selected Proofreading Marks Appendix VII Formats and Styles for Letters, Memos and E-mail 600 Appendix VIII Layout for Envelopes Appendix IX Currencies of the World Bibliography 598 602 603 604 v Preface The Cambridge Guide to English Usage is written for English-users in the twenty-first century It takes a fresh look at thousands of questions of style and usage, embracing issues that are time-honored yet still current, as well as those newly arising as the language continues to evolve Some of these come with electronic communication and online documentation, but there are numerous others among the more than 4000 headwords in the book At the threshold of the third millennium, English is more diverse than ever in all hemispheres Research into “new Englishes” has flourished, supported by journals such as English World-Wide, World Englishes and English Today At the same time, the quest for a single, international form for written communication becomes more pressing, among those aiming at a global readership This book is designed to support both global and local communicators It identifies regionalized elements of usage, grammar and style, with systematic attention to American and British English, and reference to Canadian, Australian and New Zealand English as well It allows writers to choose styles and usage appropriate to their readership, according to how local or large it is The local options help to establish and affirm regional identity within, say, North America or Great Britian But communicating beyond those regions calls for reappraisal of the options, putting a premium on those with the widest distribution worldwide, ideally region-free The Cambridge Guide to English Usage identifies “international English selections” wherever they can be distilled out of the alternatives available, and implements them on its own pages It empowers readers (as writers, editors, teachers, students) to choose and develop their own style, for their particular purposes Many kinds of resource have been brought to bear on the style and usage questions raised The Cambridge Guide to English Usage is the first of its kind to make regular use of large databases (corpora) of computerized texts as primary sources of current English Numerous examples of British usage have come from the 100 million word British National Corpus (see BNC); and of American usage from a subset of 140 million words of American English from the Cambridge International Corpus (see CCAE) The corpora embody various kinds of written discourse as well as transcriptions of spoken discourse – enough to show patterns of divergence between the two Negative attitudes to particular idioms or usage often turn on the fact that they are more familiar to the ear than the eye, and the constructions of formal writing are privileged thereby Corpus data allow us to look more neutrally at the distributions of words and constructions, to view the range of styles across which they operate On this basis we can see what is really “standard,” i.e usable in many kinds of discourse, as opposed to the formal or informal References to “formal” and “informal” within the book presuppose that they lie above and below the broad band of everyday written communication, and together form a three-point stylistic scale vii Preface The relative acceptability of a given usage can also be gauged by means of population surveys This involves the use of questionnaires on doubtful or disputed usage in spelling, punctuation, the use of capital letters and certain points of grammar A series of six questionnaires called the “Langscape survey” was published in English Today (1998–2001), with the support of the editor, Dr Tom McArthur Hundreds of questionnaires from around the world were returned by mail and fax, and through the Style Council website at Macquarie University, where they were analyzed in terms of regional and sociolinguistic trends Results from Langscape are quoted in some of the book’s entries for their insights into people’s willingness to embrace particular spellings or usages They are a litmus test of future directions Attitudes to usage often reflect what’s said in the relevant language authorities, most notably the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition, 1989) for British English, and Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (3rd edition, 1961, reprinted 1986) for American English These unabridged dictionaries remain monuments to English language scholarship, to which we are all indebted Though their latest editions are not so recent, their positions tend to be maintained in younger, abridged dictionaries, except where there are good reasons to diverge, e.g on neologisms or previously unrecorded usage The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate (2000) have been used to update the verdicts of the unabridged dictionaries, where relevant; and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary (1998) and the Macquarie Dictionary (3rd edition 1997) are invoked for regional comparisons Comparative reference is also made to regional usage books, including Fowler’s Modern English Usage (1926; and later editions by Gowers, 1965, and Burchfield, 1996); to the excellent Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage (1989), Garner’s Modern American Usage (1999), and Fee and McAlpine’s Canadian English Usage (1997) These secondary sources contribute to the diversity of views on changing usage, and articulate local reactions to worldwide innovations Issues of editorial style are also treated comparatively, to allow readers to position themselves relative to American or British style, as articulated in the Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition 2003) and the Oxford Guide to Style (2002) Reference is also made to Editing Canadian English (2nd edition 2000) by the Editors’ Association of Canada, to the Australian government Style Manual (6th edition 2002), and to the New Zealand style manual Write, Edit, Print (1997) Those resident in non-English-speaking countries can forge a synthesis of regional styles appropriate to their readerships Grammatical cruxes of usage are discussed with reference to modern grammars such as the Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985), the Introduction to Functional Grammar (1985; 1994) and especially the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (1999) The latter is explicitly corpus-based, using data from the Longman corpus of over 40 million words in six registers, to complement or extend the data derived from the BNC and CCAE, mentioned above The Cambridge Guide to English Usage aims to bridge the gap between traditional and modern grammar, and uses terminology from both (e.g mood and modality) as entry points to discussing grammatical questions Elements of discourse analysis are also discussed, for example information focus and sentence topic, as aids to writing and editing viii Preface Apart from its large range of primary and secondary sources, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage draws on the findings of numerous linguistic researchers, named within the text and in the bibliography Their contributions to our understanding of the intricacies of the English language are legion Many are corpus linguists associated with the ICAME group (International Computer Archive of Modern English), who have progressively developed the uses of corpora for linguistic description with each new generation of corpus Other European and American linguists who have contributed greatly to this book are the distinguished consultants named on p ii, whose careful reading of the MS has enhanced its relevance to different parts of the English-speaking world The Cambridge Guide to English Usage also owes much to undated and undatable discussions with colleagues and friends at Macquarie University, in the Linguistics department and associated with the Macquarie Dictionary To Professor Arthur Delbridge, the foundation Professor of Linguistics and Editor-in-chief of the Dictionary who connected me with both, I owe a particular debt of gratitude Others who provided invaluable support for the publication of the prototype Cambridge Australian English Style Guide (1995) were Dr Robin Derricourt (formerly of Cambridge University Press, Australia), and Hon Justice Michael Kirby (of the High Court of Australia) In the preparatory stages of The Cambridge Guide to English Usage, I was fortunate to be a visiting professor at the Englisches Seminar of the University of Zurich, which gave me access to their ¨ excellent BNC search tools and experience of teaching at a European university Many thanks are due to those at Cambridge University Press (UK) who saw the project through from first to last: Adrian du Plessis, Kevin Taylor and Dr Kate Brett, and my copy-editor Leigh Mueller Back home in Australia my warmest thanks go to my family, to Fliss, Greg, and especially to John, for his unfailing love and support Pam Peters ix Appendix II Geological Eras Years BP Period Precambrian 4550 m 2500 m hardening of earth’s crust spores; bacteria; marine algae 1600 m 650 m Archean Early Proterozoic Riphean Vendian 570 m 500 m 430 m 395 m Cambrian Ordovician Silurian Devonian 345 m Carboniferous 280 m Permian marine invertebrates primitive fish shellfish; fungi age of fishes; first amphibians age of amphibians; first insects development of reptiles 225 m 190 m Triassic Jurassic 136 m Cretaceous Mesozoic Cenozoic 65 m 53 m 37 m 26 m m 1.8 m .1m Quaternary Paleozoic Tertiary Era Epoch first dinosaurs age of dinosaurs; flying reptiles last dinosaurs; modern insects Paleocene Eocene Oligocene Miocene Pliocene development of mammals modern mammals; modern birds browsing mammals grazing mammals formation of Alps, Andes, Himalayas Pleistocene widespread glacial ice; early man Holocene (Recent) modern man Adapted from the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences (1981) 594 Evolutionary events Appendix III Perpetual Calendar 1901–2008 Years Months 1901–2008 25 26 27 28 01 29 02 30 03 31 04 32 05 33 06 34 07 35 08 36 09 37 10 38 11 39 12 40 13 41 14 42 15 43 16 44 17 45 18 46 19 47 20 48 21 49 22 50 23 51 24 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 J 5 6 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 F 6 6 M 5 6 A 5 6 6 M 5 6 J 6 6 J 5 6 6 A 6 6 5 S 6 5 6 O 6 5 N 5 6 D 6 5 6 Days of the week S M T W T F S 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 The three tables allow you to discover what day of the week any date fell or would fall on, e.g Christmas Day (25 December) in 1988 and 2008 r Read across from the relevant year (1988, 2008 ) to the Months table and extract the number for December (in these cases and 1) r Add the number to the actual day of the month (25) = 29 and 26 r Check that composite number on the Days of the week table above to find the actual day Sunday (1988) and Thursday (2008) 595 Appendix IV International System of Units (SI Units) Physical quantity Base SI units SI unit Symbol length mass time electric current thermodynamic temperature amount of substance luminous intensity metre kilogram second ampere kelvin mole candela m kg s A K mol cd radian steradian rad sr joule newton pascal hertz watt coulomb volt ohm farad siemens henry weber tesla lumen lux J N Pa Hz W C V Supplementary units plane angle solid angle Derived SI units energy force pressure frequency power electric charge potential difference resistance capacitance conductance inductance magnetic flux magnetic flux density luminous flux illumination F S H Wb T lm lx Prefixes for SI units exapetateragigamegakilohectodeka- (deca-) 596 E P T G M k h da 1018 1015 1012 109 106 103 102 101 decicentimillimicronanopicofemtoatto- d c m µ n p f a 10−1 10−2 10−3 10−6 10−9 10−12 10−15 10−18 Appendix V Interconversion Tables for Metric and Imperial Measures Metric unit Length area volume Symbol Conversion factor to imperial unit centimetre metre kilometre square centimetre square metre hectare square kilometre cubic centimetre cubic metre volume ( fluid ) millilitre litre cubic metre mass gram kilogram tonne velocity kilometre per hour angular radians per second velocity energy kilojoule megajoule force newton pressure kilopascal (meteorology) millibar power kilowatt temperature degree Celsius = 0.394 inches = 3.28 feet or 1.09 yards = 0.621 mile = 0.155 sq inches = 10.8 sq feet or 1.20 sq yds = 2.47 acres = 0.386 sq mile = 0.0610 cubic inches = 35.3 cubic feet or 1.31 cubic yards or 27.5 bushels = 0.0352 fluid ounces = 1.76 pints = 220 gallons = 0.0353 ounces = 2.20 pounds = 0.984 ton = 0.621 miles per hour = 9.55 revolutions per minute cm m km cm2 m2 km2 cm3 m3 cm 1m km cm2 m2 km cm3 m3 mL L m3 g kg t km/h rad/s mL 1L m3 1g kg 1t km/h rad/s kJ mJ N kPa mb kW ◦ C kJ = 0.948 British thermal units mJ = 9.48 × 10−3 therms 1N = 0.225 pound-force kPa = 0.145 pounds per square inch mb = 0.0295 inch of mercury kW = 1.34 horsepower ◦ ( C × ) + 32 = ◦ F Imperial unit Symbol Conversion factor to metric unit length in ft yd inch foot yard mile area square inch square foot square yard acre square mile volume cubic inch cubic foot cubic yard bushel volume ( fluid) fluid ounce pint gallon mass ounce pound ton velocity mile per hour angular revolution per minute velocity energy British thermal unit in ft yd mile in2 in2 ft2 ft2 yd2 yd2 ac ac sq.mile sq.mile in3 in ft3 ft3 yd3 yd3 bus bus fl oz fl oz pt pt gal gal oz oz lb lb ton mph mph rpm rpm force pressure (meteorology) power temperature lbf psi inHg hp ◦ F pound-force pound per square inch square inch of mercury horse power degree Fahrenheit Btu = 25.4 millimetres = 30.5 centimetres = 0.914 metres = 1.61 kilometres = 6.45 sq centimetres = 929 sq centimetres = 0.836 sq metres = 0.405 hectares = 2.59 sq kilometres = 16.4 cubic centimetres = 28.3 cubic decimetres = 0.765 cubic metres = 0.0364 cubic metres = 28.4 millilitres = 568 millilitres = 4.55 litres = 28.3 grams = 454 grams = 1.02 tonnes = 1.61 kilometres per hour = 0.105 radians per second Btu = 1.06 kilojoules therm = 106 megajoules lbf = 4.45 newtons psi = 6.89 kilopascals inHg = 33.9 millibars hp = 0.746 kilowatts (◦ F − 32) × = ◦ C 597 Appendix VI 598 Appendixes 599 Appendix VII Formats and styles for Letters, Memos and E-mail An official letter, with fully blocked format and open punctuation Date at left hand side Addressee’s details, no punctuation Specialists in personal income tax Acme House Kingston 2604 (PO Box 997 Kingston 2604) March 2004 Mr John Evans 99 Cheltenham Road CHELTENHAM 2119 Dear Mr Evans Subject line All paragraphs begin at left margin ADVICE ON CLAIMING EDUCATION EXPENSES Self education expenses are allowable deductions if the education received is directly relevant to the activities by which the tax payer derives his/her assessable income, and if the study leads to an increase in income earning activities in future It is not deductible where the study is designed to enable a tax payer to get employment or to open up a new income earning activity According to the information supplied in your letter, the study trip was strongly supported by your employer with study leave and a financial contribution The study workshop and the conference you attended is directly connected with your current job They help you to keep up to date and to improve your ability to perform existing duties or to earn your current income The expenses incurred in your overseas study trip are therefore an allowable deduction and qualify under sec 51(1), having the necessary connection with your current rather than future employment The claim for education expenses of $4,279 should therefore be allowed in full Contact the undersigned for further information on the matter Complimentary close at left margin Writer’s position stated Yours faithfully L.S Deer Chartered Accountant Letter style 600 r formal explanation r language is neutral, logical Appendixes A more personal letter, with semiblocked format and closed punctuation 29 Bellevue Drive, Victoria, BC V8N 5L4 April 2004 Dear Juanita Lovely to see you at the school reunion the other night You haven’t changed a bit though I couldn’t say that of everyone! Enclosed is a photocopy of the program of that wonderful concert I mentioned, with details of all the instruments Hope to see you again before long Yours sincerely, Felicity Letter style r language is direct and personal r has emotive and evaluative elements Sender’s address at right hand side, punctuated Date at right hand side Paragraphs or sections of letter are indented to enhance communication Complimentary close set centre-page, and here punctuated Format of memo Header indicates titles and status of correspondents MEMO TO: PROFESSOR K WONG Chair of English FROM: DR G.G KING SUBJECT: CONFERENCE PLANS DATE: 20 February 2002 Style generally formal, distanced but courteous The Executive of the Global English Association will consider offers to host the 2004 conference at the forthcoming meeting in Hawaii Would you like me to indicate the willingness of the department to host it here next December? Addressee before sender Format of e-mail message (as received) Header makes it person to person Style can be personal and/or businesslike DATE: Thursday 21 February 2002 FROM: Kathleen Wong TO: Gregory King SUBJECT: Conference I will send you in hard copy a formal letter of welcome to present to the GEA Executive hosting the 2004 conference Thanks for moving things forward K Sender before addressee Position of date and subject vary with the e-mail system 601 Appendix VIII Layout for Envelopes: 1) US, UK, Canada, Australia 2) Continental Europe, Asia •Street name before number •Postcode precedes town name 602 •Addresses fully aligned•No punctuation•Capital letters preferred Appendix IX Currencies of the World unit Argentina Australia Austria Bangladesh Belgium Brazil Canada Chile China Cuba Czech Republic Denmark Egypt Fiji France Germany Greece HongKong India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Japan Jordan Korea (North and South) Malaysia Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Pakistan Philippines Portugal Russia Singapore South Africa Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Turkey United Kingdom United States Vietnam symbol peso dollar schilling (Euro) taka franc (Euro) real dollar peso yuan peso koruna krone (Euro) pound dollar franc (Euro) Deutschmark (Euro) drachma (Euro) dollar rupee rupiah rial dinar pound/punt (Euro) shekel lira (Euro) yen dinar won dollar/ringgit peso guilder (Euro) dollar krone rupee peso escudo (Euro) ro(u)ble dollar rand peseta (Euro) krona franc dollar baht lira pound dollar dong PS A$ Sch/€ Tk Bfr/€ R$ C$ peso Y peso Kcs DKr/€ £E F$ Fr/€ DM/€ Dr/€ HK$ Rs Rp IR ID I£/€ NIS L/€ Y – JD Won (N), W (S) M$ peso G/€ NZ$ NKr PRs P Esc/€ Rbl S$ R Pta/€ SKr SFr NT$ Bt TL £ $ D 603 Bibliography —Aarts, B and Meyer, C (1995) The Verb in Contemporary English Cambridge University Press —Aarts, J, de Haan, P, and Oostdijk, N (1992) English Language Corpora: design, analysis and exploitation Rodopi, Amsterdam —Aijmer, K (2001) A Wealth of English: studies in ¨ honour of Goran Kjellmer Gothenburg University Press —Alford, H (1863) Good Words (March issue) —Algeo, J (1988) British and American grammatical differences International Journal of Lexicography 1:1 —Algeo, J (1991) Fifty Years among the New Words Cambridge University Press —Algeo, J (1995) Having a look at the expanded predicate In The Verb in Contemporary English → Aarts, B and Meyer —American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1969) Houghton Mifflin —APA Style Manual → Publication Manual —Asprey, M (1996, 2nd ed.) 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