Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) (50 page)

B
IBLIOGRAPHY AND
S
UGGESTED
R
EADING

Throughout the text I have in general referred to the following books by the surname of the author, ignoring the contributions of those who revised the originals. Thus although Sir Ernest Gowers substantially revised
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage
in 1965, that book is referred to throughout the text as “Fowler.” References to “Gowers” are meant to suggest Gowers's own book,
The Complete Plain Words
.

         

Aitchison, Jean.
Language Change: Progress or Decay?
London: Fontana, 1981.

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

Austin, Tim, compiler.
The Times Guide to English Style and Usage
. London: Times Books, 1999.

Bernstein, Theodore M.
The Careful Writer
. New York: Free Press, 1995.

———.
Dos, Don'ts and Maybes of English Usage
. New York: Free Press, 1995.

Burchfield, R. W., ed.
The New Fowler's Modern Usage
, third edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Encarta World English Dictionary
. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.

Evans, Bergen and Cornelia Evans.
A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage
. New York: Random House, 1957.

Fieldhouse, Harry.
Everyman's Good English Guide
. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1982.

Fowler, E. G., and H. W. Fowler
The King's English
, third edition. London: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Fowler, H. W.
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage
, second edition. Revised by Sir Ernest Gowers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.

Gowers, Sir Ernest.
The Complete Plain Words
, second edition. Revised by Sir Bruce Fraser. Harmondsworth, England; Penguin, 1980.

Grimond, John.
The Economist Pocket Style Book
. London: Economist Publications, 1987.

———.
New Words for Old
. London: Unwin, 1980.

Howard, Philip.
Weasel Words
. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1978.

———.
Words Fail Me.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.

———.
A Word in Your Ear
. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1985.

———.
The State of the Language
. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1986.

Hudson, Kenneth.
The Dictionary of Diseased English
. London: Papermac, 1980.

Jordan, Lewis, ed.
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage.
New York: Times Books, 1976.

Manser, Martin H., ed.
Good Word Guide.
London: Bloomsbury, 2000.

Michaels, Leonard, and Christopher Ricks, eds.
The State of the Language.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

Morris, William and Mary Morris.
Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage.
New York: Harper & Row, 1975.

Newman, Edwin.
Strictly Speaking
. New York: Warner Books, 1975.

———.
A Civil Tongue
. New York: Warner Books, 1976.

Onions, C. T.
Modern English Syntax
, seventh edition. Prepared by B. D. H. Miller. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1971.

Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Oxford English Dictionary
, compact edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.

Palmer, Frank.
Grammar
. New York: Viking Penguin, 1989.

Partridge, Eric.
Usage and Abusage.
New York: W.W. Norton, 1997.

Phythian, B. A.
A Concise Dictionary of Correct English
. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1979.

Potter, Simeon.
Our Language.
Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1982.

Quirk, Randolph.
The Use of English
. London: Longmans, 1969.

Safire, William.
On Language
. New York: Avon, 1980.

———
What's the Good Word?
New York: Avon, 1983.

Shaw, Harry.
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expressions.
New York: Pocket Books, 1985.

Shipley, Joseph T.
In Praise of English: The Growth and Use of Language
. New York: Times Books, 1977.

Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.
London: Book Club Associates, 1983.

Siegal, Allan M., and William G. Connolly.
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage
, second edition. New York: Times Books/Random House, 1999.

Simon, John.
Paradigms Lost: Reflections on Literacy and Its Decline
. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1980.

Strunk, William, Jr., and E.B. White.
The Elements of Style
, third edition. New York: Macmillan, 1979.

Wallraff, Barbara.
Word Court
. New York: Harcourt, 2000.

Wood, Frederick T.
Current English Usage,
second edition. Revised by R. H. and L. M. Flavell. London: Papermac, 1981.

G
LOSSARY

Grammatical terms are, to quote Frank Palmer, “largely notional and often extremely vague.” In “I went swimming,” for instance,
swimming
is a present participle; but in “Swimming is good for you,” it is a gerund. Because such distinctions are for many of us a source of continuing perplexity, I have tried to use most such terms sparingly throughout the book. Inevitably, however, they do sometimes appear, and the following is offered as a simple guide for those who are confused or need refreshing. For a fuller discussion, I recommend
A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage
by Bergen and Cornelia Evans and
A Concise Dictionary of Correct English
by B. A. Phythian.

         

adjective.
A word that qualifies a noun or pronoun: “a
brick
house,” “a
small
boy,” “a
blue
dress.” Most adjectives have three forms: the positive (
big
), the comparative (
bigger
), and the superlative (
biggest
). Although adjectives are usually easy to recognize when they stand before a noun, they are not always so easily discerned when they appear elsewhere in a sentence, as here: “He was
deaf
” “I'm glad to be
alive
” “She's
awake
now.” Adjectives sometimes function as nouns (the
old
, the
poor
, the
sick
, the
insane
) and sometimes as adverbs (a
bitter
cold night, a
quick
-witted man). The distinction between an adjective and an adverb is often very fine. In “a great book,”
great
is an adjective, but in “a great many books,” it is an adverb.

         

adverb.
A word that qualifies (or describes) any word other than a noun. That may seem a loose definition, but, as Palmer says, the classification is “quite clearly a ‘ragbag' or ‘dustbin,' the category into which words that do not seem to belong elsewhere are placed.” In general, adverbs qualify verbs (
badly
played), adjectives (
too
loud), or other adverbs (
very
quickly). As with adjectives, they have the three forms of positive, comparative, and superlative (seen respectively in
long, longer, longest
). A common misconception is the belief that words that end in
-ly
are always adverbs.
Kindly, sickly, masterly
, and
deadly
, for example, are usually adjectives.

         

case.
The term describes relationships or syntactic functions between parts of speech. A pronoun is in the nominative case (sometimes called the subjective) when it is the subject of a verb (“
He
is here”) and in the accusative (sometimes called the objective) when it is the object of a verb or preposition (“Give it to
him
”). Except for six pairs of pronouns (
I/me, he/him, she/her, they/them, we/us
, and
who/whom
) and the genitive (which see), English has shed all its case forms.

         

clause.
A group of words that contains a true verb (i.e., a verb functioning as such) and subject. The sentence “The house, which was built in 1920, was white” contains two clauses: “The house was white” and “which was built in 1920.” The first, which would stand on its own, is called a main or principal or independent clause. The second, which would not stand on its own, is called a dependent or subordinate clause.

Sometimes the subject is suppressed in main clauses, as here: “He got up and went downstairs.” Although “and went downstairs” would not stand on its own, it is a main clause because the subject has been suppressed. In effect the sentence is saying, “He got up and he went downstairs.” See also
PHRASE
.

         

complement.
A word or group of words that completes a predicate construction—that is, that provides full sense to the meaning of the verb. In “He is a rascal,”
rascal
is the complement of the verb
is
.

         

conjunction.
A word that links grammatical equivalents, as in “The president and prime minister conferred for two hours” (the conjunction
and
links two nouns) and “She came yesterday, but she didn't stay long” (the conjunction
but
links two clauses).

         

genitive.
A noun or pronoun is in the genitive case when it expresses possession (
my
house,
his
car,
Sally's
job). Although some authorities make very small distinctions between genitives and possessives, many others do not. In this book, I have used the term
possessives
throughout.

         

gerund.
A verb made to function as a noun, as with the italicized words here. “
Seeing
is
believing
” “
Cooking
is an art” “
Walking
is good exercise.” Gerunds always end in
-ing.

         

infinitive.
The term describes verbs that are in the infinite mood (i.e., that do not have a subject). Put another way, it is a verb form that indicates the action of the verb without inflection to indicate person, number, or tense. There are two forms of infinitive: the full (
to go, to see
) and bare (
go, see
), often called simply “an infinitive without
to
.”

         

mood.
Verbs have four moods:

1. The indicative, which is used to state facts or ask questions (I
am
going; What time
is
it?).

2. The imperative, which indicates commands (
Come
here;
Leave
me alone).

3. The infinite, which makes general statements and has no subject (
To know
her is
to love
her).

4. The subjunctive, which is principally used to indicate hypotheses or suppositions (If I
were
you…). The uses of the subjunctive are discussed more fully in the body of the book.

noun
is usually defined as a word that describes a person, place, thing, or quality. Such a definition, as many authorities have noted, is technically inadequate. Most of us would not think of
hope, despair
, and
exultation
as things, yet they are nouns. And most of the words that describe qualities—
good, bad, happy
, and the like—are not nouns but adjectives. Palmer notes that there is no difference whatever in sense between “He suffered terribly” and “His suffering was terrible,” yet
suffered
is a verb and
suffering
a noun. There is, in short, no definition for
noun
that isn't circular, though, happily, for most of us it is one part of speech that is almost always instantly recognizable.

         

object.
Whereas the subject of a sentence tells you who or what is performing an action, the object tells you on whom or on what the action is being performed. In “I like you,”
you
is the object of the verb
like
. In “They have now built most of the house,”
most of the house
is the object of the verb
built
. Sometimes sentences have direct and indirect objects, as here: “Please send me four tickets” “I'll give the dog a bath” (cited by Phythian). The direct objects are
four tickets
and
a bath
. The indirect objects are
me
and
the dog
. Prepositions also have objects. In the sentence “Give it to him,”
him
is the object of the preposition
to
.

         

participle.
The participle is a verbal adjective. There are two kinds: present participles, which end in
-ing
(
walking, looking
), and past participles, which end in
-d (heard), -ed (learned), -n (broken
), or
-t (bent
). The terms
present participle
and
past participle
can be misleading because present participles are often used in past-tense senses (“They were looking for the money”) and past participles are often used when the sense is the present or future (“She has broken it” “Things have never looked better”). When present-tense participles are used as nouns, they are called gerunds.

         

phrase.
A group of words that does not have a subject and verb. “I will come sometime soon” consists of a clause (
I will come
) and a phrase (
sometime soon
). Phrases always express incomplete thoughts.

         

predicate.
Everything in a sentence that is not part of the subject (i.e., the verb, its qualifiers and complements) is called the predicate. In “The man went to town after work,”
The man
is the subject and the rest of the sentence is the predicate. The verb alone is sometimes called the simple predicate.

         

preposition.
A word that connects and specifies the relationship between a noun or noun equivalent and a verb, adjective, or other noun or noun equivalent. In “We climbed over the fence,” the preposition
over
connects the verb
climbed
with the noun
fence
. Whether a word is a preposition or a conjunction is often a matter of function. In “The army attacked before the enemy was awake,”
before
is a conjunction. But in “The army attacked before dawn,”
before
is a preposition. The distinction is that in the first sentence
before
is followed by a verb, whereas in the second it is not.

         

pronoun.
A word used in place of a noun or nouns. In “I like walking and reading; such are my pleasures,”
such
is a pronoun standing for
reading
and
walking
. Pronouns have been variously grouped by different authorities. Among the more common groupings are personal pronouns (
I, me, his
, etc.), relative pronouns (
who, whom, that, which
), demonstrative pronouns (
this, that, these, those
), and indefinite pronouns (
some, several, either, neither
, etc.).

         

subject.
The word or phrase in a sentence or clause that indicates who or what is performing the action. In “I see you,” the subject is
I
. In “Climbing steep hills tires me,”
Climbing steep hills
is the subject.

         

substantive.
A word or group of words that performs the function of a noun. In “Swimming is good for you,”
Swimming
is a substantive as well as a gerund.

         

verb.
Verbs can be defined generally (if a bit loosely) as words that have tense and that denote what someone or something is or does. Verbs that have an object are called transitive verbs—that is, the verb transmits the action from subject to an object, as in “He put the book on the table.” Verbs that do not have an object are called intransitive verbs, as in “She slept all night” in these the action is confined to the subject.

When it is necessary to indicate more than simple past or present tense, two or more verbs are combined, as in “I
have thought
about this all week.” Although there is no widely agreed term for such a combination of verbs, I have for convenience followed Fowler in this book and referred to them as compound verbs. The additional or “helping” verb in such constructions (e.g.,
have
in the example above) is called an auxiliary.