From: Translation Bureau
Language Navigator allows you to search by keyword or by theme to quickly find answers to questions about language or writing in English and French. To learn more about this search engine, consult the section entitled About Language Navigator.
New to Language Navigator? Learn how to search for content in Language Navigator.
Search by keyword
Search fields
Search by theme
Search by theme to quickly access all of the Portal’s language resources related to a specific theme.
About Language Navigator
Language Navigator simultaneously searches all of the writing tools, quizzes and blog posts on the Language Portal of Canada. It gives you access to everything you need to write well in English and French: articles on language difficulties, linguistic recommendations, conjugation tables, translation suggestions and much more.
To translate a term or to find answers to terminology questions in a specialized field, please consult TERMIUM Plus®.
Results 1 to 3 of 3 (page 1 of 1)
English Usage Guides (1974, volume 7, 4)
Peter Gawn (Terminology Update, Volume 7, Number 4, 1974, page 2) At the editor’s suggestion, I have undertaken to prepare a series of guides to English usage. I shall discuss in my Guides points that appear to give trouble to those whose work I revise. I hope that others may find my remarks useful. It is with some misgivings that I don the mantle of a dominie, particularly to teach English to those already familiar with it. Many books on usage have been published in the last ten years or so, however, and I shall see what they have to say on each topic: I shall then summarize the consensus of these authorities, give my opinion and suggest a fiche for readers to make for future reference. In this way I shall support my own judgements with that of others, thereby lending some weight to my recommendations. I know that the editor will be pleased to receive your comments. TOPIC: (Individual) Individual, as a noun. PROBLEM: (Individual) Individual is not equivalent to person; it refers to the single members of a group as opposed to the group as a whole (CGSM, p. 22). Incorrect Use: This individual writes poor English. Correct Use: The individual often feels helpless in his dealings with society. AUTHORITIES: (Individual) The incorrect use is described as colloquial (Chambers), heavy and pretentious (DCE), vulgar (COD), chiefly a colloquial vulgarism or term of disparagement (OED) and a Vogue Word now past its vogue but lingering in its vogue sense as a nuisance (MEU). Webster has no definition corresponding to the incorrect use, Mencken disparages it, with other newspaper words (p. 211). Treble recommends that the word be thought of as an adjective: its use as a noun in contrast with general will then become clearer. SUMMARY: (Individual) The condemned use appears to be a hangover from Victorian social criticism and Edwardian humour. It is not an Americanism. Its current use by, inter alia, the CBC News Service does not offset the consensus of the authorities. SUGGESTED FICHE: (Individual) Do not use individual as a synonym for person. * * * TOPIC: (Consider) Consider as … Consider that … PROBLEM: (Consider) It is unidiomatic to use consider followed by as (except as noted below) or a that clause. Incorrect Use: He was considered as a good worker. He considered that he had done a good job. Correct Use: Omit as and that or replace consider by regard and believe. AUTHORITIES: (Consider) Although consider is frequently seen followed by as, this usage is condemned as unidiomatic by all the authorities consulted (except of course in a sentence such as: The lecturer considered Eisenhower first as a soldier and second as administrator) (Strunk, p. 38). The problem arises from confusing the construction with that used with regard. Vallins says "Regard welcomes the as that consider rejects" (p. 158) and MEU that "regard is now beginning to have its revenge" (p. 106). The American Heritage Dictionary and Webster both agree with the foregoing. The use of consider with a that clause is no longer modern idiom (OED). The that is superfluous. The authorities also agree that consider is overworked and that it should be reserved for situations involving real mental activity or thinking over (Bernstein, p. 116). Synonyms such as regard, think, believe, feel or suppose should be used instead. SUMMARY: (Consider) The idiom is consider (noun) to be (noun), or consider followed by an object clause. The verb to be is frequently omitted, but that, says Vallins, ’is no reason why as should take its place’ (p. 158). Consider is in danger of losing its full meaning through overuse. SUGGESTED FICHE: (Consider) Consider should not be followed by as or that. The construction is consider (noun) to be (noun), with to be often omitted. Consider should only be used when there is deliberation. Otherwise, use regard, think, feel, believe, or suppose. KEY TO REFERENCE WORKS: Bernstein: The Careful Writer, T.M. Bernstein, Atheneum NY, 1968. CGSM: Style Manual for Writers and Editors, Queen’s Printer, 1962. Chambers: Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary, Edinburgh, 1972. COD: Concise Oxford Dictionary, OUP, 1969. DCE: Dictionary of Canadian English, The Senior Dictionary, W.J. Gage Ltd, Toronto, 1967. Mencken: The American Language, H.L. Mencken, Knopf, 1971 (Abridged). MEU: A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, H.W. Fowler, Second Edition, OUP, 1965. OED: Oxford English Dictionary. Strunk: The Elements of Style, W. Strunk & E.B. White, Macmillan, 1972. Treble: An ABC of English Usage, H.A. Treble & G.H. Vallins, OUP, 1965. Vallins: Good English, G.H. Vallins, Pan, 1968. Webster: Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, 1963.Source: Favourite Articles (language professionals’ insights on English language issues)
Number of views: 1,705
Usage Update (Part 2): Deplorable or Acceptable?
Frances Peck (Language Update, Volume 3, Number 4, 2006, page 18) H. W. Fowler was made of sterner stuff than most. The eminent and opinionated usage authority resigned from a long-time teaching position after a dispute with his headmaster; lied about his age at 56 and enlisted as a private during World War I; followed a running and swimming regime throughout his life; and at 68, declined his publisher’s offer of a servant, attributing his continued physical vigour to having had "no servants to reduce me to a sedentary and all-literary existence."Yet even the redoubtable Fowler admitted that those guarding the fortress of the English language are powerless against the invading forces of popular usage. "What grammarians say should be," he wrote in Modern English Usage, "has perhaps less influence on what shall be than even the more modest of them realize; usage evolves itself little disturbed by their likes and dislikes."In this article, we’ll continue our look at changing usage and examine where some contentious words and expressions currently stand.Deplorable Those of us who like the certainty of "dos" and "don’ts" can take comfort in knowing that some usages are still plain wrong. Here’s a handful of downright errors.Incomplete as far as structures.NOTAs far as story leads, office duties and deadlines, Sharon takes on more than anyone else at the high school newspaper.This misuse sends the more grammar-minded of us into paroxysms of frustration. As far as must always introduce a clause, a group of words containing a subject and a verb. But where, oh where is the verb? Far and wide, people are carelessly leaving out the go or are concerned that should complete the as far as statement. No doubt this omission stems from some vague notion that as far as is a preposition and can be completed by a noun alone. Wrong. Centre around.NOTThis week’s program will centre around the history of K-Tel, the hard-sell company that in the 1970s marketed everything from wonder slicers to disco compilations.Imagine a circle, then picture its centre, a single point. Common sense tells us why the correct wording has to be centre on. Similar geometrically correct expressions are focus on, revolve around and circle around. Many -wise compounds.NOTSkills-wise Boris is perfect for the undertaker position, but personality-wise he may not fit in.Some -wise compounds are sound choices. Clockwise and lengthwise, for instance, are perfectly fine. So are streetwise and worldly-wise, where the suffix roughly means "wise in the ways of." But steer clear of hasty concoctions like careerwise, gender-wise and moneywise, all non-standard shortcuts for concerning or with regard to a certain thing.InadvisableDilemma to mean problem or predicament. PROBABLY NOTAngela’s dilemma is that her credit card payments exceed her disposable income.A dilemma is a choice between two unpleasant or difficult options, and most usage authorities recommend keeping it that way. The increasingly loose use of the word to mean a general problem or difficult situation has been captured in the latest Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2nd edition, 2004) and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate (11th edition, 2003), but until other dictionaries follow suit and usage guides begin to relax, we’re better off sticking with the traditional meaning. Fulsome to mean full or abundant. PROBABLY NOTThe committee’s fulsome study of the Young Offenders’ Act eventually led to sweeping changes to the legislation.Traditionally, fulsome has meant overly abundant or offensively excessive. For careful English users, "fulsome praise" is overblown praise that verges on obsequiousness. But this negative connotation is nowadays lost on many, who use "fulsome praise" to mean generous or lavish praise. This shift has stirred up so much turmoil that Bryan Garner, in his Dictionary of Modern American Usage, has declared fulsome a "skunked term," a term that’s so unsettled it’s bound to raise someone’s hackles somewhere. For now, he suggests, the safest course is to avoid the word entirely. Beg the question to mean invite or raise a question.PROBABLY NOTHis decision to leave Grunge Dungeon after five years and three platinum albums begs the question—was he ever truly happy as a rock guitarist?Usage commentators are divided on whether we should confine this expression to its original meaning or release it to the masses, who use it in a different way. Properly speaking, begging the question means basing a conclusion on an assumption that itself needs proving. As an example of begging the question, Garner offers the statement "Life begins at conception, which is defined as the beginning of life." But most people think the expression means to raise an obvious question, as in the music sentence above. This new meaning will undoubtedly overtake the old, but while the battle is still on, we should keep to the traditional meaning, at least in formal writing.AcceptableAlternate as a synonym for alternative. FINEI know you’re counting on a week of camping in the open air, but do you have an alternate plan in case the weather turns bad?In major Canadian and American dictionaries, one definition of alternate (as an adjective) is alternative, in the sense of available as another option. The British Concise Oxford says the two are synonyms in North American English but not in British. The Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage recommends keeping the adjectives distinct in formal writing, but few modern authorities back that view. Canadian writers and editors tend to side with the dictionaries on this one. Hopefully as a sentence adverb. FINEHopefully, we can buff out the scratch on Mom’s new convertible before she sees it and disowns us forever.Who knows why, but the innocuous adverb hopefully attracted virulent criticism from the 1960s to the 1980s. Objectors insisted that the word could only mean "in a hopeful manner," as in "The starving man looked hopefully at the tray of sandwiches approaching him." But nearly everyone else used the word as a sentence adverb meaning "It is to be hoped," as in the convertible sentence above. The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage (1996), in its level-headed overview of the debate, notes that many -ly adverbs have morphed into sentence adverbs. In fact, while commentators were busy skewering hopefully, other sentence adverbs slid in under the radar, among them frankly, fortunately and seriously. Today it’s only the crankiest pedant who insists on the original, narrow meaning of hopefully. Presently to mean now or currently.FINEShe is presently employed at the Snake Eyes tattoo parlour.Presently as a synonym for now also drew many barbs in the late twentieth century. Presently means soon, said the authorities, not now or at present. Yet the latter meaning—curiously, a revitalized fifteenth-century sense of the word—has rapidly overtaken the former, to the point where most modern commentators and nearly all dictionaries accept it without question.Impactful? In 2003 one David Armstrong, a former English teacher, took Coca-Cola to task for misusing everyday in an ad for Dasani water: "Treat yourself well. Everyday." Everyday, he pointed out, is an adjective that describes common or routine things, such as everyday concerns. Coca-Cola’s campaign should have used "Every day," meaning each day. A company spokesperson replied that Coca-Cola had decided on everyday as the more "impactful" form. Naturally, the entry of this unfortunate neologism into the exchange fanned a moderate parlour blaze into a full-on house fire.As H. W. Fowler acknowledged long ago, there’s little we can do to keep our language in check. New words emerge, old words change, battles are declared, debates die down. All that we writers can do is read and assess—and occasionally cave.Source: Favourite Articles (language professionals’ insights on English language issues)
Number of views: 1,074
Usage Update (Part 1): Verbifying
Frances Peck (Language Update, Volume 3, Number 3, 2006, page 20) Actions speak louder than words, so it’s not surprising that action words speak louder than other words. We English users cherish our verbs. We love their activity, we rely on their tenses and when we can’t find ones we like, we create our own—especially from nouns. As Ernest Gowers, editor of the second edition of Fowler’s Modern English Usage (1965), commented in his entry on contact as a verb, "It is an ancient and valuable right of the English people to turn their nouns into verbs when they are so minded."In short, we verbify. And why not? Why be satisfied with naming something when we can do the thing? The trouble is, it takes time for these new verbs to settle down, to become widely accepted, to lose the whiff of unacceptability that clings to them long after their transformation from nouns. Contact is a good example. As a verb meaning "to get in touch with," contact emerged in the 1920s, but it spent decades in linguistic limbo before being sanctioned by dictionaries and usage authorities.Many verbs favoured in business and government writing have entered the language this way, starting out as nouns but morphing into verbs. Careful writers and speakers need to keep up with where these verbs fit along the usage spectrum: generally not accepted, on the fringes of acceptability or standard at last. Here’s how some of today’s workplace verbs stack up.Generally not acceptedAction to mean act on, look after, reply to, handle. NOTIt is imperative that you action these research requests as soon as possible so that we can publish our report on time.Most dictionaries don’t list action as a verb at all. The couple that do (the Canadian Oxford is one) provide a very specific definition: to bring legal action against (he has actioned his neighbours for destroying his lawn ornaments). For the time being, it’s wise to avoid using action as a more general verb. Otherwise you might find yourself in the embarrassing predicament of an Ottawa communications firm a few years back whose marketing material promised "results our clients can action." Reference to mean refer to, mention, supply, provide. NOTWhen you call the repair shop, please reference the serial number of your photocopier.Like action, reference has a limited meaning as a verb: to provide with references, or to cite in or as a reference (her article referenced last year’s polar bear study). There’s little reason to use the verb in the more general disputed sense when there are many familiar verbs to do the job.On the fringes New usages are like invasive species—once they gain a toehold in the language, they are loath to let go. They settle in, spread themselves around, start popping up in dictionaries and then find grudging acceptance among usage authorities. Here are three verbs from business and government writing that, despite continued debate, have endured long enough to be edging their way toward acceptance. However, they’re not fully there. For that reason, use these verbs cautiously, if at all, recognizing that some language experts will object.Access to mean gain access to, obtain, get. MAYBE NOTFor just $42 a month, the "Your Money Is Our Money" VIP customer package allows you to access our full range of banking services.Access as a verb is undisputed in computer lingo, where it means to gain access to data or to obtain data from (anyone can access our database). It’s also gaining acceptance as a verb meaning to enter a building or a place (he accessed the construction site through the security gate). But in less technical situations, consider using a less technical verb. Interface to mean interact, communicate, deal with. MAYBE NOTHaving accepted that humans are as important as winged creatures, Elsa has vowed to interface more effectively with the other members of her bird-watching group.Interface is like access, another computer verb that has caught on in wider circles. The verb is accepted when it means to interact with another computer system or program (our system interfaces with the regional network), but in other situations, a more human verb might be preferable. Transition to mean transform, change, move, undergo a transition. MAYBE NOTUnreal Housing Inc. is transitioning to a new kind of sales organization, with a new focus.Transition is not listed as a verb in most current dictionaries. However, it has made it into the latest editions of the Canadian Oxford (2nd edition, 2004) and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate (11th edition, 2003). This is one verbification on its way to becoming standard. In the meantime, though, it’s worth thinking twice about using it in careful, precise prose.StandardImpact (with or without on) to mean have an impact on, affect, influence. FINEThe town council’s new beer garden restrictions will impact (impact on) the success of our beach volleyball fundraiser.One of the most hotly contested usages of the late twentieth century, impact as a synonym for affect has won the day and is now endorsed by dictionaries and usage authorities. Certain writers and editors, conditioned for years to expunge the verb, still shudder at its use. But it’s time to conquer our squeamishness: impact has moved beyond reproach. Orientate as a variant of orient. FINEIf you are a first-time Husqvarna owner, this video will orientate you to the basic features of this magnificent chainsaw.In the past, some usage commentators have objected to orientate because it carries an extra syllable and is a linguistic newcomer compared to orient. However, "newcomer" is a relative term here. Orientate has occupied a place in the language since the mid-nineteenth century and is in fact preferred to its shorter counterpart in British English. With both variants considered standard, you’re safe to use whichever you prefer. Prioritize—but not priorize, a non-standard Canadianism. FINEMr. Tate refused to buy Tiffany all seven items on her birthday wish list; he advised her to prioritize her requests.Some writers wonder about prioritize, with the suspicious -ize ending that’s among the verbifier’s favourite tools. Widely reviled when it sprang up in the 1960s, prioritize has since become well established in the language and fully entrenched in the dictionaries. Stylistically speaking, the verb is bureaucratic and perhaps worth replacing in general writing. But in many workplaces, it’s become a natural part of the lexicon.Forever on the move Decade after decade, new verbs infiltrate and enrich our language. Some are necessary accompaniments to new technologies. Verbs such as televise, xerox, fax and e-mail have gained acceptance for obvious reasons. Others, including some of the verbs discussed above, may seem less necessary. Still, new verbs satisfy our basic need to express ourselves a bit differently, a bit more precisely, as our society and our culture evolve. For that reason, while we must guard against non-standard verbs that may confuse our readers, we must also welcome the newly legitimate verbs that continue to move our language forward.Source: Favourite Articles (language professionals’ insights on English language issues)
Number of views: 1,064