| 词组 | rather than |
| 释义 | rather than 1. A knowledge of traditional grammar can lead the usage commentator astray. In the Latin grammar that traditional English grammar is based on, a word that is a conjunction can almost never be a preposition as well. English, however, is not bound by the limitations of Latin; many English words function as more than one part of speech. And English compound function words are especially slippery. It is often very hard to tell whether as well as or other than is working as a preposition or a conjunction or just as a combination of individual words. It is just this slipperiness that brings rather than up as a subject in Fowler 1926, 1965, Bremner 1980, Janis 1984, and Cook 1985. The question that puzzled Fowler was whether rather than always operated as a conjunction and thus had the same construction before as it had after, or whether it could also operate as a preposition and so connect dissimilar constructions. We will not go into all of Fowler's thinking on this subject. We will simply point out that rather than does function like a preposition: • Rather than being so quick to knock an attempt at change, Mr. Rustin should extend it the same leeway ... —Burrill L. Crohn, letter to the editor, Harper's, April 1970 • Rather than argue for the overthrow of the entire system, the Colonists realized ... that the basic values of British law were still valid —Daniel Sisson, Center Mag., May 1969 • Is there any chance of spring publication, rather than waiting till fall? —E. B. White, letter, 28 Jan. 1942 In the most apparent prepositional use of rather than, it is followed by a gerund; in such use rather than frequently begins a sentence: • Rather than permitting us to imagine ..., Lindblom forces us to consider... —N. Y. Times Book Rev., 19 Feb. 1978 But when parallel constructions appear on each side of rather than, it is functioning like a conjunction: • ... implicating them, this time subtly rather than powerfully —J. I. M. Stewart, Eight Modern Writers, 1963 • ... speaking of her as a person rather than as an actress —Current Biography, September 1964 • ... for the sake of dramatic convenience rather than for motives that appeal to reason —John Butt, English Literature in the Mid-Eighteenth Century, edited & completed by Geoffrey Carnall, 1979 • ... they cause young people to think and reason rather than just «it and listen —Albert F. Eiss & Carolyn Mulford, NEA Jour., November 1965 • ... I define the language by the literature in which it appears, rather than the literature by the language it employs —W. F. Bolton, A Short History of Literary English, 1967 We have met with the conjunctive use somewhat more often than the prepositional use; both are used in standard English. 2. Commentators from Partridge 1942 to Janis 1984 and Cook 1985 notice a curious construction in which a comparative that you would expect to be followed by than takes rather than instead. Here are two examples: • All this was new to him, his experience having made him more knowing about bookies rather than books —John Ferguson, Death of Mr. Dodsley, 1937 (in Partridge) • The group is more interested in the edible varieties and in experimenting with recipes rather than in pursuing rare specimens —N. Y. Times, 29 Dec. 1970 (in Winners & Sinners, 14 Jan. 1971) Bernstein 1977 rejected these constructions on the basis of rather's etymology—it is the comparative of an obsolete adverb, but etymology is not really the point. The reason for the awkwardness of the sentences is that the more in each sentence leads the reader to expect the usual than, but rather than turns up in its place. The existence of such sentences (which we advise you to avoid) is good evidence that rather than is perceived as a unit by many writers. We lexicographers will, in time, have to recognize its existence. For the controversy over rather than after prefer, see prefer. |
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