| 词组 | regard |
| 释义 | regard 1. In regard to, with regard to, as regards, regarding. There is a mixed bag of opinion about these, in which we can discern two main lines of commentary. The first of these apparently began with Quiller-Couch 1916, who condemned as regards and with regard to as circumlocutory and jargonistic. Many modern handbooks, especially the college variety, express a similar judgment, often extending it to in regard to and regarding as well. The critics prefer such alternatives as about, on, and concerning, and in many contexts you will no doubt find them preferable yourself. But remember that the matter of wordiness is entirely secondary to the matter of how your sentence sounds. When longer phrases suit the rhythm of a sentence better than short ones, the longer ones are a better choice. The second line of comment goes back at least as far as MacCracken & Sandison 1917, where in regards to used in place of in regard to is cited as an error. The adherents to this line are also numerous, but they are almost all American (the one exception is Longman 1988). The issue in this case appears to be largely a social one. In regards to seems to be an expression heard chiefly from those who speak H. L. Mencken's "vulgate." Most of our citations were taken from phone-in radio programs. We also have found it in a letter written to us and once in print by this noted practitioner of the vulgate: • ... maybe boys and gals who wants to take up writing as their life work would be benefited if some person like I was to give them a few hints in regards to the technic of the short story —Ring Lardner, preface, How to Write Short Stories, 1924 Our evidence suggests that in regards to is an oral use not found in edited prose. In regard to, with regard to, as regards, and regarding, on the other hand, are all perfectly standard. Here are a few examples of the words at work: • In regard to the work of an already famous or infamous author it decides ... —Edgar Allan Poe, The Literati, 1850 • ... conclusions I had reached with regard to Vietnam —Tip O'Neill with William Novak, Man of the House, 1987 • ... adviser to Douglas of Cavers with regard to the annual distribution of alms —K. M. Elisabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words, 1977 • Indeed the similarity ... is extraordinary, as regards the military methods of both sides —G. M. Trevel-yan, A Shortened History of England, 1942 • As regards function, these centuries are those in which the ancient patterns of cumulative negation appear in the standard language —Strang 1970 • Regarding the four types of heart diseases ... , the president of ABC said ... —Winston Munnings, Nassau (Bahamas) Guardian, 3 Mar. 1984 • Miss Crawley was pleased at the notion of a gossip with her sister-in-law regarding the late Lady Crawley —W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 1848 2. A curious issue concerns the omission of as after regard in constructions where as would normally be expected ("was regarded a traitor" rather than "was regarded as a traitor"). This subject has troubled British commentators from Fowler 1907 to Longman 1988. It has penetrated one or two American books, perhaps because of its lengthy treatment by Fowler. The problem is this: regard is generally associated with verbs that take a direct object and a second complement introduced by a particle: regard (object) as, describe (object) as, take (object) for, look upon (object) as, and so forth. Since some time in the 19th century (the OED's earliest example is from 1836), regard has been showing some movement in the direction of ditransitive verbs like think, which take an object and a complement with no intervening particle. Consider, the verb prescribed by Fowler to replace regard in his numerous examples, is more strongly linked with the ditransitives (though it is also used with as like regard, a usage decried by some American commentators). The fact that Fowler 1926 has more than twice as many examples as Fowler 1907 suggests that the ditransitive regard had a burst of popularity around the turn of the century, which continued right up to 1926. As late as 1968 the grammarian Randolph Quirk (quoted in Strang 1970) said that the ditransitive regard was "readily attested in everyday examples of speech and writing as well as in the vociferous complaints of purists." But, curiously enough, Quirk et al. 1985 calls as with regard obligatory and makes no mention of ditransitive regard at all. It hardly seems possible that the construction disappeared completely between 1968 and 1985. All of this British controversy is a bit puzzling to the American, as Copperud 1980 attests. The constructions that so exercised Fowler are rare in our files. Fowler's first objection was to regard with a complement introduced by an infinitive rather than as: • "You perceive that even if this Jehovah is not God he is nevertheless regarded to be in the enjoyment of considerable powers " —Henry Baerlein, The House of the Fighting-Cocks, 1880 That is our only example. Of the ditransitive regard we have a genuine American example (in the passive): • ... treated in a manner calculated to make him feel that he is regarded a sinister figure —George F. Ken-nan, New Republic, 2 Feb. 1953 But this, too, is our only one. Either our editors have been missing this construction for the past half century, or it is relatively rare in American English. We do not have any current British evidence, either, so we are not sure whether British use of the ditransitive regard has dwindled. The silence of Quirk et al. 1985 might suggest that, but the notices in Longman 1984 and Longman 1988 suggest that it is still in use. Objections to the use of as after otherwise ditransitive verbs receive some attention at AS 5 and at consider 1. |
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