| 词组 | ex- |
| 释义 | ex- 1. The use of ex-, a hyphenated prefix meaning "former," to modify a noun phrase ignited the wrath of Fowler 1926, who deplored "such patent yet prevalent absurdities as ex-Lord Mayor" and "ex-Chief Whip. " A few present-day critics keep the flame burning: "Does 'ex French general' mean that the man is no longer French?" ponders Bremner 1980. In 1956 the editors of Winners & Sinners, the editorial watchdog bulletin of the New York Times, considered advocating the use of ex without a hyphen to modify noun phrases. Their aim was to find a way of making ex- compounds unambiguous and silencing followers of Fowler, thereby preventing overzealous copy editors from devising such concoctions as "tax ex-official." After some consideration they decided to shelve the issue and continue the hyphenated styling as in "ex-tax official." This is, in fact, what usually occurs in edited prose generally. While this styling of ex- compounds may not be a perfect solution, their meaning is transparent enough except to those who take extra pains to misunderstand them. Bremner's "ex-French general" is a case where ex- modifies not the adjective "French" but the substantive phrase "French general." Although ex-can modify only the attributive part of a noun phrase (as in the first citation below), it usually modifies the whole phrase. • ... an Italian ex-Catholic father and an ex-Mormon mother —Alfred Kazin, Saturday Rev., 3 May 1975 • ... two bishops and two ex-college presidents — Robert M. Hutchins, Center Mag., March 1968 • ... a burly twenty-nine-year-old ex-surf bum —Bun-Snider, Esquire, June 1973 • ... a teenage ex-porno queen —Richard P. Brickner, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 5 Sept. 1976 Occasionally ex- is used in such a way that it could be interpreted as modifying either the attributive or the whole substantive, but we doubt that such uses cause problems for the reader. • ... his position as an Englishman in an ex-colonial country —Current Biography, June 1967 Ex- is widely used in general contexts but is largely avoided in those that are very elevated or literary. 2. Reader's Digest 1983 proposes a distinction between ex- and former in a limited set of cases. The suggestion is that ex- attached to a title or a word expressing relationship should mean the immediate past incumbent; all earlier ones should be designated former. Thus, there can be only one ex-President of the U.S. at a time, though any number of former presidents, and no matter how many spouses you may have had, only the one most recently divorced is your ex-husband or ex-wife. The distinction is easily enough followed, if you care to do so, in those relatively infrequent circumstances when it becomes relevant. We have, however, no citations clearly showing a writer observing the distinction and a few older ones showing it being ignored. In the nature of things, proof positive of a distinction so limited in its scope is difficult to come by, but we must doubt that the distinction is well established in practice. |
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