| 词组 | firm |
| 释义 | firm 1. There are two matters to set straight here. First, no Merriam-Webster dictionary equates firm with corporation; our dictionaries do recognize a current extended sense, however, "a business unit or enterprise." This sense is well attested: • ... the engineering firm that built the Chesapeake Bay bridge —Dun's, October 1971 • The new firm started operations in early 1971 as a major supplier of die cast parts —Annual Report, National Lead Co., 1970 • ... established his own firm as a manufacturer of lamps —Current Biography, April 1966 • Sally does mechanical drawing for an engineering firm —Edwina Deans et al., Basic Mathematics, Book G, 1977 The second point is that the reader of these examples and similar reports has no need to know and probably does not care to know what legal basis the firm is established on. The consideration is irrelevant to the reader, and so is the objection. Firm is a collective noun that is treated as singular in American English. In British English, however, it may take a plural verb: • One sympathetic firm have sent Mr. Lawrence a pair of "indestructible" socks —The People, 25 Feb. 1968 2. • On legalization of the Communist Party the Government is also standing firm —David Holden, N.Y. Times Mag., 3 Oct. 1976 Firmly serves for other adverbial uses: • ... held my hand firmly —Jane Goodall, Ladies' Home Jour., October 1971 • ... the more she brooded, the more firmly she decided that it could not be done —Katherine Anne Porter, Ladies' Home Jour., August 1971 • ... keeps buzzing until the door is firmly closed — Hubbard H. Cobb, Woman's Day, October 1971 • He firmly believes that shipbuilding will turn up with economy —Gerald R. Rosen, Dun's, October 1971 |
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