| 词组 | fix |
| 释义 | fix 1. Back in 1839 Captain Frederick Marryat, the nautical novelist, paid a visit to America. Among the things he noticed was the American use of the verb fix. "The verb 'to fix' is universal. It means to do anything," he wrote in his diary. The editors of the Dictionary of American English used Marryat's comment to preface their treatment of the verb, for which they were able to descry some thirty senses and subsenses of American provenience. While a good many of these originated later than 1839, some go back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Captain Marryat is not noted for his effect on American usage writers. But Scheie de Vere 1872 expanded quite a bit on Marryat's comment, and it was perhaps from this source that the subject was picked up by turn-of-the-century commentators. Vizetelly 1906 finds fix "repair" to be "inelegant and indefinite." Bierce 1909 disapproves it in the senses "repair" and "prepare." MacCracken & Sandison 1917 find it an "inaccurate colloquialism" in the same senses. From these older sources fix has found its way into quite a large number of handbooks. Many of these complain that the word is overused or has too many meanings and recommend that some more exact word be substituted for it. On examination you can see that the reason given for the recommendation is inexact. Is "repair my watch" more specific than "fix my watch"? Or is "prepare some supper" more precise than "fix some supper"? Clearly not. Shaw 1987 goes beyond the mere suggestion of using a more precise substitute; he says that it doesn't make much sense to use the same word for such widely diverse meanings. But fix is no more semantically diffuse than many common verbs in English. For instance, you can "take a swim," "take a drink," "take your time," take it on the chin," or "take a size six." Who is confused by such everyday phrases? And fix has many fewer senses than such verbs as set, break, turn, do, or run. This seems to be a case—one out of many—of the well-attested but inexplicable nervousness of American usage commentators when faced with Americanisms. There is no reason Americans need be diffident about their own language. Here are a few fairly recent examples of several senses that are mentioned in the usage books: • ... the Windham Garage, where cars and farm machines get fixed —Vance Bourjaily, Atlantic, February 1973 • ... a searching criticism of the whole legal system, which they said was too seriously flawed for a legal services program to fix —David Riley, The Wash-ingtonian, November 1970 • "Do you want me to fix you a piece of jelly bread?" she asked —Russell Baker, Growing Up, 1982 • Her hair looked as if it had just been professionally done, although she fixes it herself —Lally Weymouth, N.Y. Times Mag, 26 Oct. 1980 • Did you go and try to fix this case behind my back? —F. Lee Bailey, quoted in N.Y. Times, 6 Mar. 1976 • ... fixing traffic tickets for wayward drivers —William Nack, Sports Illustrated, 22 Sept. 1980 • ... don't bother either to have their cats fixed or to feed them —Anthony Bailey, New Yorker, 20 Nov. 1971 • ... to make some money and get her Latino nose fixed to American standards —Richard Boeth, Cosmopolitan, June 1976 These uses are all standard though not, perhaps, characteristic of the most elevated prose. Safire 1984 prints a letter in which a correspondent takes him to task for writing "a chance to fix their mistakes." The correspondent pretends this must mean "a chance to make their mistakes permanent." This is the game of willful misinterpretation of plain American English that is pleasureful to those who dislike some meaning or other of a word for some reason or other or for no reason. We recommend that you not play it. These uses of fix are perfectly all right in American English. 2. The intransitive sense of fix meaning "to get set, be on the verge" is showing signs of breaking out of its regional shell. It seems to be most often used in the southern United States, but now and then pops up in a national publication. It is almost always found in the form fixing to now. The evidence in the Dictionary of American English shows fixing for in the 18th century. There is a long article on the subtleties of fixing to by Marvin K. L. Ching in American Speech, Winter 1987. • I am fixing to paint this afternoon —Flannery O'Connor, letter, 28 Feb. 1960 • ... Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier are fixing to come out of retirement —Sports Illustrated, 31 Aug. 1981 This construction is not found in very formal contexts. 3. The noun fix has less frequently been aspersed, but it receives occasional mention. Bernstein 1971 says most senses of the noun are useful and acceptable, but he questions the sense "a shot of a narcotic." The examples here will show you how that sense has developed since 1971: • ... the urgent frisking for notes and small change of boys desperate for a fix —Anthony Burgess, MF, 1971 • ... leaves the Radio 3-saturated listener wondering where to go for his evening fix —Christopher Driver, The Listener, 27 June 1974 • ... Dopey Americans will pay anything for their coffee fix —William Safire, N.Y. Times, 13 Jan. 1977 • Beauty contest addicts can get another giant fix tomorrow —John J. O'Connor, N. Y. Times, 9 Sept. 1977 • To the baseball addict, box scores ... are his daily fix —Ronnie Virgets, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 12 Oct. 1979 Here are two other common and even more recent uses of the noun: • There is no quick fix to the interest-rate dilemma — Christopher Byron et al., Time, 12 Oct. 1981 • These are technological fixes once undreamed of — Horace Freeland Judson, Science 84, November 1984 |
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