| 词组 | former |
| 释义 | former 1. Former, latter. Just about any usage book will tell you that former is used to refer to the first of two and latter to the second of two and that former and latter should not be used when three or more persons or things are being discussed. Let's take a look at the evidence: former and latter are certainly used when two persons or things are being discussed: • This book is addressed ... both to "new" and to "experienced" collectors. The former will be misled and the latter irritated by the text —Times Literary Supp., 5 Feb. 1970 • ... was the Truman administration's internal security program a deliberate attempt to build support for foreign aid, or was it essentially an incompletely examined response to domestic political pressures? Freeland stresses the importance of the former.... A more plausible analysis might place greater emphasis on the latter explanation —Robert Griffith, Saturday Rev., 22 Apr. 1972 • However, the triumphant welfare state principle means a fundamental trade-off between capitalist prosperity and economic security. As a nation we have chosen to have less of the former in order to have more of the latter —David A. Stockman, Newsweek, 28 Apr. 1986 But more often only one word or the other is used: • ... the decision to base the civil rights bill on both the commerce clause and the 14th Amendment, with the heavier emphasis on the former —Current Biography, February 1965 • ... the home of Dr. and Mrs. Perley Marsh, the latter a descendant of Colonel Hinsdale —American Guide Series: New Hampshire, 1938 • ... he will try to differentiate among those who might assume larger responsibilities from those who cannot. He will not persist in trying to remake the latter—Harry Levinson, Think, May-June 1967 • Would Neill say that Jimmy was not self-directed ... ? Or would he see a child learning new satisfactions ... ? I would hope the latter —Emmanuel Bernstein, Psychology Today, October 1968 • ... citing the films Stiletto and The Wild Bunch. The latter film had been well received —Mark Phillips, Media & Methods, September 1969 And former and latter are not restricted to just two possible referents; they are often used with three or more— often enough that such use really can be considered acceptable, at least in most varieties of general prose. • ... there were three sorts of recruits:... The former of these probably joined with a view to an eventual captaincy —Times Literary Supp., 30 Dec. 1949 • Pronunciation may be indicated by diacritical marks, by Trager-Smith phoneme symbols, or by the International Phonetic Alphabet. The most easily understood system ... is the former —Booklist, 1 July 1979 • Does 'well' refer to aesthetic or emotional or moral values? Or to all three? Surely not the latter —C. Day Lewis, A Hope for Poetry, 3d ed., 1936 • ... though her bibliography includes Hecht, Snyder, and Daiches, she omits the latter's first name — DeLancey Ferguson, Modern Language Notes, February 1957 • These materials are resistant to corrosion, abrasion, and extremes of temperature, the latter stemming from a coefficient of thermal expansion near zero — Annual Report, Owens-Illinois, 1970 • Their three primary gathering places are the Grand Ole Opry backstage, the Station Inn, and the Blue-grass Inn, the latter being Nashville's oldest blue-grass club —Brett F. Devan, Bluegrass Unlimited, October 1982 Even less restricted uses of latter occur. Sometimes it refers to a group of things: • Among these latter were the great German poet, Friedrich Schiller, and New England's Henry Wads-worth Longfellow —American Guide Series: Minnesota, 1938 • He is a fellow of the three latter societies —Current Biography, November 1966 • Follow the roads past the three lakes. The upland forests adjacent to the latter two present a magnificent sight —Eileene Coffield, Ford Times, November 1967 • The artist, the teacher, and the soldier are probably as old in their service to society as the minister, the physician, and the lawyer. Unlike the latter, however, they operate outside the personal thoughts of the individual —Ralph Crawshaw, Center Mag., May 1969 And sometimes latter simply refers to the last person or thing named previously, especially at the end of a clause or phrase: • ... they generally go to the nearest water to drink, afterwards returning to sleep near what may be left of the meat; or, should the latter be finished, not going very far —J. Stevenson-Hamilton, Wild Life in South Africa, 1947 • The skipper, or if the latter is the navigator, the bos'n, will be having a final look around —Peter Heaton, Cruising, 1952 • He appears to be an out-and-out Martin Johnson kind of man. The latter devoted his films and writings to explode the shoot-and-shiver myths of too articulate Brethren of the Safari —Hans Christian Adamson, Saturday Rev., 10 July 1954 Obviously, the usagists' simple dictum that former and latter can only refer to the first and second of two is unrealistically restrictive. However, when discussing more than three items, you can, of course, use the alternatives (such as last or last-named instead of latter) that the usage books recommend, and many writers do so: • The last of these died at a comparatively early age, but the other four all achieved considerable eminence as teachers and writers —Dictionary of American Biography, 1928 • The last mentioned, as well as the others, almost inevitably causes strains —Robert T. Blackburn, AAUPBulletin, December 1967 • It was followed by The Girl in the News ( 1940), Kipps (1940 ... ), and The Young Mr. (1941). The last-named presented the life of the famous English prime minister —Current Biography 1950 Some usage books will also tell you that it is a good idea to avoid former and latter altogether, because these words interfere with smooth reading and rapid comprehension by forcing the reader to look back and reread in order to see what is being referred to. But since some writers are using former and latter left and right, how can we tell whether other writers avoid them? Well, for one thing, latter (as you may have noticed in the citations shown above) gets a lot more use than former, and the reason is probably that writers avoid using former because it involves too much of an interruption. The referent offormer is usually some distance away, which means (1) that it is rarely remembered without a rereading and (2) that the reader may have quite a hunt to find it. The referent of latter is usually close at hand and is often remembered without a look back. In fact, uses of latter with three or more choices indicate that the reader is merely expected to retain the last of the series and associate it with the word latter, without going back to find out what kind or how many came before. So, should you use former and latter in your writing? They make it easy to refer to earlier phrases or clauses that are not easily distilled down to a word or two (the passage by Robert Griffith near the beginning of this article is a good example). They let the writer start a new sentence without having to repeat a word or phrase. Latter, especially, can often be used without interrupting the reader's train of thought, and both words are appropriate in formal contexts where the reader expects to progress slowly. Just keep in mind that former and latter are basically conveniences for the writer. They are potential nuisances for the reader unless handled with care, and you have no right to demand more from your reader than your subject is worth. Repetition of the word or phrase that former or latter might replace is in many cases a good alternative. 2.See ex- 2. |
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