| 词组 | admit |
| 释义 | admit 1. Admit to. Copperud 1970 records himself 1964, Follett 1966, Fowler 1965, and Heritage 1969 as objecting to the use of admit to in a sense approximating confess. Bremner 1980, Colter 1981, and Bryson 1984 concur in finding fault with it; Chambers 1985 does not object. Bernstein 1965 merely notes its use with to (perhaps thinking of other meanings of admit that are used with to), but in 1977 he notes objections to admit to by "the idiom watchdogs." This objection seems to have its origin in some edition of Fowler published after World War II; it is not in Fowler 1926 nor in the corrected editions of the 1930s and early 1940s; it is in Gowers's 1965 revision but is cited by Copperud as early as 1960. The basis for the objection is the assertion that confess can be followed idiomatically by to, but admit cannot. But the assertion is wrong. When admit is used as an intransitive verb meaning "to make acknowledgment," it is regularly followed by to: • The acquaintance of a lady very much misjudged and ill used by the world, Richard admitted to — George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, 1859 • While he does not admit to being a member of the Gestapo neither does he deny it —N. Y. Herald Tribune Book Rev., 21 May 1939 • But no one could be found who would admit to seeing an attack on Duboko —MacKinlay Kantor, in Best American Short Stories, ed. Martha Foley, 1942 • "I admit to a touch of grey above the ears, such as you might expect in a man of my years ..." —Eric Linklater, Private Angelo, 1946 • Stokowski, who admits to 66 —Time, 5 Oct. 1953 • ... he might incriminate himself if he should admit to membership —Curtis Bok, Saturday Rev., 13 Feb. 1954 • The lady had some records, but she was wary about admitting to having any specific ones —Rexford G. Tugwell, Center Mag., September 1968 • ... most of us cannot admit to intellectual fashions or political passions we have discarded —Naomi Bliven, New Yorker, 17 July 1971 • ... the one-sided relationship that Proust ... seeks to secure from the world around him, but seldom admits to —Angus Wilson, TV. Y. Times Book Rev., 11 Apr. 1976 • ... we are less consciously familiar with its rules. We have admitted to them less, but they are there notwithstanding—Margaret Drabble, Saturday Rev., 27 May 1978 • ... though Canada admits to no Middle West, the nerve he touches runs all the way down Middle North America —Ronald Bryden, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 3 June 1984 This idiom appears to be well-established indeed. The uses referring to gray hair and age cannot be replaced by admit alone without rephrasing—surely a sign of an established idiom. To say with Colter 1981 that admit is never followed by to or with Follett 1966 that it is archaic in tone is to exhibit a certain unfamiliarity with the language writers use. 2. Other uses of admit with to (and into). There is one other intransitive use of admit that takes to: • ... tickets which admit to the famous Chelsea Flower Show—Popular Gardening, 11 Apr. 1976 • ... reached the door admitting to the kitchen —John Morrison, The Creeping City, 1949 It appears to be chiefly British. As a transitive verb admit takes to in several common uses: • The maid admitted him to the living room —Irving Stone, McCall's, March 1971 • ... one of the first non-Communist journalists admitted to China —Harper's, February 1969 • ... they have admitted to their pages execrable examples of English prose —J. Donald Adams, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 1 Mar. 1954 • In 1962 Trinidad and Tobago was admitted to the United Nations —Current Biography, February 1966 • ... was subsequently admitted to practice both before the New York bar and the U.S. Supreme Court —Psychology Today, February 1969 Admit is also used with into: • ... the process of admitting a new state into the Union —Stanley E. Dimond & Elmer F. Pflieger, Our American Government, 1961 • ... she regretted admitting sorrow into their lives — Jean Stafford, Children Are Bored on Sunday, 1953 • ... he is prepared to admit into history the irrational and the unconscious —Peter Stansky, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 25 July 1976 None of these uses is the subject of criticism. 3. Admit of. Fowler 1926 points out that the combination admit of 'is more limited in application than it once was and that it usually takes a nonhuman subject. Numerous later commentators echo the same sentiment; for instance, Chambers 1985: "The subject of the verb ... must always be impersonal or abstract." The commentators are, in the main, correct. • ... his eyes ... would not admit of their being strained upon any definite object without... risk — Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, 1878 • ... the banqueting-hall, always vast enough to admit of many more guests —Lafcadio Hearn, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, 1894 • ... many crucial dilemmas simply do not admit of analysis on one page —Dorothy Fosdick, N.Y. Times Mag., 23 Jan. 1955 • The problems of ecology... admit of a rational solution —Aldous Huxley, Center Mag., September 1969 • ... evidence for the way in which Renaissance artists really thought is insufficient to admit of dogmatism —John Pope-Hennessy, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 8 May 1977 Jane Austen was even able to use a clause as subject: • That Edmund must be for ever divided from Miss Crawford did not admit of a doubt with Fanny — Mansfield Park, 1814 Use with a personal subject in modern prose is rare: • ... we admit of creatures who are transitions from one kingdom to another —Rene Wellek & Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, 1949 The sense "allow, permit" is also used as a transitive without of: • To Garfield ... and to all of the men of his generation educated under the old academic system, it admitted no debate —The Nation, 18 July 1923 • ... this procedural logic does not admit more than minute changes —Paul Henry Lang, Saturday Rev., 26 June 1954 • ... a situation as wretched as Rhodesia's may admit no right solutions —Carll Tucker, Saturday Rev., 3 Mar. 1979 See also allow 2; permit of. |
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