| 词组 | basis |
| 释义 | basis 1. Basis figures in two somewhat long-winded phrases that are just the sort of thing to make usage writers foam at the mouth. The first of these phrases is on the basis of (or sometimes on a basis of), which is often made a candidate for replacement. However, when your geometry book says • ... this cannot be proved on the basis of the postulates that we have stated so far —School Mathematics Study Group, Geometry, Part 1, 1965 you cannot improve the sentence by substituting on, by, after, or because of as suggested by Copperud 1970. The periphrastic preposition is right for the geometrical statement, and no simple substitution will improve it. But this is not to say that it can never be replaced without improvement or reduction in long-windedness. In this sentence, for instance, • Hence, we find that a primary characteristic of propaganda is the effort to gain the acceptance of a view not on the basis of the merits of that view but, instead, by appealing to other motives. —Herbert Blumer, in Principles of Sociology, rev. ed., 1951 you could well replace "on the basis of the merits of that view" with "on its own merits," but that involves more than a simple replacement of on the basis of with on. Let us draw a hasty conclusion: when you meet your on the basis of in revising, consider how it fits the whole context of your piece and how it fits the rhythm and sense of the sentence. A mechanical replacement will not necessarily make your text more readable. (For practice you might try playing around with the sentence quoted just above. It can be tightened up considerably; still, in some revisions you might find retention of on the basis of helpful.) The more challenging phrase is on a basis. This phrase functions as an adverb and is guaranteed to make a usage commentator see red. It is a phrase which looks and sounds awkward and which is found quite often in less-than-elegant writing. Its awkwardness seems to be its chief virtue, for it allows a writer to write what might otherwise not be easily expressible: • Baseball as at present conducted is a gigantic monopoly intolerant of opposition and run on a grab-all-that-there-is-in-sight basis —Cap Anson, 1897, quoted in The Ultimate Baseball Book, ed. Daniel Okrent & Harris Lewine, 1984 • Routine and remedial maintenance are available via resident engineers, single or multi-shift maintenance contracts, or on a per call basis —computer advt., May 1969 • ... one lithographer announced commercial availability of continuous tone lithography on a production basis —Wallace B. Sadauskas, Book Production Industry, June 1967 In each of these examples the writer used the basis phrase to say something that would have been difficult to express in a less cumbersome way. You will note that the last two are of a technical nature; the phrase is not uncommon in technical contexts. In these next examples the phrase is used in somewhat simpler contexts but in each case is not readily replaced by a plain adverb: • ... they're on a first-name basis with the agents — Joe Eszterhas, Rolling Stone, 17 Feb. 1972 • ... transfer them to authorities which could handle them on a permanent peacetime basis —C. E. Black & E. C. Helmreich, Twentieth Century Europe, 1950 • ... operates on a contract basis —Current Biography 1948 • ... an appropriation of $7.5 million a year for a five-year period, allotted to the states on a matching basis —Saturday Rev., 26 June 1954 • ... will be run on a non-profit-making basis —Har-diman Scott, London Calling, 13 Jan. 1955 In the next example, on a daily basis means something different than daily: • The accountants work on a daily basis in management's offices, plants and board rooms —Forbes, 15 May 1967 Now do not jump to the conclusion that we are recommending on a basis as an all-purpose tool. It is awkward, and it can often be revised to advantage. Here, for example, is a sentence where "on a linage basis" could have been turned into "by the line" and been not only simpler but more easily understandable: • Whether from their training as pedagogues or whether they were accustomed to being paid on a linage basis, their literary style was circumloquacious in the extreme —Gordon Clark, The Reporter, 6 Apr. 1967 The matter of revision is not always simple, though. Safire 1984 reprints a sentence of his own using the phrase • ... my cap is reverently doffed to Executive Editor A. M. Rosenthal, whose idea it was to thrust me into the language dodge on a weekly basis. A correspondent of Safire's—perhaps frightened by a usage writer while young—objects to the basis phrase and asks why weekly or every week wouldn't do. The question answers itself. Not only do "thrust me into the language dodge weekly" and "thrust me into the language dodge every week" spoil the rhythm of the sentence, but they do not mean the same thing as what was written. The knee-jerk substitution simply does not work. In order to avoid on a weekly basis Safire would have to rewrite, perhaps coming up with the starchier "whose idea it was to have me write a weekly column on language." Safire did better the first time. The conclusion to be reached here is that on a basis, while generally awkward, can sometimes be useful. It is not a phrase found in very formal writing. But care and judgment are required in revising it out of your text; it may be better left alone than hastily revised. 2. When used with a preposition, basis usually takes of or for: • The basis of optimism is sheer terror —Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 • ... the frustrating task of putting international affairs on a permanent basis of law and order — Adlai E. Stevenson, Speeches, ed. Richard Harrity, 1952 • ... Indian trails ... were the basis for many of their roads —American Guide Series: North Carolina, 1939 • ... his theory of synthetic cubism involves abstraction as a basis for painting —Herbert Read, The Philosophy of Modern Art, 1952 When basis is used with in, the phrase basis in fact is usual: • ... the common ... rationalization ... has no real basis in fact —William Styron, This Quiet Dust and Other Writings, 1982 Basis may also be followed by an infinitive: • ... three-man committee which was studying a basis to arrange a cease-fire plan —Current Biography 1951 |
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