| 词组 | since |
| 释义 | since 1. If you have already read many articles in this book, you will have noticed times change and language habits with them. Not long ago a correspondent wrote to us inquiring if it is "incorrect to begin a sentence with because" He admitted to preferring to replace because with since whenever possible. His attitude represents quite a turnabout; Bernstein 1971 and Copperud 1970, 1980 point out that at one time there was a notion current that since could not be used as a causal conjunction. Our old books do not shed much light on this notion; Utter 1916 does, however, censure "Since I am sleepy, I will go to bed" on the grounds that in the sentence since means simply "because" and not "in view of the fact that." Sellers 1975, the work of a British newspaperman, censures since for because as an unacceptable Americanism. We are not sure whether this is simply an idiosyncrasy or whether British newspapermen traditionally reject the usage of Shakespeare; Bernstein 1971, an American newspaperman, quotes two instances from Shakespeare: • Since mine own doors refuse to entertain me, I'll knock elsewhere —The Comedy of Errors, 1593 • Since it is as it is, mend it for your own good —Othello, 1605 Another American newspaperman, Kilpatrick 1984, prefers because, "a fine, honest conjunction; ... it puts on no airs; it cannot be misunderstood." He lists some sentences in which the use of since is ambiguous: • In a second term, Carter might have moved the course of government toward the left, but since Reagan won the election the nation's political movement has been toward the right instead — Washington Star Freeman 1983 notes that because is more emphatic, and Johnson 1982 notes that since is less emphatic. A. S. Hornby, in A Guide to Patterns and Usage in English (1954), makes the additional point that since calls more attention to the cause than as (see AS 1). Clearly since can be used to mean "because," though it may be a bit less emphatic than because. It can, however, cause readers to stumble if both its causal and temporal senses are meaningful in the same context. It is not necessarily preferable to because, as our correspondent perhaps hoped we would tell him. 2.Since, ago. There are three different issues concerning since and ago, all of them pretty ancient. First we have the flat condemnation of since meaning "ago"; it appears in Bierce 1909, and a usage note in Webster 1909 testifying to the dislike of some critics suggests there were others besides Bierce. But the editors of Webster's Second deleted the 1909 note, and there seems to have been no basis for the objection. The sense is old, going back, according to the OED, to about 1489; Shakespeare used it, and many subsequent authors, including this well-known American of some years since: • I received, some time since, your Dissertations on the English Language—Benjamin Franklin, letter to Noah Webster, 26 Dec. 1789 This particular usage appears to be rather uncommon, and perhaps old-fashioned sounding, in current American English. It still is active in British English. It has currency in both British and American English in the phrase long since: • I should have done it long since —Veronica Milli-gan, Observer Mag., 18 Nov. 1973 • ... I have long since learned to divide them into two classes —John Barkham, Saturday Rev., 13 Feb. 1954 Note that this is interchangeable with long ago when the present perfect tense is used: • ... would long ago have retired him —Current Biography, July 1964 But with other past tenses, long ago tends to be used rather than long since: • Moscow long ago had to accept the Yugoslav heresy —Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Harper's, March 1969 The affinity of since for the present perfect tense is also noted in Bryson 1984 and Bernstein 1965 (among others); they extend their observations beyond the adverbial use discussed above to the preposition. This is a sentence typical of the ones they would correct: • ... he was associate editor of the Journal..., a post he fills again since 1947 —Current Biography 1949 Both Bryson and Bernstein would emend fills to read has filled; the sentence does read more smoothly with the present perfect, which is in fact the usual choice. The second issue also concerns the same meaning. Here the use is not condemned, but instead the commentators limit since to time recently past and ago to time long past. Among these commentators were Vizetelly 1906, the synonymist of Webster 1909 (John Livingston Lowes), Whipple 1924, and Lurie 1927. Utter disagreed. The issue appears to have died. Fowler 1926 resurrected the third issue in objecting to the tautology of employing ago and since in the same sentence: • It is barely 150 years ago since it was introduced — example in Fowler 1926 His objection goes back to Baker 1770 ("It is three years ago since his Father died.—These Expressions don't make sense ") and has been repeated as recently as Freeman 1983. Fowler calls the mistake very common, but the Merriam-Webster files do not bear that out, having added but a single example since Fowler was published: • It is just a hundred years ago since there was published in Britain a famous report —Professor K. C. Wheare, London Calling, 16 Sept. 1954 Since this too is British, it is possible that the usage itself is chiefly British. Ago is certainly expendable in these examples, but its inclusion does not seem to be a problem of great moment. |
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