| 词组 | such |
| 释义 | such 1. • May one say, correctly, "Of such I want no part"? Not in the opinion of most authorities. In that example, such is acting as a pronoun, a part of speech to which it does not belong, even though the Bible says "... of such is the kingdom of God." —Freeman 1983 But the OED shows that such has been a pronoun since the time of King Alfred the Great, more than 900 years ago. It is still in use, and it is used in standard English, no matter how the commentators label it. Many of its uses are actually uncontroversial. It is most likely to attract criticism when it occurs in contexts where it can be replaced by common alternatives like it, them, this, and these, as in a sentence such as "If you retained a receipt, please enclose such." Such may not be the best-chosen word in such a context, but it is not an error. To give you a better idea of the respectability and range of pronominal such, here is a sampling of usage: • ... Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the Kingdom of God —Luke 18:16 (AV), 1611 • Edmund did not wonder that such should be his father's feelings —Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814 • ... my last two books have been clipbooks, and I have been hoping that before publishing another such I could produce an Original Work —E. B. White, letter, 19 Aug. 1940 • ... the wives will be free to have their say to such as Lord Redmayne —The Times (London), 16 Apr. 1974 • She was looking for ... an unfamiliar movement, one that was out of place in her world. Had she seen such, she would have disappeared back into the burrow —Lawrence Wishner, Smithsonian, October 1982 • Locke envisaged clean and decent residential training centres. Few such existed —Times Literary Supp., 5 Mar. 1970 • ... a token nonacademic or two; one such was Courtenay Stone —Steve Lohr, N. Y. Times, 12 Mar. 1980 • He can make statements without worrying about the wrath of club owners because none such employ him —Pete Axthelm, New York, 30 Aug. 1971 The use of such to begin a sentence was criticized as far back as Murray 1795 (and probably further back, as Murray was not markedly original). It is rarely criticized now, however, and it is, of course, entirely standard: • Such was the degree of my emotional disturbance that I walked down to the centre of the town without adverting to my surroundings —Flann O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds, 1939 • Such are the harsh facts, and no new formulas, however ingenious, no theoretical legerdemain, can make them disappear —Walter Laqueur, Commentary, January 1972 Such is often followed by a clause that explains or expands. The clause is usually introduced by as: • ... were such as made him seem not even quite an Englishman —Edmund Wilson, New Yorker, 18 Sept. 1971 • ... standards of decency and standards of truth (such as survive) —Robert M. Adams, Bad Mouth, 1977 • ... an easy lack of fearsomeness such as is weirdly charming —Christopher Ricks, N. Y. Rev. of Books, 9 Mar. 1972 If the clause following such shows a result, it is usually introduced by that: • ... a container such that when rations were dropped from airplanes to ground troops there would be no breaking or crumbling of Saltines —Renata Adler, Pitch Dark, 1983 • ... Anderson's medical knowledge is such that it's surprising to learn she's never worked in a hospital —Publishers Weekly, 24 May 1985 Such is also used as part of a tag that suggests an indefinite number of the same sort; the common forms are and such, or such, and or some such. These uses of such seem to attract a fair amount of criticism, but our evidence shows them to be respectable: • Does anything, even Freud's work, belong with Plato and Homer, Shakespeare, Milton and such? —Diana Trilling, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 3 June 1979 • She had heard Baptists and such call their minister a preacher —George P. Elliott, Esquire, February 1972 • When the story begins, fourteen daughters of doctors, bankers, lawyers, and such are graduating from the local Female College —Mona Simpson, Vogue, July 1984 • ... excellent Alsatian wine (the noble Riesling, the flowery Gewiirztraminer, or such) —Colman Andrews, Metropolitan Home, November 1983 • ... by a calculus of his own devising, the letters in the word "love" added up to sixteen, or fifty-four, or some such —New Yorker, 19 Mar. 1984 Evans 1957 observes that in speech some of the pronominal uses of such—not the tag lines—tend to be replaced by other pronouns or by other constructions. In other words, such as a pronoun tends to be more likely in writing than in speech. The example "one such was Courtenay Stone" would probably come out in speech as something like "one of them was Courtenay Stone" or "Courtenay Stone was one of those." You do not have to replace pronominal such in writing, but you will probably use it less often in talking. It is the greater frequency of such in writing that leads some commentators to feel that it is formal or even stilted. 2. • ... clergymen who advocated such recognition — Current Biography, November 1967 • ... such equity in earnings exceeded dividends — Annual Report, Texaco Inc., 1970 • The National Cancer Institute hopes to find more such plants —Catherine Caufield, New Yorker, 14 Jan.1985 • It was on such nights that they liked to lollygag — Joseph Wambaugh, Lines and Shadows, 1984 Before a singular count noun, idiom usually requires that the indefinite article follow such: • ... said that he never remembered such a severe winter as this —Jane Austen, letter, 17 Jan. 1809 • ... I never see such a performance but that ... — Sherwood Anderson, quoted in New Yorker, 12 Nov. 1984 The article is normally omitted when such is preceded by another modifier: • ... called "Marxism and the Developing World", or some such title —Times Literary Supp., 5 Mar. 1970 • ... the first such painting he did —Tex Maule, Sports Illustrated, 29 July 1968 • No such agreement previously existed —Naomi F. Levin, Barnard Alumnae, Winter 1971 Several similar but distinguishable uses of such have drawn criticism since the late 19th century. Ayres 1881 cited "I have never before seen such a large ox," which he felt was equivalent to "I have never before seen an ox such large." He argued that "such a large ox" should be "so large an ox." The notion that such is somehow being misused for so in constructions like "such a large ox" was repeated by several later commentators (Bierce 1909, for one). Fowler 1926 was lukewarm in his assessment of it, however, and no one now seems to take it very seriously. The OED shows that the criticized usage dates back to the 16th century and has occurred in the works of Shakespeare, Addison, Scott, and Dickens. It is, of course, irreproachably standard: • ... but such a dismal Sight I never saw —Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 1719 • ... condolences and consolations are such common and such useless things, that the omission of them is no great crime —Samuel Johnson, letter (in Hall 1917) The quotation from Jane Austen in the preceding paragraph also exemplifies this construction. The focus of critical attention has shifted in the 20th century to the use of such as an intensive, as in "He's such a nice boy." The difference between this use of such and the use criticized by Ayres is that in "I have never before seen such a large ox" there is an implied comparison—"... such a large ox [as that one]." In "He's such a nice boy" there is no comparison; the meaning is simply "He's a very nice boy." This intensive use of such has been criticized at least since Weseen 1928, in which it was said to be "commonly called" the feminine such. Most recent criticism has been in college handbooks, in which it is typically described as too informal for writing. Our evidence confirms that written use of the purely intensive such is relatively rare, but several citations given in Bryant 1962 show that it can appropriately occur in writing that is not notably informal. Here are two of Bryant's examples: • He went to work for the future, showing in the process how terribly he had needed the language he launched; he had such a great deal to say —Atlantic, October 1953 • And yet Henri Michaux himself is such a deceptively gentle, gracious man ... ; perhaps this merely proves that his catharsis is effective —Justin O'Brien, Saturday Rev., 26 Mar. 1949 As Bryant notes, these uses of such are standard. |
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