| 词组 | unique |
| 释义 | unique The law has been laid down time and time again: unique is an absolute adjective (see absolute adjectives); it cannot be modified by such adverbs of degree as more, most, somewhat, and very; a thing is either unique or it isn't. These observations are accepted as gospel by many people, and no one who adheres to them is likely to be persuaded not to, but let it be noted anyway that they are not entirely true. The French word unique was first borrowed into English in the early 17th century with two senses, "being the only one; sole" and "having no like or equal." For a long time it was an extremely rare word. The OED indicates that it was reacquired in its second sense from the French in the late 18th century, but it was still usually regarded as foreign and was still rarely used. Henry Todd entered it as a foreign word in his 1818 edition of Johnson's Dictionary, characterizing it as "affected and useless." Not until about the middle of the 19th century did unique come into widespread use and acceptance as a genuinely English word. Words that are in widespread use have a natural tendency to take on extended meanings. In the case of unique, it was natural that a word used to describe something that was unlike anything else should also come to be used more broadly to describe something that was, simply, unusual or rare. A similar extension of meaning has occurred with singular. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that unique began to be used more broadly at almost exactly the time that it became a common word: • A very unique child, thought I —Charlotte Brontë (in Fowler 1907) • You will not wonder at these minute details, knowing how unique a thing an interview with Royalty is to me —Lewis Carroll, letter, 18 Dec. 1860 • ... these summer guests found themselves defrauded of their uniquest recreations —Harper's, April 1885 (OED) It was not long, however, before such usage began to be criticized. The first commentator to notice that unique was being used in new ways was Richard Grant White. According to Bardeen 1883, White objected to the use of unique Xo mean "beautiful" (perhaps he understood "very unique" as "very beautiful"). Loud and persistent voices of protest were not raised until after the turn of the century. Vizetelly 1906 and Bierce 1909 were among the first to make the now familiar observation that there can be no degrees of uniqueness. Fowler 1907 also broached this subject. The Fowlers feared that unique might go the way of singular, that its correct meaning might be weakened and ultimately lost because of its common misuse by the careless. Variations on this theme have been repeated throughout the century. Actual usage of unique, meanwhile, seems to have changed little. In current English, unique has four principal senses, the least common of which is its original sense, "being the only one; sole, single": • "But what about your wife typing it out? I can't walk away with a unique copy. Suppose I lost it? ..." — Kingsley Amis, Antaeus, Spring 1975 • The other misconception held man to be the unique toolmaker among animals —Current Biography, November 1967 Fowler 1926 disliked this use of unique, and Evans 1957 asserted that unique "can no longer be used in this sense." No other commentator has taken note of it. The use of unique approved by the critics is its second sense, "having no like or equal": • ... thought that each of us from childhood on contains an ideal likeness of love that is unique —Paul Horgan, Ladies' Home Jour., January 1971 • ... is unique in the history of English art: who is there to match him ... ? —Robert Halsband, Saturday Rev., 18 Dec. 1971 • ... he could stare at the flames, each one new, violent, unique —Robert Coover, Harper's, January 1972 • ... is one of the rarest of all birds on the writing scene today—in fact he may well be unique —John F. Baker, Publishers Weekly, 24 May 1976 • ... a one-time phenomenon, unique in its time — James A. Michener, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 27 Feb. 1977 Use of this sense is widespread and shows no sign of dying out. As several commentators have noted, unique in this sense can be modified by such adverbs as almost, nearly, and practically: • ... a curious, almost unique turn of affairs —Roger Angell, New Yorker, 15 Aug. 1983 In a related and equally common sense, unique is used with to and has the meaning "distinctively characteristic; peculiar": • ... this is not a condition unique to California — Ronald Reagan, quoted in Change, September 1971 • ... counts the ridges and whorls ... which are unique to each print —Francesca Lunzer, Forbes, 18 June 1984 Fowler also disliked this use of unique, although he stopped short of calling it incorrect. Howard 1980 takes exception to it as well. The controversial sense of unique can be variously defined. It sometimes equals unusual, sometimes rare, and sometimes distinctive. It can sometimes be interpreted not as a separate sense at all, but simply as the second sense, "having no like or equal," with a slightly different emphasis: that which is unique stands apart from all other things, that which is very unique stands far apart from all other things. Usually this sense implies not only standing apart but also standing above—that is, having unusual excellence—and is therefore highly popular among the writers of advertising copy (doubtless one reason why the critics are hostile to it): • A very unique ball point pen —advt., Wall Street Jour., 21 May 1975 • ... our ingredients are too unique to copy —advt., Town & Country, July 1980 But copywriters are by no means the only ones to make use of this sense: • ... nothing quite so unique in literature as these solemn admonitory poems —Edith Hamilton, The Greek Way to Western Civilization, 1930 • The more we study him, the less unique he seems — Harry Levin, James Joyce, 1941 • ... the most unique of all these hills —Donald A. Whiting, Ford Times, February 1968 • She's the most unique person I ever met —Arthur Miller, quoted in Theatre Arts, November 1956 • ... the most unique contribution ever submitted for publication —Dun's, October 1971 • ... this rather unique situation —Morgan Horse, April 1983 • He was the most unique of men —Frank Deford, Sports Illustrated, 30 Apr. 1984 • An extremely unique enzyme —Richard Fitzhugh, US, 10 Sept. 1984 • ... opts for a more unique approach —Tom Kessler, Houston Post, 16 Sept. 1984 • ... one of the most unique organizations in pro football —Paul Henniger, Los Angeles Times, 8 Sept. 1984 This sense is most noticeable when it occurs with a modifying adverb, as in the above quotations, but its use without a modifier is equally common: • ... the unique camaraderie of career servicemen — Malcolm S. Forbes, Forbes, 1 Dec. 1970 • ... is in a unique position to evaluate them both — Times Literary Supp., 22 Oct. 1971 • The town ... is mainly a collection of unique antique shops —Southern Living, November 1971 • ... provided us with a unique opportunity and challenge —Chester Bowles, Saturday Rev., 6 Nov. 1971 • ... a unique breed of woman—independent, daring, cool-headed —Margaret Cronin Fisk, Cosmopolitan, October 1976 • Those who sell gourmet foods say buyers must be convinced that the products are unique and high-quality but not intimidating —Janet Guyon, Wall Street Jour., 6 May 1982 • ... his unique combination of touch and power led to tournament wins in Madrid —Barry Lorge, Sport, September 1983 What, then, is the intelligent writer to make of unique? The evidence allows several definite conclusions. Those who insist that unique cannot be modified by such adverbs as more, most, and very are clearly wrong: our evidence shows that it can be and frequently is modified by such adverbs. Those who believe that the use of such modifiers threatens to weaken (or has already weakened) the "having no like or equal" sense of unique are also wrong: our evidence shows that the "having no like or equal" sense is flourishing. And those who regard the use of unique to mean "unusual" or "distinctive" as a modern corruption are emphatically wrong: unique has been used with those meanings for well over a hundred years. Should you therefore use the disputed sense of unique with utter disregard for possible criticism? Should you shake the hand of the nearest usage commentator and tell him that you find his books "extremely unique"? Maybe not. The reasons people have for disliking such usage may not be especially sound, but they are cherished nonetheless, and they are widely promoted. There is no denying that many good writers and editors strongly disapprove of unique in its "unusual" sense, even though it is indisputably well established in general prose. Perhaps you might try being one who knows enough about its bad reputation to avoid it but who also knows enough about its actual history not to sneer at those who use it. Note, by the way, that if you are revising a passage in which unique is modified by an adverb of degree, the way to do it is not to delete the adverb, but to replace unique with an uncontroversial synonym, such as unusual or distinctive. Deleting the adverb can result in nonsense; for example, a newspaper story several years ago included a reference to "two of the unique rooms anywhere in sports." Presumably an overzealous editor deleted most before unique, failing to notice that doing so effectively turned the sentence into gibberish. The sensible revision would have been to change unique to unusual: "two of the most unusual rooms anywhere in sports." |
| 随便看 |
英语用法大全包含2888条英语用法指南，基本涵盖了全部常用英文词汇及语法点的翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。