| 词组 | kind |
| 释义 | kind 1. These (or those) kind (or sort) of. We will tell you first what most of the handbooks and usage books say: use this or that with singular kind or sort and follow of with a singular noun; use these or those with plural kinds or sorts and follow of with a plural noun. But we will warn you second that this advice applies only to American English, and that it presents an unrealistically narrow set of options. Real usage—even in American English—is much more varied and much more complex. The history of these expressions as a usage issue goes back to the 18th century. According to Leonard 1929, Robert Baker in his 1779 book disapproved these or those before singular sort and thus established the party line for American commentators of the 19th and 20th centuries. Leonard also notes that Lowth 1762 (in one of his later editions) and Lindley Murray 1795 touched on the construction; Murray cited "these kind of sufferings" for correction. Leonard says the issue was considered a more serious problem in the 19th century. In this country Noah Webster (Grammatical Institute, 1804), Goold Brown (Grammar of English Grammars, 1851 and later), Richard Grant White 1870, and Ayres 1881 disapprove; presumably there were many others. And if White and Ayres are typical, most American commentators were entirely ignorant of any literary precedent for the expressions (Goold Brown does mention Shakespeare but still calls his use an impropriety). You may be likewise unaware of the literary backing, so we will put in some examples here: • Those kind of objections —Sir Philip Sidney, The Defence of Poesie, 1595 (in McKnight 1928) • These kind of knaves I know —Shakespeare, King Lear, 1608 • ... these kind of Testimonies —John Milton, Of Prelatical Episcopacy, 1641 • ... these kind of thoughts —John Dryden, Of Dramatick Poesie, An Essay, 1668 (in McKnight) • ... these kind of structures —Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub, 1710 • ... these sort of authors are poor —Alexander Pope (in Alford 1866) • These Sort of people ask Opinions —Sir Richard Steele, The Tatler, No. 25, 7 June 1709 • You don't know those Sort of People Child —Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, 1722 • The Apprehension of these kind of Fleers —Colley Cibber, An Apology for the Life of Mr Colley Cibber, Comedian, 1740 • ... engaged in these sort of hopes —Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814 • These sort of people —Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, 1839 (in Jespersen 1909-49) • ... these sort of impertinences —Sydney Smith, letter, 6 Jan. 1843 (in Hodgson 1889) These constructions do not stop in the middle of the 19th century, but the examples should give you a general idea of what could have been found by 19th-century commentators had they chosen to look. And undoubtedly there are more to be found. (Commentators are many, but collectors of evidence are few.) The reaction to the expressions has been more mixed in Great Britain. You might expect more tolerance from British commentators, since the examples above are all from British literature. Alford 1866 is a defender of the construction, but Hodgson 1889 is a critic. Fowler 1926 is somewhat tolerant, while Gowers in Fowler 1965 promotes it to the status of "sturdy indefensible." Chambers 1985 finds it acceptable in informal language. But Phythian 1979, Howard 1980, and Bryson 1984 take the American point of view (or perhaps they have come full circle to Baker and Lindley Murray again). The phrases did not develop uniformly. Manner, which most commentators simply ignore, seems to have been the first so used (as in Shakespeare's "all manner of men"), followed shortly by kind. It is important to note that the constructions with kind have many pre-modifiers other than these and those—in fact these apparently occurs only twice in Shakespeare. He uses such ("such kind of men"—Much Ado About Nothing), some ("some kind of men"—Twelfth Night), all ("all kind of natures"—Timon of Athens), and other modifiers ("the newest kind of ways"—2 Henry IV) as well as a singular before with a plural after ("a kind of men"—Othello). Milton, writing about forty years later, also uses this last pattern. He has in his English prose works "what kind of Bishops," "such kind of deceavers," "which kind of Monsters," "such kind of incursions," and "a kind of Chariots" in addition to his uses with these. Sort , which comes along later, probably gives us a clue to how the idioms developed. Shakespeare regularly uses it with a before and the plural after ("a sort of men"—Merchant of Venice, "a sort of vagabonds"— Richard III). When Shakespeare uses a plural premodifier, he uses sorts ("all sorts of deer"—Merry Wives of Windsor, "several sorts of reasons"—Hamlet). A concordance of Milton's English prose works shows that Milton follows the same pattern. The singular pre-modifier and sort is commonly followed by a plural noun; we find "this sort of men," "the younger sort of servants," "the better sort of them." He also uses the plural premodifier and sorts: "all sorts of men," "two sorts of* persons," but his singular followed by a plural is about seven times more common. He apparently did not find much use for the all-plural form. We might conjecture then, from this little information about sort, that the idioms first form with the singular felt to be a mass noun, frequently with a plural complement, and gradually the kind of, sort of comes to be felt to be more or less of an adjective (this is the supposition of the OED, Jespersen, and Jensen 1935)—with no particular effect on the preceding modifier or the following noun. Sort falls into the same patterns as kind—with plural modifiers and plural nouns—in the 18th century. To complete the picture, we find both Shakespeare and Milton using plural kinds followed by a singular, too—the singular being a mass noun. Shakespeare gives us "Some kinds of baseness"; Milton, "various kinds of style," "other kinds of licensing." Shakespeare (but not Milton, apparently) also has kinds with a plural: "All kinds of sores and shames." To sum up: when Jespersen says that with kind and sort "we often find seeming irregularities of number," he has not overstated the case. We can find both kind and sort in the singular preceded by a singular and followed by a singular; in the singular preceded by a singular and followed by a plural; and in the singular preceded by a plural and followed by a plural. And kinds and sorts are followed both by singulars and plurals. All these permutations have been in use since the 18th century or earlier, and they are still in use. Witness these examples: • ... the kind of fear here treated —Charles Lamb, The Essays of Elia, 1823 • "What kind of angel is this?" —Bernard Malamud, The Magic Barrel, 1958 • I hate to write this kind of thing —Flannery O'Connor, letter, 26 Oct. 1958 • ... started as a kind of narrative —John Houseman, quoted in Publishers Weekly, 19 Aug. 1983 • ... a sort of Modern Authors —Jonathan Swift, The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit, 1710 • I love this sort of poems —Charles Lamb, letter, 20 Mar. 1799 • This sort of verbs is purely Saxon —Noah Webster, Grammatical Institute, 1804 (in Leonard 1929) • ... stockbrokers, sugar-bakers—that sort of people —W. M. Thackeray, Punch, 27 Sept. 1845 • ... the kind of questions that must be asked —Herbert J. Muller, The Uses of English, 1967 • ... this kind of records —Dan Gibson, quoted in New Yorker, 16 July 1984 • ... to see what sort of books occupied the lowest... bookshelves —Lewis Carroll, letter, 11 May 1859 • If there are any other kind of farmers —Leacock 1943 • ... what kind of jobs they'll find —Robert Boyd, Miami Herald, 26 Sept. 1968 • ... what kind of adjustments he must make —Gideon Ariel, quoted in Popular Computing, November 1982 • ... those kind of guys —Ring Lardner, The Big Town, 1921 • ... these kind of sensational statements —Sir Winston Churchill, The Unrelenting Struggle, 1942 • ... many years of participating in these kind of forays —Robert Morley, Punch, 28 Sept. 1976 • Those were the kind of big plays —William N. Wallace, N.Y. Times, 6 Jan. 1980 • These are the kind of worries I can handle —And More by Andy Rooney, 1982 • Those kind of letters —Art Buchwald, Springfield (Mass.) Republican, 2 Oct. 1983 • Those are the kind of thoughtful comments —Jeff Greenfield, Springfield (Mass.) Morning Union, 2 May 1986 • ... a trend toward different kinds of living —Margaret Mead, Barnard Alumnae, Winter 1971 • There are all kinds of chic on Long Island —Walter Wager, Telefon, 1975 • ... a writer of several kinds of distinction —R. W. B. Lewis, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 2 Jan. 1983 • ... those kinds of excess —Jeff Greenfield, Springfield (Mass.) Morning Union, 2 May 1986 • ... does all sorts of outrageous things —Henry Adams, letter, 29 Dec. 1860 • ... what kinds of people they happen to despise — Daniels 1983 • These are the kinds of books a grandmother should give — People, 14 Feb. 1983 And although it is seldom mentioned by the handbooks, type has fallen into the same sort of pattern: • And in America we don't do those type of things — Carl Ekern, quoted in Newsweek, 21 July 1986 Conclusion: kind and sort, in the singular, preceded by these or those and followed by a plural noun is an idiom well established in British usage—from the 16th century to the present. It is a bugbear of American handbooks, and such use as it has had in American English has until quite recently (as the dates on the examples show) been confined chiefly to speech. It seems now to be establishing itself in written American English. The grammar books and handbooks may nonetheless continue to repeat themselves and to follow Robert Baker and Lindley Murray. Many of them will be so concerned with these and those that they will entirely miss the fact that "that kind of sailboats" (from a recent 7th-grade English text) is just as anomalous from the point of view of narrow grammatical logic as "those kind of sailboats." But you are aware by now that a much greater variety of constructions is in respectable use than the handbooks realize. If kind of and sort of are adjectives in these constructions, as the OED, Jespersen, and Jensen believe they are, the agreement of these or this with kind or kinds is, of course, irrelevant. But the variety of constructions suggests that writers and speakers have not intuitively felt them to be true adjectives, for determiners like this and these agree with the following noun and are unaffected by an intervening adjective. Thus, if kind of were a true adjective, we would find only "these kind of sailboats," but in fact we find this, that, a, and so forth as well as the plural forms. 2.See kind of, sort of; kind of a, sort of a. |
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