| 词组 | late |
| 释义 | late Much thought has been given to the use of the late before the name of a dead person. The most frequently considered aspect of such use is just how long a person referred to as "the late" can have been dead. Here are a few opinions: • ... the statute of limitations might run for half a century —Bernstein 1971 • As a general rule, late is used in reference to persons whose death has occurred within the twenty or thirty years just past —Harper 1975 • ... "the late" is used for about ten to fifteen years after death —Safire 1984 What everyone does agree on is that there is no hard and fast rule to be followed. Our evidence shows that the late can be applied to people whose lives were recent enough to exist at any point within the living memory of the writer or speaker. You should use your own judgment to decide whether it is appropriate in a particular instance. Use of the late in referring to a person who has just died is also considered by Bernstein 1971, who finds it "ridiculous." Bernstein cites an example of such use in a newspaper caption, but we have no further evidence of it. The late normally serves as a respectful way of referring to a dead person when that person's death is no longer shocking news. Still another consideration is the use of the late in referring to a famous person whose death is common knowledge. Bernstein 1971 and Safire 1984 discourage such use, regarding the late as superfluous. Safire acknowledges, however, that "some people use the phrase ... to pay respects to the subject." Most people, in fact, use the phrase that way. The late is primarily a term of respect for a person who has recently died, and its use in referring to a famous person is both common and appropriate: • The late Henry Ford —N Y. Times, 27 Sept. 1950 • The late President John F. Kennedy —Current Biography, June 1967 • ... the late, beloved Langston Hughes —Alfred Duckett, Essence, November 1970 • ... the late Vince Lombardi and his legendary Packers —John Fischer, Harper's, February 1971 • ... the late H. L. Mencken —Paul Fussell, Los Angeles Times Book Rev., 25 Apr. 1971 Another aspect of the use of the late has also drawn comment. Kilpatrick 1984 warns against such a sentence as "The bill was signed by the late President Johnson" which, he says, "creates a startling and indeed a macabre image," implying that President Johnson was already "late" when he signed the bill. That seems to be an excellent point until you realize that the late can almost always be read in a macabre way by anyone determined to do so: • He heard an address in Boston by the late Charles Evans Hughes —Current Biography 1951 • ... chairman was the late Democratic Senator Estes Kefauver —Current Biography, January 1968 • In a talk to Harvard's Nieman Fellows twenty years ago, the late A. J. Liebling declared that... —Joseph P. Lyford, Center Mag, September 1969 • As the late Joseph Levinson pointed out —Martin Bernai, N. Y. Rev. of Books, 23 Oct. 1969 • The late Prof. Louise Pound collected them in a study of 1936 —Allen Walker Read, "The Geolin-guistics of Verbal Taboo," 10 Jan. 1970 • On Lowenstein's first day in the House, the late L. Mendel Rivers accosted him —John Corry, Harper's, April 1971 The late can legitimately be used in this way because it does not simply mean "the dead," it means "the now dead." It is actually no more macabre to say "the bill was signed by the late President Johnson" than to say "the bill was signed by the now dead President Johnson." See also widow, widower. |
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