| 词组 | lots, a lot |
| 释义 | lots, a lot Sir Ernest Gowers in Fowler 1965 notes that the Concise Oxford Dictionary labels a lot colloquial but that modern writers do not hesitate to use it in serious prose. He cites Sir Winston Churchill as one of his examples. Colloquial is the favorite handbook label for a lot and lots: about three quarters of those in our collection use it. And many of them think colloquial is something bad, as this comment demonstrates: • Lots of, a lot of a whole lot. These terms are colloquial for "many," "much," "a great deal." The chief objection is that each is a vague, general expression —Shaw 1970 This line of attack seems to descend directly from Jensen 1935 and Bierce 1909. Other people have noticed what Gowers noticed. Crisp's 1971 survey of attitudes toward usage problems listed all the surveyed groups as finding lots, a lot established. Perrin & Ebbitt 1972 says that all these expressions are established in general, though not formal, usage. Our evidence confirms Perrin & Ebbitt's observation and Gowers's too. These expressions have been used in serious but not overformal writing for a long time, and they still are. Here are some examples: • There were lots of people in Oxford like that —John Galsworthy, The Dark Flower, 1913 • There is a lot of good in it —John Galsworthy, Another Sheaf 1919 • Freezing was not so bad as people thought. There were lots worse ways to die —Jack London, "To Build a Fire," in Chains of Light (8th grade textbook), ed. Theodore Clymer, 1982 • There is a lot of good literature in the world —Barrett J. Mandel, AA UP Bulletin, September 1971 • As to favorable comments I can stand a good lot — Oliver Wendell Holmes d. 1935, letter, 1 Nov. 1916 • ... give a lot of facts or details about the bird —John Burroughs, Wake-Robin, 1871 • ... there are lots of young men with their girls — Virgil Thomson, The Musical Scene, 1947 • It was used a lot by the dons —Oliver St. John Gogarty, It Isn't This Time of Year At All!, 1954 • The Seurat pictures want a lot of seeing to appreciate — The Journals of Arnold Bennett, ed. Frank Swin-nerton, 1954 • ... will have to sacrifice a lot of academic sacred cows —John Fischer, Harper's, February 1971 • Lots of Swiss are worried —Mollie Panter-Downes, New Yorker, 26 Nov. 1950 • ... we must have lots of consumers' representatives —Christopher Hollis, Punch, 9 Dec. 1953 • ... the fact that lots of these amateur officers had ... —James Gould Cozzens, Guard of Honor, 1948 • I had spent a lot of time —James Jones, Harper's, February 1971 See also alot, a lot. |
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