| 词组 | major |
| 释义 | major The two main points made about the adjective major by usage writers are that it is overused and that when it is used, it should be as a comparative and not a positive adjective. It is true that major does tend to get a lot of use and that in contexts where it invariably appears its meaning gets diluted. The announcement of a "major motion picture," for example, means nothing more than that a movie is being released. But you should not be dissuaded from using a word simply because other people use it too much. Just don't overuse it yourself. And while major may not be a particularly precise or dazzling adjective, many of the words suggested as possible replacements are not exactly eye-openers either. Gowers in Fowler 1965 recommends "chief main, principal, etc."; Phythian 1979 lists "large, important, big, momentous, main, prominent, chief, principal, etc."; and Bremner 1980 suggests "big, great, important, serious, chief, main, principal. "It is hard to see what advantage some of these hold over major. Phythian and Bremner join Evans 1957, Follett 1966, and Nickles 1974 in claiming that major is a comparative in the same way that greater is and so should not be used as a positive adjective. They base their argument on the word's origin as the comparative of Latin magnus, conveniently ignoring the fact that Latin and English are two different languages. Evans says, "A major campaign speech may be more precisely an important campaign speech, though, of course, it may be major in the sense of being more important than other speeches"; Copperud 1980 sums up the objections of various commentators by saying, "Thus a major work would be one that stands out by comparison with others, not a great one in absolute terms." This discrimination of meaning seems somewhat forced. Would a speech that was relatively important compared to other speeches but not absolutely important taken by itself be called a major speech? We doubt it. By describing the "correct" use as a comparative and not a positive, the critics are being too extreme in two extremes. First of all, major does not function in English in the same way that greater does. Phythian says "the primary meaning of major is greater" but it is hard to find a context in which greater can be idiomatically substituted for major, precisely because greater is a true English comparative and major is not. Secondly, we have such examples as these: • ... an inquiry on the major needs of Jewish education in the communities —The Americana Annual 1953 • Only with increasing difficulty can France continue her claim to being a major nation with world-wide commitments and world-wide power —Edgar S. Furniss, Jr., Yale Rev., Autumn 1954 • She also plans a new major novel with a Louisiana background —Publishers Weekly, 5 June 1954 • All satellite armies ... depend on Russia for their major arms — Time, 13 Dec. 1954 • ... the present political attitudes of most major nations — Wall Street Jour., 9 June 1969 • ... for five years we have been in a major bear market —Charles J. Rolo, TV. Y. Times Mag, 9 June 1974 • ... an $88 million plan for a major tourist development—it would have to be major at that outlay—is under way —Horace Sutton, Saturday Rev., 20 Mar. 1976 They typify the criticized use, but they are not as purely positive as some of the recommended alternatives such as big, important, and principal; that is, although major functions like a positive adjective it also carries the connotation of comparison. Follett complains that "the standard of comparison is in each case [when major is supposedly misused] assumed to be known to all." He is right, but his statement actually explains the advantage of using major rather than showing why it should be avoided. The implied comparison which lies behind major gives it an extra flavor that big, important, and principal lack. On the other hand, this implied comparison does lend force to Phythian's and Nickles's objections to more major. And, in fact, we have practically no evidence for such use. See also implicit comparative. |
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