| 词组 | majority |
| 释义 | majority 1. Majority is a singular noun in frequent use as one of those collectives that take either a singular or plural verb depending, in this case, on the writer's notion of the majority as a unit or as a collection of individuals. Our evidence of recent use shows a couple of trends. When majority stands alone as the subject, it tends to be used with a singular verb: • ... the majority has decided to go with front-wheel drive —Blair & Ketchum's Country Jour., May 1980 • The silent majority ... has dwindled —I. F. Stone's Bi-Weekly, 17 May 1971 • The majority was persuaded that ... —Paul Lerman, Trans-Action, July/August 1971 Less often it takes the plural verb: • ... hope that the silent majority are more or less happy with the Daily Service —Rev. Hubert Hos-kins, Home & Family, September 1974 When majority is followed by of and a plural noun (a common construction), a plural verb is usual: • The majority of its members were girls —Oliver St. John Gogarty, Mourning Became Mrs. Spendlove, 1948 • The majority of the residents of Crown Heights are black —Lis Harris, New Yorker, 16 Sept. 1985 • ... the majority of the letters are to Russell —Times Literary Supp., 23 Mar. 1967 Occasionally we find a singular verb: • The immense majority of the students is apathetic —Thomas Molnar, Yale Literary Mag., December 1981 2. The use of majority is rather discouraged by most of the commentators, both British and American, when it is applied to something regarded as not countable, like cake or weather or day. This attitude appears to be the present residuum of an older aversion to the use of majority for anything that does not vote. The use is recognized in dictionaries, but our more recent evidence suggests it may occur chiefly in speech, because we do not have a great deal of evidence for it in edited prose. These examples are typical of what we find: • Not only is the vast majority of strip mined land unreclaimable, but... —Peter Harnik, Environmental Action, 15 May 1971 • ... the majority of the book is devoted to the Asian part of the trip —Lola Dudley, Library Jour., 15 Mar. 1967 Perrin & Ebbitt 1972 says the use is sometimes found "in Informal and General usage"; our evidence confirms their observation. The use is certainly a reasonable extension of the countable use, and we cannot see why it should bulk large in anyone's list of worries. Even more insubstantial is objection to uses like these: • On the majority of walks —Timothy Gelatt, Saturday Rev., 4 Mar. 1972 • If Garlits were a cat with nine lives he would have used up the majority of them —Sam Moses, Sports Illustrated, 29 Sept. 1986 You can, of course, use most in these instances, and feel assured that you are beyond the reach of any criticism. 3. A few usage writers discuss modifiers of majority. Fowler 1926, 1965 objects to the use of greater and greatest (except in cases where two majorities are being compared) because they suggest falsely that majority means no more than "part" or "number." Heritage 1982 and Bremner 1980 favor the same restrictions. Great is approved by all. Our citations for great, inflected or not, as a modifier with majority are not very numerous, so this may be a problem that a writer does not face very often. Bremner 1980 and Bryson 1984 think that vast as a modifier of majority is a bit of a cliché. Our files show vast to be the most common modifier, but it is unlikely to run great, overwhelming, large, and several others out of business. Bryson notes that vast majority has been used by Partridge, Fowler, and Bernstein, so you will not find a united front on the subject. We see no reason for you not to join with Partridge, Fowler, and Bernstein and use vast if it sounds right to you. 4. Majority, plurality. More of our handbooks undertake to rehearse the familiar distinction between these words in their electoral use than to comment on any other aspect of majority's usage. Any decent dictionary will tell you that this use of majority refers to more than half the total votes while plurality refers to a number of votes that is less than half the total yet is greater than the number for any other candidate. |
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