词组 | period of time |
释义 | period of time This phrase has been censured as a redundancy by Shaw 1987, Janis 1984, Copperud 1980, and Phythian 1979. The basis for objection is put this way by Shaw: "The word period conveys the idea of time " But consider these examples: • The account of the loss of the ship makes a fitting period to a brave and hopeful voyage into a new world —Farley Mowat, Westviking: The Ancient Norse in Greenland and North America, 1965 • Most of the characters speak in rounded periods, often with a touch of malicious wit —Newgate Calendar, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 19 Jan. 1986 The point is simple: period does not necessarily convey the idea of time. Period is a word of several senses— Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines over a dozen of them—and people who write period of time (or period of years, or other similar formulations) are merely taking care that you do not miss their meaning, as in this fifth-grade text, for instance: • What have you heard about rock music played for long periods of time? —H. Thompson Fillmer et al., Patterns of Language, Level E, 1977 Even accomplished writers will sometimes use more than a bare minimum of words to get the point across clearly: • Over a period of thirty years the late Wilder Hobson and I played a name game —John O'Hara, Holiday, May 1967 When using such a phrase improves the clarity of your sentence, we think you can sensibly afford to ignore the criticism. |
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