| 词组 | conclude |
| 释义 | conclude Conclude has been subject to the separate criticism of two of its meanings for quite a while now, and since both of them still surface in usage books from time to time, we will give each brief mention. 1. The use of conclude in its sense meaning "decide" appears to have been first attacked by Fitzedward Hall in his 1872 Recent Exemplifications of False Philology. Hall's attack is listed in Bardeen 1883 with Bardeen's conclusion that the use was legitimate though carped at. MacCracken & Sandison 1917 also noted that the use was legitimate though opposed. But it is labeled a misuse in G. M. Hyde's Handbook for Newspaper Workers (1926) and in Jensen 1935 and Partridge 1942. Evans 1957 calls the sense standard. Copperud 1980 omits mention of the sense but calls the construction in which conclude is followed by to and an infinitive (the most common construction for the "decide" sense) "unidiomatic." The "decide" sense of conclude goes back to the 15th century with Lydgate and Caxton. Shakespeare used it: • They did conclude to bear dead Lucrèce thence, To show her bleeding body thorough Rome, • And so to publish Tarquin's foul offence —The Rape of Lucrèce, 1594 Here are a few other examples: • This being a good Situation ... we Concluded to delay at this place a few days —William Clark, 22 July 1804, in The Journals of Lewis and Clark, ed. Bernard DeVoto, 1953 • ... if she concludes to make arrangements —Francis Lee Pratt, "Captain Ben's Choice," in Mark Twain's Library of Humor, 1888 • So we concluded to walk —Mark Twain, Report from Paradise, 1909 • ... and Stone concluded to go to bed —Carolyn Wells, The Clue ofthe Eyelash, 1933 (in Partridge 1942) Although Evans says that this sense is also followed by a clause, we have more evidence for the construction with to and the infinitive. When conclude is followed by a clause and especially one introduced by that, it is most often being used in the sense "to reach as a conclusion; infer": • ... he concluded that she was less simple than she seemed —Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, 1920 We suspect from our citations that the "decide" sense of conclude is no longer as common as it was in the past, although its appearance in Copperud's recent book suggests that it has not entirely passed out of use. 2. A slightly less frequently treated subject has been the sense "to bring or come to an end; close." Vizetelly 1906 seems to have decided something was wrong with the use; he held that conclude is a mental process while close is a physical process. He did not further elaborate this dictum, so its basis is unclear. A 1923 book titled Editing the Day's News, George C. Bastian et al., which reached its fourth edition in 1956, simply repeated Vizetelly. In Bremner 1980 the Vizetelly dictum has become a suggestion to avoid the meaning "end" in newspaper stories of interviews and speeches, lest, presumably, it be mistaken for the meaning "draw a conclusion." Confusion is actually unlikely because the "draw a conclusion" sense is typically followed by a clause, and the "end" sense, when transitive, by a noun. Since it is uncertain whether Vizetelly was worried about transitive or intransitive use, we include both in our examples: • The Period wherein the English Tongue received most Improvement, I take to commence with the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign, and to conclude with the Great Rebellion in Forty Two —Jonathan Swift, A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue, 1712 • The sexton concluded his speech with an approving smile at his own sagacity —Thomas Love Peacock, Headlong Hall, 1816 • For little men may plan out their successes and more or less conclude the programme to their own satisfaction during their little lives —Hilaire Belloc, Richelieu, 1930 • But there were, to repeat and to conclude, three saving accidents at work in the body of Emily Dickinson's work —R. P. Blackmur, "Emily Dickinson: Notes on Prejudice and Fact," in American Harvest, ed. Allen Tate & John Peale Bishop, 1942 • They had exactly fifteen minutes to conclude their business —Helen Maclnnes, The Venetian Affair, 1963 • He concludes by reporting, with approval, the greeting of a German prisoner —Times Literary Supp., 19 June 1969 • ... they were eager for me to conclude my fifteen minutes of distilled wisdom —Jerome S. Bruner, Saturday Rev., 15 Jan. 1972 |
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