| 词组 | as far as, so far as |
| 释义 | as far as, so far as 1. In the October 1962 issue of American Speech, Paul Faris commented on the prepositional use of as far as. Although he had recorded a great many instances of the construction in speech and in writing, he found that dictionaries and usage books in general seemed unaware of the construction. He found only Fowler 1926 dealing with the subject. Fowler 1926 (Fowler 1907 contained a single example for correction) deals with two aspects of as (so) far as. We will call one literal, for it depends on the meaning offar. Fowler approves such expressions as "went as far as York" and "He knows algebra as far as quadratics" and "I have gone so far as to collect, or so far as collecting, statistics." • ... as far at least as the moon —Henry Adams, letter, 3 Sept. 1863 • ... our concern about our fellow man extends only as far as our pocketbook or our discomfort —Melvin J. Lerner, Psychology Today, June 1971 The second prepositional use—the one that Fowler condemns—can also be seen from a different angle as the conjunction as far as used to introduce an elliptical clause, one from which the verb (such as goes or is concerned) has been omitted. This is the construction Faris is discussing, and it is the one that American usage commentators, starting with Bernstein 1962, comment unfavorably upon. (Later commentators include Copperud 1970, Harper 1975, 1985, Ebbitt & Ebbitt 1982, Bernstein 1977, Einstein 1985, Freeman 1983.) Let us begin our review of the matter with a few examples from print: • As far as getting the money he asked for, Mr. Churchill had little difficulty —in Fowler 1926 • The cabin ... was in perfect condition so far as frame and covering until 1868 —Henry Seidel Canby, Thoreau, 1939 (in Faris) • As far as disturbing a writer at his work, this hotel bedroom might just as well have been filled with howling monkeys this past week, for all the work I've been able to get done —E. B. White, letter, 8 Feb. 1942 • The Bikini was originally called the "atome" by M. Heim, and the sky was the limit so far as advertising it —N.Y. Times, 20 Feb. 1959 (in Bernstein 1962) • Pauls would be taken seriously, they felt, and as far as doing business with Germany this was the most important long-range consideration —James Feron, N.Y. Times Mag., 31 Oct. 1965 • As far as being mentioned in the Ten Commandments, I think it is —Billy Graham, newspaper column, 1974 • As far as temperament, the Abyssinian cat is a most affectionate and loving companion —Ruth A. Zimmermann, Cats Mag., December 1980 Although these examples are characteristic of the construction and some of them are among the oldest citations for it, they are not exactly typical of our evidence. Most of our citations are from speech, either as recorded off the air or as reproduced in newspapers and magazines. We will begin with examples reproduced in print. The expression seems to have been part of President Kennedy's vocabulary; he turns up in our first two examples. • But as far as whether I could attend this sort of a function in your church ... then I could attend — John F. Kennedy, quoted in U.S. News & World Report, 1960 (in Faris) • So far as the next program, it will be developed later —John F. Kennedy, quoted in Saturday Rev., 14 Nov. 1964 • But as far as the drug culture that they used to talk about, it's not as heavy as it was back ten years ago —Kris Kristofferson, quoted in Cosmopolitan, December 1977 • "I still have most of my mother's values as far as manners," says Mackenzie, "but I guess I always wanted to be like my father " —Mackenzie Phillips, quoted in People, 2 Mar. 1981 • ... lived a heck of a lot better than Larry or I ever did as far as standard of living —Billie Jean King, quoted in People, 25 May 1981 • Not only was she a great actress, she was the Carole Lombard of her time, as far as being able to do comedy —Jack Lemmon, quoted in Playboy, June 1981 • It was probably one of the worst, if not the worst, conditions I've played in as far as wind —John McEnroe, quoted in Springfield (Mass.) Republican, 8 May 1983 • As far as raising kids, he didn't have a clue —Gary Crosby, quoted in People, 21 Mar. 1983 • As far as my ability, I think I've proven I can play —Alan Wiggins, quoted in Springfield (Mass.) Daily News, 6 July 1985 • Regan may be the ultimate guy to work for as far as getting the whole story —Larry Speakes, quoted in People, 12 Aug. 1985 Citations taken directly from broadcasts do not differ from the printed reports: • I wonder if he's got a physical problem as far as running —Earl Weaver, ABC Game of the Week, 15 Aug. 1983 • ... as far as bringing this sort of thing to a halt — Ara Parseghian, CBS football telecast, 25 Dec. 1986 We even have a few instances of facetious use. The first two are comments on the construction, the third a parody of a press conference given by President Reagan: • 19. As far as incomplete constructions, they are wrong —George W. Feinstein, "Letter from a Triple-Threat Grammarian," College English, April 1960 • Only those will accept this who are irresponsible as far as their grammar —Willard R. Espy, in Harper 1985 • As far as Jack Kemp, it's not my job to make trades for the Yankees, but they bought a pig in a poke there —Veronica Geng, New Yorker, 30 Aug. 1982 Our commentators, from Fowler 1926 to Harper 1985 and Einstein 1985, are nearly unanimous in condemning the construction; only Faris in American Speech thinks it deserves more consideration. And why do they condemn it? As is so often the case, many do not give a reason. Fowler did so perhaps partly because of novelty; but both he and others have probably been affected by their frustrated expectation of the formulaic verb goes or is concerned. Ecountering as far as and then having the verb withheld is a bit like not hearing the other shoe drop. But as for novelty, it is not clear how much of a novelty the construction is. Faris recorded some 60 examples from both speech and writing in a single year, proving that it can be found when someone looks for it—and our newest evidence bears this out. From Fowler's first example, reprinted in 1907, more than half a century passed with no one else taking notice. While the construction was certainly not common, it may have been around, undetected, for quite a long time; lexicographers are sometimes not as alert to phrases as they are to new words: • Then the king don Peter answered the prince and said; 'Right dear cousin, as far as the gold, silver and treasure that I have brought hither, which is not the thirtieth part so much as I have left behind me, as long as that will endure, I shall give and part therewith to your people.' —Lord Berners, translation of Froissart's Chronicles, 1523 Despite the last example prepositional as far as must be considered essentially a 20th-century form on the basis of what we now know. While we have by no means exhausted the possibilities, we have not yet found a 19th-century example, even in that most reliable repository of the informal language, letters. There can be no question, after more than three quarters of a century, that prepositional as far as is established in speech; it was clearly established in 1962 when Faris published his findings. Reference books have been slow to catch up in this instance. But speech and reports of speech aside, the expression has made little inroad into ordinary prose. Our most recent evidence shows it still primarily a speech form. 2. Vizetelly 1906 and a few later commentators endeavor to discriminate between as far as and so far as. Their discriminations are applicable only to those uses of the phrases that are dependent on the individual meanings of as, so, and far; they do not apply to the phrases when used as compound conjunctions or prepositions. In these latter uses they are simple variants; as far as is somewhat more common as a conjunction, and much more common as a preposition, than so far as. 3. Bolinger 1980 asserts that as far as (the preposition) is substituted for in in jargon. His comment fits the example he shows to illustrate it, but if you will try in for as far as in the quotations we give above, you will find that it does not fit very well very often. Since most of our citations are from speech, they are perhaps not especially representative of jargon. Copperud 1970 and Nickles 1974 object to as far as in any use as wordy or long-winded. As far as may indeed be long-winded in some instances, but it cannot be easily replaced by a shorter formula in many others. The examples that follow are from letters, where conciseness of* expression is usually not of prime importance. We suspect that in these examples at least, it would not be easy to replace as far as with something shorter and better: • I endeavour as far as I can to supply your place & be useful —Jane Austen, letter, 14 Sept. 1804 • My Rochdale affairs are understood to be settled as far as the law can settle them —Lord Byron, letter, 9 Sept. 1811 • We are in a state of anarchy so far as the President goes —Henry Adams, letter, 22 Dec. 1860 • ... but, so far as I can see, I shall be in town on or before the 20th —Lewis Carroll, letter, 10 June 1864 • Those two seem to me achievements as far as the writing goes —Flannery O'Connor, letter, 2 Aug. 1958 4. Because the verb in the clause following the conjunction as far as is often separated by a few words from its subject, there is occasionally the possibility of a mismatch of number between subject and verb. Pyles 1979 sets down three examples of this problem from the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings: • ... as far as the infiltration of the armed services were concerned —Roy Cohn • ... as far as coddling Communists are concerned — Roy Cohn • ... as far as Mr. Adams and Mr. Cohn is concerned —Senator McCarthy The problem seems to occur chiefly in speech. We have only a single instance in print: • ... at least as far as liberality in movie themes are concerned —Kathleen Karr, Media & Methods, January 1971 The mismatch in each of these is caused by the intervention of a noun of different number from the subject between subject and verb. See agreement, subject-verb: the principle of proximity. |
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