| 词组 | phenomenon |
| 释义 | phenomenon 1. The plural is phenomena or phenom-enons. Phenomena is much more frequent at the present time, but phenomenons prevails in the sense "an exceptional or unusual person, thing, or occurrence." 2. Perhaps we in the dictionary trade should get around to recognizing that phenomena is used as a singular. The OED dates the use as far back as 1576; the plural form phenomenas goes back to 1635, and among its 17th century users the OED numbers Robert Boyle, the famous chemist and physicist. It cannot be simply an illiteracy used by those ignorant of Latin and Greek; Robert Boyle undoubtedly knew more Latin and Greek than most of the subsequent commentators who have disparaged the form. Philip Howard, who seems to have some classical background, has this comment: • It is a notable recent phenomena that one criteria of education in an influential strata of the community is to be good at criticizing what the media is saying about all this data on the decay of English. Instead of crying barbarism, it is more constructive to investigate why this should be happening. Fewer people know Latin and Greek these days, and accordingly there are fewer around to be pained by outrages upon their methods of word-formation. And, in any case, English grammar evolves with majestic disregard for the susceptibilities of classical scholars —Weasel Words, 1978 Evidence in our files for the singular phenomena goes back to the mid 1920s. The OED has a note that the form was found in the 18th and 19th centuries, but besides the 1576 citation they give only one 19th-century source. Hodgson 1889, who seems to be the first commentator to pick the subject up, also has a 19th-cen-tury example. We have some modern examples collected from print, and here are a few: • ... this phenomena can be used —Science, 28 Apr. 1944 • ... the Borgia were, in modern terms, a media phenomena—The Economist, 23 Nov. 1974 • ... a fine analysis of this phenomena —Publishers Weekly, 31 May 1976 But the majority of our evidence comes from speech. It has been reported or recorded in the speech of university professors, U.S. Senators, poets, and literary critics as well as from the speech of well-known figures from the world of professional sports. In current American English, then, the singular phenomena is primarily a speech form—in the old days it would have been called colloquial—that is occasionally found in print other than reported speech. Its occurrence in print is not nearly as common as that of the plural phenomena, which we also have attested from speech. A case can be made that the singular phenomena, now more than 400 years old, ought to be a recognized form. It is no more etymologically irregular than stamina, agenda, and candelabra, all of which are accepted as standard. It is—at least in current American English— primarily used in speech; it has nowhere near the sort of use in print that, say, stamina has. Until it gets more regular use in print, however, it must be recognized as a borderline form at best. You can be a pioneer, if you wish, but we do not recommend it. There is, incidentally, some little evidence (1767, 1925, 1979) for a plural phenomenae. Since two of these three examples are misspelled quite apart from the ae, the form must be considered to be a long, long way from recognition. If you fancy the singular phenomena, you had better stick to phenomenas as a plural. For other foreign plurals, see Latin plurals. |
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