| 词组 | assume, presume |
| 释义 | assume, presume Many commentators are at pains to distinguish these two words; besides the ones listed in Copperud 1970 we have Freeman 1983, Bremner 1980, Janis 1984, Einstein 1985, Shaw 1975, Macmillan 1982, and Chambers 1985. Freeman tells us that the two are generally synonymous, which is not accurate. The two words are generally synonymous only in one sense of each. Any good dictionary will show you when they are and when they are not synonymous. The difference in shading and emphasis that distinguishes the two words in their shared sense should also be clear from the dictionary definitions. These are from Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary: • assume ... 5 : to take as granted or true : SUPPOSE presume ... 2 : to expect or assume esp. with confidence In other words, presume tends to be more positive in its supposition than assume. This is not true, however, in the famous legal catch phrase of "presumed innocent until proved guilty." That sense is separately denned in the Ninth Collegiate as 3 : to suppose to be true without proof It is worth observing that assume has more meanings than presume and is a much more frequently used word. Here are a few examples of assume and presume used in the shared sense. • He assumed that he could negotiate with Mitterrand, the way he would have negotiated with a sharp investment banker —Jane Kramer, New Yorker, 18 Jan. 1982 • ... the conversation implicitly assumes that Oxford is the centre of the universe —Harold J. Laski, letter, 1 May 1932 • As long as people assumed that learning a language was the product of an advanced intelligence, scholars were reluctant to place the birth of language too far in the past —Edmund Blair Bolles, Saturday Rev., 18 Mar. 1972 • ... had always assumed that the last volumes would be distinctive, simply because of their sources — Times Literary Supp., 19 Feb. 1971 • Because of her intransigent radicalism, many Catholic reformers assume she is on their side when they press for drastic changes inside the Church — Dwight Macdonald, N. Y. Rev. of Books, 28 Jan. 1971 • Nobody in Baskul had known much about him except that he had arrived from Persia, where it was presumed he had something to do with oil —James Hilton, Lost Horizon, 1933 • ... the reading public, who might be presumed to know that dynamite and poison have a certain deadly quality —Sir Norman Birkett, Books of the Month, June-July 1953 • Of course, Eloise would never presume that they could still be friends —Louis Auchincloss, A Law for the Lion, 1953 • Granite shot was used for guns in Plymouth in the sixteenth century, and it may be presumed that these are of similar date —E. Estyn Evans, Irish Digest, June 1954 You can see that the two words would be interchangeable in some of the examples in this way: assume could have been used in every instance for presume, but something would have been lost in so doing. However, presume could not very easily be substituted in the examples of assume. Interchange would appear to be easier in one direction than the other—the less specific word can more readily replace the more specific than the other way round. |
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