词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Patricia O'Conner: 'Woe Is I'

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 31, 2003

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- we talk with grammarian Patricia O'Conner. She's out with a second edition of "Woe¹ Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English." The book first came out in 1996, and was a bestseller.

RS: It's easy to understand why some people fear grammar, what with endless debates over little points, like the correct use of the word "hopefully." Should we use it only as a simple adverb, as in "She looked at her lottery² ticket hopefully" -- meaning "with hope"?

AA: Or should we use it as a sentence adverb? That means it modifies the whole sentence: "Hopefully I'll win the lottery" -- meaning, "I hope."

RS: Pat O'Conner took stock of how American English has changed in common usage over the past seven years. It forced her to reconsider some of her strongly held beliefs -- beliefs held just as strongly, in some cases, by her readers.

O'CONNER: "I have to say that a couple of months ago I got one of those heart-rending, very touching³ letters from a reader of the original 'Woe Is I' telling me how grateful she was about my position on the word hopefully. And in the first edition I was more of a purist, and I felt that we shouldn't be using it as a sentence adverb. And she was so grateful to me for holding the fort on this very important issue. Of course, I had just finished writing the second edition of 'Woe Is I' where I change my mind on hopefully. And so I had to write her an abject⁴ letter of not only apology but self-justification."

AA: "Now where do you stand today, seven years after your original edition, on using 'they' as a pronoun to modify a singular subject, as in 'Anyone ... ' Think of an example."

O'CONNER: "Anyone who gets in has to show their ticket."

AA: "How do you feel about that?"

O'CONNER: "Well, I did a lot of soul-searching, I have to tell you, because -- believe it or not -- there are even newspapers around the country that have changed their style on that, and they're allowing the plurals⁵ 'they,' 'them' and 'their' to refer back to a non-specific, generic⁶ individual."

AA: "To be gender-neutral."

O'CONNER: "Yeah."

AA: "But you're still against that."

O'CONNER: "I'm still against it, and the reason is -- I can see there is a genuine gap in English and we do need a gender-neutral singular. We don't have one except for 'it.' The reason I didn't shift on that one is I think that's one of those elemental rules of grammar dealing⁷ with subject-verb agreement, and you can avoid it completely. 'Did anyone lose an umbrella?' instead of 'did anyone lose their umbrella?' 'If anyone calls, I'm out,' rather than 'if anyone calls, tell them I'm out.'"

RS: "What was the hardest decision for you to make in this new, revised edition?"

O'CONNER: "I think the one about they, them and their. It's just so universal. I do it myself."

AA: "And yet we're supposed to follow what you say, not what you do? [Laughter]"

O'CONNER: "I know, I know -- in writing. I think you can forgive a lot in conversation, don't you?"

RS: "It's a more informal way of communicating, conversation."

O'CONNER: "Right."

AA: "Anyone can decide for themselves how they feel about it. [Laughter]"

O'CONNER: "You could say 'people can decide for themselves."

AA: "Now that's true."

RS: Pat O'Conner's book "Woe Is I" now includes a chapter on language in the age of e-mail. She says people are writing more than ever. But that doesn't mean they're writing well.

O'CONNER: "The stuff you read on the Internet and in your e-mail in-basket often is pretty disorganized, it's ungrammatical, it's badly punctuated⁸, it's all upper-case, or it's all lower-case -- just because people don't realize that this is writing. It's not just another form of the telephone. It takes only a few seconds to reread your e-mail, but you'll probably find a little grammar mistake, a spelling mistake, a punctuation⁹ mistake, a couple of sentences that were run together that would be better if they were separated. Any number of little things like that."

AA: "Got to ask you the last question, will your third edition be called "Woe Is Me" [laughter] based on common usage?"

O'CONNER: "I don't think so. [Laughter]"

RS: Pat O'Conner is author of "Woe Is I: A Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English." And that's Wordmaster for this week.

AA: Our e-mail address is [email protected], and our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 woe   

n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌

参考例句：

• Our two peoples are brothers sharing weal and woe.我们两国人民是患难与共的兄弟。
• A man is well or woe as he thinks himself so.自认祸是祸，自认福是福。

2 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

3 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

4 abject   

adj.极可怜的，卑屈的

参考例句：

• This policy has turned out to be an abject failure.这一政策最后以惨败而告终。
• He had been obliged to offer an abject apology to Mr.Alleyne for his impertinence.他不得不低声下气，为他的无礼举动向艾莱恩先生请罪。

5 plurals   

n.复数，复数形式( plural的名词复数 )

参考例句：

6 generic   

adj.一般的，普通的，共有的

参考例句：

• I usually buy generic clothes instead of name brands.我通常买普通的衣服，不买名牌。
• The generic woman appears to have an extraordinary faculty for swallowing the individual.一般妇女在婚后似乎有特别突出的抑制个性的能力。

7 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

8 punctuated   

v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物

参考例句：

• Her speech was punctuated by bursts of applause. 她的讲演不时被阵阵掌声打断。
• The audience punctuated his speech by outbursts of applause. 听众不时以阵阵掌声打断他的讲话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。