密歇根新闻广播 countless这个词怎么用?

Grammarians sometimes worry about whether you can count the things to which a noun refers.

And no, we're not talking about "less" and "fewer."

Today we're talking about "countless¹." A listener named Paul wrote to us and asked, "When did 'countless' start to be used to refer to groups bigger than, say, a dozen?"

On a similar note, Tony wrote to us and asked, "I don't know about using 'dozens' if you only have two dozen? Do you need to have more than that?"

What we're talking about here is language used hyperbolically. If you're using "dozens" to refer to what's actually only twenty-something things, you're probably exaggerating.

We have a long history of exaggerating in English, particularly with the words "hundreds" and "thousands." You might say, "I have hundreds of questions," when in actuality you have six or seven. However, you're trying to make the case that you're really interested in whatever is being discussed and have a good number of questions.

That's not to say things don't get confusing sometimes. If you heard a newscaster say, "Dozens of people attended the rally, about how many would you assume were there? If 24 people attended, does that count as "dozens," since that would technically² more than one dozen? What about 36?

Honestly, we could spend a lot of time arguing about this one. For many of us, there does seem to be a connotation that "dozens" means more than 24. However, this could be another situation where someone is exaggerating.

That could also be the case with "countless." This word is now often used to mean "a lot" as opposed to "infinite" or "unable to be counted."

Mark Memmott, NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards and Practices, has written about "countless" in terms of NPR usage. Memmott says, "It's tempting³ to say that we've used one word a countless number of times. But that would be wrong because we can quantify it." Over the course of one year, Memmott found that "countless" showed up 255 times on NPR.org and 112 times in broadcast transcripts⁴.

Point taken. However, English Professor Anne Curzan says there are times when "countless" can be helpful. For example, she says she might use "countless" when talking about how many times people have asked her to talk about how people use "like."

"Could we count how many times I've been asked about 'like'? In some world we could, but my memory isn't good enough to remember all of the times people have asked me about it. I'm trying to say it's a lot. I can't actually count it, but it isn't infinite," Curzan says.

1 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

2 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

3 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

4 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句