Plain Words Page 12

  So far as the provisions of the Trading with the Enemy Act are concerned, the sum so released may … be utilised to reimburse you for expenses.

  There is no other equally convenient way of making clear that the writer is removing only the impediment created by the Act and is not concerned with any other impediment there may be.

  Possibly, though less certainly, this sentence might claim the same indulgence:

  The effect of the suggested system, so far as the pharmaceutical industry is concerned, would be to ensure rewards for research and development work until the new preparations were absorbed into the B.P.

  It might be argued that we should not get quite the same meaning from ‘on the pharmaceutical industry’: this destroys the suggestion that there may be other effects, but the writer is not considering them.

  But these are exceptions. There is no doubt that the phrase is generally a symptom of muddled thinking:

  Some were opposed to hanging as a means of execution where women were concerned. (As a means of executing women.)

  Wood pulp manufacture on a commercial scale is a very recent development so far as time is concerned. (Omit the last six words.)

  The punishments at their disposal may not be of very serious effect so far as the persons punished are concerned. (On the persons punished.)

  That is a matter which should be borne in mind because it does rule out a certain amount of consideration so far as the future is concerned.

  I cannot translate this with any confidence. Perhaps it means ‘That is a matter which should be borne in mind because it circumscribes our recommendations for the future’.

  The fact that is an expression sometimes necessary and proper, but sometimes a clumsy way of saying what might be said more simply:

  Owing to the fact that the exchange is working to full capacity. (Because the exchange …)

  The delay in replying has been due to the fact that it was hoped to arrange for a representative to call upon you. (I delayed replying because I hoped to arrange for a representative to call on you.)

  So too until such time as, which is usually merely a verbose way of saying until. It may be useful to convey a suggestion that the event contemplated is improbable or remote or has no direct connection with what is to last until it occurs. But it cannot do so in,

  You will be able to enjoy these facilities until such time that he terminates his agreement.

  If the phrase is used, it should be such time as, not, as here, ‘such time that’.

  There cannot, I think, ever be any justification for preferring the similar phrase during such time as to while.

  As has other sins of superfluity imputed to it, besides the help it gives in building up verbose prepositions and conjunctions. Dr Ballard writes that as has

  acquired a wide vogue in official circles. Wherever as can be put in, in it goes. And often it gets into places where it has no business to be. A man in the public service used to draw his salary from a certain date; now he draws it as from a certain date. Time was when officials would refer to ‘the relationship between one department and another’; now they call it ‘the relationship as between one department and another’. Agenda papers often include as an item : ‘To consider as to the question of …’ If this sort of interpolation between the verb and its object were extended to ordinary speech, a man would no longer ‘eat his dinner,’ but ‘eat as to his dinner’; or, to make the parallel complete, ‘eat as to the diet of his dinner’.

  (P. B. Ballard, Teaching the Mother Tongue, 1921)

  There is reason in saying, of a past date, ‘these allowances will be payable as from the 1st January last’, but there is none in saying, of a future date, ‘these allowances will cease to be payable as from the 1st July next’. ‘On the 1st July’ is all that is needed. The phrase as and from, not unknown, is gibberish.

  As such is sometimes used in a way that seems to have no meaning:

  The statistics, as such, add little to our information.

  If they do not do so as statistics, in what capacity do they? The writer probably meant ‘by themselves’.

  There is no objection to the sale of houses as such.

  Here the context shows the writer to have meant that there was no objection of principle to the sale of houses.

  Note. The word as, sometimes coupled with of, continues to be overworked. Equally as is used to mean equally, as yet to mean yet, as of yet to mean either yet or so far, as of now to mean now or sometimes from now on, and as of soon to mean soon. A needless as appears in all the quotations below:

  The BOA is to go to court to defend the lifetime ban which has been declared as ‘non-compliant’ with the code … (The Times)

  The bespectacled, portly joker and determined tax-reformer has gone on a diet and styled himself as ‘an ordinary guy’ … (Guardian)

  While many deem the message as timely and necessary, the way in which authorities have gone about the visual imagery is seen as offensive. (Daily Mail) ~

  Certain pairs of words have a way of keeping company without being able to do any more together than either could have done separately. Save and except seems to have had its day, but we still have with us as and when, if and when, and unless and until. As and when can perhaps be defended when used of something that will happen piecemeal (‘Interim reports will be published as and when they are received’). Nothing can be said for the use of the pair in a sentence like this one:

  As and when the Bill becomes an Act guidance will be given on the financial provisions of it as they affect hospital maintenance.

  Bills cannot become Acts piecemeal.

  If and when might plead that both are needed in such a sentence as ‘Further cases will be studied if and when the material is available’, arguing that if alone will not do because the writer wants to emphasise that material becoming available will be studied immediately, and when alone will not do because it is uncertain whether the material ever will be available. But this is all rather subtle, and the wise course will almost always be to decide which conjunction suits you better, and to use it alone. I have not been able to find (or to imagine) the use of unless and until in any context in which one of the two alone would not have sufficed.

  Note. There are new redundant pairings slowly becoming conventional in modern English. Outside of and hence why are two examples where the meaning of the second word has already been taken care of by the first:

  Wales drop outside of top 100 of FIFA’s world rankings for the first time since 2000. (Daily Mail)

  Met Office readings revealed that the atmosphere on Monday was as dry as desert air — hence why there were no clouds or aircraft contrails in the sky. (The Times)

  Increasingly more is another example when misused as follows: ‘Clinicians are becoming increasingly more influential’ (British Medical Journal). But often it is the first word in a common pair that is redundant because it is an adjective that adds nothing to what it notionally describes. Future prospects, close scrutiny, temporary respite and mutually contradictory are all examples (the Guardian reports that ‘mutually contradictory witness statements often both felt true’). It should not be necessary on the London Underground to be reminded to take one’s personal possessions—as opposed to what kind? Above ground, the tautology ‘preventive maintenance’ has started to appear on the sides of Britain’s white vans. This novelty may have been inspired by the phrase preventive medicine; but unlike medicine, which can be intended to cure, all maintenance is preventive, otherwise it is repairs (or so one might feel justified in supposing: repairs is now itself sometimes recast as ‘corrective maintenance’). The formula ‘becoming to be’ is also on the up, as here: ‘Making ends meet is becoming to be more and more of a challenge’. This should either be becoming on its own, or coming to be. ~

  Point of view, viewpoint, standpoint and angle, useful and legitimate in their proper places, are sometimes no more than a refuge from the trouble of precise thought, and provide clumsy ways of
saying something that could be said more simply and effectively. They are used, for instance, as a circumlocution for a simple adverb, such as ‘from a temporary point of view’ for ‘temporarily’. Here are a few examples:

  From a cleaning point of view there are advantages in tables being of uniform height. (For cleaning.)

  I can therefore see no reason why we need to see these applications, apart from an information point of view. (Except for information.)

  Bare boards are unsatisfactory from every angle. (In every respect.)

  This may be a source of embarrassment to the Regional Board from the viewpoint of overall planning and administration. (The plain way of putting this is: ‘This may embarrass the Regional Board in planning and administration’.)

  This development is attractive from the point of view of the public convenience. (This, I am told, provoked a marginal comment: ‘What is it like looking from the other direction?’)

  Aspect is the complement of point of view. As one changes one’s point of view one sees a different aspect of what one is looking at. It is therefore natural that aspect should lead writers into the same traps as do point of view, viewpoint and standpoint. It induces writers, through its vagueness, to prefer it to more precise words, and lends itself to woolly circumlocution. I cannot believe that there was any clear conception in the head of the official who wrote, ‘They must accept responsibility for the more fundamental aspects of the case’. Aspect is one of the words that should not be used without deliberation, and it should be rejected if its only function is to make a clumsy paraphrase of an adverb.

  VERBOSITY IN AUXILIARY VERBS

  Various methods are in vogue for softening the curtness of will not or cannot. The commonest are is not prepared to, is not in a position to, does not see his or her way to and cannot consider. Such phrases are no doubt dictated by politeness, and therefore deserve respect. But they must be used with discretion. The recipient of a letter may feel better—though I doubt it—being told that the Minister ‘is not prepared to approve’ than ‘the Minister does not approve’. There is not even this slender justification when what is said is that the Minister is prepared to approve:

  The Board have examined your application and they are prepared to allocate 60 coupons for this production. I am accordingly to enclose this number of coupons.

  Are prepared to allocate should have been have allocated. As the coupons are enclosed, the preparatory stage is clearly over.

  But there is a legitimate use of prepared to, as in the following:

  In order to meet the present need, the Secretary of State is prepared to approve the temporary appointment of persons without formal qualifications.

  Here the Secretary of State is awaiting candidates, prepared to approve them if they turn out all right. But the phrase should never be used in actually giving approval. It is silly, and if the habit takes hold, it will lead to such absurdities as,

  I have to acknowledge your letter of the 16th June and in reply I am prepared to inform you that I am in communication with the solicitors concerned in this matter.

  There are other dangers in these phrases. They may breed by analogy verbiage that is mere verbiage—and that cannot call on politeness to justify its existence. You may find yourself writing that the Minister will take steps to when all you mean is will, or that the Minister will cause investigation to be made with a view to ascertaining, when what you mean is that the Minister will find out. Take steps to is not always to be condemned. It is a reasonable way to express the beginning of a gradual process, as in:

  Steps are now being taken to acquire this land.

  But it will not do, because of its literal incongruity, in a sentence such as this one:

  All necessary steps should be taken to maintain the present position.

  There is a danger that some of these phrases may suggest undesirable ideas to the flippant. To be told that the Minister is ‘not in a position to approve’ may excite a desire to retort that the Minister might try lying on the floor, to see if that does any good. The retort will not, of course, be made, but you should not put ideas of that sort about your Minister into people’s heads. Pompous old phrases must be allowed to die if they collapse under the prick of ridicule. A traditional expression such as ‘I am to request you to move your Minister to do so-and-so’ now runs the risk of conjuring up a risible picture—of physical pressure applied to a bulky and inert object.

  VERBOSITY IN PHRASAL VERBS

  The English language likes to tack an adverbial particle to a simple verb and so to create a verb with a different meaning. Verbs thus formed have come to be called ‘phrasal verbs’. This habit of inventing phrasal verbs has been the source of great enrichment of the language. Pearsall Smith says that from them

  we derive thousands of the vivid colloquialisms and idiomatic phrases by means of which we describe the greatest variety of human actions and relations. We can take to people, take them up, take them down, take them off, or take them in; keep in with them, keep them down or off or on or under; get at them, or round them, or on with them; do for them, do with them or without them, and do them in; make up to them, make up with them, make off with them; set them up or down or hit them off—indeed, there is hardly any action or attitude of one human being to another which cannot be expressed by means of these phrasal verbs. (Words and Idioms)

  But there is today a tendency to form phrasal verbs to express a meaning no different from that of the verb without the particle. To do this is to debase the language, not to enrich it. Drown out, sound out, lose out, rest up, miss out on, meet up with, visit with and study up on are all examples of phrasal verbs used in senses no different from the unadorned verb. By contrast, in the newcomer to measure up to, the added particles give the verb a new meaning, the sense of to ‘be adequate to an occasion’.

  Note. When Gowers wrote this he was under the false impression that all the ‘debasing’ phrasal verbs in his list had originated in America, leading him to remark that they had ‘so far found little favour’ in British English. Wherever they were from, British favour has been widely granted to them since, apart from rest up and visit with. The effect on Gowers of study up on for study or drown out for drown must have been comparable to the effect on a modern British ear of imagine up or fall up short (US News & World Report quotes an expert in benefits saying, ‘half the time you have enough for retirement and half the time you fall up short’). There are, however, plenty of redundant particles littered through British writing:

  It is now the fourth time that the Taliban have used ‘secondary’ devices in the town of Sangin in which they kill or maim with an initial bomb and then await for a stretcher party before detonating another to kill the rescuers. (Daily Telegraph)

  Germany’s staunch refusal to step up to the plate and take the responsibility of being Europe’s paymaster is causing investor sentiment to erode away day by day. (Guardian)

  Will finds it difficult to speak of that dreadful day, but is prepared to elucidate on how he has brought up his sons. (The Times)

  Former Labour chairman will leave parliament … after repaying back almost £15,000 worth of expenses claims. (Guardian) ~

  OVERLAPPING

  By this I mean a particular form of what the grammarians call tautology, pleonasm or redundancy. Possible varieties are infinite, but one of the commonest examples is writing ‘the reason for this is because …’ instead of either ‘this is because’ or ‘the reason for this is that …’.

  The Ministry of Food say that the reason for the higher price of the biscuits is because the cost of chocolate has increased. (The reason … is that …)

  Other versions of this error include:

  The subject of the talk tonight will be about … (Either ‘the subject will be’ or ‘the talk will be about’.)

  The reason for the long delay appears to be due to the fact that the medical certificates went astray. (Either ‘the reason is that’ or ‘the delay is due to the fact that’
.)

  By far the greater majority … (Either ‘by far the majority’ or ‘by far the greater part’.)

  He did not say that all actions for libel or slander were never properly brought. (Either ‘that all actions … were improperly brought’ or ‘that actions … were never properly brought’.)

  An attempt will be made this morning to try to avert the threatened strike. (Those who were going to do this might have attempted to do it or tried to do it. But merely to attempt to try seems rather half-hearted.)

  The common fault of duplicating either the future or the past is another form of this error:

  The most probable thing will be that they will be sold in a Government auction. (‘The most probable thing is that they will be sold …’)

  The Minister said he would have liked the Government of Eire to have offered us butter instead of cream. (He ‘would have liked the Government of Eire to offer …’)

  Note. As well as using versions of the reason why is because, many modern writers find themselves lured into a needless repetition of terms from the cluster both share the same equally in common.* The Independent reports of two public figures: ‘Both share a passion for education …’, but it is enough to say ‘both have a passion for’, ‘they share a passion for’, ‘they have a common passion for’, ‘they are equally passionate about’, or even ‘they have the same passion for’. Similarly, ‘Both suspects remain under armed guard in separate hospitals’ should read, ‘The two suspects remain under armed guard in separate hospitals’. ~