2020-11-29
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด P – Please & RSVP
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง Please = ‘PLEEZ’
ออกเสียง RSVP or R.S.V.P. = ‘AHR-es-vee-pee’
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree
Please = be agreeable to;
give pleasure:
please the audience;
like or wish:
do what you please
Not to be confused with:
pleas = appeals, entreaties:
pleas for clemency;
excuses; pretexts;
a defendant’s answers to legal charges
Farlex Trivia Dictionary
Please =
Amuse-bouche andamuse-guele
both mean literally"something to please the mouth,"
and both refer toan appetizer or pre-meal tidbit.
- like –
Comes from Germanic likam, "appearance, body, form";
the verb came from likojam, which,
as like, originallymeant "please."
From Old English lufu, connectedwith Sanskrit lubh, "to desire,"
and Latin lubere, "to please."
Descends from Latin placere, "please."
Dictionary.com
RSVP
If you try to blend the letters RSVP together into a word,
you’ve got a tongue twister.
Pronouncing each of the four letters [ ahr–es–vee–pee ] is easier,
however, than the French phrase for which they stand:
répondez s‘il vous plaît, meaning “please reply.”
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Usage Notes
Can you say 'very pleased'?
Our answer may or may not please you
Some of us make our way through life blithely
unconcerned about matters of grammar and usage,
reasoning that
if people manage to understand what we say
then we must be covering all (or most) of the necessary bases.
And then some of us scrupulously observeevery tenet of usage
and grammatical prescription that we can,
reasoning that
if we all just applied ourselves to the matter
and observed the correct rules
then all would be well with the world.
Then we come across an issue
such as whether or not
you should use the word very beforethe word pleased
and you begin to realize
how futile is the expectation
that we will ever all agree on what constitutes correct language use.
Most people think that saying "very pleased"
—in direct violation of 19th-century grammarian
George Marsh's explicit instructions—isjust fine.
Some of you are likely shaking your head right now,
wondering what on earth could be wrong withsaying “I am very pleased,”
while others are exultant that finally there is a dictionary
willing to tackle this linguistic excrescence
and tell kids the proper way to use very.
Since it seems likely that the former group will outnumber the latter,
let’s go over the problem with
saying you are “very pleased” with something.
In the middle of the 19th century,
some grammarians suddenly decided that the word very
had a bit too much freedom,
and should be more restricted in its use.
George Marsh, in a collection of essays published in 1862,
explains that the adverb very should be used to qualify adjectives,
and should not be applied to participles
(“a word having the characteristics of both verb and adjective”).
In Marsh’s view it was therefore permissible
to write or say “I am very happy,”
but it was not permissible to use “I am very delighted,”
since delighted is the past participle of the verb delight.
It makes sense, doesn’t it? You wish.
Marsh goes on to point out that
it is acceptable to use “very learned,” and “very tired”;
and while you may call someone a “disappointed man”
you cannot say “he is very disappointed.”
This seems a touch more difficult to figure out.
The Oxford English Dictionary,
under their definition for the sense of very
in which is ‘is modifying past participles’,
includes a short note:
“The correctness of this usage,
which has been prevalent from the middle of the 17th cent.,
depends on the extent to which the participle hasacquired a purely adjectival sense.”
While this is not quite as simple as
differentiating between to, too, and two,
at least we have a clear set of guidelines to follow here:
once a participle becomes an adjective
it can be modified with very,
but until that point it is very delicate
and must be protected from the very byplacing another modifier
(such as much) before it.
So how do we know when a participle has become an adjective?
Randolph Quirk’s A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language gives four criteria that must be met before a participle graduates from verbhood and is given adjectival status: it can be used attributively (“you have your annoyed face on”);
in predicative use with seem (“you seem rather annoyed with me”);
it can be premodified by very (“Yes, I am very annoyed”);
it can be used in comparison
(“I would say I am more annoyed than when you dropped my goldfish”).
Some of us might not have the time or patience
to silently run Quirk’s four criteria through our heads
before deciding whether we can use a very or not.
If you are one such person you can simply carry a large number of muches around with you,
and take pains to add one between every very andpossible participle you use.
Or you could remember the wise words of H.W. Fowler, writing in his Modern English Usage,
“The process by which a participle becomes an adjective is gradual; whether any particular one has passed the barrier must often be a matter of opinion.”
(And in case you were wondering, most people think it is just fine to use "very pleased.")
Common Errors In English Usage Dictionary
R.S.V.P. stands for the French phrase
Répondez s’il vous plaît (“reply, please”),
so it doesn’t need an added “please.”
However, since few people seem toknow its literal meaning,
and fewer still take it seriously,
it’s best to use plain English: “Please reply.”
And for those of you receiving such an invitation:
yes, you have to let the host know
whether you’re coming or not,
and no, you can’t bring along the kids or other uninvited guests.
