2021-04-16 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – A – ain’t

Revision A

2021-04-16

ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – A – ain’t

แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น

ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค

Dictionary.com

ออกเสียง ain’t = ‘EYNT’

Dictionary.com

USAGE NOTE FOR AIN'T

As a substitute for am not, is not, and arenot in declarative sentences,

ain't is more common in uneducatedspeech than in educated,

but it occurs with some frequency in the informalspeech of the educated,

especially in the southern and south-centralstates.

This is especially trueof the interrogative use of ain't I?

as a substitute for the formal

and—to some—stilted am I not? or for aren't I?,

considered by some to be ungrammatical,

or for the awkward—and rarein American speech— amn't I?

Some speakers avoidany of the preceding forms

by substituting Isn't that so (true, the case)?

Ain't occurs in humorous or set phrases:

Ain't it the truth!

She ain't what she used to be.

It ain't funny.

The word is also used for emphasis:

That just ain't so!

It does not appearin formal writing

except for deliberate effect

in such phrases or to representspeech.

As a substitute for have not or has not

and—occasionally in Southern speech— do not, does not, and did not,

it is nonstandard exceptin similar humorous uses:

You ain't heard nothin' yet!

See also aren't.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,

Usage Note:

Ain't has a long history of controversy.

It first appeared in 1778, evolving from an earlier an't,

which arose almost a century earlier as a contraction of are not and am not.

In fact, ain't arose at the tail end of an era

that saw the introduction of a number of our most common contractions,

including don't and won't.

But while don't and won't eventually

became accepted at all levels of speech and writing,

ain't was to receive a barrage of criticism in the 19th century

for having no set sequence of words

from which it can be contracted

and for being a "vulgarism,"

that is, a term used by the lower classes,

although an't had been originally used by the upper classes as well.

At the same time

ain't's uses were multiplying

to include has not, have not, and is not,

by influence of forms like ha'n't and i'n't.

It may be that these extended uses helped fuel the negative reaction.

Whatever the case,

criticism of ain't by usage commentators and teachers has not subsided,

and the use of ain't is often regarded as a sign of ignorance.

But despite all the attempts to ban it,

ain't continues to enjoy extensive use in speech.

Even educated and upper- class speakers

see no substitute in folksy expressions

such as Say it ain't so and You ain't seen nothin' yet.

The stigmatization of ain't leaves us with no happy alternative

for use in first-person questions.

The widely used aren't I?,

though irregular, was found acceptable for use in speech

by a majority of the Usage Panel as long ago as 1964,

but in writing there is no acceptable substitute for the stilted am I not?

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Is ain't a word?: Usage Guide

Although widely disapproved as nonstandard,

and more common in the habitual speech of the less educated,

ain't is flourishing in American English.

It is used in both speech and writing

to catch attention and to gain emphasis.

the wackiness of movies, once so deliciously amusing,

ain't funny anymore — Richard Schickel

I am telling you—there ain't going to be any blackmail — R. M. Nixon

It is used especially in journalistic prose

as part of a consistently informal style.

the creative process ain't easy — Mike Royko

This informal ain't is commonly distinguished from habitual ain't

by its frequent occurrencein fixed constructions and phrases.

well—class it ain't — Cleveland Amory

for money? say it ain't so, Jimmy! — Andy Rooney

you ain't seen nothingyet

that ain't hay

two out of three ain't bad

if it ain't broke, don't fix it

In fiction

ain't is used for purposes of characterization;

in familiar

correspondence it tends to be the mark of a warm personal friendship.

It has also long been commonly used in popular songs,

both for metrical reasons and for the informal tone it conveys.

Ain't She Sweet

It Ain't NecessarilySo

Our evidence shows British use to be muchthe same as American.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Usage Notes

'Aren't I?' or 'Are I Not?'

'Aren't I' was considered an error for much of the 20th century.

These days, it's widely accepted. What happened?

What to Know

Aren't I isan accepted phrase for "am I not"

even though when the conjunction is broken down

it appears to be short for "are not I,"

which doesn't agree with standard rules of grammar.

One theory is that those who wanted to avoid the phrase ain't

for fear of ridicule opted for

"aren't I" as opposed to "amn't" or another construction.

What happens

when a grammatical mistake

that is commonly made by speakers of our language

comes to be viewed as "proper"

(or at least no longer viewed as a mistake)?

Is there a parade?

Is there a small private ceremony,

in which the previously offending usage

is given a certificate of good standing and a cigar?

Is a memo sent out to all speakers and writers of the language,

alerting them to the change?

No, none of these things happen.

In fact, based on the readily available evidence that we have,

these changes tend to occur with a whimper, rather than a bang.

Let’s look at the the case of aren’t I.

'Aren't I' Broken Down

If you examinethe version of aren’t I

that has no contractions

it quickly becomes apparentwhat the problem is:

“are not I.” Not only is the word order out of whack,

but the pronoun does not agree with the verb at all.

Yet despite the fact that this violates some basic rules of grammar

that most of us are comfortable with,

aren’t I manages to see use in the speech of educated people

every day, without occasioning much of a fuss.

"So why isn't—why aren't I more concerned?"
—The Wall Street Journal, (transcript, interview with John Williams, President, San Francisco Fed.), 17 May 2016

"Why aren't I 50 points ahead?" an animated Mrs. Clinton asked last week in a video address to the Laborers' International Union of North America meeting in Las Vegas.
—Amy Chozick, The New York Times, 29 Sept. 2016

“So, I'm probably going to eat those words, aren't I. Yeah.”
—Rep. Paul Ryan (Political Transcript Wire), press conference, 29 Sept. 2016

In fact, it doesn’t just see use in speech,

but may also commonly be found in written and edited prose

(especially when it is in a slightly informal register):

Aren't I incredibly generous to break my own one-prize-per-week rule

to give him a $5 mug or bag and a $1 air "freshener"?
—Pat Myers, The Washington Post, 17 Apr., 2014

That's right—I'm obeying a stop sign. Isn't it amazing?

Aren't I an incredibly law-abiding cyclist?
—Barbara Brotman, Chicago Tribune, 17 Jun. 2013

Though I don't play Scrabble to make new friends,

whenever I see this message I always feel slightly insulted.

Come on, "scrabblerocks121," aren't I worthy of the most minimal chat?
—Meg Wolitzer, The New York Times, 18 Sept. 2011

Why is Aren't I Accepted?

So, why do we use this turn of phrase?

One possibility is that ain’t is to blame.

Were we to match our verbs and pronouns correctly,

we would say “am I not,” rather than “are I not”;

the contracted version of this might be

written as either amn’t

(which sounds unwieldy to most speakers of US English)

or as ain’t.

Some grammarians have argued in favor of ain’t

being accepted as a shortened version of “am not,”

but the word has been so thoroughly aspersed

that this sense never gained acceptance.

Therefore, if you feel social pressure to not say ain’t,

and it feels phonetically awkward to say amn’t,

you end up saying aren’t I.

In the early and mid-20th century,

a number of American usage guides

complained about the use of aren’t I.

In recent years, however,

the word has achieved a degree of acceptance

in speech and colloquial prose.

There was no official decree and no pronouncement

signaling this change;

even though the use of aren’t I

gained acceptance relatively quickly,

it still took several decades of varying opinion

before it became widely allowed.

This is not the first time

that we have changed the waythat we use a particular pronoun

over the objections of some who wished it would not change.

In 1660, George Fox, a founder of the Religious Society of Friends,

was sore wroth over the fact

that people had been using the pronoun you in the singular.

Rather than write a snippy letter to his local newspaper,

Fox wrote an entire book on the subject.

Fox’s book had the catchy title of

A Battle-Door for Teachers & Professors to Learn Singular & Plural;

You to Many, and Thou to One;

Singular One, Thou; Plural Many, You.

A sample of how he felt on this matter comes early in the book,

when he wrote “is he not a Novice, and Unmannerly, and an Ideot, and a Fool, that speaks You to one, which is not to be spoken to a singular, but to many?”

In spite of such recriminations,

the English-speaking people continued using

you to refer to a single person,

and somehow our language has survived to this day.

Aren’t I would appear to be well on the way

to joining the singular you as part of our accepted language.

There is no sign yet that are not I will be joining it anytime soon.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Words at Play

We Made You a Usage Limericks

You're welcome.

Ain't

There’s a backwoodsy tinge, nay a taint
With dialectical words such as ain’t
But that word’s often found
Used by writers renowned
At least on occasions when they wish to sound quaint

When Merriam-Webster published

the third edition of its Unabridged Dictionary in 1961

a number of critics were horrified to find that

ain’t was defined in its pages.

These critics were either unmoved by, or failed to read,

the note accompanying ain’t,

which read

“though disapproved by many

and more common in less educated speech,

used orally in most parts of the U.S. bymany cultivated speakers

esp. in the phraseain’t I.”

Dictionary of Problem Words in English

This contraction of am not has been extended

to mean also “is not,” “has not,” “are not,” and “have not.”

Ain’t is considered illiterate, colloquial, or dialectical

and is cautioned against in so-called standardspeech and writing.

It is occasionally used informally by educated persons,

but it has not been accepted as have been isn’t (is not), hasn’t (has not), haven’t(have not), aren’t (are not), and weren’t (were not).

Common Errors In English Usage Dictionar

“Ain’t”has a long and vital history

as a substitute for “isn’t,” “aren’t” and so on.

It was originally formed from a contractionof “am not”

and is still commonly used in that sense.

Even though it has been universally condemned

as the classic “mistake” in English,

everyone uses it occasionallyas part of a joking phrase

or to convey a down-to-earth quality.

But if you always use it instead of the more “proper” contractions

you’re sure to be branded as uneducated.