A "UNIQUE" STORY (TRUE!)
To my father, using a comparison with "unique" was a sin of the worst order,
and I was thoroughly cured of this odius practice, probably by the age of
four or five. Imagine my horror, then, as a college freshman (circa 1963)
to read the following words in my history text: "most unique." And this by
a presumably esteemed author! I immediately wrote him a letter (care of his
publisher) to upbraid him, nay castigate him for this error of unimaginable
magnitude. To my surprise, he wrote back thusly: "Dear Mr. Layton: You
are quite right although unduly concerned."
I have been much less concerned ever since.
Geoff Layton
>From: Craig Hancock <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: comparing superlatives (was: Blue Color; each other)
>Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 08:12:17 -0500
>
>Paul,
> I'm with you on one level. It's a shame when a perfectly fine (indeed,
>a unique word) begins to lose its special quality. You would like to
>use it in such a way that everyone knows you mean "one of a kind". It's
>the kind of point I enjoy from William Safire in his columns. Your
>students, though, are used to thinking of it as meaning "unusual"
>because that is a common meaning for it in actual use. I confess I have
>probably said "very unique" without thinking about it as
>problematic.>Thanks to your conversation, I have now looked closely at
>the dictionary and deepened my understanding.
> I love the idea that you would talk to your students about it. When
>language changes, something is gained and something is lost. You care
>about fine shades of meaning, as we all should. Ultimately, I think
>decisions about these sorts of changes are out of our hands. A word
>means what people think it means. But I also think that sort of
>discussion with students is very productive. Language changes over
>time, and it may not always seem for the best.
>
>
>Craig,
> >
> > My problem with "very unique" is that unique means (to ME), one of a
> > kind (or some emphatic variation of that idea). It is illogical to me to
> > say that something can be "very one of a kind" or "most one of a kind."
> > I'm not sure how I feel about "thoroughly unique" and "absolutely
> > unique;" for some reason, and I am hard pressed to express what that
> > reason is, the logic doesn't bother me. Maybe I'm being too fussy about
> > that usage. What I really meant to emphasise in my previous post,
> > however, was that many of my students couldn't see the logical problem
> > in the expression in the first place.
> >
> > It's curious that the two most "objectional" examples from the OED
>below
> > are first from the voice of a toad (In "The Wind in the Willows") and
> > next from an advertisement (Country Life, 1939). I guess that fictional
> > toads and real-life ad copy writers have a different sent of standards
> > from mine!
> >
> > So it goes,
> >
> > Paul D.
> >
> > Craig Hancock <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > >Paul,
> > I just remembered I can access the OED if I use my UAlbany account.
> > Here's a section copied from their entry for "unique". It has been
> > "Objected to", as they say, but a fairly common practice in their own
> > examples, dating back well into the nineteenth century.
> >
> > Craig
> >
> > From the OED, the second entry for "unique":
> >
> > 2. a. That is or forms the only one of its kind; having no like or
> > equal; standing alone in comparison with others, freq. by reason of
> > superior excellence; unequalled, unparalleled, unrivalled.
> > In this sense readopted from French at the end of the 18th c. and
> > regarded as a foreign word down to the middle of the 19th, from which
> > date it has been in very common use, with a tendency to take the wider
> > meaning of ‘uncommon, unusual, remarkable’.
> > The usage in the comparative and superlative, and with advs. as
> > absolutely, most, quite, thoroughly, totally, etc., has been objected to
> > as tautological.
> >
> > 1618 W. BARCLAY Well at King-horne Avij, This is a soueraigne and vnicke
> > remedie for that disease in Women. 1794 R. J. SULIVAN View Nat. I. 3 A
> > concentrated, and an unique aggregation of almost all the wonders of the
> > natural world. 1809 R. K. PORTER Trav. Sk. Russia & Sweden (1813) I.
>xxv.
> > 285 As it was thoroughly unique, I cannot forbear presenting you with so
> > singular a curiosity. 1842 J. P. COLLIER Armin's Nest Ninn. Introd., A
> > relic..not only unique in itself, but unprecedented in its kind. 1866
> > LIDDON Bamp. Lect. v. (1867) 368 [Christ's] relationship to the
>Father..is
> > absolutely unique. 1871 B. TAYLOR Faust (1875) II. II. i. 84 A thing so
> > totally unique The great collectors would go far to seek. 1885 Harper's
> > Mag. April 703/1 When..these summer guests found themselves defrauded of
> > their uniquest recreations. 1908 K. GRAHAME Wind in Willows viii. 168
> > ‘Toad Hall,’ said the Toad proudly, ‘is an eligible self-contained
> > gentleman's residence, very unique.’ 1912 CHESTERTON Manalive I. iii. 86
> > Diana Duke..began putting away the tea things. But it was not before
> > Inglewood had seen an instantaneous picture so unique that he might well
> > have snapshotted it. 1939 Country Life 11 Feb. p. xviii/2 (Advt.),
>Almost
> > the most unique residential site along the south coast. 1960 [see
>DIQUAT].
> > 1980 Verbatim Autumn 15/2 A high-ranking state Alcoholic Beverage
> > Commission official said Friday that Wednesday's retroactive renewal and
> > transfer of the beverage permit of the rural Bloomington Liars' Lodge by
> > the Monroe County Alcoholic Beverage Board was ‘unique but not
>uncommon’.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Doesn't the 'each' automatically make the 'other' singular?
> >>
> >> Paul D.
> >>
> >> Speaking of redundancy, my students often struggle against the notion
> >> that "very unique" doesn't make sense to me.
> >>
> >> stein wrote:
> >>
> >> Here is your posting Joanne.
> >> Thank you, Herb and Paul for responding to my question.
> >> Dalia
> >> -------Original Message-------
> >>
> >> From: Johanna Rubba
> >> Date: 03/15/06 02:51:00
> >> To: stein
> >> Cc: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> >> Subject: Re: Blue Color; each other
> >>
> >>
> >> Dalia,
> >>
> >> I wonder if you could post this for me: (Thanks!)
> >>
> >> "I like the blue color" could be another example of the tendency
> >> towards redundant expressions which seems to be strong in English right
> >> now. My students often write things like "equally as good"; there's the
> >> old "refer back"; "both my sister and brother share this tendency"; and
> >> others that don't come readily to mind. I can imagine someone
> >> responding to a question like "Which color shirt do you like best?"
> >> with "The blue color." "Color" links the answer to the question, and
> >> puts the queried word ("which color") in the answer.
> >>
> >> I also have a query about "each other" -- how do we make it possessive,
> >> as in
> >>
> >> "They are always snooping into each other's business." Should it be <
> >> each others' > ? I keep doing a Gestalt shift on this; right now the
> >> first one looks right. How about a clear more-than-two:
> >>
> >> "The students then proofread each other's papers." Here, the <'s> looks
> >> wrong; the coreference with the plural "students" is getting in the
> >> way.
> >>
> >> Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
> >> Linguistics Minor Advisor
> >> English Department
> >> California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
> >> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> >> Tel.: 805.756.2184
> >> Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
> >> Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
> >> URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
> >>
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> >>
> >>
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