I've followed this discussion with the sense that I might get into a
similar discussion over lie/lay or dis/uninterested. If I think about
it when I write one of the ?ffect words, I can use the right one, most
of the time, but the differences, which are not consistent across
sources, frequently strike me as showing the sort of arbitrariness that
crops up when a contrast is in its death throes. I suspect that this
one will continue to appear in the handbooks for a while but will
ultimately fade, except for the technical uses like "affect" for
"emotion". Note that derivational forms seem to preserve the contrasts
better than the base forms. We have "affective" and "effective", which
no one confuses, and we have "affection" but no one even tries to come
up with "effection". This is further evidence of the decline of a
contrast, when its clearest instances arise in derived forms. Look for
example at "cleave", which is rare in any form today. "Cleft" hasn't
been its past tense since early Modern English, and "cloven" died out as
its past participle even earlier. Both forms exist now only in
specialized uses.
Herb
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Hancock
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 8:44 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Comments?
It's a bit painful to be publicly wrong(good medicine for the
character
from time to time, though not in large doses), but I have to admit that
the evidence seems to go against my own use of "effect" as transitive
verb in the sense of "impact" or "influence".
I'll resist the temptation to argue that I am ahead of the rest of
the
world in pushing usage in that direction, an issue that ought to come
up more often than it does. (If language is always shifting, isn't it
always wrong?) It's interesting that the word's roots are in a Latin
verb, meaning something like "make" or "accomplish".
"Have an effect on" still seems cumbersone to me. But "impact" or
"influence" or "change" would be good substitutes.
I'm going to have to monitor my own usage on this one.
This lively and interesting talk (including my own awkward part in
it)
does point out, though, that ""affect" is verb and "effect" is noun" is
an oversimplification.
Craig
>
Bill, et all,
>
> Of course, we can also make the welkin dance (indeed), Thy hounds can
make
> the welkin anwer them / And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth,
and
> sometimes hideous echoes make the welkin howl. I suppose this thread
has
> effected a response from me among others, but whether that usage of
> 'effect' as a verb is acceptable by all is out of my welkin entirely!
>
> );--}
>
> Paul D.
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: "Spruiell, William C" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 7:12:29 PM
> Subject: Re: Comments?
>
>
> Peter,
>
> I have seen the expression "effect a cure" in connection to medicine
> before, and I'm fairly sure I've seen "effect an escape" in regards to
a
> jailbreak. The verb is of quite limited usage, but it's not quite as
set a
> collocation as things like "wreak havoc" or "make the welkin ring."
>
> -- Bill Spruiell
>
>
>
>
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Adams
> Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 6:45 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Comments?
>
> Am I right that "effect" as a verb almost always takes "change" as an
> object? Other than a change, what else can one effect?
>
>
>
> Peter Adams
>
>
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