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Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006agree, transitive verb
I noticed a BBC headline that says "Jackson agrees Halo movie delay" (at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6105688.stm). Is this correct? Should it have been "Jackson agrees to Halo movie delay"? saharvetes <saharvetes@gmail.com> had it: > I noticed a BBC headline that says "Jackson agrees Halo movie delay" > (at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6105688.stm). > Is this correct? Should it have been "Jackson agrees to Halo movie > delay"? Headlines are usually large and yet have to fit the space available so they often do not follow the normal rules. You shouldn't take them as examples of good English sentences, other than "good headline English".  SignatureDavid ===== > I noticed a BBC headline that says "Jackson agrees Halo movie delay" > (at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6105688.stm). > Is this correct? Should it have been "Jackson agrees to Halo movie > delay"? From Merriam-Webster Online ( http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/agree ): agree transitive verb [...] 2 chiefly British : to settle on by common consent : ARRANGE *I agreed rental terms with him Eric Bennett* From Mark Israel's alt.usage.english FAQ ( http://www.alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxguidel.html ) Things you may want to consider avoiding when posting here: [...] (2) questions that can be answered by simple reference to a dictionary. [...] > From Merriam-Webster Online > ( http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/agree ): [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > consent : ARRANGE *I agreed rental terms with > him - Eric Bennett* Can some folk in the U.K. comment on whether that usage is prevalent in what George Curme calls "choice English"? I read a fair amount of British fiction and have yet to encounter the usage. > [...] >> From Merriam-Webster Online [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > what George Curme calls "choice English"? I read a fair amount of > British fiction and have yet to encounter the usage. Not sure if I'd describe it as prevalent, but certainly expressions such as "agree terms" and "agree a document" would not raise eyebrows in business use in BrE, and would be readily understood by most people. Regards Jonathan >[...] >> From Merriam-Webster Online [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] >what George Curme calls "choice English"? I read a fair amount of >British fiction and have yet to encounter the usage. I do a lot of negotiation and it's normal to me: "when we meet next week we'll try to agree the new pay arrangements", that sort of thing. SignatureOn-line canal route planner: http://www.canalplan.org.uk (Waterways World site of the month, April 2001) My Reply-To address *is* valid, though likely to die soon >[...] >> From Merriam-Webster Online [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] >what George Curme calls "choice English"? I read a fair amount of >British fiction and have yet to encounter the usage. It is not only prevalent, but standard in Ireland. SignatureCharles Riggs > It is not only prevalent, but standard in Ireland. All this news is amazing, and discouraging. I have to suppose that this form was first coined by some chap who thought himself a great wit (and was half right). What a pity. If Gresham's Law applies, the standard use will soon be driven out of circulation, meaning that we will have lost the ability to make the nice distinctions between agreeing to, agreeing on, agreeing with, agreeing about, and possibly some I have overlooked. All this for the novelty effect of avoiding the rather obvious choices (obvious to those for whom prepositions waste too much of their precious time) of "reach", "conclude", "resolve", "settle', and all the rest of Mr. Roget's chillun, even down to "finalize". Sigh. >> It is not only prevalent, but standard in Ireland. > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > precious time) of "reach", "conclude", "resolve", "settle', and all > the rest of Mr. Roget's chillun, even down to "finalize". It's been around a good 400 years so far without driving out the standard, I wouldn't get too worried if I were you. SignatureLinz Wet Yorks via Cambridge, York, London and Watford My accent may vary [...] > It's been around a good 400 years so far without driving out the > standard, I wouldn't get too worried if I were you. The transitive form has been around longer than that, going back at least to Chaucer. But for about three centuries there has been no use of it save in the uncommon form "to bring disagreeing things into conformity", said now only of accounts and the like (and never, to my knowledge, even in that sense left of the pond); all such forms save that one rightpondian one are centuries since obsolete. Thus, the sudden reappearance of the thing is, in a practical sense, a new coining, as I doubt that the 20-watt lightbulb responsible for it first looked it up in the OED. That, in turn, means that what it will or won't do as regards driving the good coinage out of circulation is independent of its long-past prior history. So I would be worried if I were you (assuming that you care about the tongue). >> It is not only prevalent, but standard in Ireland. > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >precious time) of "reach", "conclude", "resolve", "settle', and all the >rest of Mr. Roget's chillun, even down to "finalize". I doesn't seem any more likely to damage US agree than US protest seems likely to damage the UK one. It's nice to find a reverse example of a verb that is transitive one side only. SignatureOn-line canal route planner: http://www.canalplan.org.uk (Waterways World site of the month, April 2001) My Reply-To address *is* valid, though likely to die soon |
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