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Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006Usage of 'subsequent'
An excerpt from a contract: "Any waiver in respect of failure of compliance with the provisions of this agreement shall be maid in writing and such waiver shall not operate against the waiving party as a waiver of any right or remedy in respect of any subsequent". Are there any words omitted after "subsequent"? If not, what does "subsequent" refer to? > An excerpt from a contract: > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Are there any words omitted after "subsequent"? If not, what > does "subsequent" refer to? Yes, it's an elliptical sentence. The missing words seem to me to be "failure of compliance with the provisions of this agreement". In other words, "even if I say it's okay that you breached the contract this time, that doesn't mean that I'll say it's okay the next time you breach the contract".  SignatureFranke: EFL teacher & medical editor Native speaker of American English; posting from Taiwan. Unmunged email: /at/easypeasy.com "Impatience is the mother of misery." dontbother ra?e: > Yes, it's an elliptical sentence. The missing words seem to me to be > "failure of compliance with the provisions of this agreement". In > other words, "even if I say it's okay that you breached the contract > this time, that doesn't mean that I'll say it's okay the next time > you breach the contract". Thanks! I'm used to ellipsis but this one seemed ungrammatical. I'd expect something like "remedy in respect of any subsequent ONE", cf. the ubiquitous ellipsis in legal documents - "anything of THE foregoing" or "THE latter". I.e. an adjective is made a noun by use of the article or "one" is used. In the quoted example, "subsequent" has no preceding article and is difficult for an EFL to recognize as a noun. P.S. Sorry for the "maid" typo. This is one of the "phonetical typos" that I see in the writing of the people that are more comfortable with spoken language than written one. I tend to be very careful to avoid this sort of mild "illiteracy". > dontbother raše: >> Yes, it's an elliptical sentence. The missing words seem to me >> to be "failure of compliance with the provisions of this [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > In the quoted example, "subsequent" has no preceding article and > is difficult for an EFL to recognize as a noun. Right. I wouldn't analyze "subsequent" as a noun here but as an adjective in an elliptical sentence. Others might take issue with my analysis. MW11 says quite bluntly that it is a noun as well, which would allow "in respect of any subsequent" despite its stylistic vulgarity and odiousness. But it's legalese in addition to being in a contract, so style is hardly an issue. > P.S. Sorry for the "maid" typo. There's no need to apologize. I was just pointing it out on the off chance that the contract actually contained that typo. I did not intend to criticize or embarrass you, and I apologize if I did. > This is one of the "phonetical > typos" that I see in the writing of the people that are more > comfortable with spoken language than written one. I tend to be > very careful to avoid this sort of mild "illiteracy". It happens to all of us native speakers too. No big deal, especially on the Net. SignatureFranke: EFL teacher & medical editor Native speaker of American English; posting from Taiwan. Unmunged email: /at/easypeasy.com "Impatience is the mother of misery." >An excerpt from a contract: > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >Are there any words omitted after "subsequent"? If not, what does >"subsequent" refer to? LIt looks as thoguh the words after subequent were lost. SignatureSteve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa Web: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk >> An excerpt from a contract: >> [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] >> Are there any words omitted after "subsequent"? If not, what does >> "subsequent" refer to? " ... waiver" > LIt looks as thoguh the words after subequent were lost. > An excerpt from a contract: > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Are there any words omitted after "subsequent"? If not, what does > "subsequent" refer to? It is an unwise choice, especially for a legal document. The noun sense of "subsequent" is marked by the OED as Obsolete (and does not appear at all in my American desk dictionary). Its OED definition is "a person or thing that follows or comes after another". From the usage samples given, even were the word alive today, the example above would not be how it would be used. The problem, even did we admiht the word as a lively noun, is that it is unclear of what sort the "subsequent" would be. At a quick glance, one might be tempted to say "waiver", but on careful reading, we see that that cannot be so. The "subsequent" would appear to be a "failure of compliance" (ugh), but the sentence is very unclear on that (and does not use a defining indefinite article to qualify "failure"). My guess is that what was meant was something like: "Any particular failure [by X] to comply with the provisions of this agreement may be waived [by Y], but only in a writing expressly setting forth the matters being waived, and no such waiver shall be construed as a waiver of any subsequent failure [by X] to comply, whether that failure be of the same or of a different nature." Still not good, but better. |
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