To Recall a synonym for To Call To Mind? continued

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darras - 31 Dec 2006 15:52 GMT

Compliments of the season. My thanks to all those members who have
offered answers to my query of 26 Dec. about the use of the verb RECALL
(transitive) in the example "Her photographs recall a dark episode in
US history".Assuming that the latter is awkward &/or rare, if not
downright faulty, is it correct to postulate that RECALL should link
beings or things in identical categories, as in: "His paintings recall
the style of Picasso" (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dict.); "A
playwright who recalls the Elizabethan dramatists" (another dictionary)
; or "The devastation left by the hurricane in its wake recalls the
ravages one sees in areas struck by war" (my own invention) ?

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Mike Lyle - 31 Dec 2006 16:39 GMT

> Compliments of the season. My thanks to all those members who have
> offered answers to my query of 26 Dec. about the use of the verb RECALL
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> ; or "The devastation left by the hurricane in its wake recalls the
> ravages one sees in areas struck by war" (my own invention) ?

Interesting. I'm thinking on my feet and haven't looked it up, but, as
I said in the other thread (no need to start a new one), the use of
"recall" in your original example seems to me idiomatic and not rare in
British or literary English. So I don't accept the premise of your new
enquiry; but I do follow your reasoning. It doesn't seem absolutely
necessary to restrict usage in the way you suggest, but I do believe
the word should be used with caution. I don't think I'd ever write "The
smell of hot oil recalled wheat" (in prose); but I'd sometimes be
prepared to use "The smell of hot oil recalled the wheat harvest". The
connection would then have to be explained, of course. I suppose this
is a slightly different meaning from that in "The smell of fresh ginger
rather recalls lemons".

I'm not about to go the stake over this, though.

Signature

Mike.

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Jim Lawton - 31 Dec 2006 16:52 GMT

>> Compliments of the season. My thanks to all those members who have
>> offered answers to my query of 26 Dec. about the use of the verb RECALL
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>smell of hot oil recalled wheat" (in prose); but I'd sometimes be
>prepared to use "The smell of hot oil recalled the wheat harvest".

I agree, though I couldn't explain why they differ. I think there is an
understood " to my mind", which if included would resolve either phrase.

> The
>connection would then have to be explained, of course. I suppose this
>is a slightly different meaning from that in "The smell of fresh ginger
>rather recalls lemons".
>
>I'm not about to go the stake over this, though.

Signature

Jim
a Yorkshire polymoth

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CDB - 31 Dec 2006 21:08 GMT

[snip]

>> ... is it correct to postulate that
>> RECALL should link beings or things in identical categories, as
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
>
> I'm not about to go the stake over this, though.

The way Mike is using it seems right to me, as the examples given by
darras don't, quite. In the ones I like, the word seems to be
shorthand for "evokes the memory/experience of". This makes sense:
you can only recall something that has been present and then gone
away. "A playwright whose work recalls the pleasure of reading the
Elizabethan dramatists..." "The smell of hot oil recalled (the days I
used to spend toiling at) the wheat harvest." "The devastation recalls
the ravages of the shelling one saw in Kosovo." That what is recalled
is an experience need perhaps not be made explicit, but should be
plausible in context.

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / December 2006

To Recall a synonym for To Call To Mind? continued