Use of respective(ly)
respective(ly). Delight in these words is a wide-spread but
depraved taste; like soldiers and policemen, they have work to do, but,
when the work is not there, the less we see of them the better; of
ten sentences in which they occur, nine would be improved by their
removal. The evil is considerable enough to justify an examination at
some length; examples may be sorted into six groups:
- in which the words give information needed by sensible readers;
- in which they give information that may be needed by fools;
- in which they say again what is said elsewhere;
- in which they say nothing intelligible;
- in which they are used wrongly for some other word; and
- in which they give a positively wrong sense.
A. Right uses
- There are two other chapters in which Strauss and Debussy take respectively a higher and a lower place than popular opinion accords them.
Without respectively, the reader might suppose that both composers were rated higher on some points and lower in others; respectively shows that higher goes with Strauss, and lower with Debussy.
- ...that training colleges for men and women respectively be provided on sites at Hammersmith and St Pancras.
Without respectively, the reader might think that both colleges are for both sexes; respectively shows that one is for men and the other is for women.
- This makes it quite possible for the apparently contradictory messages received from Sofia and Constantinople respectively to be equally true.
Respectively shows that the contradiction is not, for instance, between earlier and later news from the combined two, but between news from Sofia and news from Constantinople.
B. Foolproof uses
The particular fool, for whose benefit each respectively is inserted, follows the sentence:
- Final statements are expected to be made today by Mr Bonar Law and M. Millerand in the House of Commons and the Chamber of Deputies respectively.
- the reader who does not know which gentleman normally speaks in which Parliament, or who may imagine both gentlemen talking in both Parliaments.
- The Socialist aim in forcing a debate was to compel the different groups to define their respective attitudes.
- the reader who may expect a group to define another group's attitude.
- It is very far from certain that any of the names now canvassed in Wall Street will secure the nomination at the respective Republican and Democratic Conventions.
- the reader who may think that Republicans and Democrats combined hold several conventions.
- We have not the smallest doubt that this is what will actually happen, and we may discuss the situation on the footing that the respective fates of these two Bills will be as predicted.
- the reader who thinks that the prediction contains one shared fate for the two Bills.
C. Tautological uses
After each is underlined the expression or the fact that makes
respective superfluous.
- Having collected the total amount, the collector disburses to each proper authority its respective quota.
- He wants the Secretary for War to tell the House in what countries they are at present stationed, and the numbers in each country respectively.
- Madame Sarah Bernhardt and Mrs Bernard Beere respectively made enormous hits in 'As in a Looking Glass'..
- The October number of the Rassegna is chiefly remarkable for the respective articles of the Marchese Crispolto Crispolti on Pope Benedict V and the War and by the Marchese Colonna di Cesarò on Zionism and the Entente..
- In the Preussische Jahrbücher for May, the most noteworthy articles are those respectively by Werner Weisbach, who writes on Germany in modern Italian political criticism, and by Professor Hans Delbruck, who contributes an extremely interesting comparison between...
D. Unintelligible uses
- The writing-room, silence-room, and recreation-room have respectively blue and red armchairs.
- A certain estate is for sale; its grounds border three main roads, namely, Queen's, Belmont, and King's respectively.
E. In place of other words
The writers of these mean no more than both.
- The two nurses' associations respectively organized in Scotland make no secret of their membership.
- He was a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, and of the University of London respectively.
Both is to be placed after Fellow of above.
F. Reversal of sense
- It is recognized that far too little is known by Englishmen and Americans about their respective countries; in [England], there is only one lectureship on American history, and that is at King's College, Strand.
This can only mean that Englishmen know too little of England, and Americans know too little of America—which is no doubt true, but is not the truth that the writer wished to convey; 'about each other's countries' would have served both writer and reader.
The simple fact is that respective(ly) are words seldom needed, but pretentious writers drag them in at every opportunity for the air of thoroughness and precision they are supposed to give to a sentence.
