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Phrasal
verbs international
 Your
questions
answered 
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In this section of the magazine, from time
to time, we'll be sharing with you questions which have been sent to us.
The answers will be provided by Gwyneth
Fox, Dictionaries Publisher at Macmillan
Education.
Since the publication of the Macmillan
English Dictionary (MED) in 2002 Gwyneth has travelled far and
wide and given lots of workshops, talked to many teachers and students
and answered hundreds of questions about words and how words are described
in dictionaries.
You may find that you've had the same queries yourself,
or that your students keep coming up with similar questions. But if you
feel that you still have a few more lexical questions that you'd like
to get off your chest, fill in this form
and we'll get back to you!
| Your questions
answered |
| press
on |
| I quite like the illustrations,
entries and examples in the Macmillan English Dictionary,
but I think some verbs lack certain meanings. For example, press
on also has a meaning 'to hurry', but in your dictionary
I cannot find that meaning. Am I right in thinking that such
a meaning exists? |
| I've been looking at the evidence for the use
of press on to mean 'hurry', and really I think 'hurry'
is only part of the meaning. It actually is used to mean 'to
continue doing something, often when there are some difficulties
in doing it'. And this 'continue' can include going from where
you are to somewhere else, often hurrying to get there. You
could see this as a separate meaning, but I think it's included
in the definition given in MED at 'press ahead or press
on'. It's not very common, and it does have extra features
rather than just 'hurry', and I wouldn't want people to use
press on instead of hurry, as that would give
the wrong 'feel' to their discourse. |
| wander |
|
While doing research
on ways of walking, I came across what I consider a contradiction
between the definition and one of the examples of the verb
wander:
definition:
'to travel from place to place, especially on foot, without
a particular direction or purpose'
example: He wandered the countryside, looking
for his son.
What I understand
from the example is that this action is performed with a particular
purpose
('looking for his son'). Is this example, or the definition,
incorrect?
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| This is a really interesting query. At first
I agreed with you that this was a bad example, as he obviously
did have a purpose – i.e., as you say, looking for his
son. But the more I thought about it, the more I could see why
wander had been used and why I think the definition is
not wrong. He didn't know where he was going, he just went from
one place to another without any reason for going there, he'd
no idea where he'd find his son, and so his wanderings were,
to some extent, purposeless. His travel was not efficient, he'd
no destination in mind. So it's the movement that doesn't really
have a purpose, even though he's searching for his son. In fact
you could say 'He wandered from place to place, searching for
his lost son', and then it is more obvious that the wandering
is not well directed. |
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