Home » Discussion Forum

Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Discussion Forum (Archived)

Please consider registering
Guest
Forum Scope


Match



Forum Options



Min search length: 3 characters / Max search length: 84 characters
The forums are currently locked and only available for read only access
sp_TopicIcon
All of the above
Robert
553 Posts
(Offline)
1
2016/10/28 - 1:27am

I've long noticed people use    all of the above   in conversations, to refer to things just mentioned by the opposite speaker.   Somehow it never stops sounding weird  to me-  it seems the person pressumes that you must, like them, apply some kind of simplistic spacial orientation to thoughts, or  impulsively copy thoughts to mental prints.  

Is it always a common expression, or  a modern habit?  More of the bookish?   Does it sound normal to you? 

Guest
2
2016/10/28 - 7:27am

No doubt the expression comes from the multiple choice tests we all took in school, where often the last choice was "all of the above" or "none of the above" (which I've also heard in conversation). But take a look at this Ngram. The first rise in usage seems to occur around the time public education came into vogue. Makes sense to me. But the rapid rise after about 1970 is a real puzzle.

Of course, as you point out, in spoken English it sounds a bit odd. Could be more correctly said as "all of the preceding" or "all of the aforementioned" but "all of the above" is simpler to say, and everyone knows exactly what is meant. The Ngram supports this. Sure, there's no real spatial orientation (as in a written multiple choice question) but that doesn't bother me. The usage is so common it has essentially become a synonymous phrase, perhaps even a full-blown idiom.

Now grammatically, "all the above/preceding/aforementioned" may be slightly more correct, since the "of" isn't really needed. Curiously, the Ngram for those phrases looks like this and doesn't show any correlation with the rise of public education. But almost every multiple choice question I've seen uses the "of" so that supports my original contention.

Forum Timezone: America/Los_Angeles
Show Stats
Administrators:
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Moderators:
Grant Barrett
Top Posters:
Newest Members:
Mike Brock
Forum Stats:
Groups: 1
Forums: 1
Topics: 3647
Posts: 18912

 

Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 618
Members: 1266
Moderators: 1
Admins: 2
Most Users Ever Online: 1147
Currently Online:
Guest(s) 38
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)

Recent posts