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competence, competency
Copperud 1970, 1980 finds the two forms interchangeable in American usage, with competence the predominant form. Fowler 1926 also says the forms are interchangeable, a statement repeated by Gowers in Fowler 1965, with the additional observation that competency is preferred (in British usage) for the sense "a sufficiency of means for life" and competence for the rest. Gowers may be right, but his observation is not substantiated by our evidence nor by the treatment given the words in Longman 1984, a contemporary British dictionary. The "sufficiency of means" sense, which is not especially common, is perhaps more evenly divided between the two variants than other senses:
... their pockets were well lined, for without a considerable competence, a man could not be a Senator at all —Times Literary Supp., 22 Oct. 1971
Having acquired a competency there, he returned to England —Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1967
... and retired with an ample competence in 1868 —Dictionary of American Biography, 1929
He remained in business with his three brothers ... only until he had acquired a competency —Dictionary of American Biography, 1929
Longman 1984 calls this sense formal, and the sources quoted suggest that it is not especially likely to be met with in everyday conversation.
The variants are not quite as interchangeable as the usage writers would suggest, and dictionaries seldom have the space to spell out preferences in much detail. We can tell you that competence is much more frequently used in general than competency; competence seems to be the only form used in the linguistic sense (where it contrasts with performance); and competency seems to be most frequently used in the fields of education and law. Mitchell 1979 has noticed the educational use: "Thus the school people have changed 'competence' to 'competency,' gaining thereby some small increase in self-esteem and a twenty-five percent increase in syllables...." Mr. Mitchell's years of teaching presumably make him competent to speak to educators' self-esteem, but his apparent suggestion that competency is a neologism is as faulty as his arithmetic. Competency is not the creation of school people; it has been around since the end of the 16th century, and though its use in general is dwindling, it can still be met in literary works—generally older ones—as well as in journals and columns devoted to specialized and technical subjects:
... with a decent competency of onion sauce — Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," 1820
... had the thrift to remove a modest competency of the gold —Ambrose Bierce, In The Midst of Life, 1891
Powell could not defend himself from some sympathy for that thick, bald man ... who was so tactfully ready to take his competency for granted —Joseph Conrad, Chance, 1913
Educational use in our files tends to be plural— "skills, knowledge, and competencies"—or attributive, as in "minimum competency requirements" or "competency testing." Since many of the attributive uses refer to state laws or requirements, one suspects an overlay of legal usage upon the educational. |
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发表于 2016-5-29 15:21:15
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