Can a single thing make a 'concerted' effort? 2

[jsteph]

Hi all,
I just wanted to run this by the language experts and see if this sentence makes sense:

Its new Bing search engine is a concerted attempt to take market share from dominant leader Google...

From the article in Yahoo Finance:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Micro...0.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=

I would think it could be "part of" a concerted attempt, but not a concerted attempt by itself.
--Jim

 

[kjv1611]

Definitely bad word choice (the article using concerted).

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

Here's a good general reference on the poor word choice error:

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/concerted.html

And among the many dictionaries available online:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/concerted

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[AnotherHiggins]

I think there there are two different definitions being confused.

concerted
• adjective
1 jointly arranged or carried out: a concerted campaign.
2 using exertion: a concerted effort.

Compact OED

concerted
adjective [usually before noun]
1 planned or done together for a shared purpose:
The richer countries of the world should take concerted action to help the poorer countries.
The D-Day invasion was a concerted exercise by the armed forces of Britain, the US and Canada.

2 describes an effort or attempt that is determined and serious:
There has been a concerted campaign against the proposals.
[highlight]He's making a concerted effort[/highlight] to improve his appearance.

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary

concerted
adjective
(of an attempt to do something) determined and serious, or done together with others

Cambridge Dictionary of American English

It's interesting, though, that not all of the dictionaries I looked at include such a definition. (for a big list all in one place, check out onelook)

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[CajunCenturion]

==> I would think it could be "part of" a concerted attempt, but not a concerted attempt by itself.
This is an issue of granularity. What is the specific item in question?

Yes, a single person can make a concerted effort to do something because that person can bring multiple faculties together to accomplish that goal. By the same token, the Bing search engine is on one level a single entity, but on another level, it's a collection of routines and functions which can work in concert to achieve a certain task.



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[jsteph]

The item in question is Microsoft, so to me it's not that Bing may have a collection of routines, etc.--it's Microsoft that has a collection of applications, departments, etc. at it's disposal, and it chose a single one of those--Bing--to make this 'concerted' attempt.

So in that context, the use of the word seems inccorect, unless the writer was using that second definition (in anotherhiggin's post).

I wonder if that second definition was added as an 'I give up' response to widespread misuse of the word.
--Jim

 

[kjv1611]

I wonder if that second definition was added as an 'I give up' response to widespread misuse of the word.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[CajunCenturion]

==> The item in question is Microsoft, ...

The sentence in question is:

Its new Bing search engine is a concerted attempt to take market share from dominant leader Google...

The subject of that sentence is 'engine'.


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[Grenage]

I wonder if that second definition was added as an 'I give up' response to widespread misuse of the word.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if this was the case. Misuse of a word is just one of many causes of language mutation.

"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area" - Major Mike Shearer

 

[traingamer]

This is perfectly good grammar. To me it's pretty much saying:

The Bing engine is a concerted effort by Microsoft to take share from Google.

That is, the effort is from Microsoft, not from the search engine.

Greg
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. Kierkegaard

 

[kjv1611]

Grammatically correct, yes.

Good word usage, I would say no. It's in a news article, which I would think would need to be written to the most common denominator. In other words, I would think a writer would want to use the most commonly accepted verbiage to describe each action.

Of course, that's my opinion, and I'm not the news writer.

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"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

Now that I think about it, he got more attention just by using that word!

He must've known someone would pick it up and post it on the Tek-Tips forum, Making an Impression!

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[Michael52x]

Concentrated effort" being it is soley responsible for it's abilities. It's a new engine that is automated.

"Impatience will reward you with dissatisfaction" RMS Cosmics'97

 

[SamBones]

Yes, a single person can make a concerted effort to do something because that person can bring multiple faculties together to accomplish that goal.

Wouldn't that make the single person the Conductor of the Concerted effort?

 

[jsteph]

Sam,
That's my thinking...in my example Microsoft is the 'conductor', and Microsoft is making a single pronged--not concerted--effort with Bing.

From the Bing standpoint, Bing may make a concerted effort with Bing's multiple facilities to carry out the directive from Microsoft, but the news item was talking about the Microsoft effort--not speaking from the Bing standpoint.
--Jim

 

[KornGeek]

Instead of viewing Microsoft as a single entity, view is as a collection of employees, and they're the ones making the concerted effort. (Of course, this dodges the initial question.)

 

[jsteph]

Yes, but the subject is the singular Microsoft, and the object is the singular Bing search engine.

As an example, it would be a concerted effort if the article read:

"It's new Bing search engine and the MSN portal are part of a concerted effort..."

--Jim

 

[AnotherHiggins]

I get what you're saying. "Concerted" - like "in concert" - seems like it should require more than one person.

But this all seems to be moot discussion.

Can a single thing make a 'concerted' effort?

Yes.

There is a valid definition of the word that clearly allows for its use in this context.




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[jsteph]

John,
Yes, but my take on that is sort of like when people say "for all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents and purposes".

So many people misused 'concerted' when they may have meant 'concentrated', that I'm guessing the dictionary gave up and allowed the second usage.

But for all intensive purposes, it's not correct in my opinion.
--Jim

 

[AnotherHiggins]

Yikes!

Find me a dictionary that lists that usage for "intensive" and I'll give you a dollar.

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