| 释义 |
modifier|ˈmɒdɪfaɪə(r)|
[f. modify v. + -er1.]
1. a. One who or a thing which modifies (see the vb.).
1583Acts Gen. Assemb. Ch. Scotl. (Maitland Cl.) II. 636 A request sall be made to the modifiers for that effect. 1587Ibid. 726 The brethren agreeth, that certane of their number be adjoyned with the Lords Modifyers, to perfyte the assignations of this present year. 1682H. More Annot. Glanvill's Lux O. 198 That universal Spirit of Nature is most certainly the Mover of the Matter of the World, and the Modifier thereof. 1757Hume Nat. Hist. Relig. vi. in Four Diss. 47 That a limited deity..should in the end be represented as sovereign maker and modifier of the universe. 1860Maury Phys. Geog. (Low) xxi. 474 A powerful modifier of climate is the latent heat of vapour in the air. 1868G. Macdonald R. Falconer I. 243 We shall have..more modifiers and completers, and fewer inventors. 1890Anthony's Photogr. Bull. III. 372 Colored media recommended as screens or modifiers of the light.
b. Genetics. Any gene which modifies the phenotypic expression of a gene at another locus.
1915T. H. Morgan et al. Mechanism Mendelian Heredity viii. 203 The F2 from the crosses to self-color indicate that such modifiers are really present in the rats. 1919Jrnl. Exper. Zool. XXVIII. 337 (heading) Specific modifiers of eosin eye color in Drosophila melanogaster. 1931E. B. Ford Mendelism & Evolution ii. iii. 49 If, however, another mutation controlling similar characters were to arise, such an old and ineffective gene might show itself as a ‘specific modifier’. 1968R. D. Martin tr. Wickler's Mimicry in Plants & Animals ii. 33 Such modifier genes can switch the other genes on or off or alter their functional level so as to improve the correspondence of the mimic with the model. 1971Levitan & Montagu Textbk. Human Genetics xvi. 595 This [sc. gene interaction] is a very broad term and covers everything from genes whose interaction..is so intimate that they must be considered part of the same operating unit, to genes whose activities impinge only in a most indirect manner (and so are thought of as vague ‘modifiers’).
2. spec. in Gram. (see modify v. 6).
a. A word, phrase, or clause which modifies another.
1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. ii. 26 A third construction [sc. of sentences] is common..; the modifier after the modified. 1924H. E. Palmer Gram. Spoken Eng. ii. 68 Possessives used as Modifiers. (Generally known as ‘possessive adjectives’.) 1933L. Bloomfield Lang. xii. 194 A prepositional expression and an accusative expression..appearing in entirely different syntactic positions (e.g. as a modifier of verbs: sit beside John, or of nouns: the boy beside John). 1961R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts 490 In the commonest type of syntactic combination, a word-or-multiword unit, a head, combines with another or others, a modifier or modifiers, and determines the syntactic character of the total combination. 1970G. C. Lepschy Survey Structural Ling. vi. 107 Modifiers..such as grammatical number, or article, which are centripetal..indicate the value—singular or plural, definite or indefinite—of the particular element to which they are attached.
b. A phonetic sign or symbol which modifies a character.
1899H. Sweet Practical Study of Languages iii. 21 Thus, if there is a special mark or modifier to express voice, the absence of that modifier necessarily implies breath. 1911Encycl. Brit. XXI. 462/1 The Organic Alphabet especially makes a large use of ‘modifiers’—characters which are added to the other symbols to indicate nasal, palatal, &c., modifications of the sounds represented by italic letters in the Narrow Romic transcription; thus (ln) = nasalized (l). |