¿Qué significa 'She has that reserve and slight coldness of manner which is typically British.'
I don't understand the grammar here. Does' that reserve and slight coldness' modify manner? What is the function of ' of' before 'manner?'
Than you.?

Question

¿Qué significa 'She has that reserve and slight coldness of manner which is typically British.'
I don't understand the grammar here. Does' that reserve and slight coldness' modify manner? What is the function of ' of' before 'manner?' 
Than you.?

Kitkat23 · Accepted Answer

"reserve" here is a noun that refers to a personality trait. Using the sentence structure "She has that reserve which is typically British" we could swap "reserve" for other nouns that refer to personality traits: "she has that shyness/detachment/restraint that is typically British" (or any trait you want to plug in there, like "honesty", "kindness" etc.)

"_____ of manner" is just another way of describing personality traits. Slight coldness of manner, abruptness of manner, warmth of manner, etc. are all possible. In my opinion it sounds slightly old fashioned, formal, or literary.

"of" is linking manner to the phrase before it (in this case "slight coldness"). Compare it with a structure like "length of time", "amount of money".

Certain phrases like "faint of heart", "weak of heart" (both meaning "weak" or "cowardly") and "sound of mind" (meaning "sane" or "rational") which describe people are a bit old-fashioned and tend not to be used as often in casual daily speech now-days, but you may find it in writing or occasionally in speech. Many of these phrases are also commonly used in a different form: "faint-hearted" "weak-minded" etc. (As many of these are kind of formal or old-fashioned fixed expressions/collocations, some of them might sound a bit unnatural even if they make sense grammatically).

"Manner" here is like mannerism, meaning behavior or demeanor.

A rephrasing of the sentence could be: "She has the typical reserved personality and slightly cold manner(isms) of the British."

Kitkat23 · Answer

@Countryroad Sure. It it almost always used in the phrase "not for the faint of heart", like this:

- "This film is not for the faint of heart."

- "Being an emergency room doctor is not a job for the faint of heart."

"the faint of heart" = people who can't handle high stress or intense situations/intense emotions. "This film/job is not for people who are easily stressed/scared" etc.

I think in this case "faint" is an adjective. It basically means "weak".

In your example, "slight coldness of manner", I believe "slight coldness" is a noun phrase. Grammatically, I think it is more similar to "length of time", "amount of money" etc. However, when it comes to how it sounds/feels, it has a slightly old-fashioned, literary, formal feeling (in my opinion) similar to the phrase "faint of heart" even if grammatically they may be a bit different.

Kitkat23 · Answer

@Countryroad Hmm that's an interesting question!

(1) "He is one of the most careful drivers." Of all of the many drivers, some are more careful than others. He is one person in the group of the most careful drivers. This is a very common and normal sentence structure.

(2) "He is one of the most careful of drivers" This sentence feels a little unnatural/unusual to me. The *meaning* of this sentence would be very similar to sentence #1. However, saying "one of the most careful *of* drivers" feels a little unusual. I am not sure whether it's technically wrong (I would have to look it up in a grammar book!) but it *feels* a little weird. I am not sure it's really "wrong" it just feels kind of excessive, maybe because "of" appears twice, when it is only needed once. I'm not sure why I feel this way about it to be honest.

(3) You didn't say this, but you could also say "He is the most careful of drivers". Literally it would mean that he is the most careful driver out of all the drivers. However, sometimes people use a sentence like this as a formal/fancy way of saying "very". "He is the most careful of drivers" = "He is a very (extremely!) careful driver".

Sentences #1 and #2 have basically the same meaning, in my opinion. Sentence #3 is a little bit different in its meaning.

Kitkat23 · Answer

@Countryroad I would say the difference is mostly in the feeling, not in the meaning. The literal meaning of these two is almost the same.

If there was a world-wide "careful driving contest" and he was the winner, you could say (1)"He is the most careful driver" or (2)"He is the most careful of drivers" and this would be a literal, correct statement. However, sentence 1 is much, much more common and normal, while sentence 2 has a more archaic or formal *feeling" and is used less often.

*Technically*, there is probably a small grammatical difference. I said it was a "world-wide" contest. In a group that doesn't include literally all people in the world, then you would have to change 2 into "he is the most careful of *the* drivers (who participated in the contest)". Sentence 2 implies "he is the most careful of drivers" meaning...all drivers in the world lol. This is probably one reason why it is not used for its literal meaning very often and is usually just used as a hyperbolic expression to mean "very".

Now, let's imagine that you are having a conversation about someone who is a very careful driver.

If you are just some normal, modern person, you might say "He is the most careful driver I have ever met" or "He is the most careful driver I know" or "He is the most careful driver in our city". This is just a super normal way to say this. It is 100% common and normal to say this.

Now let's imagine you are writing a story about a butler in the 1950's and he is having a conversation with his master about the new driver they just hired. The butler might say "He is the most careful of drivers" (meaning "he is a very careful driver"). This will sound like some authentic old-timey, fancy dialogue lol.

Would someone say this phrase today? Sure, maybe. But in my opinion you will be more likely to hear it when someone is being formal/fancy. (I am American btw, maybe speakers of other dialects of English would feel differently about it)

In 100% of situations, if someone says to me, "Careful, that's dangerous!" I will reply "I will be careful!" or "I will be very careful!" ...However if I am pretending to be a fancy person, or someone from the past, then I would say "Yes sir, I shall be most careful". The meaning is basically the same but the feeling is different.

Now, WHY is the formal/older expression (#2) grammatically slightly different from the normal/modern one (#1) even if it kind of means the same thing? I have no idea lol. We would have to ask an academic, a language historian or something about that.

Kitkat23 · Answer

@Countryroad Hmm yeah I can see how it would be confusing! I mean, truthfully, as a native English speaker, I also just "memorized" those kinds of phrases as a child without understanding exactly how they work. English is a Germanic language with Latin influences, and in a lot of words and phrases you can see the historical influence of both Germanic language grammar and a little bit of Latin language grammar. I think simply memorizing them is a good way to learn them, because in many cases you would probably have to look into English's historical evolution to understand why certain phrases use "of" in a less common way like that. For example, to "rob someone of something"...I would have to consult some kind of etymology dictionary or historical linguistics text to understand why we really say it like that. But from simple memorization, I know that I can say "rob of" even if I don't know *why*, and that works well enough for my daily conversations.

If I think about it, I guess the word "rob" is a word that can take an indirect object. So you can say "I robbed him." ("him" is the object). But if you want to say what you robbed of/from him, then you can add the indirect object and you can use "of" to mark it. "I robbed him of his dignity" (for some reason "dignity" is a really common word to use in the "rob of" phrase).

But why is "rob" like that but the word "steal" isn't like that? Why can't you use "of" with "steal"?...Again, this is a situation that etymology/history/linguistics would have to explain.

If I think about it, I guess the word "rob" is a word that can take an indirect object. So you can say "I robbed him." ("him" is the object). But if you want to say what you robbed of/from him, then you can add the indirect object and you can use "of" to mark it. "I robbed him of his dignity" (for some reason "dignity" is a really common word to use in the "rob of" phrase).

But why is "rob" like that but the word "steal" isn't like that? Why can't you use "of" with "steal"?...Again, this is a situation that etymology/history/linguistics would have to explain.

Kitkat23 · Answer

@Countryroad I'm glad I could help!! Good luck with your studying!! ^^

Kitkat23 · Answer

@Countryroad Hi again haha :P

Hmm well, first I want to say that usually, people say "of her generation". But "in her generation" is okay. "in her generation's" sounds very strange.

In English, when we add "'s" to show a possessive, we usually want to hear a noun after the word with "'s". If there is nothing there, people will usually be waiting for the next word.

For example:

A: She is the top student in my school's.
B: Ummm....In your school's what? In your school's art club? In your school's band??? In your school's what?!

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A: She is the best actress in her generation's.
B: Her generation's....what? Her generation's best actress contest? Her generation's top actors list?

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So, if you use "'s", you are going to receive questions like that. There is an exception when the "what" is understood from context:

A: Whose bedroom has an air conditioner?
B: My brother's. ["My brother's room"]

A: Is the pencil in your backpack?
B: No, it's in Mary's. ["Mary's backpack"]

It's okay to end with "'s" because we know from the question before what the missing noun is.

The "'s" in your example ("her generation's") is unnecessary, because there is no other noun. You are just talking about her generation.

The "'s" would be used if something belonged to the generation. For example:

"She is her generation's best actress" - This is okay because there is a noun ("actress") that belongs to "generation's".

The sentences "She is her generation's best actress" and "She is the best actress of her generation" are both correct, and basically identical in meaning.

"She is the best actress in/of her generation's" is an incorrect combination of the two correct forms above.

Kitkat23 · Answer

@Countryroad Haha oh wow, you're right. That is definitely a correct and common way of saying that.

I'm just gonna guess, because I am not sure!

I guess the missing noun in that sentence is "He is a teacher of my sister's (teachers)". In other words: "(Out) of my sister's teachers, he is one (teacher)." Sounds pretty awkward actually lol. And also it's confusing: is he 1 teacher from the group of your sister's teachers, or is he a teacher who teaches your sister's teachers?!

I would recommend just accepting that this phrase is a common way to say it. Sorry that I don't actually know the reason why it's like that!

In English we have the words "mine" "yours" "his" "hers". These are kind of a possessive case in English. I am not sure of the exact grammar term for it but these are kind of special forms of the words "I" "you" "he" and "she" that show possession.

You can say, "It's mine!!!" but you don't have to say *what* it is.

If you just say: "It's my!!!" then everyone will ask: "it's your WHAT???"

So I think saying "of my sister's" kind of works like those because you could also say "He is a teacher of hers" "He is a teacher of mine" etc.

dabidodabi · Answer

“Reserve” is kind of like a noun here. It means something like “self restraint” or “withholding emotion” or “withholding expression”.

“Coldness of manner” is a separate concept. It means that she behaves in a cold way. The “coldness” part is an adjective for the “manner” part.

“Manner” is how someone behaves. For example, “he behaves in a naughty manner”. We sometimes use that instead of saying “he behaved naughtily”, but to be honest, it’s usually used in more formal English.

sunny_cyd · Answer

The sentence means that the girl that the author is describing has a typical British etiquette , meaning they have good manners and are polite. “Reserve and slight coldness” is modifying manner by giving a more clear look into what type of etiquette she is displaying. The “of” before manner lets “reserve and slight coldness” describe what it’s like; it’s a descriptor. This is how I see it, let me know if this confuses you.