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"4 of the 84 objections were with regard to the effect(s) of the train on the residents of this street and that street."
"135 objections were made regarding the effect that the Visitor Centre would potentially have on both national and local traffic."
(Because: The effect(s) of the land train on the residents means that the the residents will have been affected by it?)
Lula: The word "effect" is being used in the same way in both sentences. The general rule "an effect is created as a result of something affecting something" is about right, but it's not how the words work. To go a bit deeper:
"Effect", as both verb and noun, comes from the Latin effectus, which is a form of the verb efficere, which is in turn derived from e - out - and facere - to do - and means to accomplish. So, if you effect a change, you bring about a change. An effect is therefore something that is brought about by another cause or agent. The effect of an explosion is what is brought about by the explosion. The effect the visitors' centre has on local traffic is therefore the subset of the things brought about by the visitors' centre that is relevant to local traffic.
"Affect" is actually not one word but two. The more common usage is derived from affectus, which comes from afficere, which is a compund of ad - to (in the sense of towards) - and facere (to do, again) - so, it is to do something to something or somebody. If I affect local traffic, I do something to it - I act upon it. If I am affected by a sad song, it acts upon me.
if I act upon something (that is, I affect it), I can usually also be said to have brought about a change to it (that is, I have had an effect upon it).
To confuse the issue a little further, there's another word which is spelled the same as "affect", but which is derived from a different term - affectare, which means to strive for or pretend to have. So, if I affect a French accent, I'm pretending to have a French accent, not acting upon a French accent - it's a different word. |
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