"control" or "restrict"

[LeTyan]

Hi,

"He's been acting up. We need to control / restrict his behaviors!"
Which one is proper?

Thank you!

 

[MikeNewYork]

I would usually use "control" there.

 

[Rover_KE]

I would only use 'behaviour' (AE 'behavior') in the singular.

 

[LeTyan]

I would only use 'behaviour' (AE 'behavior') in the singular.

How so? Acting up may include more than one behavior right?

 

[Raymott]

"Control his behaviours" sounds sinisterly Orwellian.

 

[MikeNewYork]

How so? Acting up may include more than one behavior right?

That would be my take on it.

 

[MikeNewYork]

"Control his behaviours" sounds sinisterly Orwellian.

It sounds parental to me.

 

[Matthew Wai]

How so? Acting up may include more than one behavior right?

The Longman dictionary says "behaviour" is uncountable, see http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/behaviour

Not a teacher.

 

[Raymott]

The Longman dictionary says "behaviour" is uncountable, see http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/behaviour

It's strange that they should get something like that so wrong.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Through the years on English forums, I have lost respect for Longman dictionaries.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Perhaps Longman is not totally wrong, because Cambridge says it is both countable and uncountable, see http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/behaviour?q=behaviour
In the OP's sentence, it may be uncountable.

Not a teacher.

 

[lotus888]

Yes, it is countable mainly in scientific circles such as in Psychology.

In the OP's sentence, it should be uncountable. I interpret the sentence as a parental declaration.



--lotus

 

[Raymott]

I interpret the sentence as a parental declaration.

It could be about a dog, a robot, or any number of things that exhibit behaviour. There's nothing to indicate parents, except that they are one example of people who have some control over the behaviour of something that can be referred to as 'he'.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Yes, it could be about anyone or anything, but behaviour in the singular is the only one that sounds natural to me in the OP's short sentence.

To argue that it should be "behaviours", simple because the word can also be countable, is stretching it a bit.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I disagree. There could be more than one behavior involved. I often deal with dogs with abnormal behaviors: aggression, eating their stools, and eating sofas. It is difficult to lump these all together into one thing.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Perhaps in your profession you talk of behaviours and for you that use is perfectly normal.

To lay people like me what you call "behaviours" are different aspects of a dog's behaviour, they aren't lumped together into one thing.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Different strokes for different folks. This is about personal dialects, not grammar rules.