| 词组 | among |
| 释义 | among 1. See between 1. 2. Several commentators have brought among into a discussion that involves distinguishing between among and amid or amidst on somewhat questionable grounds (see amid, amidst 3). These commentators restrict among to use with plural or countable or separable nouns. The question of the propriety of using among with a singular noun or an indefinite pronoun is an old one, going back at least to Priestley in 1761: • The preposition among always implies a number of things; and, therefore, cannot be used in conjunction with the word every, which is in the singular number. Which is found among every species of liberty. Hume's Essays, p. 92. The opinion of the advance of riches in the island seems to gain ground among every body. Hume's Political Essays, p. 71. We do not know whether this opinion originated with Priestley or some earlier grammarian, but Murray 1795 picked it up and transmitted it down the ages. Somewhere along the way the specific reference to every was lost, and the question became simply whether among could be used with a singular noun. When a correspondent wrote to this company about the problem in 1939, an editor sent this reply: • We regret that... you are still uncertain of the propriety of among used with a collective noun. This usage has the authority lent by examples from the earliest English, from Chaucer, from Steele, and from more modern writers. Longfellow wrote "We were among the crowd that gathered there." When the collective noun obviously means the members of something, among may properly precede the singular collective noun in many contexts, as "to circulate among the audience." Our editor's letter was in harmony with the evidence shown at the appropriate sense in the OED. The OED notes that this sense of among is used with collectives and singular nouns of substances. The latter use is still alive, but now much less common than use with collectives. Two examples: • A hagfish will get right in among the muscle of the fish it is parasitising, dissolving the muscle and killing the fish —David Wilson, Body and Antibody, 1971 • Among the smoke and fog of a December afternoon —T. S. Eliot, "Portrait of a Lady," 1917 Probably in is more common with such nouns, as the OED also observes. Among is used with nouns that are collective and also denote a substance: • Often, I think, he slept in our barn among the hay — Adrian Bell, The Cherry Tree, 1932 • ... it slipped off the stone and down among the gorse —Arthur Loveridge, Many Happy Days I've Squandered, 1944 • ... some land animals hibernate among the vegetation —W. H. Dowdeswell, Animal Ecology, 2d ed., 1959 Other collective nouns are more frequent: • Among the plunder from the church was a large silver image —American Guide Series: New Hampshire, 1938 • ... Henry James is, among a large part of our reading public, held to be to blame —Lionel Trilling, Kenyon Rev., Winter 1948 • Among the luggage which I take on board —William Beebe, Jungle Peace, 1918 • These are lost among a vast bulk of verse interesting only by its oddity —F. R. Leavis, New Bearings in English Poetry, new ed., 1950 • Among her evidence was a report —Time, 6 Feb. 1956 • ... nothing could happen, among a certain class of society, without the cognizance of some philanthropic agency —Arnold Bennett, 1899, in The Journals of Arnold Bennett, ed. Frank Swinnerton, 1954 • One may hazard that the Economic History Review is not among his bedside reading —Times Literary Supp., 24 Apr. 1969 • ... he is not really a politician and lacks any organised political backing among the public —Ian Stephens, London Calling, 29 Apr. 1954 Collective nouns are notionally plural, which is why they fit with among. Differences in time and place can have an effect on the way such a noun is apprehended. Leonard in his 1932 usage survey included a sentence from De Quincey that seemed to puzzle many of the Americans tested: • I enjoy wandering among a library. To many Americans library connotes an institution rather than a collection, and hence the among seemed strange. A similar use is this: • He thought of the Australian gold and how those who lived among it had never seen it though it abounded all around them —Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, 1903 Among may certainly be used before a singular noun, especially when it is a collective noun. Our evidence suggests such use may be slightly more common in British English than it is in American, but it is not rare in either. 3. A related use of among involves its combination with the indefinite pronouns one another and each other. The original objection seems to have been raised by Campbell 1776, who quoted this sentence from The Spectator, No. 321 for correction: • The greatest masters of critical learning differ among one another. Campbell recommends themselves for one another; in fact, Addison in an earlier Spectator (cited in the OED) had written "quarrelled among themselves." Evans 1957 also mentions the construction. We cannot tell much about it. It is probably not wrong—the indefinite pronouns are notionally plural—but it is exceedingly rare, and may well sound odd to many ears on that account. We have only this one example: • ... the trio of directors ... also share among each other the credits for production, writing, photographing, and editing —Arthur Knight, Saturday Rev., 7 Nov. 1953 Themselves is far more common in such contexts. 4.Among, amongst. Most of the commentators who mention these words note that amongst is less common but both are correct. Our evidence confirms this; it also shows amongst a bit more common in British use than American. The few commentators who call amongst quaint or overrefined are off target. Here is a selection of mostly recent and unquaint examples: • We would sell the raft ... and go way up the Ohio amongst the free states —Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, 1884 • ... a dead spot amongst the maze of microwave beams —John W. Verity, Datamation, July 1982 • Amongst the evidence were verbal slams from such network luminaries... —John Weisman, TV Guide, 11 Sept. 1981 • Amongst other things, it is about the horrible family —Twyla Tharp, quoted in Horizon, September 1981 • One or two of the red brick and green copper pavilions ... still remain amongst the rubble —Gerald Weissman, The Woods Hole Cantata, 1975 • ... this impulse almost universal amongst scholars and teachers —William Stafford, Writing The Australian Crawl, 1978 • ... in divided usage amongst adults —Strang 1970 • ... alcohol use and drinking problems amongst women —Times Literary Supp., December 1980 |
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