| 词组 | human |
| 释义 | human At the noun entry for human in the OED, Murray, the editor, observes that it was formerly much used and starts off with an example from Lord Berners in the 16th century. But, he continues, it is "now chiefly humorous or affected." It is hard to find much that seems either humorous or affected in the 19th-century examples he offers, however. Bierce 1909 is the first American objector. He succinctly states the usefulness of the term: • We have no single word having the general yet limited meaning that this is sometimes used to express—a meaning corresponding to that of the word animals, as the word men would if it included women and children. But he rejects it. From such slender beginnings arose a minor industry of disparaging the noun use—an industry almost entirely based on not looking at the OED examples, as Jensen 1935 attests. Writing more than 400 years after Lord Berners, he says that human "has not yet acquired good standing as a noun." The curious thing about this issue is its persistence in what has been called the folklore of usage—that is, persistence in believing something is wrong with this noun in spite of its having been declared standard by such commentators as Bernstein 1965, 1971, Evans 1957, and Flesch 1964. The persistence of both views is reflected in contemporary handbooks: Guth 1985 says it is not generally accepted while Irmscher 1978 says it is acceptable. Copperud 1970, 1980 says there is still substantial objection to it. And the evidence seems to show that writers tend to avoid it even now; our recent citations include a great many more examples of human being than of human. Those who use the noun use it just the way Bierce described: • ... he can give scientific reasons for thinking that humans (or some humans) might have been expected to have tails —Howard 1983 • ... that microbes... caused diseases and that insects carried them to humans —Johns Hopkins Mag., Summer 1967 • While lower animals can deceive and mislead through camouflage and similar devices, as far as we know only humans can consciously and deliberately lie —Carol Z. Malatesta, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 31 Mar. 1985 Our conclusion is that even though this noun has been standard for some 450 years, many people still believe that it is somehow tainted and avoid it. |
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