| 词组 | any |
| 释义 | any 1. The pronoun any can be either singular or plural in construction—even Harper 1985 and Bernstein 1977 agree. Bernstein believes the plural construction to be more common, but we cannot confirm his belief from the evidence in our files, in which the two constructions are roughly equal: • ... had reached its final shape before any of his volumes of poems were published —The Tiger's Eye, December 1947 • ... nor is any of his novels purely a novel of ideas —Frederick J. Hoffman, in Forms of Modern Fiction, ed. William Van O'Connor, 1948 2. Longman 1984 notes that any with a singular noun may be referred to by a plural pronoun. • ... he would at no time be a willing party to any artist breaking their contract —The Times (in Longman) • ... he kept his door wide open so that any one of his 12,000 employees could walk in and spill their troubles — Time, 17 Nov. 1952 Lurie 1927 thought this construction a "transgression against good form in grammar." He quotes an unidentified newspaper: • ... it is a wonderful thing for any person to be so imaginative that they think they are still attractive. What Lurie did not understand, and the Longman editors do, is that notional agreement is the principle in operation here. It is a long-established construction: • Any man that has a Humour is under no restraint or fear of giving it a vent; they have a proverb among them which, maybe, will show the bent and genius of the people as well as a longer discourse —William Congreve, "Concerning Humour in Comedy," 1695 Congreve's use shows the typical singular-verb-plural-pronoun agreement of many indefinite pronouns and adjectives. See they, their, them and the articles under agreement. 3. Of any, than any (illogical comparison). In 1705 Joseph Addison, in the preface to a book of travels in Italy written by someone else, noted that the author • ... has wrote a more correct Account of Italy than any before him. (OED) Two centuries later Vizetelly 1906 calls the construction incorrect, objecting to "the finest of any I have seen." Bryant 1962 reports that the construction with a superlative (or, less often, a comparative) and of or than has been in use since the time of Chaucer. The handbooks and commentators following Vizetelly's lead are engaged in the ex post facto application of logical analysis to a long-established idiom—with entirely predictable results. Here are a few examples of the idiom from writers more recent than Addison: • We boast that we belong to the nineteenth century and are making the most rapid strides of any nation —Henry David Thoreau, Waiden, 1854 (in Reader's Digest 1983) • Its population would have remained the most carefully screened of any body of settlers ever to have come to America —N. Y. Times Book Rev., 20 Apr. 1947 (in Bryant) • Although its coverage of the government, Capitol Hill and the world is more complete than any paper in the city —Time, 29 Dec. 1952 • ... the price deflator for construction has risen by far the most of any —Garfield V. Cox, Jour, of Business, January 1954 • Why does Jennifer House sell more convertible sofabeds in Manhattan than the convertible department in any Manhattan department store? —advt., N. Y. Times Mag., 18 Apr. 1982 The studies cited in Bryant suggest that the more logical constructions—"of any other" and "of all"—prescribed by the handbooks are more commonly met in print nowadays than the older any idiom. The rewriting of any as any other or all is a simple enough correction, and it may be that more recent writers have tended to use the prescribed forms. If this is the case—and the evidence is not conclusive—the older idiom may be on the wane. Perrin & Ebbitt 1972, for instance, finds any other not just more logical but more idiomatic. A couple of examples: • The tobacco industry has funded more scientific research on smoking and health problems than has any other source —Annual Report, R. J. Reynolds Industries, Inc., 1970 • ... obtained for New Haven more renewal money per capita than that received by any other city — Current Biography, December 1967 In conclusion, we must agree with Reader's Digest 1983: you can revise any in such a construction to any other or all easily if you want to, but the any idiom is old, well-established, and standard. 4.Any as an adverb. When any is used as an adverb it usually modifies an adjective, but it sometimes also occurs by itself after a verb in the sense "at all." This use was disparaged by American usage writers (Bache 1869, Ayres 1881, Compton 1898) toward the end ofthe 19th century; their comments were repeated in the early 20th (MacCracken & Sandison 1917, Utter 1916, Lincoln Library 1924). Utter noted it had long been in use but thought it did not have "the sanction of the best writers." It appears in the journals of Lewis and Clark (in 1805 Clark wrote, "the three horses with me do not detain me any") and in Mark Twain: "It is a good tune—you can't improve it any" (Innocents Abroad, 1869—in OED Supplement). Here are a few more examples: • ... Fat and Red didn't let that worry them any — Fred Gipson, Cowhand: The Story of a Working Cowboy, 1953 • And prices have not fallen any —Commonweal, 19 Oct. 1945 • ... to eat our dinner under the shade and rest ... before we dug any —J. Frank Dobie, Coronado's Children, 1931 • "You're not helping it any," I said —Robert Clark, in Coast to Coast: Australian Stories 1946 As a usage issue this one is pretty cold now. Longman 1984 mentions some dislike of the use in Britain as an Americanism. The OED Supplement, however, shows it in such British sources as Kipling, Agatha Christie, and Punch. |
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