| 词组 | it is |
| 释义 | it is I who, it is they who Constructions in which it is is followed by a first or second person pronoun or by a plural were troubling to 18th-century commentators, beginning at least as early as Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (1755). Campbell 1776 and Lindley Murray 1795 also discuss these problems. What troubles them the most seems to be the occurrence of the constructions in writers like Shakespeare, Dryden, Pope, and Prior. Let us sort things out a bit. With plurals the problem was never specified. Johnson and Campbell are simply made uneasy by the presence of a plural after it is, though they concede good precedent. Modern usage consistently goes right along with Shakespeare and Pope, and no modern critic sees a problem here: • 'Tis these that early taint the female soul —Alexander Pope (in Johnson and in Campbell) • It is they who argue for military intervention — Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Harper's, March 1969 It takes is, and the later verb agrees with the plural referent of its subject. Gowers in Fowler 1965 cites a similar construction. Strang 1970 and Copperud 1970, 1980 note that there is conflicting usage with the first person pronoun: "It is I who (is? am?)." Strang points out that in earlier stages of the language such a sentence would have been unmistakably governed by the first person pronoun and would have begun "It am I...." But over the years the position of it caused it to be felt to be the true subject, and the third person verb is replaced am and sometimes governed throughout the sentence. Copperud opines that, strictly speaking, am should follow I, but says that "there is a strong tendency to use is, since am sounds artificial." Copperud's remarks confirm Strang's comment that this conflict is not yet resolved. The construction does not turn up often, and it may be that writers sometimes avoid it in favor of a more concise and less problematic wording. Such evidence as we have, however—both old and modern—suggests that Copperud's strict construction predominates in print: • ... but 'tis I that am not able to come up to her Terms —Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, 1722 • It is I who possess these attributes —Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Frontier, 1952 See also it's me. |
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