| 词组 | anybody, anyone |
| 释义 | anybody, anyone 1. These indefinite pronouns share with other indefinite pronouns the characteristic of taking a singular verb and, more often than not, a plural pronoun in reference. See agreement: indefinite pronouns; they, their, them; notional agreement, notional concord. This use of the plural pronoun— they, their, them—has traditionally been disapproved by grammarians who do not recognize the existence of notional agreement, but the use is winning greater acceptance. Copperud 1970 records Bryant, Evans, and Flesch as finding the plural pronoun acceptable, and the four commentators he cites as disapproving it in writing are said to be "indulgent" of it in speech. Reader's Digest 1983 finds it acceptable. Usage is, of course, not uniform; some occurrences follow notional agreement, and others formal agreement. Here are a few samples of each. Formal agreement: • ... before releasing a child to anyone except his parents —J. Edgar Hoover, NEA Jour., January 1965 • Anyone who thinks he's pure is surely not —Flan-nery O'Connor, letter, 1 Jan. 1956 • ... a cheap way for a well-heeled anyone to see his name in the company of bookish folk —Bernard Kalb, Saturday Rev., 20 Mar. 1954 • Any one who tries to discuss this problem candidly is at once met with the suggestion that he is unaware —Wendell L. Willkie, N. Y. Herald Tribune, 21 Nov. 1943 • Anyone who wishes to find his bearings —H. B. Parkes, Marxism—An Autopsy, 1939 • ... when anybody was condemned to be impaled, or knouted, or beheaded, he or she promptly retained the Empress as intercessor at a handsome fee — George Bernard Shaw, letter, 31 Dec. 1897 Notional agreement: • But if I did say or do an ill thing to anybody, it should be sure to be behind their backs, out of pure good manners —William Wycherly, The Plain Dealer, 1676 • ... as anybody in their senses would have done — Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814 • It is fatal to anyone who writes to think of their sex —Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, 1929 • ... it will then be open for anyone to take up the quarrel, if they think there is any public advantage in so doing —Sir Winston Churchill, The Unrelenting Struggle, 1942 • He is afraid to have anyone mention sin without having them add "Nuts with that sin bunk" —New Republic, 4 Aug. 1952 • "Anyone can think what they please," she said rather grimly —Louis Auchincloss, A Law for the Lion, 1953 • ... anyone may progress to these better posts if they have the required qualifications —Employment Opportunities in the Civil Service (Canada), 1953 • ... it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze —Ford Madox Ford, quoted in Graham Greene, Collected Essays, 1969 • ... anyone in your office can be generating their own reports within 15 minutes —advt, InfoWorld, 27 Feb. 1984 • You haven't told anyone at work. When they ask about Amanda you say she's fine —Jay Mclnerney, Bright Lights, Big City, 1984 2. Both anybody and anyone were formerly spelled as two words, but the open styling is now reserved for instances in which any is a separate adjective. 3. Anybody else's. See else. |
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