| 词组 | what |
| 释义 | what As a relative pronoun, what is quite old, apparently having been introduced into Old English on analogy with some uses of quod in Latin; in the 13th century it appeared in natural English idiom. Its chief survival in writing is in the combination but what, which is discussed at BUT 5. As a plain relative, meaning "who, that, which," what has largely dropped out of mainstream English and has retreated to mostly oral use in rural areas. Our present evidence shows that relative what survives in the United States primarily in Midland and Southern speech areas and is used chiefly by the little educated. It was once in frequent use by dialect humorists: • "Well, when we got there I went to the basket what had the vittles in it " —William C. Hall, "How Sally Hooter Got Snakebit," 1850, in The Mirth of a Nation, ed. Walter Blair & Raven I. McDavid, Jr., 1983 • ... Miss Watson, what's the sourest old Maid in the city —Frank W. Sage, D.D.S., Dental Digest, November 1902 And it still crops up in print in quoted speech, sometimes in fixed phrases: • You're looking at a man what ain't straining — George C. Wallace, quoted in N. Y. Times, 30 Mar. 1975 • ... dance with the ones what brung me —Representative Philip Gramm, quoted in People, 24 Jan. 1983 It also occurs, of course, in fictional dialogue: • "... Boy, the guy what thought it up sure was a smart one...." —Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon Days, 1985 |
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