| 词组 | but |
| 释义 | but 1. Part of the folklore of usage is the belief that there is something wrong in beginning a sentence with but: • Many of us were taught that no sentence should begin with "but." If that's what you learned, unlearn it—there is no stronger word at the start. It announces total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is primed for the change —Zinsser 1976 Everybody who mentions this question agrees with Zinsser. The only generally expressed warning is not to follow the but with a comma, as in this example: • But, hasty, ill-considered and emotional prohibitions can seriously threaten individual industries — Annual Report, Owens-Illinois, 1970 The argument is that the force of the but is weakened by the unneeded comma. Such commas are rare in the materials in our files. This example is more typical: • ... performing-arts organizations in this country are in desperate straits. But that is not for lack of public support —Harold C. Schonberg, Harper's, February 1971 A comma after but is, of course, all right if it is one of a pair setting off a parenthetical clause: • But, as one industry analyst says,... —Forbes, 1 Dec. 1970 2. One of the more vexatious questions the usage folks have to deal with is the question of whether but is a preposition or a conjunction in usages like this: • The boy stood on the burning deck, Whence all but he had fled; These lines, you may remember, are from a poem named "Casablanca" (1829) by the English poet Felicia D. Hemans (1794-1835). It appears that Mrs. Hemans originally wrote "but him," but someone seems to have persuaded her to change it—or perhaps some editor changed it without asking. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations now carries the version with he, and that is the form of the line most people remember. How is it possible to be able to write both "but he" and "but him": is one correct and the other wrong? Are they both all right? Is but a preposition? Is but a conjunction? The answer to all these questions is "yes"— just ask an expert. Goold Brown devotes almost two full pages of tiny type to the question in his Grammar of English Grammars (10th edition, 1880). Goold Brown, buttressing his position with numerous examples from the King James Bible, Dryden, Pope, and other literary and theological notables, is a conjunction man. He pillories nearly two dozen other 19th-century grammarians who believe but to be a preposition, and he is especially scornful of a couple who would have it both ways. Bierce 1909 is with Goold Brown. Baker 1927 takes the opposite view: but is a preposition, "but he" is an error. Hall 1917 finds differing views in his survey: one grammarian for the preposition, two for the conjunction, two for both or either. MacCracken & Sandison 1917 admit mixed usage, but they prefer the preposition; the argument for the conjunction they think is a weak one. Williams 1897 reprints an exchange he had with Fitzedward Hall in the pages of The Dial in 1893: both admit unsettled usage, but Hall thinks the preposition is normal in modern usage. Follett 1966 is a preposition man. He spends most of his two or three pages on the subject denigrating the treatment given but in dictionaries, including Webster's Second and the OED. Follett thinks that but he is idiomatically correct at times, though not grammatically correct. Bernstein in several of his books is unsure, but he suggests a rule of thumb: if the but and pronoun come early in the sentence, use the nominative form of the pronoun; if late in the sentence, use the objective case. Bremner 1980 has no use for Bernstein's compromise. He is for the preposition. Cook 1985 summarizes several views; she leans toward calling but a preposition and would opt for one part of Bernstein's solution— always putting but and the objective pronoun toward the end of the sentence, if she hit a sentence in which but him sounded awkward farther forward in the sentence, rather than changing him to he. We could add many more opinions and suggestions, but they would serve no purpose. All of this confusion and contradiction comes from trying to cram an English function word with varying functions into a single mold. The information in the OED that irritated Follett shows that but functioned as a preposition (taking a dative) in Old English. It also functioned as a conjunction after which the case of a noun or pronoun was determined by the construction it was in. Nowadays, of course, only pronouns show case in these constructions. Both uses have come down to present-day English, to the bafflement of grammarians and would-be grammarians. The proponents of the conjunction have collected examples more assiduously than the proponents of the preposition have and have shown that the use of the nominative after but has a long history in literature: • There is none but he, Whose being I doe feare—Shakespeare, Macbeth (in Williams 1897) • No man but I has right to do her justice —Aphra Behn, The Dutch Lover, 1673 • There was nobody but he and I —Jonathan Swift, Journal to Stella, 8 Sept. 1711 • ... since none puts by The curtain I have drawn for you, but I—Robert Browning, "My Last Duchess" (in Williams 1897) • ... any men but they would have had a strong leaning towards what is called "Conservatism" —John Henry Newman, Historical Sketches, 1885 (in Williams 1897) The use of the nominative in like constructions is still found: • ... none but he can have seen them all —Times Literary Supp., 16 June 1966 • ... since no one but I myself had yet printed any of my work —Paul Bowles, Without Stopping, 1972 • ... it carried him farther than anyone but he dared dream —R. W. Apple, Jr., N. Y. Times Mag., 3 Dec. 1978 But can also be interpreted as a conjunction followed by the objective case when the pronoun stands in a position normally calling for the objective: • Abuse everybody but me —Jane Austen, letter, 7 Jan. 1807 • ... I didn't even know of anyone else but him —Bill Holt, quoted in Bluegrass Unlimited, May 1982 Of course, one can equally well argue that but in each of these examples is a preposition. In the next two exampies, but is clearly a preposition. Note that the style is more nearly conversational than it was in the examples with the nominative pronouns. The first is fictional speech. • ... it was his misfortune to save her from a passel of raiding enemy in a situation that everybody but her is trying to forget —"My Grandmother Millard," in The Collected Stories of William Faulkner, 1950 • Everybody but me among us old codgers proudly insists that he and his wife were married just like the kids of today —James Thurber, letter, 22 Dec. 1952 Our conclusion is that the absolutists who insist that but is only a conjunction or only a preposition are wrong. But has functioned in both capacities since Old English and still does. You are correct in choosing to use it either way. Bear in mind, however, that conjunctive but followed by a nominative pronoun seems rather more literary than the preposition. 3. Except for functions as a compound preposition. Although it is found less often, but works with for in exactly the same way: • But for the name of its author... it would not have had a hope of publication —Times Literary Supp., 22 Oct. 1971 • He liked to think of himself as Fitzgerald's mentor but for whom Scott's talents might never have fully matured —Norman Cousins, Saturday Rev., April 1981 4. Otto Jespersen, in Negation in English and Other Languages (1917), wrote: "By a curious transition but has come to mean the same thing as 'only'; at first it required a preceding negative: I will not say but one word, i.e., 'not except (save) one word' " He points out that eventually the negative came to be dropped, creating one of those curious expressions we have in English in which a negative construction and a positive one mean the same thing (see also could care less, couldn't care less). The positive form came to be considered normal: • ... with an urgency which differed from his but in being more gentle —Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814 • ... which in all probability, had he but picked it up and carried it openly away, nobody would have remarked or cared —"Centaur in Brass," in The Collected Stories of William Faulkner, 1950 • He contributes but four words to the Epilogue — Robert Craft, Stravinsky, 1972 • No wonder Purdey's produces but seventy a year — C. P. Reynolds, Gourmet, March 1985 The original form with the negative, however, did not disappear. It kept right on being used, chiefly in speech (see not ... but). This has led several commentators (among them Bernstein 1977, Prentice Hall 1978, Little, Brown 1980, Johnson 1982) to label it a double negative—in ignorance of the origin of the use. Here are a few samples of the older construction: • ... they didn't go but a little ways before they come to another branch —William Tappan Thompson, "A Coon Hunt in a Fency Country," 1847, in The Mirth of a Nation, ed. Walter Blair & Raven I. McDavid, Jr., 1983 • A long time ago, my husband and I were talking about what makes a good prose style "I never knew but one man who was born with a fine prose style," he said —Rosemary C. Benêt, Book-of-the-Month Club News, February 1948 • I never heard of but one skipper who did not arrive at the quarter deck by way of the hawsepipe —Captain Harry Allen Chippendale, Sails and Whales, 1951 • ... the other tenant who, bless his heart, isn't but two months behind in his rent —Flannery O'Connor, letter, 25 Apr. 1959 • I'd be right there with him—I didn't lack but three lengths of the hoe —Gloria Naylor, People, 11 Mar. 1985 When but means "only," the later positive form of the construction is the one used in standard prose; the older negative form is found chiefly in speech. 5.But that, but what. The use of these expressions is governed by idiom, so it is no surprise that grammarians and usage commentators have, in general, found them worrisome. French idioms generally do not trouble the teacher of French, but English idioms seldom fail to perplex English teachers—or so it seems at times. As a result, the advice tendered is usually not very helpful—often muddled and occasionally self-contradictory. The concern over these phrases is old, going back at least to Lindley Murray 1795. Murray may also have established the tradition of self-contradiction; he condemns but that after a negative accompanied by doubt but uses it himself with a different negative: • ... yet it is not done so generally, but that good writers, even in prose, use it when speaking of things. But that. Jespersen notes in Negation in English and Other Languages, 1917 that but that is used to introduce a conditional clause in which it means "if... not"; the form of the sentence is not necessarily negative: • I waited upon him accordingly, and should have taken Collins with me, but that he was not sober — Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, 1771 Jespersen has many more examples of such constructions, down to the time when he was writing. Our files contain mostly negative sentences, a situation which would seem to indicate that but that is usually found in negative constructions nowadays. One of the problems that usage commentators find with but that comes from the fact that in some contexts but alone can be used: • I don't see but that sheet has become as frankly partisan as any party paper —Oliver Wendell Holmes d. 1935, letter, 11 Oct. 1928 • ... the words of E. B. White, who once wrote: "I'm sure there isn't a humorist alive but can recall the day when " —Kathleen Fury, TV Guide, 30 Dec.1984 And sometimes that alone can be used: • ... there is no doubt that Jewison's use of his camera and his fluid editing make for superior entertainment —Hollis Alpert, Saturday Rev., 13 Nov. 1971 As a result, some commentators find but that wordy. The two-word idiom, however, has impressive literary credentials extending (in Jespersen's examples) back to Caxton in the 15th century. Here are a handful of examples, old and modern: • I don't say but that very entertaining and useful characters, and proper for comedy, may be drawn from Affectations —William Congreve, "Concerning Humour in Comedy," 1695 • For half a minute I was not sure, but that it was You transported into England by some strange Chance — Thomas Gray, letter, 24 May 1742 • I cannot be persuaded but that marriage is one of the means of happiness —Samuel Johnson, Rambler, 1752 (in Jespersen 1917) • ... I never see such a performance but that I later go out of the theatre and ... become just such another —Sherwood Anderson (1923), cited in New Yorker, 12 Nov. 1984 • There can be no question but that the play gives Mr. Muni a rare opportunity —Wolcott Gibbs, New Yorker, 26 Feb. 1949 • Nothing is so absurd but that some philosopher has said it, Cicero told them —David Brudnoy, National Rev., 19 Nov. 1971 The common use of but that with doubt has been questioned since Murray 1795, but without much reason. • I do not doubt but that I shall set many a reader's teeth on edge —John Ruskin, Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne, 1867 (in Jespersen 1917) • There can be no doubt but that economic disorders are fundamental —Times Literary Supp., 5 Oct. 1940 • There is no doubt but that Congress was impressed —New Republic, 7 Feb. 1944 • ... there is little doubt but that modern air freight received its real impetus from the second world war —Newsweek, 19 Jan. 1953 • There is no doubt but that Communists will associate themselves with it —Stanley K. Sheinbaum, in Johns Hopkins Mag., December 1965 These usages are all standard, as even some handbooks (Perrin & Ebbitt 1972, Macmillan 1982) recognize. But what. This is a more recent combination; it is attested as early as the 17th century, but most of the evidence for it comes from the 19th and 20th. The OED has little and mostly subliterary evidence for the construction; still, evidence in Jespersen and later dictionaries shows it to have been in good literary use: • I had no agreeable diversion but what had some thing or other of this in it —Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 1719 (in Jespersen 1917) • ... scarce a farmer's daughter within ten miles round but what had found him successful —Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield, 1766 (in Jespersen 1917) • ... not that I think Mr. M. would every marry any body but what had had some education —Jane Austen, Emma, 1816 (in Jespersen 1917) • I don't know but what it would —Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, 1838 (in Jespersen 1917) • Her needle is not so absolutely perfect... but what my superintendence is advisable —Sir Walter Scott (Webster 1909) • I don't see but what he'll have to be impeached — Henry Adams, letter, 29 Dec. 1860 • I did not know but what he was altogether 'conscientious' in that matter —Abraham Lincoln, debate with Douglas, 27 Aug. 1858 And use continues, as these 20th-century examples testify: • There is no question but what all general vocational subjects... can be taught better in an organized class —G. A. McGarvey & H. H. Sherman, Granite Cutting, 1938 • I don't doubt but what she could do it —Flannery O'Connor, letter, 1952 • There were, to be sure, a few motorcars, but not so many but what I could pretend not to see them — James Norman Hall, Atlantic, December 1952 • There is no question but what all linguists ... agree in principle with Stewart's point of view —Lawrence M. Davis, in Black-White Speech Relationships, 1971 • ... hardly a year goes by but what we need a bull or a billy goat or a ram —Richard M. Ketchum, Blair & Ketchum's Country Jour., November 1982 But what was declared standard by Whitford & Foster, A merican Standards of Writing (1931) and Bryant 1962; Perrin & Ebbitt 1972 offers the same view but the authors find it less common than but that in print. Denigration of the phrase began with Murray 1795 and is still repeated by some modern commentators. Our more recent evidence suggests that but what is a standard idiom, but one more likely to be found in speech, fictional and reported, and in the less formal kinds of writing than in elevated prose. 6. But however. A few handbooks warn against using but in combination with however or yet. Our files show almost no evidence of such use in edited prose. |
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