| 词组 | cannot but, cannot help, cannot help but |
| 释义 | cannot but, cannot help, cannot help but A lot has been written about these phrases. To put as charitable a light on the matter as possible, most of what you may read is out of date. We have hundreds of citations for these phrases, and we can tell you two things for certain: these phrases all mean the same thing—"to be unable to do otherwise than"—and they are all standard. To the usual three we can add can but and cannot choose but, which also have the same meaning but are less frequently met with. We will take up each of the five in turn. Our evidence is much heavier for cannot but and cannot help but than it is for the other three, and accordingly more examples of them will appear. Can but is characterized as "pompous" by Bernstein 1971, but it seems natural enough in these examples: • No scholar facing a subject such as this can be but overwhelmed —Robert F. Byrnes, ACLS Newsletter, November 1968 • Howard Hawks devotees and admirers can but sigh at his self-borrowings in Rio Lobo —Judith Crist, New York, 15 Feb. 1971 Cannot choose but is attested in the OED from 1557. Apparently 1798 was a big year for this phrase: • The eye—it cannot choose but see; We cannot bid the ear be still—William Wordsworth, "Expostulation and Reply," 1798 • The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: He cannot choose but hear—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," 1798 Modern uses are likely to be echoes of 1798: • But James, as always, wins in the end and we cannot choose but hear —Katherine Hoskins, Hudson Rev., Spring 1948 • I clutched my stem glass ... and listened as the wedding guest listened. I could not choose but hear —S. P. B. Mais, The English Scene To-day, 2d ed., 1949 Cannot help is grammatically the odd one of the five. It is followed by a present participle, whereas the others are followed by the bare infinitive. As you can see, it has been in use quite a long time: • ... yet I cannot help thinking, that ... our Conversation hath very much degenerated —Jonathan Swift, "A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue," 1712 • ... I can hardly help imagining that we shall go again —Samuel Johnson, letter, 22 July 1777 • ... but I cannot help thinking that Nature will struggle again & produce a revival —Jane Austen, letter, 8 Apr. 1805 • Efforts against unemployment made in the same educational and helpful terms ... cannot help producing results —Franklin D. Roosevelt, 29 Mar. 1930, in Franklin D. Roosevelt's Own Story, ed. Donald Day, 1951 • ... you cannot help sensing how maleducated we are —John Mason Brown, Saturday Rev., 8 Aug. 1942 • ... and everybody else at Town Hall can't help knowing how their bosses feel —John Fischer, Harper's, January 1969 • In my grimmest imaginings I could not help thinking that he might have raped my daughter instead — William Styron, This Quiet Dust and Other Writings, 1982 Cannot but is an old established idiom. It has even been a favorite of some of our old warhorses of usage— Henry Alford, Richard Grant White, Fitzedward Hall— but instead of citing them we give you a goodly sample of others from across nearly three centuries: • ... I can't but laugh to think how they'll spunge the sheet before the errata be blotted out —George Far-quhar, Love and a Bottle, 1698 • I cannot but confess the failures of my correspondence —Samuel Johnson, letter, 1750 • I cannot but applaud your zeal —Benjamin Franklin, letter, 26 Dec. 1789 • I cannot but think of dear Sir Thomas's delight — Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814 • ... and I cannot but regret that the part of Ordonio was disposed of —Lord Byron, letter, 31 Mar. 1815 • ... the poetry or vision that one cannot but look for in fiction of this contemporary stamp —Times Literary Supp., 13 Feb. 1943 • ... in which both Stendhal and Byron, with the prodigious example of Napoleon before them, could not but believe —John Peale Bishop, New Republic, 22 Nov. 1954 • The outsider cannot but be struck by the frequent reluctance of the learned world —Edmund Wilson, New Yorker, 14 May 1955 • You cannot but be entertained —Newgate Callen-dar, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 1 Sept. 1974 • One cannot but wonder if the image ... flashed before the mind of Davis —Robert Penn Warren, Jefferson Davis Gets His Citizenship Back, 1980 • ... which cannot but help him as he assumes his difficult task —Daniel Southerland, Christian Science Monitor, 16 Jan. 1981 Cannot help but, which may have been formed as a syntactic blend of cannot but and cannot help, is the most recent of the phrases. It appears to have arisen just before the turn of the 20th century. Three sources—the OED, Curme 1931, and Poutsma 1904-26—all give the English novelist Hall Caine as the earliest source. Two of his novels, The Manxman ( 1894) and The Christian (1897) are cited. We began to acquire citations in the 1920s, and a great many from 1940 on. Here is a sample: • Since I cannot help but write to you —Vachel Lindsay, in Yale Rev., Autumn 1943 • ... we cannot help but feel that many of them ... — Clifton Fadiman, Saturday Rev., 5 Aug. 1944 • ... I could not help but reflect that if I hadn't been so noble ... —Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men, 1946 • ... you just cannot help but accept the invitation — S. P. B. Mais, The English Scene To-day, 2d ed., 1949 • ... she couldn't help but feel proud of Dandy — John Dos Passos, Chosen Country, 1951 • I couldn't help but feel that it was in some way a recognition —Robert M. Coates, New Yorker, 18 Oct. 1952 • "... if fellows like you go about sneering he cannot help but find out," I said —Oliver St. John Gogarty, It Isn't This Time of Year At All!, 1954 • ... could not help but be a little impressed by what Dottie disclosed —Mary McCarthy, The Group, 1963 • ... one cannot help but admire the freshness of his approach —Times Literary Supp., 17 Oct. 1968 • Reformers cannot help but think that there are far more effective ways —Robert A. Nisbet, Change, January-February 1971 • ... they cannot help but provide us with important clues —Katharine Kuh, Saturday Rev., 22 Jan. 1977 • One cannot help but rejoice for those who escaped —Margaret Drabble, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 14 Nov. 1982 • But I can't help but wonder what would happen — Emily Grotta, Houston Post, 14 Sept. 1984 Only cannot but and cannot help but have been the subject of much criticism. Vizetelly 1906 warned readers to distinguish between can but and cannot but—as if they meant something different; Bierce 1909 condemned cannot help but; Utter 1916—the only one with foresight—recommended simply accepting can but, cannot but, and cannot help but as idioms. A great many other commentators have had their say, many of them finding fault with one or the other by resorting to logic— their own brand—but of course logic cannot measure idioms. Degree of formality appears to be determined not by the phrase but by the choice of cannot or can't in the phrase. You can use whichever one seems most natural to you; all are standard. |
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