| 词组 | one of those who |
| 释义 | one of those who Under this heading we have gathered several similar constructions, all of which display the same disputed point of grammar. We begin with Kilpatrick 1984, who reproaches himself for having written this sentence: • In Washington we encounter to prioritize all the time; it is one of those things that makes Washington unbearable. For Kilpatrick the error is in makes; the theory that makes the verb culpable—a theory going all the way back to Baker 1770—says that the antecedent of that, which is the subject of makes, is things and therefore the verb should be plural: make. Kilpatrick was duly chastened when his error was pointed out to him by a correspondent, but a year or so later he wrote: • With the expulsion of the PLO from Lebanon, Mr. Reagan may have caught one of those tides in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. This time his wrist was slapped by William F. Buckley, Jr. In contrition, Mr. Kilpatrick turned to Follett 1966, where he found stern comments about writers who "fumble their handling of the phrase." But he was able to find solace in the comments of some members of the Harper 1975 usage panel, 22 percent of whom preferred the singular verb. The trouble with the firm rule of Follett 1966 and Baker 1770 (as well as Bache 1869, Bernstein 1962, and Shaw 1987) is that it has no firm foundation of usage to support it: it is largely airy theory. The practice these writers would correct can be found in Old English as early as the 10th century. The usages of the past cannot be undone, and if the same mental processes that led to past usages are still in effect, the reformers are going to have a hard time. In this case the mental process involves the pull of notional agreement (see notional agreement, notional concord). Kilpatrick, in paraphrasing Follett, puts it this way: • By a mental shortcut, the one in whom we are interested jumps over the class ... and links itself to the defining words.... Or here it is put another way: • Jespersen (Grammar, II, 181) suggests that the singular verb or pronoun is 'attracted' to one. Perhaps this is but saying in grammatical terminology what may be otherwise expressed by saying that the writer or speaker is more immediately concerned with one than with those —John S. Kenyon, American Speech, October 1951 So it is simply a matter of which is to be master—one or those. In Kilpatrick's sentences and in those of a great many other writers, it has been one: • My worthy Friend Sir ROGER is one of those who is not only at Peace within himself, but beloved and esteemed by all about him —Joseph Addison, The Spectator, No. 122, 20 July 1711 • Waugh is not one of those who finds the modern world attractive —Randolph S. Churchill, Book-of-the-Month-Club News, December 1945 • ... he is one of the few serious young novelists who has tried to go directly toward the center of post-war experience —Irving Howe, New Republic, 10 Nov. 1958 • ... analysis of one of the greatest minds which has been concerned with economic matters in this century —John Perry Miller, Yale Rev., Autumn 1954 • ... is one of the few people alive who still writes a letter as if the telephone had never been invented — John Mason Brown, Encore, July 1946 • ... one of those rare books which justifies the jacket blurb —Cleveland Amory, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 28 Feb. 1954 • They would sail to the Caribbean on one of those ships that was your hotel while you were in port, and it had better be an English ship —John P. Mar-quand, Point of No Return, 1949 • ... one of those film buffs who has seen everything and understood nothing —John Gregory Dunne, quoted in Simon 1980 The primacy of one in the writer's mind may be signaled by pronoun reference, too: • ... he is one of those that must lose his employment whenever the great shake comes —Jonathan Swift, Journal to Stella (in Jespersen 1909-49, vol. 2) • About the Lourdes business.... I will not be taking any bath. I am one of those people who could die for his religion easier than take a bath for it —Flannery O'Connor, letter, 17 Dec. 1957 But do not think that one is always the master. An article in The English Journal in October 1951 reported a citation count (from 1531-1951) showing five plural verbs to one singular. The actual preponderance in favor of the plural verb may not be so great—certainly it is not in our files. But it is plain that those is often the master: • I am one of those People who by the general Opinion of the World are counted both Infamous and Unhappy —Joseph Addison, The Spectator, No. 203, 1711 (in Kenyon, American Speech, October 1951) • He is one of those kind of people who are always very much pleased with every thing —William Hazlitt, letter, 5 Nov. 1809 • Tom Sawyer's Aunt Polly was one of those people who are infatuated with patent medicines —Mark Twain, "A Dose of Pain Killer," in Mark Twain's Library of Humor, 1888 • I don't want you to think I'm one of those people who are always talking about their bodily ailments —Frank Sullivan, A Rock in Every Snowball, 1946 • The urge to revisit his childhood is surely one of the magnets that draw a man to Yankee Stadium —Red Smith, Saturday Rev., 26 June 1976 • ... Alexis Korner is one of the few genuine lightweights who turn up on the album —John Chance, Rolling Stone, 6 Jan. 1972 • It is one of those bright ideas that do not come off— Newgate Callendar, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 8 Feb. 1981 • ... wondered if he was to be one of those players who never realize their full potential —Current Biography, November 1966 • ... for he is one of those authors who seem to write almost in collusion with their audience —Anatole Broyard, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 9 Mar. 1986 The plural notion may also be signaled by pronoun reference alone: • ... one of the Englishmen who came to Ireland for a visit, married, and made Ireland their home —John O'Hara, letter, 18 Oct. 1959 So the choice of a singular or plural verb, and of the matching singular or plural pronoun (which the commentators pass over), is a matter of notional agreement: is one or those to be the master? We cannot trace the practice of Old English down to our time in an unbroken line of descent, but there is abundant evidence that one has controlled number in modern English sentences from Shakespeare to James J. Kilpatrick, and there is likewise abundant evidence that those has controlled number in other sentences. Addison was not troubled by using both constructions. You need not be more diffident than Addison. The best discussion we have seen of this subject is the one by John S. Kenyon in American Speech, October 1951, quoted above. |
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