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词典词条 · 问答

everybody/everyone...they

核心问题 1

（1）Every man and woman should vote for the candidate of their choice. (B's TOEFL) A B C D

(2) Every one of the students had to do their own experiment, and then Professor A B C

Brown judged the result. (TOEFL)

标准答案规定将 their 改为 his。但是,我在英语著作上却经常遇到 everybody...they (their) 的用法,这究竟是怎么回事呢?

词典解答 1

作为各类考试(尤其是托福考试)的考生,应当牢记英语试题编写者们强调正式用法的意图,而坚决地按照他们的要求去做题:everybody/everyone/someone/somebody/anyone/anybody/no one/nobody 的指称代词只可使用 he(his),而不能使用 they(their)。

但是,作为英语的使用者或研究者,则应当懂得多一些。

根据托·派尔斯在《名人英语》这篇文章中的材料，从十七世纪以来，“everyone...they”这个格式用得比“everyone...he”多得多。下面举几个例子：

  1. Everybody waits on themselves, and it's practically always supper, not dinner, and nobody dreams of changing their clothes. (E. M. Delafield,)

  2. If someone dislikes it I shall never trust their literary judgment again. (1955. 12. 2《旁观者》)

  3. Everyone warned you, didn't they? (A Practical English Grammar, p. 97) 实际上, 现代英语学家们也承认了“everybody...they”这类用法的正确性。

  4. Everyone thinks they have the answer. (CGEL)

  5. Has anybody brought their camera? (CGEL)

  6. No one could have blamed themselves for that. (CGEL)

  7. {EveryoneEachEachone}\left\{ \begin{array}{l} Every one \\ Each \\ Each one \end{array} \right\} of the students should have {theirhis}\left\{ \begin{array}{l} their \\ his \end{array} \right\} own books. (GCE)

  8. When every man had assembled, the master paid them their wages. (A Reference Grammar for Students of English, p. 145) 大家集合齐了之后，雇主给他们发了工资。

  9. Each of the women wore what they liked best. (PEU) 这些妇女个个都穿着她们最喜欢

的衣服。

R. Close 认为, 使用 them 和 their 比使用 him 和 his 更为合理。不仅如此, 语言学家们还对使用这个格式的正确性和必要性作了令人信服的说明。例如, P. A. Erads 解释说“everybody 和 nobody 用单数谓语, 而指称代词却常常用复数。这显然是从意义来考虑的……是英语特有的用法”。“不列颠人永远不作奴隶, 连词的奴隶也不做。……每当名词的数和名词所代表的人的数目相矛盾时, 总是意义占上风”。(《现代英语句法问题集》, p. 44) A. Zeiger 说 everyone 在形式上是单数的, 但具有 all 的意义。因此, 像 Everyone came, and they were all sorry. 这样的句子是站得住脚的 (Encyclopedia of English, p. 255)。New English Dictionary (Oxford) 解释说: “Everyone 的指称代词常常用复数代词; 由于英语里没有表示共同性别的单数代词, 因此这种违反语法一致关系的情况有时是不可避免的”。M. Swan 和 R. Quirk 都认为: “采用 they, their 可以避免采用 he or she, his or her 这样笨拙的结构”。(PEU, p. 432) (CGEL, § 10.50), 我们从考题 (1) 可以非常明显地看出这一点。考题 (1) 的出题者坚持将 their 改为 his, 其实这种改法在逻辑上是说不通的。

从以上的分析可以看出，语言是随着社会的发展而发展的。有些语言格式消亡了或趋于消亡，而有些语言格式突起了或趋于突起，所有这一切都是不以语言学家们的意志为转移的。在其他语言里也不乏这样的实例。例如，在第一次现代汉语规范问题学术会议上，有人指出把“流行性感冒”“医疗效果”紧缩为“流感”“疗效”是可笑的，当时也确实引起了听众的哄堂大笑。但是，曾几何时，“流感”“疗效”不仅成了医学界的术语，而且也成了家喻户晓的日常用词了。再如，在七十年代末法国教育部根据人民大众使用法语的情况发表了一项公报，宣布公报所列举的30多个语法现象，在各级学校的考试中不再作为错误计算。我们希望在英语方面也能发表这样一项公报或者至少在各级学校的考试中不再出这样一些有争议的试题，以顺乎语言发展的潮流。否则英语教师和学生在纠缠这些问题上所花费的时间和精力简直是太多了。

请做下面的试题,并提出自己的看法:

  1. Anyone in this university, who is interested in modern drama or modern poetry, can write down their names on the piece of paper below. (EPT 教程)

  2. If someone were to look through the window, they would see only an empty room. (TOEFL) everyday/every day

核心问题 2

（a）Joe is always overworked because the building where he works is an old one, and something goes wrong almost everyday. (《英语考试题典》)

(b) Sunlight has come to symbolize happiness and joy. Examples of this are to be found in ____ language, in poetry and song.

A. each day B. everyday C. per day D. today(同上)

为什么在句(a)中用 everyday 是错误的, 而在句(b)中用 everyday 却是正确的呢?

词典解答 2

应当弄清楚, everyday 是个形容词, 可用作定语, 如 everyday English(日常英语), everyday life(日常生活), everyday clothes(便服)。而 every day(每天) 是个名词短语, 可用作状语。例如, We go to work every day. (我们天天上班。) 在句(a) 中需要用名词短语 every day 充当状语, 而在句(b) 中需要用形容词 everyday 充当定语。

  1. This invariably wins them the love and respect of others, for they add colour to the dull routine of everyday life. (New Concept English, Book 3, L. 31) 这种做法总是使他们赢得别人的爱戴和尊敬，因为他们给单调的日常生活增添了色彩。

  2. Mathematics is a part of everyday life. (RL) 数学是日常生活的一部分。

来源：英语常见问题解答大词典-3.md · 第 6133—6192 行 · 原文哈希 67cbe1ad94…