each other 与 one another 到底有无区别?
有些英语语法学家甚至在最近出版的著作中还在坚持 each other 只能用于两个人之间。例如 S. E. Paces 等人在 1976 年出版的 Common Errors in English 一书中说:“Use Each other for two persons only. Use One another for more than two persons. Wrong: All men are brothers and should love each other.” 有不少考题就是拿这个理论来考学生的:
These three boys help ____ to finish the project. (P) one another (Q) each other (Obje. Eng. Test Pap. to Cert. Level, p. 22)
这种考法完全脱离了现代英语的实际使用情况。请看下面的实例:
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The four men looked at one another for a moment as if there were something more to say, but apparently there was not. (Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code) 四个人面面相觑,好像有什么话要说,但显然又说不出什么。(《达·芬奇密码》)
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The three gentlemen looked at each other... (Poutzma, p. 1168)
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“Do you like music?” “Yes, and I think music is one way people can get to know ____.”答案为 C(each other better) (TOEFL)
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On the morning of the 18th of June the two enemies faced one another on the field of Waterloo. (Green, Short Hist., Ch. X)
许多现代英语学者对 each other 只能用于两个人的说法提出了异议。A. Zeiger 说:“Each other and one another are used interchangeably by almost everyone.” (Encyclopedia of English, p. 255) F. Crew 教授说,对于 each other 只能用于两个人的说法“可以置之不理”。
each time