问英语｜英语常见问题解答

核心问题

Finally, the thief handed everything ____ he had stolen to the police.

A. which B. what C. whatever D. that(全国高考,标准答案为 D。)

All ____ is needed is a supply of oil.

A. the thing B. that C. what D. which(全国高考,标准答案为 B)

上面两道题均把 which 判为错误。但是,先行词 everything, something, all 等用 which 作关系代词真的就是错误吗?

词典解答

上面的试题不够恰当,因为用 which 作 all, everything, something, anything, nothing 的关系代词并不是错误,它只是没有 that 用得那么普遍而已。还是让我们引用权威语言学家们的论述来作证明。

"That as subject and that or zero as object are preferred to which when the antecedent is non-personal all, anything, everything, nothing, little, or much..." (CGEL, p. 1251)

（“当先行词是非人称的 all, anything, everything, nothing, little 或 much 时, that 与 which 相比, 人们更喜欢用 that 作主语, 用 that 或零关系代词作宾语。”）

由此看来,使用 that 或 which 只是个使用频率问题,而不是正误问题(见 which/that $^{4}$ )。下面让我们用实例来证明这一点:

Then he said something which astonished his guests. 随后他讲了一件使他的客人感到吃惊的事情。
Matter is the name given to everything which has weight and occupies space. 物质是赋予具有重量和占据空间的一切东西的名称。
This is all which Mr. Black could offer. (《新编英语语法》) 这就是布莱克先生所能提供的一切。
Have you anything(which/that) you'd like to sell? (Chambers) 你有什么东西想卖吗? which $^{4}$