問:貴欄上月底有以下一句:He was one of the few Japanese citizens who was critical of the
government(日本人非議政府者不多,他是其一)。按who應是指citizens而不是one,動詞was是不是應改為were?假如who是指one,who之前是不是應加逗點?
答:這個who子句(clause)是界定(defining)子句,界定作者說的是甚麼日本人,所以無論who是指citizens還是one,who之前都不應加逗點。
至於who是代表one還是citizens,答案應是「兩可」。有學者認為只可代表citizens,例如Frederick T Wood的Current English
Usage說以下一句不正確:He is one of those persons who always
thinks he is right(他是個甚麼都自以為是的人)。不正確的原因是:The antecedent
of "who" is not "one", but "persons"(who的先行詞是persons,不是one)。從前,我也相信這派學者的說法,並曾撰文敍述。
不過,韋氏英文用法詞典(Webster's Dictionary of English Usage)談到one of
those who歷來的用法,卻有以下結論:So the choice of a singular or
plural verb is a matter of notional agreement(因此,選擇單數還是複數形式動詞,在乎作者認為動詞應配哪個主詞)。換言之,作者着重one,就配單數動詞;着重one之後的複數名詞,就配複數動詞。詞典還從書刊摘錄大量例句,證明這一點,現僅錄其一於後:Waugh
is not one of those who finds the modern world attractive(沃不是個喜歡現代世界的人)。