研究习作: Any difference between nobody/no one/none?
- 主题发起人 xiaoz
- 时间
Some observations:
1) Oral vs. literate
"No one" occurs 1.6 times as frequent as "nobody" in FLOB while in BNCdemo "nobody" is 2.5 times as frequent as "no one".
The frequencies of "none" in written and spoken English are very similar, with 80 instances in FLOB and 72 instances per million words in BNCdemo.
A similar pattern in the whole BNC:
"No one" occurs 108.93 times per million words in the written section and 60.92 times in the spoken section; in contrast, there are 143.98 instances of nobody per million words in the spoken section and only 49.84 instances in the written section.
The distribution of none in the written and spoken sections of the BNC is more balanced (94.47 vs. 72.43 instances per million words respectively).
2) Usage
None is typically followed by of indicating a scope*, which accounts for 62.5% of the total occurrences in FLOB and 47.5% in BNCdemo.
[We choose to make a distinction between this scope usage of "of" and its usage indicating property (e.g. no one of my age, no one of that name)]
The contrast for the written and spoken sections of the whole BNC is not as marked (54% vs. 51%), which shows that none is followed by of over half of the time in both written and spoken English.
In contrast, nobody is never followed by of indicating a scope while no one rarely occurs in this structure. No examples of the two types were found in FLOB and BNCdemo, but there are a total of 17 instances of no one of in the whole BNC, all of which occur in the written section. A more commonly used substitute is not one of (e.g. Not one of these is really um professional, BNC: KCV).
3) In relation to nobody and no one, none is also felt to be more emphatic - my intuitions.
1) Oral vs. literate
"No one" occurs 1.6 times as frequent as "nobody" in FLOB while in BNCdemo "nobody" is 2.5 times as frequent as "no one".
The frequencies of "none" in written and spoken English are very similar, with 80 instances in FLOB and 72 instances per million words in BNCdemo.
A similar pattern in the whole BNC:
"No one" occurs 108.93 times per million words in the written section and 60.92 times in the spoken section; in contrast, there are 143.98 instances of nobody per million words in the spoken section and only 49.84 instances in the written section.
The distribution of none in the written and spoken sections of the BNC is more balanced (94.47 vs. 72.43 instances per million words respectively).
2) Usage
None is typically followed by of indicating a scope*, which accounts for 62.5% of the total occurrences in FLOB and 47.5% in BNCdemo.
[We choose to make a distinction between this scope usage of "of" and its usage indicating property (e.g. no one of my age, no one of that name)]
The contrast for the written and spoken sections of the whole BNC is not as marked (54% vs. 51%), which shows that none is followed by of over half of the time in both written and spoken English.
In contrast, nobody is never followed by of indicating a scope while no one rarely occurs in this structure. No examples of the two types were found in FLOB and BNCdemo, but there are a total of 17 instances of no one of in the whole BNC, all of which occur in the written section. A more commonly used substitute is not one of (e.g. Not one of these is really um professional, BNC: KCV).
3) In relation to nobody and no one, none is also felt to be more emphatic - my intuitions.
majorlv511
高级会员
in many teaching references, these rules of usage are prescribed. now we got the descriptive and corpus-based evidence
回复: 研究习作: Any difference between nobody/no one/none?
Nononeone and Nobody are two words in the English language that are often confused in terms of their usage. They should indeed be used with difference. Nobody is used like the words ‘no-one’, ‘nothing’ and the like. Observe the sentence ‘nobody knows the truth’. Here in this sentence the word ‘nobody’ is used in the sense of ‘not a single person’.
On the other hand the word ‘no-one’ is not used along with preposition ‘of’ as in the sentences
1. No-one wished me a happy birthday.
2. No-one came in time.
Nononeone and Nobody are two words in the English language that are often confused in terms of their usage. They should indeed be used with difference. Nobody is used like the words ‘no-one’, ‘nothing’ and the like. Observe the sentence ‘nobody knows the truth’. Here in this sentence the word ‘nobody’ is used in the sense of ‘not a single person’.
On the other hand the word ‘no-one’ is not used along with preposition ‘of’ as in the sentences
1. No-one wished me a happy birthday.
2. No-one came in time.
回复: 研究习作: Any difference between nobody/no one/none?
1. Nobody: (Pronoun) Means no person or not any one. It’s not commonly used in written English; and spelling the word with a space (no body), is considered grammatically incorrect.
2. No One: The phrase shares the same meaning with “nobody”; however, it is proper to use in writing and a space between no and one should be provided.
3. None: (Pronoun) Refers to no one, not any or no part. It can be used both as a singular and a plural pronoun. The collocation “none of”, which refers to not one in a group, is the most frequently used phrase derived from “none”.
1. Nobody: (Pronoun) Means no person or not any one. It’s not commonly used in written English; and spelling the word with a space (no body), is considered grammatically incorrect.
2. No One: The phrase shares the same meaning with “nobody”; however, it is proper to use in writing and a space between no and one should be provided.
3. None: (Pronoun) Refers to no one, not any or no part. It can be used both as a singular and a plural pronoun. The collocation “none of”, which refers to not one in a group, is the most frequently used phrase derived from “none”.