有些读者来信问到 man 一词与冠词的关系如何。有的读者则具体地问道： man, a man, the man, men 以及 the men 究竟有什么区别？它们的用法如何？

我们认为这个问题，对学习英语的中国人来说，具有一定的普遍性，所以对此问题做一初步的探讨。

1. 首先让我们谈谈“零冠词 + man”结构，也就是其前不用定冠词 the 也不用不定冠词a（n)的 man 的用法。man 一般有两层意义，一是泛指“人” （包括男和女）；二是泛指“男人”。不论 man 意谓“人”或“男人”，它都应是类名词。这里就产生了一个问题：作为类名词，man 为什么竟然要用零冠词呢？ 类名词，如 horse, 不是一般只能用定冠词或不定冠词吗？关于这个问题，我们认为有两个不同的理由，即：一是由于 man 和 home 一样，为人们所最熟悉，而人们最熟悉的东西的名词常是用零冠词的；二是由于 man 被人认为是唯一之物，就像专有名词（如God）一样，故而用零冠词。除此之外，还有人提出一些别的理由，如 man 相当于语法上的不定代词；man 受到了 mankind 一词的影响； man 受到英语《圣经》中 man 的用法的影响，等等。我们则仍然认为 man 用零冠词是属于类名词抽象化的范畴。man 泛指人的中性意义乃是其古时的本义。现今一般多见于较为文气的书面语中，如：

(1)Man is mortal.

(2)Man's only young once.

(3)What a piece of work is man !

(4)God created men in his own image.（摘自基督教《圣经》）

有时man可作为“人类”解，但作主语时须用单形动词，如：

(5)It is man's longest flight in a balloon.

(6)Man has existed for thousands of years.

(7)Man is superior to all other animals.

(8)Man hopes for peace.

man 常可大写，如：

(9)What wonderful things Man has achieved!

注意 prehistoric man, Peking man, early man, modern man 等表集体的“形容词+man”

结构亦常用零冠词，实例如：

(10)Mr.Munro was well-advised in selecting prehistoric man as the subject of the first course of the Munro Lectures.

(11)Peking man is a type of early man of the Pleistocene age.

(12)So far, no trace of Neanderthal man has been discovered.

(13)Modern man refuses to acknowledge his need for mercy.

man 泛指“男人”则是现代英语的主要含义，常与 woman 做对比，如：

(14)Man is taller than woman.

(15)It is not a suitable job for man .

有时为了避免与泛指“人”的 man 相混淆，泛指“男人”的 man 之后需要标出 the human male, 如：

(16)It is not likely that Man — the human male — left to himself would have done this...But to woman it was natural. （this 指 the deification of the Babe）

man 可用作形容词表示男子的勇气或能力，如：

(17)He's not man enough for the job.

man 用作呼唤语源自其泛指“人”的古义，但在现代英语中则仅指男性，有时有感情色彩，如：

(18)Hurry up, man !

(19)This party's really great, man !

man 常用以指“成年男子”，如：

(20)He has lived with us, man and boy, for twenty years.（man and boy 是一成语，意谓“从小到大”）

2. 现在让我们看一看“不定冠词 a + man” 结构。a man 可泛指一个人（包括男女），这里的a 意味着一个语气较弱的 any, 如：

(21)As a man sows, so he will reap.

(22)A man is as old as he feels.

(23)Growing old is something a man has to accept.

(24)Don't kick a man when he is down.

a man 有时相当于不定代词 one，如：

(25)It does a man good to see the energy of that boy.

(26)What can a man do in such a case?

a man 有时实际上指说话人自己，如：

(27)That's hardly fair upon a man .

(28)Must a man be eternally telling you of these things?

a man 有时也可以暗指人类，如：

(29)A man is an unusual being.

(30)A man is the product of millions of years, and the depth of him is the depth of the whole night of eternity.

在当代英语中， a man 主要是泛指一个男人，以区别于一个女人，如：

(31)A woman should never marry a man unless she loves him.

(32)She dressed like a man .

a man 也常泛指一成年男子，如：

(33)Once a man and twice a child.

(34)When a boy grows up,he becomes a man .

(35)When I became a man , I put away childish things.

a man 也常泛指一个有男子汉气概的男儿，如：

(36)Be a man .

(37)He was every inch a man .

(38)The man is now a man .

(39)The boy tried to be a man and not cry, but the pain brought tears to his eyes.

a man 有时相当于a kind of man，如：

(40)He was not a man to be trifled with.

(41)He is a man that must be treated kindly.

a man 常可指某一个男人，如：

(42)I saw a man whom I seemed to have met before.

(43)The police found a man's shoe by the body.

a man 指某一男子时，其间可使用形容词，如：

(44)He is a nice man .

(45)I met a very interesting man on the train.

3. 关于“the man” 结构。the man 也可以泛指人，强调一类，以区别于其他类，首先它可用以区别于动物，如：

(46)Beauty means a certain proportion in the skeleton which gives the best results of strength and of easy motion in the animal or the man .

(47)Every age produces those links between the man and the baboon.

有时 the man 只暗含着区别于动物的意义，如：

(48)In English we say “clothes make the man ”.

下面一句中表一般的人的the man 则用以区别一种特殊的人：

(49)We see a great deal of the man , and of the soul of the man , but of the clergyman we see very little.

泛指人的the man 结构中的 man 如有修饰语，其可指的范围就缩小了，如：

(50)Who is the happy man ?

(51)The poor man does not envy the rich so much as the rich man envies the richer.

(52)It is important to know what the common man thinks about matters of public interest.

泛指人的 the man 有时相当于the one，如：

(53)I was not the man who would influence her in any way in the disposal of it. （it指her money）

(54)If you'd wanted a bout at boxing..., I should never be the man to bid you cry off.

泛指人的 the man 也可以泛指成年人,如：

(55)The child is father of the man .

(56)The character of the man is determined by the training he receives in childhood.

泛指人的the man还可以回指出现在前文中泛指人的a man,如：

(57)... a man perfects himself by working. Foul jungles are cleared away, fair seed fields rise instead, and stately cities, and withal the man himself first ceases to be a jungle and foul unwholesome desert thereby.（摘自美国散文家 Thomas Carlyle 的名作 Labour）

在现代英语里， the man 主要泛指男人，以区别于 the woman （女人），如：

(58)The woman looms much larger in the world of books than the man , and she reads more sociological works than the other sex.

the man 也可以与泛指女人的复形 women连用，如：

(59)It is almost impossible to realize the prejudices which existed in Crimean times against giving either authority or responsibility to women in what was regarded as the man's sphere.

the man 有时暗含着区别于女人的意义，如：

(60)How dare you criticize him. He's twice the man than you are!

the man 可用以表示男人的品质，如人品、性格、风度等，实例如：

(61)Every book takes us back immediately to the man behind it.

(62)The man of him was not changed.

(63)“The childhood,” said Milton, “shows the man , as morning shows the day.” （由于韵律的原因， morning 前省去了定冠词 the ）

the man 有时相当于男子汉、大丈夫，如：

(64)Play the man !

(65)Act the man against the oppressers of the weak.

(66)He's not half the man he was.

the man 自然常指一特定的男子，如：

(67)Who's the man over there?

(68)Can I recognize the man ?

(69)It is a kind of informal social impeachment whereby the man is stripped of the reverence, protections, and deference with which we treat our presidents. （the man 在此指美国前总统尼克松）

这种特指某人的the man 有时可用作同位语，如：

(70)Now the man Moses was very meek, ...（基督教《圣经》语）

用以特指的 the 有时可代替he 或 him 以表示厌恶心理，如：

(71)The man must be mad! I won't see him anyway, I don't like the man . （前一个 The man 专指某一男人，后一个 the man 则代替了him，以表示厌恶，这是一种非正式英语）

下面一句中的 the man 则相当于the right man ,如：

(72)He is the man for the job.

4.“零冠词 + 复形men ”结构可泛指“人们（一个个的人）”，它是泛指人的a man 的复数形式，用作主语时，其后须用复形动词，其用法实例如：

(73)Men will all grow old.

(74)Bad luck befalls men over night.

(75)Men are often deceived by what they see.

下面两句中的 men 显然包括women 在内：

(76)All, all are men — women and all.

(77)Women ...are not just men who can have babies.

但有时为了避免与意谓“男人们”的men 相混淆，泛指“人们”的men 之后可标明包括男女，如：

(78)There is in all men , both male and female, a desire and power of generation.

有时 men 泛指“人类”，如：

(79)Men have two legs and dogs have four legs.

(80)Men have made history.

(81)Men have only existed for a very short period when compared with fish.

(82)Darwin concluded that men were descended from apes.

在现代英语中，men 主要意指“男人们”，与 women （女人们）相对而言，如：

(83)Men have a shorter life than women.

(84)You must know that women are human beings just as well as men .

有时泛指“男人们”的 men 并不与 women 连用，但仍暗含与 women 相对的意义，如：

(85)Men are like that.

men 不泛指“男人们”时则是可数的，如：

(86)Three men and two women were wounded in the crossfire.

有时 men 则指“一些男人”，如：

(87)At breakfast Polly reluctantly asked Gregory for men to move the wardrobes out into the passage.

(88)We cannot get suitable men .

有时 men 则可指一定范围内的“男人们”，如：

(89)All men must leave their coats here,but women may take theirs with them.

下面一句中的 men 显然指“男子汉、大丈夫”：

(90)They acquitted themselves like men .

5. 在现代英语中，the men 主要用以特指男人群体，是特指某一男人的 the man 的复数形式，用作主语时须用复形动词，如：

(91)Save the women and children first and let the men out afterwards.

(92)Immediately all the little men ran away.

有时 the men 也可泛指一特定范围内为说话人所熟悉的“男人们”，如：

(93)I don't dress, sir! To please the men .

(94)—If he doesn't come, could someone take us there?

—No doubt, when the men come in from fishing.

例 （89）如强调特指一定范围内的所有男子，则可改说：

(95)All the men must leave their coats here...

the men 有时不可泛指“一切男人”，以与“一切女人”相对比，如：

(96)I'm not denying the women are foolish. God Almighty made them to match the men .

(97)All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players. （摘自莎士比亚一喜剧）

下面一些句子中的 the men 乃指“一切人”（包括男女）：

(98)Why don't the men propose?（与God 对比）

(99)Wonderous the god, more wonderous are the men . （与the god对比）

根据上下文，下面一句中的 the men则包括男女：

(100)Here and there the men he was following had also slowed.

最后，还有一些具体问题需要解答一下：

1. 试比较下列句中皆泛指人的 man, a man, the man 和 men:

(101)Man is a fool-creating animal.

(102)A man is a fool-creating animal.

(103)The man is a fool-creating animal.

(104)Men are fool-creating animals.

这四个句子的意义基本相同。如细加区别，man 最为正式而文气，a man 表示“任何一个人”，the man 表示人这一类，常用以与动物的等类相区别；men 是复数形式，含有“各种各样的人”的意义，强调具体的一个个人，而 man 则强调整体，所以英语中常说：

(105)Men are weak, but Man is strong.

2. 试比较下面一句中的 a man 与 the man:

(106)Be a man !—Play the man!

这个句子中的 a man 与 the man 基本同义，都是命令对方“要勇敢!要做个男子汉!”但是 a 在此相当于 some，而 the man则强调男子作为一类所具有的特性，其语气显然要比 a man 强烈。注意这两种说法都已固定，成为习惯用法，不可将 a 与 the 互换使用，但如用以泛指男子，the man 则比 a man 较常使用。

3. 试比较下一句中的 man 与 men:

(107)Helen seems to be more interested in man than in men .

一般地说，泛指男子时，英语多用 men, 用 man 的情况较少，man 比较正式而文气。但如表示“男性”，则应用man。这一句中的 man 即是一例。而句中的 men 则指“一个个的男人”。

4. man (men)既可泛指“人”，又可泛指“男人”，有时它不免会产生歧义，这时应该怎么办呢？

一般地说，由于有一定的上下文，或可根据常识的判断，man （men)是不会产生歧义的，但不可讳言，它有时的确也会产生歧义，引起读者（或听者）的困惑或误会。例如当Neil Armstrong 于1969年7月20日登上月球时，他说道：

(108)That's one small step for a man , one giant step for mankind. （a man 指“人”还是泛指“男人”?）

再如有人曾在美国一所大学作调查时，在一批学生的作业中发现将社会学中的 urban man, economic man 和political man 都误会为男性。

为了避免这种困惑与误会，现在的趋势是将man或men代之以human（s), human being(s),the human race, the human species, person(s), people, man and woman （或 men and women）等。

另外，由于女权运动的兴起，不少以 -man 结尾的词有被改动的趋势，如将policeman 改为 police officer, mailman 改为 mail carrier, milkman 改为 milk deliverer 等。有人甚至要将 chairman 改为chairperson 或新创 chairwoman 一词。但有许多情况，由于积重难返，恐怕难以改变，如 craftsman, the man in the street 等。

但说来也很有趣，也有人建议将已是成语的 one man, one vote 改为 one person, one vote。