Whoever helped me has gone. 查《英汉大辞典》、《英汉辞海》、《远东英汉大辞典》对 whoever 的翻译是：“无论谁”“任何人”“谁”。但我认为这些译法都不能用到上面句子的翻译中去。这是怎么回事呢？
whoever 的一个最常见意义, 是 anybody who(that)。上面诸词典所提供的译法可以翻译具有此种含义的 whoever。例如:
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Whoever was pursuing the Grail had recruited someone on the inside. (Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code) 任何人，只要他们想把圣杯弄到手，都会暗中派人打入到对手内部。（《达·芬奇密码》）
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Whoever gets the job will have a lot of work to do. (Chambers) 谁得到这个职务,谁就会有许多工作去做。
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I'll take whoever wants to go. 谁要去我就带谁去。(《英汉辞典》)
但是,我国的许多辞书大都没有提到 whoever 的另一个含义: the person who(……的人) (You use whoever to refer to the person who does something, when their identity does not matter or is not known.)
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Whoever helped me has gone. 帮助过我的那个人已经走了。
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Whoever did that should admit it frankly. (“The person who did that...”) (CGEL) 做这件事的人应当坦白承认。
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If death occurs at home, whoever discovers the body should contact the family doctor... (EED) 如果家里有人死了,则发现死者的人应当与家庭医生取得联系。
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We wrote a letter of thanks to whoever had helped us. 我们给帮助过我们的人写了感谢信。
由于 whoever 具有上面谈到的两种含义,所以有些含 whoever 的句子是有歧义的。例如:
- Whoever told you that was lying.
(a)谁对你讲这件事,谁就在撒谎。(Anybody that...)
(b)对你讲这件事的那个人是在说谎。(The person who...)
- Whoever said that made a big mistake.
(a)谁说这话,谁就犯了一个大错误。
(b)说这话的人犯了一个大错误。