anyone

   In The Taste of Too Much, by Clifford Hanley, a woman says: ‘Now there’s no need to be nervous, anyone. Mr Garside isn’t going to ask why he hasn’t seen anyone at church recently.’ The anyone in this instance refers to two young people who have just entered the room, the speaker and the vicar being there already. ‘Anyone’ could have become ‘anybody’, or for that matter, ‘either of you’.

   Perhaps the latter term was not selected because the speaker was indirectly addressing the vicar as well, warning him not to ask awkward questions. In The Half Hunter, by John Sherwood, a speaker who is approaching a group of friends, seated at a table, says: ‘Don’t look round, anyone.’ In these examples ‘anyone’ is a collective term of address, in spite of its singular appearance. In each case the reference is clearly to more than one person. Compare the use of ‘anyone’ or ‘anybody’ by the hostess of a party who asks: ‘Coffee, anyone?’ ‘Anyone’ is now an indefinite vocative. Whoever hears it can choose to apply it to himself if he wishes. Use of this vocative requires such positive identification. If the speaker said ‘Coffee, everybody?’ a negative identification would be required from anyone who did not wish to be included in the collective term.

   Brothers in Law, by Henry Cecil, shows an expanded form of ‘any’ being used as an indefinite vocative. In a courtroom scene the judge says: ‘Now, does anyone want to mention any of the cases?’ A solicitor tries to attract his attention, whereupon the judge continues: ‘Any member of the Bar.’ Thursday Afternoons, by Monica Dickens, has a lecturer who has failed to get an answer from the student he has just addressed. He therefore says: ‘Anyone else?’