由于有数位读者对上一期的一个句子有疑问,所以在这期讲一下上期文章中的这个句子,查看上期文章请点击【经济学人 | 矿泉水产业会给西藏冰川带来什么?| 2016.01.30|总第68期】: But finding clean supplies is difficult; rivers, lakes and even groundwater in China are often foul. Hence the huge demand for a seemingly inexhaustible source of pristine water that is cheap to extract, sells at a premium and can now, thanks to massive investment in infrastructure, be taken to coastal cities: Tibetan glaciers. 其实概括出来的问题就是 ▼ 为什么有些句子没有主语或谓语?
英文与中文最大的区别之一就是要保证每个句子必须要有主语和谓语动词,我们看到的语法书上所例举的几种句型的公共部分都是S V: 也就是说,在绝大多数情况下,句子都必须具备主语和谓语,如果缺乏主语或者谓语动词,这样的句子叫做fragment(残缺句)或incomplete sentence,即短语或者词组,哪怕是其带有众多修饰成分,在英文中都是语法错误,如下图: 如需了解英文句子的基本条件,请点击以下链接: 但是除祈使句外(祈使句也是省略了成分),我们平常还能在阅读中尤其是在口语、标语或者名人名言中经常会碰到很多没有主语和谓语的句子,比如下面这种并列比较的句子: The more, the merrier. 但是象这些情况都是省略了主语和谓语的结果,比如The more, the merrier.实际上相当于是: The more people there are, the merrier they are. 还原成正常的句子所表达的意思就是 The social events are more fun when there are more people. 注:the more…the more…结构中的the并不是冠词,而是一个副词: 所以根据the的这些释义,这种the 比较级的句子,有些句子可以还原成表示因果的主从复合句,如: The more the building shook, the more we held on. = As/Because the shaking of the building grew stronger, we held on more. The more the wave rose, the faster we ran. = As/Because the wave rose higher, we ran faster. The more we saw, the less we could believe. =As we saw more (destruction), it was harder to believe (what we saw). The more we looked, the fewer things we found to retrieve. = As we looked, we found fewer things to retrieve (from the debris). The more, the merrier.这种比较结构由于其上下文大家都知道是people,所以主语和相关的be动词都可以省略,符合读者的“期待”含义,在有上下文的情况下,下面的这些表达也同属这种情况,括弧中是语境: The stronger, the better. (coffee, nations, will) The bigger, the better. (toys, cars) The smaller, the better. (computers, phones, microchips) 但是对于上下文不明显的比较结构,即脱离了读者的“期待”范围,主语或谓语却是不能够省略的,如: The lower, the fewer. 单独这个句子是看不出作者想要表达什么意思的,所以必须加上主语,当然be动词可以省略。 The lower the rates, the fewer the lenders. 再来看看第句: No need for extra information.
这种句子相当于是省略了there is的结构,同理文首的句子也可以将主干补齐,hence是副词,相当于therefore。 Hence (there is) the huge demand for a seemingly inexhaustible source of pristine water that is cheap to extract, sells at a premium and can now, thanks to massive investment in infrastructure, be taken to coastal cities: Tibetan glaciers. That从句引导三个定语从句: that is cheap to extract; that sells at a premium; that can now be taken to coastal cities; 冒号后的Tibetan glaciers是a seemingly inexhaustible source of pristine water的同位语。 所以在看到某些句子有疑问的时候,不妨试试是否这个句子省略了there is或者it is这种主要体现“语法”意义的主干结构。 下面以维基百科中的引用作为结尾: If the context is clear from the rest of the paragraph, however, an incomplete sentence may be considered perfectly acceptable English. ----摘自“维基百科”英文版
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