一、语法
大家学习外语的时候往往非常关注语法,去翻厚厚的语法书,去背一条条规则和用法;但很多人只顾记条条框框,忽略了对句子的整体把握。
句子 = 【主干】 + 修饰 = 【主语 + 谓语动词 (+ 其他成分)】 + 修饰
所谓修饰可以是从句,可以是分词(伴随状语、后置定语等等),可以是介词短语,可以是独立主格,可以确定的是:一个句子里只有一个或一套谓语动词(从句比较特殊,可以看作树枝上的分枝,它有自己独立的谓语动词,但也有明显的先行词可与主句区分)。
明确句子的谓语动词对做阅读理解非常有帮助,能显著提高我们对长难句的理解能力,也能提高阅读速度(这一点对应试很有帮助)。举个例子:
They still went on and on. The rough path disappeared. The bushes, and the long grasses between the boulders, the patches of rabbit-cropped turf, the thyme and the sage and the marjoram, and the yellow rockroses all vanished, and they found themselves at the top of a wide steep slope of fallen stones, the remains of a landslide. When they began to go down this, rubbish and small pebbles rolled away from their feet; soon larger bits of split stone went clattering down and started other pieces below them slithering and rolling; then lumps of rock were disturbed and bounded off, crashing down with a dust and a noise. Before long the whole slope above them and below them seemed on the move, and they were sliding away, huddled all together, in a fearful confusion of slipping, rattling, cracking slabs and stones. (摘自《霍比特人》)
前两句十分简洁,基本就是主谓简单句;到了长句部分,明确谓语动词的优势就很突出了。其实整段描写的信息量很少[1],无非是(主角团)行进过程中:①路没了;②植被消失,面临陡坡;③下坡凶险,飞砂转石[2];④他们下坡下得战战兢兢。善于识别句中的主要成分,不仅可以帮助理解句子表意,也会明显缩短阅读时间。
(值得一提的是,应试中写作一定要避免The bushes那句的写法,这是典型的头重脚轻——托尔金这么写可以,我们这么写不行,要写阅卷老师眼里优美的句子,这一点第三部分会细说)
二、语言习惯
英语被西方国家公认是最简单的语言,但中国学生却一直把它当成一道难题,很大程度上是因为中文和英语的语言习惯差异太大了。很多老师和学长学姐根据经验去建议大家读原著,除了锻炼阅读耐力、扩大词汇量、学习固定搭配之外,某种意义上也是培养语言习惯。
读英文的时候也要注意,我们应该尽量从英文本身去理解文本,而不是在脑子里翻译成中文再去理解;写作时同理,直接构造英语表达,不要想一句中文翻一句英文,这样的写作又低效又不纯正,事倍功半,很容易写出令人啼笑皆非的中式英语。
下面列举几个我觉得很典型的英语语言习惯:
1. 抽象化
中文表达主要是人本位,比如“我姐涨了工资之后生活质量更高了”,主语是人,但英语表达更倾向于“An increase in her wages significantly improved my sister’s quality of life”,主语不是人或物,而是一个抽象名词(工资的增加);如果我们把这句话按照中文习惯翻成英语,就很容易写出“After my sister got a pay rise, her quality of life is higher”这样的句子,非常生硬,非常别扭,而且涉及一个频繁变换主语的问题,让语言表达变得很凝涩(这一点也会在第三部分提到)。
此处提一下:英语中更常把人物名字或者人物身份放在主句部分,从句或其他成分里用代词来指代,即使从句或其他成分有可能在主句之前。一个更突出的例子:
In the three years he had in Paris Gray had put on a good many pounds, his face had grown redder, and his hair was thinning rapidly, but he was in rude health and in high spirits. (摘自《刀锋》)
可以看出,“he had in Paris”其实是个省略了先行词的从句,用来修饰“the three years”,而从句虽然在主句之前,也是使用了人称代词,主人公(之一)的名字Gray放在了主句。
除了名词抽象化之外,英语表达也很喜欢将动词抽象化,具体表现为把本来的动词名词化,然后在前面加上一个抽象动词,举个例子大家就明白了:
influence (v.) sth. à exert an influence (n.) on sth.
利用这个特点,我们可以把自己的语言表达展现得更高级,还可以达到增加字数的效果。
另外还有一些非典型抽象化,比如it作形式主语、there be句型之类的,其实无非是把中文的语言习惯做一下颠覆:【中】我花了三天才写完老师留的数学作业——【Eng.】It took me three days to finish the maths homework assigned by our teacher;【中】路边有朵玫瑰花——【Eng.】There is a rose alongside the road;另外it作形式主语有很多句型值得记一下,比如it occurred to me that(我突然想起来)、it proved to be significant that(事实证明某事很重要)、it is said that(据说)、it appeared to me that(在我看来)等等,比千篇一律地使用I think要强得多。
需要强调一点:写作要以表意为先,不要为了套句型而套句型,比如it occurred to me,可以是“我上学路上走着走着突然想起作业忘带了(I was walking on my way to school when it occurred to me that I forgot to bring my homework)”,但如果使用不当,比如在议论文里表达看法时硬拗“it occurs to me that self-learning is quite important”,会非常奇怪,显得一惊一乍且莫名其妙。
2. 插入语
插入语是一个严重不符合中文语言习惯、但英语里经常出现的表达方式,无论是新闻、期刊还是小说、日常用语,都会或多或少用到插入语——这会让表达更加灵活。
A wedding is, in my considered opinion, nothing short of a celebration of all that is false and specious and irrational and sentimental in this ailing and morally compromised world. (《神探夏洛克》台词[3])
还是之前提到的:不要一直I think,并且表达“我认为”的位置也可以变,最常规的是I think开头,或者in my opinion放句首,灵活一点可以把短语(可以是介词短语,e.g. to some extent,可以是分词短语,e.g. generally speaking,可以是副词也可以是形容词,甚至可以是独立主格)像台词中那样放句中,或者as far as I’m concerned / I reckon(句首句中都可),甚至可以放句末(e.g. Life is immense like an ocean, imagined by most of us)。
不过不要滥用插入语,尤其放在句中的双逗号插入语,用一次就够了,总共高中英语作文也写不了多少字,一直割裂句子的话,原本的灵动就变成了零碎。
3. 语态
很多时候,英语表达的语态和我们的常规理解是相反的,比如表达“我希望这件事能有个好结果——I hope it ends well”,并不是因为it作(从句的)主语就使用被动语态;再比如“我昨天去理了个发——I had my hair cut yesterday”,虽然中文没有直观体现出头发是被剪的,但have sth. done其实是一种被动语式。
也有些情况下,中文英文是殊途同归的,比如“这本书很畅销——This book sells well”,或者“窗户关不严——The window doesn’t close properly”,并不因为书是被卖、窗户是被关的而使用被动语态,灵活运用这些表达需要一定的积累。
4. 倒装
中文也有倒装,但我们的习惯是把想强调的部分简单粗暴地扔到句末:“吃了吗您”“你能不能下来现在”“手往哪放呢都”……而英语的倒装(无论部分还是完全)特征是颠倒主谓。
写作的时候出现恰到好处的倒装句也是一大加分项,从文本上来说,仍然是丰富表达,活化结构;从应试上来说,也是在展现自己的语言能力。
一些个人觉得常用的倒装句式:
Had it not been for(虚拟条件句省略if)
Never shall we say(否定词开头)
Proud as we might be(as引导让步)
Such is human nature that(Such that句型,表达“这就是xxx啊”,同理可有:Such is shared value that,Such are irrefutable realities that,等等)
As is often the case(固定搭配,表达“事情往往是这样”)
5. 从句
从一个非专业的语言学习者角度来看,从句是我眼中英语和汉语、乃至印欧语系和汉藏语系最显著的差异了——英语里从句占据重要位置,而我们的语言甚至没有从句。
要我说,定语从句就是担任括号或者破折号的功能,负责解释说明,只是和主句连在一起,不另起一句而已;主宾表以及同位语从句都是名词性从句,可以理解为直接替换名词成分,其中主语从句不那么常用,用得多的还是形式主语;状语从句比较复杂,也是中文里最得不到体现的(我们主要还是通过变更连词或副词来实现类似表达)。
附上一段长难文本(认为太难的同学可略过,但建议至少还是看看):
We call ourselves a utilitarian age, and we do not know the uses of any single thing. We have forgotten that Water cleanse, and Fire purify, and that the Earth is mother to us all. As a consequence, our Art is of the Moon and plays with shadows, while Greek art is of the Sun and deals directly with things. I feel sure that in elemental forces there is purification, and I want to go back to them and live in their presence. Of course, to one so modern as I am, enfant de mon siècle[4], merely to look at the world will be always lovely. I tremble with pleasure when I think that on the very day of my leaving prison both the laburnum and the lilac will be blooming in the gardens, and that I shall see the wind stir into restless beauty the swaying gold of the one, and make the other toss the pale purple of its plumes so that all the air shall be Arabia for me. Linnaeus fell on his knees and wept for joy when he saw for the first time the long health of some English upland made yellow with the tawny aromatic blossoms of the common furze, and I know that for me, to whom flowers are part of desire, there are tears waiting in the petals of some rose. It has always been so with me from my boyhood. There is not a single colour hidden away in the chalice of a flower, or the curve of a shell, to which, by some subtle sympathy with the very soul of things, my nature does not answer. Like Gautier I have always been one of those pour qui le monde visible existe[5]. (摘自《自深深处》)
摘这段文本的用意有二:其一在于展示一段文学作品中,从句可以何等密集;其二在于说明长难文本并不可怕,只要善于区分主从、明确主谓,有选择地阅读,就能条理清晰地理解其意,生词也不可怕,大部分生词不是能从文中猜出意思,就是不能猜出意思也不影响阅读(当然这得是在掌握考试要求的基本词汇量的前提下)。
以这段文本为例,绿色部分是插入语、同位语、一些状语,大多时候可以忽略(具体什么时候忽略哪些,读多了会找到感觉的;就算读得不多,见到类似的成分也可以立刻和主谓区分开);蓝色部分是从句,因为存在从句套从句的情况,所以在颜色上做了深浅处理,同理也可以立刻断句一般地区分开;红色部分是我们大概率不认识的生词,但事实上,根据下文的blooming,可以判断laburnum和lilac是两种花名,根据blossoms和flowers,可以判断furze也是一种花,aromatic是描述绽放的花朵的一个形容词(可以进一步猜测不是好香就是好美)。
更进一步学习的话,从句还是听力理解的一个难关,本质上仍是因为语言习惯(语序、逻辑等)的不同造成了理解障碍。我们经常听得清每一个音节,辨别得出每一个单词,但是整体听一段材料下来感觉脑子里什么印象都没有留下,说明问题不在于听、不在于识别、不在于词汇量,而在于思维。大家可以最小化网页(不要看字幕)试听一下罗素的一段寄语[6]——大概率会发现语速已经如此慢了,吐字还算清晰,词汇也不算难,但我们的反应还是跟不上。这足以说明语言习惯和思维模式的重要性。
要想尽可能地改善,还是要培养英语思维,像前面说的,从英语本身进行英语理解,从英语出发进行英语写作,善于从听过读过的材料中汲取信息并归纳总结。