Ask & Learn聞問切英語口語:Relative Clause
讀者 Jennifer 寄來兩句句子,想問哪句正確?
1. Now everything is cleared away that might make trouble.
2. Now everything that might make trouble is cleared away.
簡單的說,兩句都符合文法。
一些基本的語法書,建議關(guān)系代名詞(relative pronoun)后應(yīng)該緊接所修飾的名詞,主要是因?yàn)?,若修飾語和被修飾的名詞距離太遠(yuǎn)會引起混淆。Jennifer 提出的兩句,"that might make trouble" 是修飾語,而被修飾的名詞是 everything。 如果按照語法書的建議,句(2)比句 (1)較容易理解。
然而,當(dāng)句子的補(bǔ)語(sentence complement)比修飾語要短的時(shí)候,把補(bǔ)語放在被修飾的名詞后面反而會更干凈利落。在這兩句,補(bǔ)語是 "is cleared away",補(bǔ)語只有三個(gè)字,而修飾語是 "that might make trouble"。按照這原則,句(1)又會比句 (2)通順。
由此可見,我們討論的不是語法的對錯(cuò),而是修辭上的取舍。
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