英語修辭與寫作·18.3　句子的連貫　（Sentence　Coherence）

18.3　句子的連貫 （Sentence Coherence）

18.3A　句子連貫的含義

1） 句子連貫指句中的成分之間具有合乎邏輯的有機聯(lián)系，全句所表述的思路清晰，使交際對方容易得到要領。例如：

It goes without saying that one cannot work logically with a statement which does not have a clear-cut, ascertainable meaning.

（John C. Sherwood）

這是一個以“it”作形式主語的句子，后面“that”從句為實際主語，在該從句中又以“not ... not”結構為主干，既緊湊，又清晰，確是一個有機整體。

2） 上節(jié)講到的句子“一致”是指句中的成分都要圍繞和服務于全句中心思想的表達，即與中心思想形成有機聯(lián)系；這里講到的“連貫”則是指句中的成分之間要形成有機的橫向聯(lián)系?！耙恢隆焙汀斑B貫”，兩者之間既有區(qū)別，又密切相關。例如：

All the players jumped from the bench and the referee made an unfair announcement of the results.

這是一個并列句，其兩個分句之間表面上雖有and連接，但并未能表示出兩個分句之間的邏輯聯(lián)系，即未達到連貫要求，因而也未能實現(xiàn)句子的一致，結果整句的思想表達得不清楚。為此，應照下述方法加以改寫：

The referee made an unfair announcement of the results and （so） all the players jumped from the bench.

As / When the referee made an unfair announcement of the results, all the players jumped from the bench.

All the players jumped from the bench because the referee made an unfair announcement of the results.

18.3B　影響句子連貫的若干因素

1） 從語法方面看，經常會影響到句子連貫的因素有并列結構安排失當，代詞所指對象不明確，垂懸修飾或修飾語錯位，時態(tài)、人稱、數(shù)或語氣不一致，句子結構混亂或不完全，等等。例如：

The report is chiefly about inflationary trends in the last decade and that the consumer has lost confidence in the quality of many products.

介詞about的并列賓語一為短語，一為從句，屬于并列結構安排失當，應當將that從句改為短語：

The report is chiefly about inflationary trends in the last decade and the consumer's loss of confidence in the quality of many products.

（James M. McCrimmon）

He rode that snowy night and slipped into a ditch, but it was not serious.

例中代詞it所指不明確，故句子應加改寫：

..., but luckily enough, he didn't get hurt.

又如：

Every member of our research team worked conscientiously, thus producing one of the best projects Professor Ames has ever received.

例中 -ing分詞短語的修飾對象不明確，全句含義未能得到確切表達，故宜改為：

Because/As every member of our research team worked conscientiously, we produced one of the best projects Professor Ames has ever received.

又如：

Look at that ridiculous lady's hat!

修飾語位置不當會引起歧義或顯得滑稽可笑，有時會造成誤解。上例中的修飾語位置不當，應改為：

Look at that lady's ridiculous hat!

又如：

When we began our composition course, there was little knowledge about the importance of strategy in the writing of a paper. Correctness in spelling, punctuation, and grammatical usage was what had been drilled into us; but the effects of interrelationships among speaker, audience, and occasion were foreign to us ...

上例兩個較長的句子講的是作者，但由于用了4個不同的主語，影響了句子的連貫和一致，故應改為：

At the beginning of our composition course, we knew little about the importance of strategy in the writing of a paper. We knew the necessity for correctness in spelling, punctuation and grammatical usage but were unaware of the effects of interrelationships among speaker, audience, and occasion ...

2） 從修辭角度看，詞語選用不當，辭格應用不當，重復、省略等其他修辭手法運用不當，都會影響到句子的連貫（同時也會損壞句子的一致）。例如：

On hearing that his father had kicked the bucket, I wrote him a letter to express my sorrows and sympathies.

句中“kick the bucket”是俚語，既粗俗，又輕浮，相當漢語中講某人“翹辮子”。這里把俚語用到一個表示憂傷和同情的句子里，顯然很不恰當，而應選用委婉語的形式，如“pass away”，“be no more”，“depart”，等。又如：

Flattens hills like flattens the floor.

這是一個廣告稿，意在用夸張手法宣傳使用該汽車爬山時高山變成了平地，但flattens重復使用時出現(xiàn)了敗筆：既然是floor，就用不著再去flatten，為此應改為：

Flattens hills like driving on the floor.

又如：

The campaign was successful and costly, but the victory was sweet.

兩個問題影響了句子的連貫：一是不應當用and連接兩個含義上矛盾的并列成分，而應用表示轉折、對照關系的but；二是用詞不精練，successful和victory在含義上重復。該句可改寫為：

The campaign was costly, but the victory was sweet.