时间:2019-01-02 作者:英语课 分类:英语语法 Grammar Girl


英语课

Grammar Girl here.


In today’s episode we’re going to answer some bizarre and puzzling questions: Can two people share a life? Can two writers share a neck? How many heads does a person have? How many wives do certain men have?


Today's guest-writer, Bonnie Trenga, tells us that the issue at hand is what’s called subject-complement 1 agreement. A complement—that’s m-e-n-t—is a noun that completes meaning (1). Take the sentence “She is my sister.” The words “my sister” are the complement. There’s no agreement problem in that sentence, it's all singular, but what about a sentence like this: “The two girls ate their sandwich”? Does this mean the girls shared one sandwich or did they each have a sandwich?


Tricky 2 Sentences


A few confused listeners have brought up such tricky sentences for us to parse 3. For example, Drue R. asks whether it would be proper to write “They visited each other's shrine 4, or “They visited each other's shrines 5.”


And Kathleen M., poses these questions: Is it “We help clients get the most out of their life” or “We help clients get the most out of their lives”? What about “The writers complained that their neck was sore” or “The writers complained that their necks were sore”?


Those are all good questions that forced us to dig deeply within many grammar resources, hoping they would provide an answer. Most, unfortunately, don’t address this subject.


Obvious Errors


We’re lucky, though, that two grammar authorities do have an answer to these puzzling questions. We'll start simply and work our way up to the more difficult questions.


Our old favorite, Garner's Modern American Usage (2), points out that a common mistake in American and British English is to “attribute one result to two separate subjects, when logically a separate result necessarily occurred with each subject.” So the sentence “He was hit by a pitch two times” is wrong because the batter 6 was hit by two separate pitches, not one pitch two times. You should say, “He was hit by two pitches.”


In the same vein 7, the sentence “Strip malls may be an eyesore, but they sure are convenient” would be incorrect. In this sentence, the subject is “strip malls,” which is plural 8, but the complement is the singular word “eyesore.” This is an obvious error that’s easy to fix; just make everything plural: “Strip malls may be eyesoreS, but they sure are convenient.”


Collective Nouns as Complements 9


Other sentences with a plural subject might not be so easy. What if the complement is a collective noun that you can’t make plural, such as “dignity”? Should you say, “The warriors 10 retained their dignities” or “their dignity”? Well, the answer seems obvious here: “dignities” doesn’t make sense. So the rule with collective nouns that are complements is to keep the complement singular, even with a plural subject (2).


Ambiguous Sentences


Now let’s move into trickier 11 territory, where we encounter ambiguous sentences. Remember our tricky questions about people with more than one neck or more than one life? Here's another one. Should it be “They shook their head,” or “They shook their heads”?


Common sense tells us that people have only one head, but we run into a problem no matter what we say. If we use “heads,” we suggest the ridiculous possibility that they have two heads; if we use “head,” we suggest that they are sharing a head—also ridiculous.


We run into the same problem with the sentence “Both men relied heavily on their wives” (3). If we wrote “Both men relied heavily on their wife,” that would suggest the men share a wife; if we say, “wives,” that suggests each man has more than one wife. It’s a lose-lose situation. As Garner's states, “Sometimes neither the singular nor plural can prevent ambiguity” (2). So we turn to the second grammar source we’re consulting today, Barbara Walraff’s Word Court.


Abstract and Countable 12 Complements


Ms. Walraff presents a number of scenarios 13 and a number of answers. One kind of sentence she discusses is “They taught school,” in which “school” is a singular complement. It appears not to match the plural subject, until we consider that “school” is used in an abstract manner. It wouldn’t make sense to say, “They taught schools.” Heads, necks, and wives, on the other hand, are not abstract. They are countable (and people usually have one of each).


Let’s take the sentence “The writers complained that their neck was sore” and see what Ms. Walraff would say about it. Unlike most grammarians, who are uptight 14 about rules and who want things to be right, she tells us not to worry about it. She states, “It is usually either obvious or beside the point how many of the things are to be paired with the individuals in the subject, and then one needn’t scruple 15 to use the plural…. This is the rule, it seems to me, that really applies to your wives—and your heads.” She seems to approve of using the singular “neck” after the plural “they.” If I had to pick between “their neck” and “their necks,” though, I would probably pick “necks.” It just sounds better to me: “Their necks are sore.” Perhaps it’s a matter of personal taste.


Solutions to the Conundrum 16


Ms. Walraff spends a couple of pages on this topic and suggests three solutions to this conundrum. The first, as we’ve mentioned, is not to worry about the situation too much. Most subject-complement agreement problems are “innocuous,” she says. OK, we can all relax about it. The grammar police will not show up on our doorsteps. The second is to consider rewriting the sentence, and the third is to add more information that indicates how many of an item you’re talking about. Perhaps in this case we could rewrite it like this: “Both writers had sore necks,” or we could add information by stating, “Both writers complained that they had neck aches caused by staring out their windows too long.”


Conclusion


If we look back at the pairs of sentences that readers were asking about, can we now tell which one in each pair is right? You’d probably be safe using either way, but to avoid crazy-sounding sentences, it’s best to follow Ms. Walraff’s advice: relax, and then reword your sentences or give other clues about how many items you’re talking about. And, as Ms. Walraff warns, if “carefully matching numbers results in ridiculous wording, don’t do it.”


The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier


This podcast was written by Bonnie Trenga, author of The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier, who blogs at sentencesleuth.blogspot.com, and I'm Mignon Fogarty, the author of the paperback 17 book Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing.


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That's all. Thank for listening.


 



n.补足物,船上的定员;补语;vt.补充,补足
  • The two suggestions complement each other.这两条建议相互补充。
  • They oppose each other also complement each other.它们相辅相成。
adj.狡猾的,奸诈的;(工作等)棘手的,微妙的
  • I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手,你能帮我吗?
  • He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题,只做了个笼统的表述。
v.从语法上分析;n.从语法上分析
  • I simply couldn't parse what you just said.我完全无法对你刚说的话作语法分析。
  • It causes the parser to parse an NP.它调用分析程序分析一个名词短语。
n.圣地,神龛,庙;v.将...置于神龛内,把...奉为神圣
  • The shrine was an object of pilgrimage.这处圣地是人们朝圣的目的地。
  • They bowed down before the shrine.他们在神龛前鞠躬示敬。
圣地,圣坛,神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 )
  • All three structures dated to the third century and were tentatively identified as shrines. 这3座建筑都建于3 世纪,并且初步鉴定为神庙。
  • Their palaces and their shrines are tombs. 它们的宫殿和神殿成了墓穴。
v.接连重击;磨损;n.牛奶面糊;击球员
  • The batter skied to the center fielder.击球手打出一个高飞球到中外野手。
  • Put a small quantity of sugar into the batter.在面糊里放少量的糖。
n.血管,静脉;叶脉,纹理;情绪;vt.使成脉络
  • The girl is not in the vein for singing today.那女孩今天没有心情唱歌。
  • The doctor injects glucose into the patient's vein.医生把葡萄糖注射入病人的静脉。
n.复数;复数形式;adj.复数的
  • Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
  • Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。
补充( complement的名词复数 ); 补足语; 补充物; 补集(数)
  • His business skill complements her flair for design. 他的经营技巧和她的设计才能相辅相成。
  • The isoseismal maps are valuable complements to the instrumental records. 等震线图是仪器记录有价值的补充资料。
武士,勇士,战士( warrior的名词复数 )
  • I like reading the stories ofancient warriors. 我喜欢读有关古代武士的故事。
  • The warriors speared the man to death. 武士们把那个男子戳死了。
adj.狡猾的( tricky的比较级 );(形势、工作等)复杂的;机警的;微妙的
  • This is the general rule, but some cases are trickier than others. 以上是一般规则,但某些案例会比别的案例更为棘手。 来自互联网
  • The lower the numbers go, the trickier the problems get. 武器的数量越低,问题就越复杂。 来自互联网
adj.可数的,可以计算的
  • The word "person" is a countable noun.person这个词是个可数名词。
  • Countable nouns have singular and plural forms.可数名词有单数和复数之分。
n.[意]情节;剧本;事态;脚本
  • Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者,根据一些事故解说,石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
  • Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样,我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
adj.焦虑不安的,紧张的
  • He's feeling a bit uptight about his exam tomorrow.他因明天的考试而感到有点紧张。
  • Try to laugh at it instead of getting uptight.试着一笑了之,不要紧张。
n./v.顾忌,迟疑
  • It'seemed to her now that she could marry him without the remnant of a scruple.她觉得现在她可以跟他成婚而不需要有任何顾忌。
  • He makes no scruple to tell a lie.他说起谎来无所顾忌。
n.谜语;难题
  • Let me give you some history about a conundrum.让我给你们一些关于谜题的历史。
  • Scientists had focused on two explanations to solve this conundrum.科学家已锁定两种解释来解开这个难题。
n.平装本,简装本
  • A paperback edition is now available at bookshops.平装本现在在书店可以买到。
  • Many books that are out of print are reissued in paperback form.许多绝版的书籍又以平装本形式重新出现。
学英语单词
A fool's bolt is soon shot .
actual mixing cycle
Akula
allocation of agriculture
Amidozon
ampere-turns
arsenic ulcer
ataraxias
Bain circuit
baths
bells the cat
benzotriazole
cabalize
chromatin body
Chulmleigh
circular point at infinity
CMTMDS
collecting tubules
compensating market
contestations
creped paper
cut to a point
cyclomation
data reading system
decoupling era
diffusion speed
direct ascent weapon
doliops similis
dump skip
equatorial coordinates
euler microtime scale
ex-ante efficiency analysis
facsimiled
fibre grease
first-aid
food demand
formamide process
frondosely
fuck-me
full-year loss
glason
grammole
hand power crane
heating pattern
Heichelheim's tests
high speed paper cutting machine
highly internationalized operation
Hitzig tests
hornblendite
immedial sky blue
international reference group
inverse of multiplication
jayakody
Kanigogouma
keeps guard
keneret
lapsed sales discounts
ligamentous ankylosis
like fury
litas
logp
Michiganensians
milking pipeline
modelbuilding
neptunic rocks
not put a foot wrong
official position
one upper
organizational change
paralyses
perihysteric
physiology of protozoa
pneumatic linkage
poetica
preeclampsia
prosinesses
reauthorising
red prussiate of potash
residual competence
road-blocking
root-mean-square simulation error
Schwegenheim
shadflies
Shell sort
short rainbow
side-strain
sidescraper
sing low
slash with
sowles
stress-timeds
subtriplicated
sweep along
tethered unit
their majesties
treating waste water
tuco-tuco
vettura
wallabas
wavefront curvature
wely
when to charge