第四讲 英语句子的语法标记

第四讲英语句子的语法标记我们已经复习了英语句子的基本句型、结构类型和功能类型。

这一讲我们将关注英语句子的语法标记（grammatical markers），即英语句子中出于语法要求必须出现的形式标记。

与古英语相比，现代英语是渐趋分析型的语言（An analytic language is “characterized by a relatively frequent use of function words, auxiliary verbs, and changes in word order to express syntactic relations, rather than of inflected forms.”），越来越多依赖语序和虚词（也称结构词或功能词，包括冠词、介词、助动词、连接词等）来标示句法关系和语法意义。

例如：语序：John loves Jane. / Jane loves John.冠词：out of question out of the question / take the chair take a chair介词：He is a man above vulgar interests. / It looks as if we are in for a storm.助动词：I lived here three years ago. / I have lived here for more than one year.连接词：Practically all substances expand when heated and contract when cooled.不过现代英语仍然保留着综合语（A synthetic language is “characterized by frequent and systematic use of inflected forms1to express grammatical relationships.”）的某些特征，如有形态变化、语序相对固定。

这一讲我们将以几篇短文为例来考察英语中遗留下来的几种屈折变化标记或称语法标记，它们分别是：复数标记、所有格标记、时/体标记、形容词或副词的级别标记。

一、与名词有关的标记（一）“数”（number）是和名词相关的一个语法范畴。

在英语中，名词根据其词汇意义可以分为专有名词（proper nouns）和普通名词（common nouns）。

普通名词还可用两种方法分类：按照其所指对象的类型（type of referent）可分为具体名词（concrete nouns）和抽象名词（abstract nouns）；按照其语法形式（grammatical form）可分为可数名词（countable nouns）和不可数名词（uncountable nouns）。

具体名词包括物质名词2（material nouns）和类属名词（generic nouns）。

类属名词包括个体名词（individual nouns）和集合名词（collective nouns）两类。

可数名词有单数（singular number）和复数（plural number）两种形式。

个体名词的复数形式需要通过词尾的屈折变化（inflection）来实现，而集合名词形式固定，具体表示单数还是复数会有不同的情况，大致分为：形单义可单可复（family, team, class, audience等）、形单义复（cattle, people, police等）、形复义复（goods, clothes, scissors, trousers等）、形单义单（baggage/luggage, clothing, furniture, machinery, poetry, scenery, jewelry, equipment）。

（二）“格”（case）是和名词或代词、形容词这样一些有类似屈折变化的词类有关的一个语法范畴。

就名词而言，现代英语只有一个格有词尾变化标志，那就是名词的所有格。

最常见的形式是“’s”，以-s结尾的复数名词只加“’”；以-s结尾的专有名词或普通名词可用上述两种形式，如：Dickens’(s) novels。

名词所有格标记在意义上是非常模糊的，需要在语境中才能加以确定。

如课本36页例：Where is Jack’s book? His mother will get angry if he loses it.Jack’s book is the best seller this month.（另见课本39页课内练习3）a children’s hospital; a girls’ college; a cow’s housethe mountain’s top; the wood’s edge; the city’s center一般来说，在英语中，无生命名词不能采用所有格标记，不过在表示国家、城市等地方的名词，以及表示时间、距离、度量及金钱等的名词，虽是无生命的，但是也可用以上形式，表示所有或修饰关系。

例见36页：three hours’ drive ten days’ trip today’s world1屈折变化指把词缀（affix）加到词基或词根上以确定或限定词的语法意义的过程或结果。

2物质名词是材料、食品、饮料以及固体、液体和气体的物质或化学元素名称,如: wood(木料), meat(肉), wine(酒), paper(纸), ink(墨水), gas(气体), water(水), oxygen(氧)等。

物质名词一般没有复数形式，不加冠词，只有特指时加the；表示物质名词的数量时，前面需加piece(片,枝,块), sheet(张), cup(杯), bag(袋), bottle(瓶)等表示计量的名词。

a mile’s distance an arm’s lengthtwo pounds’ worthChina’s economy Nanjing’s weather“of +名词”表示的所有格结构，既可用于有生命的名词，也可用于无生命名词，特别是当某名词有较长定语的时候。

当这个所有格结构的名词后面加’s时，就构成了双重所有格（double possessive）结构，常用作名词的修饰语。

（36页）可表示家、商店或其他有关人士的处所。

the barber’s the florist’s the baker’smy aunt’s (house) Lincoln’s (house) St. Paul’s (Cathedral) Queen’s (College)the Smiths（史密斯一家）the Smiths’（史密斯一家的住所）43页练习4Mike came from a worker family.Mike visited a worker’s family last Sunday.He is a friend of my sister.He is a friend of my sister’s.I have never heard of such an opinion of Ted.I have never heard of such an opinion of Ted’s.Larry’s treatment of the child was fair.Larry’s treatment by his teacher was fair.Our last summer’s trip to Nanjing is still fresh in my memory.A summer trip to Nanjing is never ideal.请阅读下文，找出其中的名词，就语法标记特征进行简单的分析。

（课本33页练习6）The Man and the Serpent(1) A countryman’s son by accident trod upon a serpent’s tail, which turned and bit him so that he died. (2) The father in a rage got his axe, and pursuing the Serpent, cut off part of its tail. (3) So the serpent in revenge began stinging several of the farmer’s cattle and caused him severe loss. (4) Well, the farmer thought it best to make it up with the serpent, and brought food and honey to the mouth of its lair, and said to it: (5) “Let’s forget and forgive; perhaps you were right to punish my son, and take vengeance on my cattle, but surely I was right in trying to revenge him; now that we are both satisfied why should not we be friends again?”(6) “No, no,” said the serpent, “take away your gifts; you can never forget the death of your son, nor I the loss of my tail.”(7) Injuries may be forgiven, but not forgotten.名词：the mana/the serpenta countrymanmy sonaccident [C]an unpleasant event, especially in a vehicle, that happens unexpectedly and causes injury or damage（交通）事故，意外遭遇，不测事件its/my tailpart [U] ~of sth=some but not all of a thing部分We spent part of the time in the museum.Part of the building was destroyed in the fire.Part of me feels sorry for him.我有点同情他。