Q1:张老师,请您帮我看一下这个句子:The election campaign has shown her to be anything but strong and stable. 这里的to be如何理解呢?
A1:这里涉及动词show的词义及搭配用法。
首先,这里的show是“证明”的意思,朗文词典的释义是:To provide facts or information that make it clear that something is true, that something exists, or that something has happened (提供事实或信息,证明某事是真实的、存在的,或发生过)。
其次,在这个义项下,show的搭配可以有show sb./sth. to be sth.,意为“证明某人或某事是……”。这里的不定式短语to be sth.是宾语补足语,也就是说,此时的show可以接复合宾语(宾语+宾补)。比如:John showed himself to be a fine leader. (约翰证明自己是一位出色的領导。)也可以采用被动结构be shown to be sth.,比如:The campaign has been shown to be a waste of money. (这次宣传活动结果证明是在浪费钱。)
有了上面这些关于show的语言知识,我们再回头看提问的句子,其中show就是接复合宾语的用法:宾语是her,不定式短语to be anything but strong and stable是宾语补足语。注意其中的but意为“除了……之外”,anything but意为“绝非……”,是对strong and stable的否定,用来描述“她”的个性。紧接的下文是:Brittle and prone to reverse herself are more like it. Brittle (脆弱的)与strong是反义词,而prone to reverse herself (常常出尔反尔)与stable是反义词。整个句子可以翻译成:这场选战已经证明,她的个性与坚强沉稳不沾边。外强中干、出尔反尔更适合形容她。
Q2:张老师,请问“The inner workings of our own brains we feel to be uniquely worthy of investigation, but custom, we have a way of thinking, is behavior at its most commonplace.”这个句子中的to be uniquely是什么用法?不是跟feel搭配吧?刚刚查字典发现有feel sb. do sth.和feel sb. doing sth.的用法,没看到to be啊?
A2:首先,要能够看出句首的名词短语The inner workings of our own brains是feel的宾语,也就是说,这是个宾语前置结构,起强调作用,原本正常的结构是:We feel the inner workings of our own brains to be uniquely worthy of investigation. 其中的不定式短语to be uniquely worthy of investigation是作宾语补足语。也就是说,这个句子中feel的结构搭配是:feel sth. to be sth.。这里的feel相当于think,用以表达观点,此时可以接复合宾语。因此,上面这句简化后就是we feel the workings (宾语) to be uniquely worthy of investigation (宾补)。注意,be后边是一个形容词短语,其核心词是形容词worthy (值得的),然后接of短语,副词uniquely用来修饰worthy,整个短语意思是“唯独值得被研究的”。
上面完整的句子是由but连接的两个并列句,其中we have a way of thinking是插入语,不影响custom is behavior at its most commonplace这句的结构。整个句子译成:我们觉得,只有我们大脑内部的活动情况才值得研究,但是风俗,我们习惯上认为,是些司空见惯的行为。
延伸拓展
从以上讨论的内容我们看到,两个问题都是涉及动词后边的复合宾语结构,基本句型是:do X to be Y。这里是采用了不定式短语to be Y作宾语补足语,而且这个不定式中的动词通常就是be动词而非其他动词。这背后的原因与前面的谓语动词do有关。下面我们就来具体说说。
在英文的正式文体中,一些表示思想、观点、情感和意见的动词,比如常见的有believe、feel、show、know、find、understand、consider等等,它们后边可以接“宾语+动词不定式”这样的复合宾语结构。在非正式文体中,更常用that从句。请比较下面两组句子。
a. We considered him to be an excellent choice. (我们认为他是极好的人选。)
b. = We considered that he was an excellent choice.
a. They believed him to be honest. (他们相信他是诚实的。)
b. = They believed that he was honest.
顺便提醒的是,在这样的句型中,谓语采用被动结构也很常见,比如:
c. = He was considered to be an excellent choice.
c. = He was believed to be honest.
因此,上文提问中的两个句子可以分别改写成带有that从句的结构:
a. The election campaign has shown Mrs. May to be anything but strong and stable.
= The election campaign has shown that Mrs. May is anything but strong and stable.
b. The inner workings of our own brains we feel to be uniquely worthy of investigation.
= We feel the inner workings of our own brains to be uniquely worthy of investigation.
= We feel that the inner workings of our own brains are uniquely worthy of investigation.
最后简单说一下,本期讨论的宾语补足语是不定式to be结构。另外,英语中的宾语补足语还可以有其他各种不同的结构。这就超出了本文讨论的范围,故不再赘述。
张满胜老师“英语语法新思维”
系列图书新作:《句子成分超精解》《定语从句超精解》
《名词从句超精解》《语法难点妙解》endprint