18.3　句子的连贯 （Sentence Coherence）

18.3A　句子连贯的含义

1） 句子连贯指句中的成分之间具有合乎逻辑的有机联系，全句所表述的思路清晰，使交际对方容易得到要领。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）

这是一个以“it”作形式主语的句子，后面“that”从句为实际主语，在该从句中又以“not ... not”结构为主干，既紧凑，又清晰，确是一个有机整体。

2） 上节讲到的句子“一致”是指句中的成分都要围绕和服务于全句中心思想的表达，即与中心思想形成有机联系；这里讲到的“连贯”则是指句中的成分之间要形成有机的横向联系。“一致”和“连贯”，两者之间既有区别，又密切相关。例如：

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

这是一个并列句，其两个分句之间表面上虽有and连接，但并未能表示出两个分句之间的逻辑联系，即未达到连贯要求，因而也未能实现句子的一致，结果整句的思想表达得不清楚。为此，应照下述方法加以改写：

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　影响句子连贯的若干因素

1） 从语法方面看，经常会影响到句子连贯的因素有并列结构安排失当，代词所指对象不明确，垂悬修饰或修饰语错位，时态、人称、数或语气不一致，句子结构混乱或不完全，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.

介词about的并列宾语一为短语，一为从句，属于并列结构安排失当，应当将that从句改为短语：

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.

例中代词it所指不明确，故句子应加改写：

..., 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分词短语的修饰对象不明确，全句含义未能得到确切表达，故宜改为：

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!

修饰语位置不当会引起歧义或显得滑稽可笑，有时会造成误解。上例中的修饰语位置不当，应改为：

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 ...

上例两个较长的句子讲的是作者，但由于用了4个不同的主语，影响了句子的连贯和一致，故应改为：

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） 从修辞角度看，词语选用不当，辞格应用不当，重复、省略等其他修辞手法运用不当，都会影响到句子的连贯（同时也会损坏句子的一致）。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”是俚语，既粗俗，又轻浮，相当汉语中讲某人“翘辫子”。这里把俚语用到一个表示忧伤和同情的句子里，显然很不恰当，而应选用委婉语的形式，如“pass away”，“be no more”，“depart”，等。又如：

Flattens hills like flattens the floor.

这是一个广告稿，意在用夸张手法宣传使用该汽车爬山时高山变成了平地，但flattens重复使用时出现了败笔：既然是floor，就用不着再去flatten，为此应改为：

Flattens hills like driving on the floor.

又如：

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

两个问题影响了句子的连贯：一是不应当用and连接两个含义上矛盾的并列成分，而应用表示转折、对照关系的but；二是用词不精练，successful和victory在含义上重复。该句可改写为：

The campaign was costly, but the victory was sweet.