英语修辞与写作·7.1　句子的语法分类与修辞上的多样化

7.1　句子的语法分类与修辞上的多样化

7.1A　句子的语法分类

一般语法书都是从两个角度对句子进行分类：

1） 从使用上看，有陈述句（Declarative sentence）、疑问句（Interrogative sentence）、祈使句（Imperative sentence）和感叹句（Exclamatory sentence）等。

2） 从结构上看，有简单句（Simple sentence）、并列句（Compound sentence）、复合句（Complex sentence）和并列复合句（Compound complex sentence）等。

复合句亦称包孕句（Embedding sentence），即句子（主句）里面包含句子（分句）的意思。

凡结构正确，包括动词的时体、语态和语气变化，名词、代词数、性、格的使用，限定词的搭配，以及大小写、标点符号等都符合英语的通常使用规则与习惯，那就是语法上正确的句子。

7.1B　修辞上的句式多样化

1） 著名英国作家、评论家和辞书编纂家Samuel Johnson说：“The joy of life is variety”。英国戏剧家和小说家Aphra Behn说：“Variety is the soul of pleasure”。写作也是如此。修辞上对句子的要求除了语法正确，还讲求句子形式的变化。这主要表现在两个方面：一是采用不同的句型，二是合理安排长句与短句。例如下面这段文章都是简单句，结构上一律“主—谓”句型，因而读来单调乏味：

I sit here at this keyboard. I try to think of things to say. The words are not coming very freely. I think that is probably because it is the end of a long day. It may be that I am tired. I am smack up against writer's block. Free writing may help me break through the wall.

如果像下面这样稍加变化，就带来了句式较为多样化的效果，显得较为生动和流畅，节奏感也有了：

I sit here at this keyboard trying to think of things to say, but the words aren't coming very freely. Probably, they aren't coming because it's the end of a long day, and I'm tired. Whatever the reason, I'm smack up against writer's block. Perhaps free writing will help me break through the wall.

（Charles W. Bridges & Ronald F. Lunshford:Writing:　 Discovering Form and Meaning）

2） 有些句子的修辞功能是在一定的上下文里表现出来的，如“修辞疑问句”（Rhetorical question）形式上是个疑问句，但不是让别人回答，而是为了达到某种修辞目的，如用来提出所要表达的主题，作为段落过渡，或作为强调等，是人们在演说或写作中实现句式多样化的一个常用形式。例如：

英国散文家Hilaire Belloc在The Historian中开头就是一个修辞疑问句：

What is the historian?

The historian is he who tells a true story in writing ...

Michael Harrington连用的几个修辞疑问句具有很强的号召力：

Yet this need not be. The means are at hand to fulfill the age-old dream: poverty can be abolished. How long shall we ignore this underdeveloped nation in our mist? How long shall we look the other way while our fellow human beings suffer? How long?

读了Rupert Brooke下面这段文字，就会发现作者通过修辞疑问句避免了平铺直叙的写法，起到了突出主题和引起读者兴趣的作用：

But Toronto — Toronto is the subject. One must say something — What must one say about Toronto? What can one? What has anybody ever said? It is impossible to give it anything but commendation. It is not squalid like Birmingham, or cramped like Canton, or scattered like Edmonton, or sham like Berlin, or hellish like New York, or tiresome like Nice. It is all right. The only depressing thing is that it will always be what it is, only larger, and that no Canadian city can ever be anything better or more different. If they are good they may become Toronto.

在下面几节里讨论的掉尾句和松散句、渐进句和突降句、省略句和重复句等6种句子，是相互对应的3组句型，是修辞学中经常涉及的一些句式，使用得当，就有助于实现表达形式多样化，增强表达效果。