英语语法 学英语,练听力,上听力课堂! 注册 登录
> 英语语法 > 英语修辞与写作 >  第44篇

英语修辞与写作·16.2 Parallelism

所属教程:英语修辞与写作

浏览:

2021年10月29日

手机版
扫描二维码方便学习和分享

16.2 Parallelism

16.2A Parallelism的含义与形式

1) Parallelism汉译“平行结构”,是以语法结构对称(包括相同或相似的词、短语或分句)来突出意义的一种修辞手段。例如:

In its energy, its lyrics, its advocacy of frustrated joys, rock in one long symphony of protest.

上例中有介词in的3个平行宾语结构。

The Department of Justice began a vigorous campaign to break up the corporate empires, to restore the free and open market, and to plant the feet of industry firmly on the road to competition.

(Thurman Arnold)

上例句中campaign的3个修饰语为平行结构。

Here is where the hot wind blows and the old ways do not seem relevant, where the divorce rate is double the national average and where one person in every thirty-eight lives in a trailer.

(Joan Didion)

上例中用作主语的3个where分句构成平行结构。

2) 平行结构的各成分之间用并列连词and,or,逗号,分号等连接,笔者在《分析英语语法》16.7节“平行并列”部分也讲到这一点,下面再举几个例子说明:

Eskimos and native Americans, it is believed, came originally from Asia.

Immigrants to the United States have been compelled to leave their homelands because of religious, political, and economic constructions.

According to one woman, becoming drunkards, deserting their families, or committing suicide proved the only answers for some of their fellow immigrants.

(Parker)

3) 有一种特殊的平行结构,叫做“平衡句”(Balanced sentence),由两个平行的分句构成,用词对等或近似,且各分句中的字数相当;不过第二个分句中的某些词语可能省去。例如:

Many Mexicans immigrated to the United States after the 1910—1920 revolution, and many Cubans (immigrated to the United States) after the 1959 revolution.

(ibid)

In good weather, the passage from England to America could take twenty days; but in bad weather, it could take more than two months.

(ibid)

平衡句中配上回环(亦称逆序反复,参见13.1D),往往构成工整的回环句,例如:

Some people believe that too many people have been admitted to America lately — they want emigration of immigrants rather than immigration of emigrants.

(ibid)

16.2B Parallelism的使用

1) 平行结构形式上精致、工整,声调上富于韵律,因而能给读者或听话者深刻的印象;同时能以较经济的表达方式突出含义。例如:

We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what's going on out there.

(Annie Dillard)

句中主语和助动词后跟4个动词短语组成平行结构,既经济,又紧凑。

According to the 1980 census, the largest number of immigrants that have come to the United States have been of German origin, and the second largest, of Italian origin.

(Parker)

例中第二个分句省略了“number of immigrants that have come to the United States have been”,而通过逗号,读者很容易看出平行结构中省略的内容。这样不但不会造成理解困难,而且由于用词经济,使基本含义更为突出了。

2) 平行结构有重复强调的功能,往往通过一连串动词短语的平行出现,表示说话者或写作者的雄辩口才或特别情感,如 John F. Kennedy的这席话就颇具鼓动性:

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.

又如,在Thomas Jefferson对 George III的指控里,愤怒之情溢于言表:

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

平行结构中动词短语的连续出现,如同画家挥动手中的彩笔,或摄影师放出的镜头,由单个动作或画面构成一幅幅活动的景象或情节,格外生动逼真。例如:

Hilland valley followed valley and hill; the little green and stony cattle-tracks wandered in and out of one another, split into three or four, died away in marshy hollows, and began again sporadically on hillsides or at the borders of a wood.

(Robert Louis Stevenson)

She laid two fingers on my shoulder, cast another look into my face under her candle, turned the key in the lock, gently thrust me beyond the door, shut it; and left me to my own devices.

(Walter de la Mare)

3) 避免不对称平行结构(Faulty parallel structure),即应注意平行结构中各个成分形式上的一致。例如:

Glittering white horses lend romance and a nostalgic air to Cinderella's Golden Carrousel; it was originally built for a Detroit amusement park in 1917.

句中romance为名词,nostalgic为形容词,应将romance改为romantic,构成对称的平行结构“... lend a romantic and a nostalgic air ...”。又如:

I am interested in the folklore of Howard Hughes, in the way people react to him and in what words and expressions they use when they talk about him.

这原是 Joan Didion的一个平行结构,斜体部分为被改动后的形式,并因而破坏了原平行结构的对称,其原句是这样的:

... in the way people react to him, in the terms they use ...

 


用户搜索

疯狂英语 英语语法 新概念英语 走遍美国 四级听力 英语音标 英语入门 发音 美语 四级 新东方 七年级 赖世雄 zero是什么意思襄阳市学府佳园(邓城大道49号)英语学习交流群

  • 频道推荐
  • |
  • 全站推荐
  • 推荐下载
  • 网站推荐