英語修辭與寫作·7.4　省略句和重復(fù)句

7.4　省略句和重復(fù)句

7.4A　省略句

1） 省去句中某個成分，因而從語法上看句子結(jié)構(gòu)不算完整，但從上下文看意義是清楚的，這種句式稱為省略句（Elliptical sentence）。省略句在口語中最為常見。例如下面一段對話中都是省略句：

— Hi!

— Morning!

— Got troubles?

— Sure have.

— Lost a friend?

— No, just tired.

— Up late last night?

— Yeah. Big party.

2） 省略是簡潔文體（Laconic style）的一個特色，在警句、格言、諺語中尤為常見。有一種稱為Asyndeton的省略句主要省去連詞and，適用于描寫快速的連續(xù)動作。例如：

I came, I saw, I conquered.

（Julius Caesar）

As a boy, he recalls, he tried to break up a fight, got a drubbing for his pains.

（TIME）

3） 略語或縮寫（Abbreviation）也是一種省略，主要用于對人的稱呼，一些拉丁語短語，知名的組織、機(jī)構(gòu)名稱、地址，等等。例如：

Mr. T. Fingar （Mister的縮略式）

Dr. E. Laine （Doctor的縮略式）

NATO （The North Atlantic Treaty Organization的縮略式）

e.g. （for example的縮略式）

i.e. （that is的縮略式）

etc. （and so forth的縮略式）

422 S Main St, Slippery Rock, PA 16057, USA （美國的通訊地址，其中有不少縮略式，如開頭直書門牌號，s表示south, St或ST表示Street, PA表示Pennsylvania，等）

現(xiàn)代英語——尤其美國英語中縮略語有增多的趨勢，但使用時注意不要讓讀者費(fèi)解，如在文章中正式提到名稱、日期等時不應(yīng)當(dāng)用縮略式。例如：

The first lady is visiting Pennsylvania this weekend.

（句中Pennsylvania不能用PA替代。）

On Tuesday, February 26, the editor of the Plainviez Herald announced the paper would no longer advertise X-rated films.

（句中Tuesday, February, editor等不應(yīng)改縮略式。）

7.4B　重復(fù)句

1） 重復(fù)句一般是寫作中應(yīng)避免的東西，但它卻是種常見的修辭手法。散文中的重復(fù)往往具有兩個方面的目的，即為了更加連貫，或?yàn)榱藦?qiáng)調(diào)。例如：

Those of us who came to know baseball when there was little television and no big-time professional football or baseball talked its language, heard its lore, and were taken with its special sense before we had ever played an organized game or pondered its beautiful mystery. There were giants on the field, men of legend whose voice we had ever heard, whose faces we knew only from newspaper photographs or from the murky images on our bubble-gum cards, and whose records — batting average, home runs, runs battled in — suggested meaning beyond anything we understood. “Facts” supported myth, and myth magnified the facts on which it was supposed to be based.

（Peter Schrag）

上面這段文章中its和whose重復(fù)使用，加上平行結(jié)構(gòu)，加強(qiáng)了句間的連貫和呼應(yīng)，使整個段落渾然一體。

下例中no的重復(fù)及由此構(gòu)成平行句式，使語氣加強(qiáng)：

Kurtz, he realized, had “l(fā)ooked over the edge” and had seen the “inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraints, no faith, and no fear yet was struggling, blindly with itself.”

（Norma Youngbirg）

下例中empty的重復(fù)既加強(qiáng)了作家筆下描寫的空曠氣氛，又構(gòu)成了上下句間的自然連貫：

Across the boulevard where a milk truck scurries to more lucrative fields lies the sea and miles of empty beach on which thousands come to bask and bathe in summer. The empty life-guard towers look out to sea; their boats are gone; no human being is in sight.

（John Rowlands）

2） 古羅馬修辭學(xué)家昆廷利安（Quintilian）曾論及兩種修辭重復(fù)：Reduplication和Synonymy（或Interpretation）。

前一種重復(fù)是相同詞語的重復(fù)，例如：

“You are promoting riots, Gaius Gracchus, yes, civil and internal riots.”

“You were not moved when his mother embraced your knees? You were not moved?”

“You now even dare to come into the sight of these citizens, traitor to the fatherland? Traitor, I say, to the fatherland, you dare come into the sight of these citizens?”

在演說和辯論中的這種重復(fù)如同重錘反復(fù)敲擊聽話者的心靈，如同利劍連續(xù)點(diǎn)擊敵方的痛處，具有很強(qiáng)的力度。

后一種重復(fù)是利用含義相同的詞語，如：

“You have overturned the republic from its roots; you have demolished the state from its foundations.”

“You have impiously beaten your father; you have criminally laid hands upon your parent.”

一句話剛說完，接著跟上一句含義相同的話，使原話的力量增強(qiáng)，勢必給聽話者以深刻的印象。