Chapter3 - Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics

第三章 - 语法、用法和技巧

Purpose, strategy, and style are decided by you. But the decision must be made within limits set by rules over which you have little control. The rules fall into three groups: grammar, usage, and mechanics.

目标、策略和风格由你自己决定。 但是你的决定，不可以超出一些规则设定的范围，这些规则分为三类：语法、用法和技巧，它们都不是你自己说了算的。

Grammar /语法

Grammar means the rules which structure our language. The sentence "She dresses beautifully" is grammatical. These variations are not:

语法，是构成我们语言的规则。例如，“她穿得很漂亮(She dresses beautifully)”这句话是合乎语法的。但是以下这 些变换不符合语法：

Her dresses beautifully. / Dresses beautifully she.

The breaks the rule that a pronoun must be in the subjective case when it is the subject of a verb. The second violates the conventional order of the English sentence: subject- verb-object. (That order is not invariable and may be altered, subject to other rules, but none of these permits the pattern: "Dresses beautifully she.")

当代词用作动词的主语时，这个代词必须使用主格形式，以上错误例句中的第一句不符合这规则。 第二句则违反了英语句子的常规顺序: 主语-动词-宾语。 (这个顺序不是一成不变的，可以根据其他规则进行调整，但是所有规则都不允许这种写法："Dresses beautifully she.")

Grammatical rules are not the pronouncements of teachers, editors, or other authorities. They are simply the way people speak and write, and if enough people begin to speak and write differently, the rules change.

语法规则不是教师、编辑或其他权威主体的。 它们仅仅是人们说话和写作的方式，如果有足够多的人开始以不同的方式说话和写作，语法规则就会随之改变。

Usage / 用法

Usage designates rules of a less basic and binding sort, concerning how we should use the language in certain situations. These sentences, for instance, violate formal usage:

用法指定了一些不那么基本的和强制性的规则，涉及到我们在某些情况下应该如何使用语言。 例如，这些句子违反了正式用法:

She dresses beautiful. She ain't got no dress.

Sentences like these are often heard in speech, but both break rules governing how educated people write. Formal usage dictates that when beautiful functions as an adverb it takes an -ly ending, that ain't and a double negative like ain't got no  or haven't got no should be avoided.

这样的句子通常在演讲时会被听到，但是它们都打破了受过一定教育的人该如何写作的规则。 正式的用法指出，当 beautiful 作为一个副词时，它需要以“-ly”结尾；我们还需要避免ain't 和双重否定连用，避免类似ain't got no 或者 haven't got no 之类用法。

Grammar and usage are often confused. Many people would argue that the sentences above are "ungrammatical." Our distinction, however, is more useful. Grammatical rules are implicit in the speech of all who use the language. Usage rules, on the other hand, stem from and change with social pressure. Ain't, for example, was once acceptable. The adverbial use of an adjective like beautiful was common in seventeenth-century prose. Chaucer[ˈtʃɔsər] and Shakespeare use double negatives for emphasis.

“语法”和“用法”经常被人们搞混淆。 许多人会认为上面的句子是"不符合语法的" 。然而，我们在本书中如此区分，是更有用的。语法规则隐含在所有使用这种语言的人的话语中。 另一方面，“用法”则源于社会，并随着社会压力而改变。例如，“ Ain't”这样的写法，曾经是被人们接受的，但现在不能被接受了。 在十七世纪的散文中，用诸如"美丽的(beautiful)"这样的形容词来做句子的状语，充当副词，是很常见的。 而乔叟和莎士比亚，为了强调的目的，经常使用双重否定。

The fact that usage rules are less basic than grammatical ones, however, and even that they may seem arbitrary, does not lessen their force. Most of them contribute to clarity and economy of expression. Moreover, usage applies to all levels of purpose and strategy, to informal, colloquial styles as well as to formal ones. For example, grammatically incomplete sentences (or fragments), frowned upon in formal usage, are occasionally permissible and even valuable in informal composition. (Witness the two fragments in the student paragraph on marriage on page 8.) So is regarded in formal English as a subordinating conjunction which ought not to introduce a sentence. But in a colloquial  style, it may work better than  a more literary connective like consequently or therefore.

“用法”不如“语法”规则那么有基础性，然而，即使它们看起来很随意，也不会削弱它们的力量。“用法”中的大多数，有助于表达的清晰和简洁。 此外，各种不同的写作目的和写作策略，诸如非正式的、口语风格的，以及正式的，都适合“用法”规则。 例如，在正式用法中令人反感的，语法不完整的句子或者句子片段，在写作非正式的文本中是偶尔被允许的，甚至是有价值的。 (参见本书第8页，来自两个学生的，关于婚姻主题的写作片段)  再如“So”这个词，在正式英语中，被认为是一个从属连词，不应该用于引入一个句子。 但是在口语风格中，它可能比类似" consequently"或"therefore"这样的连接词更好用。

Mechanics / 技巧

In composition mechanics refers to the appearance of words, to how they are spelled or arranged on paper. The fact that the first word of a paragraph is usually indented, for example, is a matter of mechanics. These sentences violate other rules of mechanics:

在写作中，mechanics 一词，指的是单词的外表：它们是如何被拼写的，如何被排列在纸上的。例如，事实上一个段落的第一个单词通常需要缩进，这就是一个技巧（mechanics）的问题。以下这些句子，就违反了其它的一些行文技巧：

she dresses beautifully（译者：这句话第一个字母是小写s，应该是大写S才对）

She dresses beautifuly.（译者：beautifuly的结尾应该是lly而不是ly）

Conventions of writing require that a sentence begin with  a capital letter and end with full-stop punctuation (period, question mark, or exclamation point). Conventions of spelling require that beautifully have two ls.

写作上的惯例要求，一句话的首个单词，必须以大写字母开头，以句号、问号，或感叹号结尾。 拼写上的惯例要求，beautifully这个词需要完美地有两个“l”字母。

The rules gathered under the heading of mechanics attempt to make writing consistent and clear. They may seem arbitrary, but they have evolved from centuries of experience. Generally they represent, if not the only way of solving a problem, an economic and efficient way.

本书中，在“技巧（mechanics） ”这个主题下面搜集的的一些约定俗成的做法，是为了力图使写作产出的文本能保持一致性和清晰度。它们可能看起来是很武断的做法，但它们是从几个世纪的经验中演化而来的。一般来说，即便它们不是解决问题的唯一方法，也算是代表了一种经济而有效的方法。

Along with mechanics we include punctuation, a very complicated subject and by no means purely mechanical. While some punctuation is cut-and-dried, much of it falls into the province of usage or style. Later, in the chapter on punctuation, we'll discuss the distinctions between mechanical and stylistic uses of commas, dashes, and so on.

和“技巧（mechanics） ”一起，我们在本书中还将讨论标点符号的用法，这是一个非常复杂的主题，绝不是“技巧（mechanics） ”这种东西。虽然有些标点符号的用法是老生常谈的，但它们大多属于用法或风格的范畴。在本书关于标点符号的章节中，我们将讨论逗号、破折号等标点符号，如果分别基于“技巧（mechanics） ”，和基于文体风格来考虑，在使用上有什么区别。

Grammar, Usage, and Style / 语法、用法，和风格

Grammar, usage, and mechanics establish the ground rules of writing, circumscribing what you are free to do. Within their limits, you select various strategies and work out those strategies in terms of words, sentences, paragraphs. The ground rules, however, are relatively inflexible, broken at your peril.

语法、用法和技巧（mechanics），建立了写作的基本规则，限定了你可以做什么。在它们限制的范围内，你可以选择各种策略，然后用词语、句子和段落来实现这些策略。 然而，语法、用法和技巧（mechanics）这些基本规则，相对来说是不灵活的，如果你违反了这些基本规则，你就是在冒险。

It is not always easy to draw the line between grammar and usage or between usage and style. Broadly, grammar is what you must do as a user of English; usage, what you should do as a writer of more or less formal (or informal) English; and style, what you elect to do to work out your strategies and realize your purposes.

在语法和用法之间或用法和风格之间划清界限并不总是容易的。 总的来说，语法是你作为一个英语使用者必须做的事情; 用法是你作为一个或多或少正式(或非正式)的英语写作者应该做的事情; 而风格，则是你选择做什么，来实现你的策略和目标。

"Her dresses beautifully," we said, represents an error in grammar, and "She dresses beautiful," a mistake in usage. "She dresses in a beautiful manner," however, is a lapse in style. The sentence breaks no rule of grammar or of usage, but it is not effective (assuming that the writer wants to stress the idea of "beauty"). The structure slurs the emphasis, which should be on the key word and which should close the statement - "She dresses beautifully."

我们说,"Her dresses beautifully"代表了语法上的错误，而"She dresses beautiful"则是用法上的错误。 然而，"She dresses in a beautiful manner,"，则是一种风格上的失误。 这个句子没有违反语法规则或用法规则，但是它并不有效(假设作者想要强调"美"的概念)。 这个结构模糊了重点，重点应该放在关键词上，而关键词应该是"她穿得很漂亮".

Most of our difficulties with words and sentences involve style.  For  native speakers, grammar - in our sense - is not likely to be a serious problem. Usage (which includes much of what is popularly called "grammar") and mechanics are more troublesome. But generally these require simply that you learn clearly defined conventions. And having learned them, you will find that rather than being restrictive they free you to choose more effectively  among the options available to you as a writer.

我们学习遣词造句的大部分困难都与风格有关。 对于以英语为母语的人来说，语法——在我们感觉来看——不太可能是一个严重的问题。 用法(包括很多通常被称为"语法"的东西)和技巧（mechanics）更麻烦。 但是一般来说，这些问题，只要你掌握一些被清楚定义的，也是约定俗成的惯例即可。 学习了它们之后，你会发现，它们并没有限制你，而是让你作为一个写作者时，可以从可选项中做出更有效的选择。

Style is less reducible to rule, and more open to argument. No one can prove "She dresses in a beautiful manner" is poorer than "She dresses beautifully." (One can even imagine a context in which the longer sentence would be preferable.) Even so, it violates a principle observed by good writers; use no more words than you must.

风格不太容易被统治，而更容易被争论所左右。 没有人能证明"She dresses in a beautiful manner"这种表达，比"She dresses beautifully."这种表达差。 (人们甚至可以想象，在一个特定的上下文语境中，可能较长的句子更为可取。) 即便如此，它也违背了优秀作家遵循的一个原则：“不要多说话”。

You may think of that principle as a "rule" of style. We shall discuss and illustrate that and other stylistic "rules," but remember: they are generalizations about what good writers do, not laws dictating what all writers must do.

你可能认为上面这个原则是风格的"规则"。 我们将讨论并举例说明这一点，以及其他文体的"规则"，但请记住: 这些规则是对优秀作家所做工作的概括，这些规则并不是规定所有作家必须照做的法律。

（第三章结束）

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