中式英文:
My best friend's girlfriend is pregnant, so they are going to have a shotgun wedding.
(我好友的女朋友懷孕了,因此他們打算要奉子成婚。)
改錯研析:
1. My best friend is going to have a shotgun wedding with his girlfriend, who got pregnant unexpectedly.
2. My best friend and his girlfriend are going to have a shotgun wedding because she got pregnant unexpectedly.
(1) 全句重點是為了說明 shotgun wedding(奉子成婚),但 shotgun wedding 沒拼錯,例句卻出現嚴重文法錯誤,這種英語教學的怪現象在國內非常普遍,原因還是出在「單字量才是王道」的錯誤觀念上,而死背單字應付考試的全民運動難辭其咎。
(2) 原句為口語型態的表達方式,句中「第三人稱複數代名詞」they 的「先行詞」 居然是「第三人稱單數」my best friend's girlfriend (= she),這種「代名詞」與「先行詞」不一致的錯誤,也常發生在英語程度欠佳或英語被當的母語人士身上,國人專學壞的不學好的,才會誤以為是正確用法。
(3) 依照原句意,可以用 A is going to have a shotgun wedding with B 的句型,再以「關係代名詞」who(「先行詞」為 B)引導「關係子句」(形容詞子句)來修飾「先行詞」(如例句1.)。
(4) 也可以用表因果關係的「從屬連接詞」because 引導「從屬子句」(副詞子句),修飾「主要子句」,「從屬子句」中「主詞」she 的「先行詞」,為「主要子句」「主詞」中的 his girlfriend(如例句2.)。
(5) 如果非要用 they 當「主詞」,句子就要改成:
My best friend got his girlfriend pregnant, so they are going to have a shotgun wedding.
(★they 的「先行詞」為 my best friend 和 his girlfriend)
- 1樓. faddy2023/05/01 16:51Chinese English is just so lame! It's even more so lame than tmcfertility.com/intrauterine-insemination. I don't think there's any other language quite as lame as Chinese English.(kosoci7655@emailnube.com)