十一、分布数（完）
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Last Hermit 于 2000/02/28 09:20:56 发表在 汉英
十一、分布数（distributive number）（窃以为，似乎应译为“单指数”为宜？）
分布复数用于复数名词短语之中，以表示一组实体与另一组实体逐个相匹配：
Have you all brought your cameras?("Each has a camera.")
Hand in your papers next Monday.("Each has to hand in one paper.")
虽然分布复数是规范的用法，但是分布单数也可以用来强调各个个体。因此，我们常常在单数与复数之间可以有所选择：
The students raised their hand(s).
Some children have understanding fathers/an understanding father.
We all have good appetites/a good appetite.
Pronouns agree with their antecedent(s).
在成语或比喻中，有时必须用单数或最好用单数：
We are keeping an open mind.(?open minds)
They vented their spleen on him.(their spleens)
They can't put their finger on what's wrong.(their fingers)
有时，分布单数可以用来避免意思不明确：
Students were asked to name their favourite sport.
使用单数就清楚地表明只要说出一种运动即可。类似的例子有：
Children must be accompanied by a parent.
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Meunique
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隐士的功劳当存入“时间银行”！感谢您源源不断的补给！
作者：px - 2000/02/28 09:35:41
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咦？您那银行有没有千年虫的呀？不过，有你们的支持，虽一人，吾亦往矣！
作者：Last Hermit - 2000/02/28 09:56:37
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做个临时调查。各位觉得最头疼的词是什么？
1）名词，包括单复数
2）冠词
3）动词
4）介词
5）形容词
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Meunique
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抢答
作者：xy - 2000/02/28 10:22:09
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第一头痛是介词，冠词次之。有无止痛诀窍？
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同意xy君。
作者：hz - 2000/02/28 13:48:49
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介词。另外，在楼下DS君提到的一个网页上看见这句话：
"Sooner or later everyone has their day!!"
从“数”的一致性方面讲，不知隐师要判它错还是对？:-)
您讲课坚持了这么久，真不易。衷心感谢！
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窃以为……
作者：Last Hermit - 2000/02/28 23:18:16
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"Sooner or later everyone has their day",按规范语法应该是“Sooner or later everyone has his day.”
但西方的女权主义者们，对此却大不以为然。他们的执着已经使越来越多人接受，于是乎男女平分秋色：“...has their day.”
之前一节曾经讲过：
Usage Note: The traditional rule holds that when the subject of a sentence begins with each, it is grammatically singular, and the verb and following pronouns must be singular as well: Each of the suites has (not have) its (not their) own private entrance (not entrances).
When each follows a plural subject, however, the verb and subsequent pronouns remain in the plural: The suites each have their own private entrances (not has its own private entrance). An exception is made when each
follows the verb with a first-person plural subject: one may say either We boys have each our own room or We boys have each his own room, though the latter form is somewhat stilted in modern use. The expression each and every is likewise followed by a singular verb and singular pronoun in formal style: Each and every driver knows (not know) what his or her (not their) job is to be.
Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language, Third Edition Copyright 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Usage Note: Every is representative of a large class of English words and expressions that are singular in form but felt to be plural in sense. The class includes,for example, noun phrases introduced by every, any, and certain uses of some. These expressions invariably take a singular verb;we say Every car has (not have) been tested. Anyone is (not are)liable to fall ill. But when a sentence contains a pronoun whose antecedent is introduced by every, grammar and sense pull in different directions. The grammar of these expressions requires a singular pronoun, as in Every car must have its brakes tested, but people persist in using the plural pronoun, as in Every car must have their brakes tested. Although the latter pattern is common in the speech of all groups, it is still widely regarded as grammatically incorrect in writing. The effort to adhere to the grammatical rule leads to various complications, however. The first is grammatical. When a pronoun refers to a phrase containing every or any that falls within a different independent clause, the pronoun cannot be singular. Thus it is simply not English to say Every man left; he took his raincoat with him. Nor can one say No one could be seen, could he? Writers unwilling to use plural forms in these examples must find another way of expressing their meaning, either by rephrasing the sentence so as to get the pronoun into the same clause (as in Every man left, taking his raincoat with him) or by substituting another word for every or any (as in All the men left; they took their raincoats with them.) The second complication is political. When a phrase introduced by every or any refers to a group containing both men and women, what shall be the gender of the singular pronoun? This matter is discussed in the Usage Note at he.
Usage Note: Traditionally, English speakers have used the pronouns he, him, and his generically in contexts in which the grammatical form of the antecedent requires a singular pronoun, as in Every member of Congress is answerable to his constituents; A novelist should write about what he knows best; No one seems to take any pride in his work anymore, and so on. Beginning early in the 20th century, however, the traditional usage has come under increasing criticism for reflecting and perpetuating gender discrimination. Defenders of the traditional usage have argued that the masculine pronouns he, his, and him can be used generically to refer to men and women. This analysis of the generic use of he is linguistically doubtful. If he were truly a gender-neutral form, we would expect that it could be used to refer to the members of any group containing both men and women. But in fact the English masculine form is an odd choice when it refers to a female member of such a group. There is something plainly disconcerting about sentences such as Each of the stars of It Happened One Night [i.e., Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert]won an Academy Award for his performance. In this case, the use of his forces the reader to envision a single male who stands as the representative member of the group, a picture that is at odds with the image that comes to mind when we picture the stars of It Happened One Night. Thus he is not really a gender-neutral pronoun; rather, it refers to a male who is to be taken as the representative member of the group referred to by its antecedent. The traditional usage, then, is not simply a grammatical convention; it also suggests a particular pattern of thought. Many writers sidestep the problem by avoiding the relevant constructions. In place of Every student handed in his assignment, they write All the students handed in their assignments; in place of A taxpayer must appear for his hearing in person,they write Taxpayers must appear for their hearings in person, and so on. Even when using the relevant constructions, however, many writers never use masculine pronouns as generics. In a series of sample sentences such as A patient who doesn't accurately report ____ sexual history to the doctor runs the risk of misdiagnosis, an average of 46 percent of the Usage Panel chose a coordinate form (her/his,his or her, and so on), 3 percent chose the plural pronoun (although the actual frequency of the plural in writing is far higher than this number would suggest), 2 percent chose the feminine pronoun, another 2 percent chose an indefinite or a definite article, and 7 percent gave no response or felt that no pronoun was needed to complete the sentence. As a substitute for coordinate forms such as his/her or her and his, third person plural forms, such as their, have a good deal to recommend them: they are admirably brief and entirely colloquial and may be the only sensible choice in informal style; for example, in the radio commercial that says "Make someone happy give them a goosedown Christmas," where him would be misleading and her or him would be fussy. At least one major British publisher has recently adopted this usage for its learners' dictionaries, where one may read such sentences as If someone says they are "winging it", they mean that they are improvising their way. But in formal style, this option is perhaps less risky for a publisher of reference books than for an individual writer, who may be misconstrued as being careless or ignorant rather than attuned to the various grammatical and political nuances of the use of the masculine pronoun as generic pronoun. What is more, this solution ignores a persistent intuition that expressions such as everyone and each student should in fact be treated as grammatically singular. Writers who are concerned about avoiding both grammatical and social problems are best advised to use coordinate forms such as his or her. Some writers see no need to use a personal pronoun implying gender unless absolutely necessary; in the sample sentence A child who develops this sort of rash on ____ hands should probably be kept at home for a couple of days, 6 percent of the Usage Panel completed the sentence with the. In addition, some writers have proposed other solutions to the use of he as a generic pronoun, such as the introduction of wholly new gender-neutral pronouns like s/he or hiser,or the switching between feminine and masculine forms in alternating sentences, paragraphs, or chapters. In contrast to these innovations, many writers use the masculine pronoun as generic in all cases. For the same series of sample sentences, the average percentage of Usage Panel members who consistently completed the sentences with his was 37. This course is grammatically unexceptionable, but the writer who follows it must be prepared to incur the displeasure of readers who regard this pattern as a mark of insensitivity or gender discrimination. When a majority of writers are taking care to avoid the masculine as generic, the writer who uses it in this way may invite the inference that there is some pointed reason for referring to the representative instance as male. The entire question is unlikely to be resolved in the near future.
至于，为何用“day”，而不用“days”，恐怕就是上文所说的“成语或比喻中，有时必须用单数或最好用单数”了吧。
放心，我并没打算就此挂“文抄公”的笔。我们广东人说：“三水佬睇走马灯，陆续有来！”
对不起，本来还要就上面所说的几种词说一下自己的意见的。但已经是午睡时间了。假已经放完，休息一会儿就要上班！
容后再说！
晚安！
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Meunique
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多谢问候！惭愧
作者：hz - 2000/02/29 00:46:09
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本来半开玩笑地，以为问的是个小问题，结果您这么辛苦认真地给讲得仔仔细细明明白白。简直不知
怎样谢师才好了。请千万别为回答我的问题什么的耽误休息。TAKE CARE!
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投石问路：由于谈及性别歧视问题，愚兄去年曾译过《时代》一篇文章……
作者：Last Hermit - 2000/02/29 04:38:37
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名为The Real Truth About the Female Body（http://www.time.com/time/magazine/toc/0,3392,1101990308,00.html）。由于论及新的观点，不知会不会惹起一些人的反感，所以先问问贤妹您。该文很长，译文长达一万多字。如果各位无意见，我打算过两天就贴上来，让大家再来挑刺（除个别地方错译作一些修改外，我不打算再修改，好让各位看看上坛前和上坛后是否有进步）。当然，还得经过汉英大姐同意，因为原文（刚才，去看了一下，文章已被抽掉，也许得向汉英大姐发伊妹儿才行）很长，再加译文就更长了。
其实，您也言重了。我正好可以温习一下呀。而且，总比两天来去给朋友修电脑却无功而返强多啦！
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Meunique
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贤兄本事真大，还能修电脑！
作者：hz - 2000/02/29 09:53:43
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不敢僭越了:-)，我这个坏了就找您:-)))
我开始还以为您是说汉英大姐把您的什么帖删了，结果去您说的网址才发现原来是“时代”自己把那
篇文章挪走了。谢谢贤兄信任！我可以去找hard copy来看一下，然后回来同您谈我的看法。另外您说
先去征求一下大姐的意见，我觉得是个好主意。贤弟晚安吧:-))))
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哈哈！果然是好妹妹！
作者：Last Hermit - 2000/02/29 10:15:17
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不就仗着自己懂点儿英文，比一般人懂多了一点儿皮毛的东西。也就是软件方面的维修而已，编程是一窍不通的啦！修修“瘟酒吧”之类罢了，您的要是坏了，愚兄尽力就是啦！
您这边儿，该是午安了吧。
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Meunique
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好象“温良倩”已经出来了嘛，可能快送瘟神了:-)))
作者：hz - 2000/02/29 10:27:01
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谢啦，吃午饭去也！
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不懂
作者：xy - 2000/02/29 10:51:00
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才10：27就去吃午饭？什么作息表？
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brunch :-)
作者：hz - 2000/02/29 12:04:09
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New URL
作者：laoliu - 2000/02/29 10:57:47
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http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,20616,00.html
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Got it! Thank you very much!
作者：hz - 2000/02/29 12:02:37
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Many Thanks. And To Sister Hy00: Would you mind my posting my translation of it, in a day or two?
作者：No Junks - 2000/02/29 22:38:22
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链接：The Real Truth about the Female Body
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Oops! Sorry. It's me, Last Hermit! OH. What a good IE memory!
作者：Last Hermit - 2000/02/29 22:45:24
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Meunique
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If Time can carry it, there should be no problem if u post ur translation here.
作者：汉英 - 2000/02/29 23:20:08
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Let's enjoy and evaluate your translation again. Thanks!
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Thanks a lot. Actually, I do not have any worries over its contents; rather, it's the volume that I'm concerned about!
作者：Last Hermit - 2000/03/01 04:10:31
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Meunique
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Well, you can always do it in installments, can't you?
作者：汉英 - 2000/03/01 17:24:19
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噢。。。
作者：hz - 2000/03/02 00:10:41
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原来说让愚姐先断断内容合不合适是假招子啊？得了，恭候您的译文吧:-)
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介词；因为介词用错了意思可能有很大改变
作者：laoliu - 2000/02/28 13:56:52
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非也！
作者：px - 2000/02/29 07:25:39
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咱的时间银行，存的是您壮年时的贡献，将来您可以取的是他人等量劳动的回报。利息税全免。如何:-)
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哈哈！壮年？那好吧，那我就等那一天！
作者：Last Hermit - 2000/02/29 08:15:23
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Meunique
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莫非您现在只有。。。。。。？看来xy没有称呼错！小大人啊:-)
作者：px - 2000/02/29 08:50:40
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