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第05课 语法顽疾

Outline

  • Why ?
  • 单数形式？复数形式？
  • a, an, the, pl, /, 用哪个？
  • What ?
  • 与汉语习惯斗争
  • 理解名词形式变化背后的逻辑
  • How ?
  • 如何学习？
  • How Good ？
  • 系统理解名词限定的问题，
  • 而不是陷入背语法书然而无法理解和运用的挫败死循环

单数还是复数？

Other businesses that grubbed in the ashes to make the dull necessities of life-auto parts, lawn furniture-were now of interest mostly for how much technology they could buy.

  • 语法书要读，但仅仅读语法书还不够，还需要理解

  • 任何名词，即有可能作为复数，也有可能是单数

  • 名词的单复数由词义和语境所决定的。

eg:

    1. The news are bad.

  • wrong : the news is bad

  • 2a. Economics is often called "the dismal science".

  • right: 集合名词

  • 2b. The economics of the project make it impossible to proceed.

  • right: 具体情境下的具体的收支情况

  • 3a. One was if interest rate fell and remained below historic level.

  • right: 具体的条数

  • 3b. Pentagon spending to reach historic levels

  • right：通常用复数

  • 4a. The government have decided to raise taxes.

  • right: 相对机构内部多职能部门

  • 4b. The government has decided..

  • right: 相对于实体

  • 4c. Barclays have reported..

  • Barclays 公司名称的英式和美式用法不同：

  • 英式英语：复数（不论有没有 s）

  • 美式英语：单数，一个整体

  • 6a. A number of options is available.

  • right: 一个实体

  • 6b. There were a number of apples on the table.

    1. none of the seats was in the right place.
    2. 一个属类

  • But

  • None of the consultants agree on the same option.

  • None of the seats were in the right place.

名词的合法身份

Rule of thumb - A useful principle having wide application but not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable in every situation.

宇宙是抽屉柜，实物必须存在于某个抽屉中！

  • 五斗橱：事物**必须**存在某一个抽屉中

  • eg

  • 他把清单放下，将手插进兜里
  • He put down the list to shove his hand in his pocket

英语要求交代事物的身份

  • 名词限定词
  • This, that, his, some, no
  • 冠词
    • 定冠词
    • 不定冠词
  • 无冠词

名词的五斗橱

名词 1. 可数名词

  • 单数
  • a/an : 第一次出现
  • the ： 后面出现特指
  • 复数
  • 无冠词

  • the + pl

  • 不可数名词

  • the

  • 无冠词

名词五斗橱的划分逻辑

  • 中英思维模式差异
  • 中文：默认无冠词
  • 英文：即使没有冠词，这都是抽屉之一

  • eg.

    投资的本质是延迟消费，也就是现在将钱投到别处，以便未来赚回更多钱

  • What you're doing when you invest is deferring consumption and laying money out now to get more money back at a later time.

事成之后再付清余款

  • You pay the rest of the money when you complete

可数名词 vs 不可数名词

区分具体实物 vs 抽象范畴

  • ...working up a passing anger

[^ work up]: to develop or improve sth with some effort [^ passing]: lasting only for a short period of time and then disappearing.

  • 具体实物：当时一瞬间的愤怒

  • …in a voice choked with anger

  • 抽象范畴：愤怒的情绪

  • I just heard her speaking on the radio.

  • 具体实物：那台收音机

  • He has already become a climbing spokesman on radio.

  • 抽象范畴：无线电广播，类别媒体

  • Haig and Nixon are regularly on the phone with each other.

  • 具体实物：那台电话

  • ...an attempt to reach her at the camp by telephone.

  • 抽象范畴：电话这种媒介

具体实物 vs 抽象范畴

  • Now he was talking about their businesses."It's wonderful to promote new industries, because they are very promotable.

  • What's your business here? (objective, mission)

  • It's none of your business. (personal concern)

以及习惯所决定

  • You can make do with a pair of jeans/glasses/scissors.
  • 4a.The government have decided to raise taxes.
  • 4b.The government has decided...
  • 4c.Barclays have reported..

在具体的语境下，依据具体的含义去理解名词单复数

  • had nothing of value to say
  • sought material values instead of human values
  • 比如
  • Buffett thought about the total value of the chips.
  • 7.none of the seats was in the right place.
  • But: None of the consultants agree on the same option.
  • None of the seats were in the right place.

不可数名词：the/无冠词（无冠词并非默认通用做法，而是特殊情况）

1. 范畴界标：区别于其他范畴，指明相对位置

此类名词前面没有 the

  1. 大洲：
  2. Europe, Ameriac, Afica, Asia, Antarctica

  3. As a result Africa was full of refugees

  4. 国家

  5. some of the allies, notably France and Canada

  6. 街名

  7. Turn right off Broadway into Caxton Street

  8. 其他

  9. He ordered a coffee。（有容器）

  10. a cup of coffee

  11. Coffee and tea are not good drinks for children.(类别标记)

注意: 地名并非一概不加 the

eg.

the United States, the USA, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China.

  • 在意义上有特定的指代对象

the Netherlands, the Philippines 等

  • 复数专有名词

2. 抽象事物本身，但是无形体，如情感、品质等形容词或一些动词的名词形式

Meanwhile, the journalists chased after the Internet moguls as they moved between the Inn and their condos, amplifying the atmosphereof inflated self-importance that permeated Sun Valley this year.

That was so even though Herbert Allen himself thought the"new paradigm"for valuing technology and media stocks-based on clicks and eyeballs and projections of far-off growth rather than a company's ability to earn cold hard cash-was bunk.

3. 具体使用中，意识不到单复数背后的抽象类别 or 具体实物结构

Apart from establishing the national energy strategy, we need to lay out the prospect of the regional energies and set a region-shared oil reserve plan. Secondly, we are supposed to cooperate in energy technology researches and applications.

  • all wrong - 类别标记：

There' re more than 1.5 millon people in our country currently dying of cancer every year.

  • 类别标记：相对于其他疾病

4. 类别标记而非具体实物

Bad news also includes an apparent rise of general cancer morbidity rate and death rate in China, in which the rise of females has surpass that of males.

  • includes - Bad news used with a sing. verb
  • female/male 类别标记：女性相对于男性

注意复数形式的特定含义

eg. 单数 复数
the industry - 工业，工业制造；勤劳，勤奋 the industries - 行业
business - 商业，生意，买卖 businesses - 企业，公司，商店，工厂
good goods
sale - 销售 sales - 销售额
economy - 经济... economies - 经济体
internet the Internet

复数形式成为专有名词

The sales of the Fortune five hundred companies grew more than fivefold.

Some Internet stocks traded at infinite multiples of their nonexistent earnings，while"real companies"that made real things had declined in value.

通常以复数形式出现，如Earnings per share；price per earnings

除非特殊情况（抽象类别标记 or 具体某个），一般为复数形式以复数形式出现

特殊情况：抽象类别 或者一个东西：第一次a/an, 第二次the

一般而言：单词都是以复数形式出现

  • Interest rates - the cost of borrowing - Buffett explained, are the price of "when."

  • The folks who ran technology companies saw themselves as Promethean geniuses bringing fire to lesser mortals.

  • They are to finance as gravity is to physics. As interest rates vary, the value of all financial assets-houses, stocks, bonds-changes, as if the price of birds had fluctuated.

  • Profits had grown much less than in that previous period, but birds in the bush were expensive because interest rates were low.

  • Fewer people wanted cash-the bird in the hand-at such low rates.

  • So investors were paying unheard-of prices for those birds in the bush.

  • They were perched atop portfolios that were jam-packed with stocks trading at extravagant valuations.

  • One was if interest rates fell and remained below historic levels.

二分法2

是否有独立形状？物质名词还是独立个体？（二分法2）

  1. 物质名词（mass nouns) : 需要加量词修饰

  2. water, bread, salt，sand, hair

eg.

  • gravel：物质名词
  • pebbles ：独立个体，可数名词

eg.

a smell of fresh bread.

Make sure the bread is quite cool.

a loaf of bread

a pinch of salt

a glass of milk

a bit/item/piece of news

Conclusion

  • 名词形式无法仅仅依靠死记硬背语法规则来解决

  • 名词的限定词取决于语义和习惯，只能不断观察总结结合语法点去理解

  • 具体实物 vs 抽象范畴

  • 中英文的根本思维差异

  • 留下积累下不同名词形式代表的不同所指

  • 不断审视自己的输出中，有没有不明确的名词形式。

Refer

Collins COBUILD 英语语法系列3 冠词Articles

  1. to look for sth. especially by digging or by looking through or under other things. ↩

  2. ①not intersting or exciting. ②not busy, slow ↩

  3. a type of fine cotton or linen cloth used for making clothes. 上等细棉布 ↩

  4. a thing that you must have and canot manage without. ↩

  5. the percentage that an institution such as a bank charges or pays you in interest when you borrow money from it or keep money in an account ↩