Don’t Confuse the “Topic” with the “Subject” in an English Clause 組成英文子句時,不要混淆「主題」和「主語」
由於中文和英文在結構上有許多不同之處,使中文母語人士在組織英文句子時,一不留神就犯上一些自然但可避免的錯誤。
這篇通訊,我想談談中文母語人士經常將中文句子中的「主題」與「主語」混淆的情況,以至在寫英文句子時,也容易錯把「主題」當成是「主語」。
所以,「主語」和「主題」到底是甚麼?
「主語 subject」這子句主要元素多數是一個名詞或名詞組,是實行或接受限定動詞動作的對象。它是一種文法角色,為子句中核心動作的直接文法「實行者」或「接受者」。
主語的這種文法角色是所有語言中都有的,任何語言的句子中都會有主語的角色。
例如:
最後,他提不起書包。
In the end, he couldn’t lift his school bag.
中文的句子中,「他」是主語,即句子核心動作「提不起」的直接實行者。
英文句子中,「he」是主語,即句子核心動作「couldn’t lift」的直接實行者。
世界上任何一種語言,句子中都存在主語。
然而,每種語言都有各自的文法特徵。某些語言會容許在主語(及其他名詞角色)的意思足夠清晰的情況下省略它們。而其他語言則相反,即使意思已非常明確,仍然不允許主語(及其他名詞角色)被省略。
剛好,中文就是其中一種允許省略主語的語言,英文則是另一種必需保留主語的語言。因此中文母語人士會省略主語是很自然的事,只是這並不適用於英文句子:
最後,提不起書包 ✔️
In the end, ^ couldn’t lift his school bag. ❌
因為兩種語言之間的差異,中文母語人士經常不小心就把英文句子的主語省略掉。
除了省略主語,另一個中英文的主要差異,就是中文允許將一些想要被強調的元素移動至句子的開頭,到本是在句子開頭的主語前。
這種因強調而被移前的元素正是「主題 topic」。
中文句子中的「主題」可以是任何想要被強調的東西,包括一些非主語的名詞組。例如:
最後,書包他提不起。 ✔️
此句中的「書包」 被移前進行強調。這名詞本來是動詞「提不起」的賓語,但因為我們想強調它,便把它放在開頭。作為主題的「書包」被移至主語「他」的前面進行強調。
這時如果我們省略了主語「他」,主題「書包」便會變成唯一出現在動詞前面的名詞:
最後,書包提不起。✔️
這是自然的中文句子,省略主語「他」,並將所強調的主題「書包」移到子句的開頭。
但如果我們想把這句子換成英文,卻又沿用以上的詞序,問題便出現了:
In the end, the school bag couldn’t lift. ❌
英文是不能省略主語的,同時也不允許將「主題」移前。
但我們都知道,雖然名詞「書包」單獨地出現在動詞前面,它實際上卻非「提不起」的主語,而是它的賓語。
「書包」不過是作為一個被強調的「主題」而被移前,真正的主語則被省略了。
由於英文句子是不能省略主語的,也不允許將「主題」移前,我們須重組一下這句子以讓它合乎英文文法。
首先,我們要確立主語 – 英文句子中的文法主語是甚麼?英文的主語是不能被省略的,在句子中必須與它的限定動詞一同出現。
然後,我們要將主題「the school bag」放回它原有的位置,因為英文不允許「主題」被移前。「the school bag」是「he couldn’’t lift」的賓語,因此會在「can’t lift」之後:
In the end, he couldn’t lift his school bag. ✔️
這英文句子以「couldn’t lift」作為核心動作,所以必須有它的文法主語在前面。
是甚麼直接做出「couldn’t lift 提不起」的動作?是「he」,所以一定要有主語「he」。
或者,如果我們想把「the school bag」放在開頭位置,在核心動詞前面,便必須把它當成是句子的文法主語,再把限定動詞轉換成合適字形去配合它去表達所需意思。
例如:
In the end, his school bag couldn’t be lifted. ✔️
這樣句子便正確了。因為限定動詞「couldn’t be lifted」呈現出被動語態,而「the school bag」也變成直接接受其動作的文法主語。
重點是英文句子開端出現的名詞是能正確對應限定動詞的文法主語,而不是「主題」。
當你要把一個中文句子換成英文時,請確保出現在限定動詞前面的名詞組是一個真正的文法主語。因為在中文句子開頭的名詞組,很有可能只是一個「主題」,而非文法主語。
要把某名詞在英文中作為「主題」強調,也當然有方法的,但並不會像中文一樣在句子內部結構中搬前,而是會用與句子的結構分開的方式。例如:
His school bag? In the end, he couldn’t lift it.
我們當然可以把「his school bag」獨立地當作「主題」來強調,以吸引聽者/讀者的注意。但我們仍然會在後面句子中使用代名詞(像這裡的「it」)去填補「抽」了出來當主題的名詞的原位。因為,與中文不同,英文是不允許存在句子結構中的名詞被省略的:
His school bag? In the end, he couldn’t lift ^. ❌
當你要組成英文句子時,記得留意一下在開頭的元素是否正確的「文法主語」了。
__________________________
小練習:
請把以下句子翻譯成英文:
這個項目昨天已經做完了。
__________________________
答案:
We ( 或其他可行的主語 ) finished this project yesterday.
This project was finished yesterday.
__________________________________
Don’t Confuse the “Topic” with the “Subject” in an English Clause
There are many structural differences between Chinese and English. These lead to natural but avoidable mistakes when native Chinese speakers form English sentences.
In this newsletter, I want to write about how native Chinese speakers learning English often mistake the “topic” of the a Chinese sentence with the “subject,” which then leads to mistakes when they form an English sentence with that “topic” as the “subject.”
What are “subjects” and “topics”?
A subject is the element in a clause (usually a noun or noun phrase) that does or receives the action of the finite verb directly. A subject is a grammatical role -- it is the direct grammatical “doer” or “receiver” of the clause’s core action.
The grammatical role of subjects is universal across all languages. Sentences of all languages in the words include the role of subjects.
For example:
最後,他提不起書包。
In the end, he couldn’t lift his school bag.
In the Chinese sentence, the subject is “他.” “他” is the direct “doer” of the core action of this sentence, which is “提不起.”
In the English sentence, the subject is “he.” “He” is the direct “doer” of the core action of this sentence, which is “couldn’t lift.”
All of the world’s languages have subjects in their sentences.
However, languages have different grammatical characteristics. In some languages, the subject (and other noun roles) in a clause can be omitted when the meaning is clear.
In other languages, the subject (and other noun roles) in a clause cannot be omitted even when it is clear what it is.
Chinese happens to be a language that allows the dropping of the subject, while English happens to be a language that does not allow the dropping of the subject.
So, while it is natural in Chinese to drop the subject in this sentence, the same thing is not allowed in the English sentence:
最後,提不起書包 ✔️
In the end, ^ couldn’t lift his school bag. ❌
Native Chinese speakers often wrongly omit the subject of an English sentence because of this difference between the two languages.
Now, another major difference between Chinese and English is that Chinese, apart from allowing the dropping of subjects, also allows for something that needs to be emphasized in the meaning of the sentence to be moved to the front.
This thing that is moved to the front for emphasis is the “topic.”
A “topic” in a Chinese sentence can be anything that needs to be emphasized in the meaning, including noun phrases that are not the subject. For example:
最後,書包他提不起。 ✔️
In this sentence, the noun “書包” is moved to the front of the sentence for emphasis. This noun is originally the object of the verb “提不起” -- but if we want to emphasize it in the meaning, we can move it to the front.
This topic “書包” is moved to the front of the subject “他” for emphasis.
Now, if we drop the subject “他” after the topic “書包” has been moved to the front, it would look like this, with the topic “書包” as the only noun in front of the verb “提不起”:
最後,書包提不起。✔️
This is a completely natural sentence in Chinese. It is the result of dropping the subject “他” and moving the topic of emphasis “書包” to the front of the clause.
The problem arises when Chinese speakers try to form this sentence and express this meaning in English while keeping this existing word order:
In the end, the school bag couldn’t lift. ❌
This English sentence is problematic because English does not allow the dropping of subjects -- nor does it allow the movement of “topics” to the front.
But, as we saw above, even though the noun “書包” is alone in front of the verb in the sentence, it is not actually the subject of “提不起” but rather its object. It has just been moved to the front as a “topic” for emphasis while the subject has been omitted.
Since English sentences don’t allow the dropping of subjects and the movement of “topics” to the front, we need to reform this sentence to make it grammatical in English.
The first thing we need to do is start with the subject -- what is the grammatical subject of this English sentence? Subjects cannot be dropped. They always have to appear together with their finite verbs in an English sentence.
Here, the finite verb is “can’t lift.” What is the grammatical subject -- the direct “doer” -- of this action? It is “he” in our meaning. So, we need to have “he” as the subject.
Also, we need to move the “topic” -- “the school bag” -- back to its original position, because English does not allow moving a “topic” to the front. “The school bag” is the object of “he can’t lift,” so it must follow “can’t lift”:
In the end, he couldn’t lift his school bag. ✔️
If we want to have the core action as “can’t lift” -- then we must have its correct grammatical subject appear in front of it in an English sentence.
Or, if we want to keep “the school bag” in front, we have to make it the grammatical subject of a corresponding finite verb form that allows us to express our meaning.
For example:
In the end, his school bag couldn’t be lifted. ✔️
This is now okay, because the finite verb “cannot be lifted” is in passive voice, and “the school bag” is the correct grammatical subject that directly “receives” this action.
The point is that we need the correct grammatical subject of the finite verb in the front of an English sentence -- not a “topic.”
When you form a Chinese sentence into an English one, make sure that the noun phrase in front of the finite verb is the actual grammatical subject because, in Chinese sentences, the noun phrase in front is very often just a “topic” and not the subject.
There are ways to highlight “topics” for emphasis in English as well, but these ways are separate from the structure of a sentence. For example:
His school bag? In the end, he couldn’t lift it.
We can of course separately say/write “his school bag” as a “topic” of emphasis first. This is a way of drawing attention to this as the topic.
However, in the sentence, we would still need to use a pronoun (like “it” here) to replace it in its original position -- because, unlike Chinese, English doesn’t allow nouns that are in the structure of the sentence to be omitted:
His school bag? In the end, he couldn’t lift ^. ❌
Try to think about whether you have the correct grammatical subject in front next time you form an English sentence.
__________________________
Mini Exercise:
Translate this sentence into English:
這個項目昨天已經做完了。
__________________________
Answers:
We (or any viable subject) finished this project yesterday.
This project was finished yesterday.
Comments
Post a Comment