到底能不能用于否定句呢?" />
最近,辅导一个学生写作文,他写了个句子:
not only won’t the formal education restrain our minds and spirits, it can also help people thinkand set minds free.(中文意思:正规教育不仅不会限制我们的心智和精神,而且能帮助人们思考,解放头脑。)的确,我们的汉语表达“不能不仅……”这个是没有任何问题的,但英语中似乎我们很少见到not
only
用于否定句,更何况是将其改为倒装句呢?那没怎么见过,是否就表示这种表达不存在呢?为此,我专门查了很多资料,但网上的绝大部分资料明确表示:not only … but also 不能用在否定句中。
请看网上一篇专门论述
not only … but also
用法的文章:(大家可以在网上搜索下)
3
not only … but also 不能用在否定句中。例如:
误: They don’t fear not only hardship but also death.
正: They fear neither hardship nor death.
正: They don’t fear either hardship or death.
但这些一看就是中国人总结的,那我们能不能找到外国人写的句子呢?
后来,我在网上找到这样一个句子:1) 标题:Not Only Won’t
Obama Close Gitmo, He’s Now Relying on Gitmo;
2)So not only won’t
Obama close Gitmo, then, but he’s
willing to rubber stamp the standards introduced there for use on
American soil.
由这篇报道中我们明显看出,not only 是可以用于否定句中的,且能用于倒装。
所以,英语的一些知识是不能想当然的,必须看外国人他们是否有这种表达法,我们中国人只能做归纳与总结,这才是严谨的治学态度。(我们不能因为没见过,就认为那是错的。)
后来,我又找到一个关于这个用法的总结,还真找到了:
2.有人认为,not only…but also不能用于否定句。汉语中用于否定句中的“不但…而且”在英语中要用as well as 表示。如“不但我不想看戏,而且他也不想看戏”可译作“He, as well as I, doesn’t want to see the play.”不过,这条规则也有例外,请看下面二例:
Not only did none of us know how the crime was to be committed, we didn’t even know what the crime was to be!
Not only don’t I know the population of Nepal, I don’t know where in god’s world it is!我不但不知道尼泊尔人口,而且连它究竟在哪里也不知道!
这两个例句有几个共同点:都是连接否定分句,都是倒装句,都没有用but also。下面一例出自一位美国作家之手,所不同的是,not only…but连接的是并列谓语,第一个动词是否定的,第二个动词则是肯定的:
Nonetheless, as he described Mary’s attitudes her accomplishments, he found himself wishing that she cared more about the police side of his life than she seemed to, that she might understand it as intimately, say, as the woman opposite him. But this motion seemed to him so disloyal to Mary that he not only did not articulate it, but at once tried to suppress it.