单词 | 不大可能 |
释义 | 〔outsider〕A contestant given little chance of winning; a long shot.获胜机会很少者:不大可能获胜的选手;获胜可能性非常微小地参加者〔unlikelihood〕The state of being unlikely or improbable; improbability.不可能:不大可能或不可能的状态;不可能性〔irresponsible〕One who is unlikely to be called to account by a higher authority.不被列入考虑的人:不大可能被要求向更高一级权力负责的人〔hopefully〕And though this use ofhopefully may have been a vogue word when it first gained currency 30 years ago, it has long since lost any taint of jargon or pretentiousness for the general reader.The well-attested acceptance of the usage reflects an implicit popular recognition of its usefulness;there is no precise substitute.Someone who saysHopefully, the treaty will be ratified makes a hopeful prediction about the fate of the treaty,whereas someone who saysI hope (or We hope or It is hoped ) the treaty will be ratified expresses a bald statement about what is desired. Only the latter could be continued with a clause such asbut it isn't likely. · It might have been expected, then, that the initial flurry of objections tohopefully would have subsided once the usage became well established. Instead, increased currency of the usage appears only to have made the critics more adamant.In the 1969 Usage Panel survey the usage was acceptable to 44 percent of the Panel;in the most recent survey it was acceptable to only 27 percent.(By contrast, 60 percent accepted the analogous use ofmercifully in the sentence Mercifully, the game ended before the opponents could add another touchdown to the lopsided score. ) Yet the Panel has not shown any signs of becoming generally more conservative:in the very same survey panelists were disposed to accept once-vilified usagessuch as the employment ofcontact and host as verbs. · It seems that this use ofhopefully has been made a litmus test, which distinguishes writers who take an active interest in questions of grammar or usage from the great mass of people who keep their own linguistic counsel.No one can be blamed who useshopefully in blithe ignorance of the critics' disdain for it, since the rule could not be derived from any general concern for clarity or precision.But writers who are aware of the critical controversy face a more delicate decision.Some will simply flout the rule,seeing no reason that they should be deprived of a useful construction.Others may choose to avoid the usage,whether they are motivated by discretion or civility. ·Like other sentence adverbs such asbluntly and happily, hopefully may occasionally be ambiguous. In the sentenceHopefully, the company has launched a new venture, the word hopefully might be construed as describing the point of view of either the speaker or the subject. Such ambiguities can be resolved either by repositioning the adverb (as inThe company has launched the new venture hopefully ) or by choosing a paraphrase ( One may hope that the company has launched the new venture ). 尽管hopefully 的这一用法在30年前首次通用的时候曾是个时兴词, 但对于广大读者来说它早已失去了俚语或矫饰的色彩。屡经证实的对这一用法的接受反映了对其实用性的普遍默认;而且并不存在其他精确的代用词。有人如果说但愿条约能被批准 , 便是对条约的命运作了充满希望的预测,反之如果有人说我希望 (或 我们希望 或 希望 ) 条约将会被批准 则表达了对其期望之物的大胆声明。 只有后者可以接从句象但这不大可能 。 也许我们本可以期待当这一用法已变得根深蒂固之后, 对hopefully 的一片反对声可稍事平息。 然而,这一用法的流行似乎反而使批评家们更为坚定。在1969年用法调查使用小组的调查中44%的成员接受这一用法;在最近一次的调查中却只有27%的成员接受。(相比之下,60%的人接受mercifully 在句子 幸好,在对手能够给这一边倒的比分再加上一分之前,比赛就结束了 中的类似用法) 但是并没有任何迹象表明调查小组成员正在普遍变得更保守:在同一次调查中小组成员们倾向于接受被一度废除的某些用法,如把contact 和 host 用作动词看来。 似乎hopefully 的用法已经成了一块试金石, 它把对语法和用法怀有浓厚兴趣的作家和保留着他们自己的语言学顾问的广大民众区分开来。那些全然忽视批评家们的蔑视使用hopefully 的人不该受到指责, 因为规则并不来源于任何对清晰和精确的关注。但是意识到了批评界争议的作者们面对着一个更为微妙的决定。有些人干脆违反规则,他们认为没有理由要失去这么一个实用的结构。另外一些人则选择避免这一用法,无论其动机是出于谨慎还是出于礼貌。象许多其它句中副词如bluntly 和 happily一样,hopefully 经常出现歧义。 在下句 Hopefully, the company has launched a new venture 中, hopefully 一词可以解释为记述说话者的观点或者句中主语的观点。 这种歧义可以通过调换副词位置(如公司已经满怀希望地到办了一个新企业 )或选择另一种说法( 有人希望这个公司已经创办了一个新企业 )来消除 〔long〕Unlikely to remain for much more time in:不大可能在…中存在很久:〔tight〕Tight is used as an adverb following verbs that denote a process of closure or constriction, assqueeze, shut, close, tie, and hold. In this useit is subtly distinct from the adverbtightly. Tight denotes the state resulting from the process,whereastightly denotes the manner of its application. As such,tight is more appropriate when the focus is on a state that endures for some time after the activity has ended. The sentenceShe closed up the house tight suggests preparation for an impending blizzard. By the same token, it is more natural to sayThe windows were frozen tight than The windows were frozen tightly, since in this case the tightness of the seal is not likely to be the result of the manner in which the windows were frozen.With a few verbstight is used idiomatically as an intensive and is the only possible form: sleep tight; sit tight. Tight can be used only following the verb:The house was tightly (not tight ) shut. Tight 作副词用在表示关闭或压迫过程的动词后, 如squeeze,shut,close,tie 和 hold 。 在这种用法中,它与副词tightly有细微的差别。 Tight 表示过程导致的状态,而tightly 表示使用这些动作的方式。 因此,当焦点放在动作结束后仍然能持续一段时间的状态时,用tight 更为恰当。 句子她把房子的门窗紧紧地关起来 中表示准备迎接即将来到的暴风雪。 同样,我们说The windows were frozen tight 比 The windows were frozen tightly 更为自然, 因为这里的密封不大可能是窗子被冻上的结果。tight 还与几个动词结合惯用为加强语气的成分,且是唯一可能的形式: sleep tight; sit tight。 Tight 只能用于动词后:房子紧紧地 (而非 tight ) 关闭着 。 |
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