7.1 句子的语法分类与修辞上的多样化
7.1A 句子的语法分类
一般语法书都是从两个角度对句子进行分类：
1） 从使用上看，有陈述句（Declarative sentence）、疑问句（Interrogative sentence）、祈使句（Imperative sentence）和感叹句（Exclamatory sentence）等。
2） 从结构上看，有简单句（Simple sentence）、并列句（Compound sentence）、复合句（Complex sentence）和并列复合句（Compound complex sentence）等。
复合句亦称包孕句（Embedding sentence），即句子（主句）里面包含句子（分句）的意思。
凡结构正确，包括动词的时体、语态和语气变化，名词、代词数、性、格的使用，限定词的搭配，以及大小写、标点符号等都符合英语的通常使用规则与习惯，那就是语法上正确的句子。
7.1B 修辞上的句式多样化
1） 著名英国作家、评论家和辞书编纂家Samuel Johnson说：“The joy of life is variety”。英国戏剧家和小说家Aphra Behn说：“Variety is the soul of pleasure”。写作也是如此。修辞上对句子的要求除了语法正确，还讲求句子形式的变化。这主要表现在两个方面：一是采用不同的句型，二是合理安排长句与短句。例如下面这段文章都是简单句，结构上一律“主—谓”句型，因而读来单调乏味：
I sit here at this keyboard. I try to think of things to say. The words are not coming very freely. I think that is probably because it is the end of a long day. It may be that I am tired. I am smack up against writer's block. Free writing may help me break through the wall.
如果像下面这样稍加变化，就带来了句式较为多样化的效果，显得较为生动和流畅，节奏感也有了：
I sit here at this keyboard trying to think of things to say, but the words aren't coming very freely. Probably, they aren't coming because it's the end of a long day, and I'm tired. Whatever the reason, I'm smack up against writer's block. Perhaps free writing will help me break through the wall.
（Charles W. Bridges & Ronald F. Lunshford:Writing: Discovering Form and Meaning）
2） 有些句子的修辞功能是在一定的上下文里表现出来的，如“修辞疑问句”（Rhetorical question）形式上是个疑问句，但不是让别人回答，而是为了达到某种修辞目的，如用来提出所要表达的主题，作为段落过渡，或作为强调等，是人们在演说或写作中实现句式多样化的一个常用形式。例如：
英国散文家Hilaire Belloc在The Historian中开头就是一个修辞疑问句：
What is the historian?
The historian is he who tells a true story in writing ...
Michael Harrington连用的几个修辞疑问句具有很强的号召力：
Yet this need not be. The means are at hand to fulfill the age-old dream: poverty can be abolished. How long shall we ignore this underdeveloped nation in our mist? How long shall we look the other way while our fellow human beings suffer? How long?
读了Rupert Brooke下面这段文字，就会发现作者通过修辞疑问句避免了平铺直叙的写法，起到了突出主题和引起读者兴趣的作用：
But Toronto — Toronto is the subject. One must say something — What must one say about Toronto? What can one? What has anybody ever said? It is impossible to give it anything but commendation. It is not squalid like Birmingham, or cramped like Canton, or scattered like Edmonton, or sham like Berlin, or hellish like New York, or tiresome like Nice. It is all right. The only depressing thing is that it will always be what it is, only larger, and that no Canadian city can ever be anything better or more different. If they are good they may become Toronto.
在下面几节里讨论的掉尾句和松散句、渐进句和突降句、省略句和重复句等6种句子，是相互对应的3组句型，是修辞学中经常涉及的一些句式，使用得当，就有助于实现表达形式多样化，增强表达效果。
7.2 掉尾句和松散句
7.2A 掉尾句
1） 掉尾句（Periodic sentence）是一种把关键意思放在整句末尾、因而要读完全句才能了解该句完整含义的句子结构；从语法上看，掉尾句是一个不可分割的语言单位。例如：
Just before I went away to college, my father took me aside, as I had expected, and said, as I had not expected, “Now, Son, if a strange woman comes up to you on a street corner and offers to take your watch around the corner and have it engraved, don't do it.”
这个长句是掉尾句，一直要读到最后的句号才能明白全句的意思，而其中父亲对儿子的话也是一个掉尾句，只有听他讲到“don't do it”才能明白他要说什么。
2） 掉尾句的特点是把整句的主要部分（如复合句的主句或主句的主要成份）置于末尾处，形成整句的高潮，从而达到突出该部分内容的目的，所以，掉尾句属于一种修辞强调句。例如：
But if life hardly seems worth living, if liberty is used for subhuman purposes, if the pursuers of happiness know nothing about the nature of their quarry or the elementary techniques of hunting, these constitutional rights will not be very meaningful.
（Aldouds Haxley）
作者是用3个if引导的从句引出主句，达到突出主句的目的。
3） 掉尾句是一种比较正式的书面语体，结构上没有固定模式，多数情况下是把较长的状语提前，而把较短的主句留到最后。注意下面这个掉尾句却是以并列结构形成的长主语先出现，后面再出谓语，同样铿锵有力：
Whoever wishes to be made well acquainted with the morbid anatomy of governments, whoever wishes to know how great states may be made feeble and wretched, should study the history of Spain.
（Thomas Babington Macaulay）
7.2B 松散句
1） 松散句（Loose sentence）不同于掉尾句，它不要求把某个部分特意留到句尾，而是想到哪里说到哪里。例如：
Angela Mina lives in a very poor country where many children born die before their first birthday. Over 75% of all children suffer some forms of malnutrition, and unclean water, disease, civil conflict, and natural disaster are all challenges to the survival for many children and their families.
（The Atlantic, Jan. 1993）
并列句是一种松散句，它的分句各自表达比较完整的意思，并且前后次序常常可以颠倒。主句在前、从句在后的复合句也可算是一种松散句，因为一般说来主句表示的是整句意思的主体部分，而从句是表示次要部分，如补充、修饰等。松散句中的分句通常可以改成独立的句子。
2） 同前面的掉尾句相反，松散句不属严谨的正式文体，而适用于一种自然朴实的文风。例如：
He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made you think of a charging bull. His voice was deep, loud, and his manner displayed a kind of dogged self-assertion which had nothing aggressive in it. It seemed a necessity, and it was directed apparently as much of himself as of anybody else. He was spotlessly neat, apparelled in immaculate white from shoes to hat, and in the various Eastern parts where he got his living as ship-chandler's water-clerk he was very popular.
这是英国作家Joseph Conrad的小说Lord Jim的开头一段。作者使用了一连串松散句，把他的故事以轻松的口气随意道来，直到最后一句的后半部分，即从and开始作者才改变句子结构，以倒装掉尾句的形式使“he was very popular”得到强调。这个小小的段落表明，优秀作家是多么善于做到句式多样化！
7.3 渐进句和突降句
7.3A 渐进句
1） 一个句子由一个基础句式引出以后，再逐渐增加具体细节（通常是以独立结构和分词短语形式出现），使基础句的内容得到补充或深化，这种句子即称渐进句（Cumulative sentence），即逐渐进一步说明的意思。例如：
The fall came early that year, the trees turning bare overnight, their yellow leaves scattered by the winds.
（Arnold Lazarus H. Wendell Smith）
Geiser serves his regular customers with special care, scraping the tops of steaks for those who insist on it, handing free frankfurters to the little tikes, adding an extra quarter pound of sausage to the order.
（Bizzell et al.）
2） 渐进句通常是由基础句提出整体或一般的概念，然后从整体到局部，从一般到个别，通过修饰语进一步加以说明。基础句的位置通常在句首，但也可能根据具体情况放到两个修饰短语之间或几个修饰语的最后面。例如：
Careening out of the lot, the car rumbled down the deserted alley, weaving from side to side.
（Leonora Woodman）
Their hair mussed, their clothes wrinkled, their eyes dull and half-shut, they had the look of the recently sick.
（Leonora Woodman）
7.3B 突降句
1） 从句子范围看，突降法表现为：在几个含义重要或结构正式的词语后面突然出现一个不像前面那样同等重要或同样正式的词语，因而构成一种明显的“落差”。这种句式称突降句（Anticlimax sentence）。例如：
As a serious young man, I loved Beethoven, Keats, and hot dogs.
作为一个serious young man，热爱音乐家和诗人，均属精神生活方面高层次爱好，但后面跟上hot dogs就是突降。这表面看来有点不伦不类，实际上不无道理：当一个人的兴趣集中在高层次的文化艺术上时，对吃喝就不大在意了，因而喜欢快餐食品就在情理之中。这里突降法，充满幽默感，给人的印象格外深刻。
2） 突降也是一种修辞强调手法，从结构上看，它既是cumulative的对称句式，更是climax的对称句式。Climax汉译“层进式”，同cumulative相比，climax在结构上一般是较为工整的并列式，语义上各并列部分依照由轻到重，由浅到深的次序排列，层层推进。例如：
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
（Francis Bacon）
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
（Martin Luther King Jr.）
培根把读书同吃食物相比，从尝、吞到咀嚼、消化，层次分明。马丁·路德·金的理想是从消除社会现实中的崎岖不平现象到实现所有肤色民族的真正自由、平等，由近及远，由低到高，由现象到本质，井然有序。
反之，anticlimax中的组成部分是依照从大到小的方向排列。例如：
For God, for America, and for Yale.
这是美国耶鲁大学的校训。同上帝和国家相比，一所具体学校的重要性当然小多了，可算是一种突降，正是因为这样，反而给人以格外深刻印象，使人们认识到要从耶鲁做起，从我做起。又如：
She had a warm and sympathetic personality, a quick and perceptive intelligence, beautiful features, and real skill at bowling.
（Wilma R. Ebbitt and David R. Ebbitt）
为什么在一系列总的肯定评价之后来一个具体的real skill of bowling？乍听到或读到这样的结尾，会给人一种滑稽感，但稍加思索，就觉得特别幽默、俏皮，并且越想越有道理：也许正是由于这项运动爱好，她才能有那样聪明的头脑和健美体型。
3） 由于突降句式具有丰富的修辞功能，它不仅在文学作品中常见，在谚语和广告中也时常出现。例如：
Religion, credit and the eye are not to be touched.
— Proverb
宗教、荣誉和眼珠，三者都不能亵渎。
You manage a business, stocks, bonds, people. And now you can manage your hair.
你能管理公司、股票、债券、人员，现在也能管好你的头发了。
“尾重”（End weight）是英语句式的一般要求，即把结构较长、用语较正式、含义较重要的成份放在句子的结尾处，anticlimax反其道而行之，有意造成前6.3B1提到的“落差”。然而，我们又要注意避免无意识造成的突降误用。试比较：
a） Poodles are smart but they are no smarter than pigs, I have read.
b） Poodles are smart, but I have read that they are no smarter than pigs.
（Sylvan Barnet and Marcia Stubbs）
上述a句以I have read结尾，冲淡了前面“no ... than”表示的强调意义，因而出现了无意识造成的突降，给人的印象是说话者对所说的情况没有把握似的，为此应当像b句那样把I have read放到句子中间去，类似I have read, in my opinion, it seems to me, in general这样的插入语式或附加修饰语，都应插入句中适当位置或移到句首，以保持尾重。
7.4 省略句和重复句
7.4A 省略句
1） 省去句中某个成分，因而从语法上看句子结构不算完整，但从上下文看意义是清楚的，这种句式称为省略句（Elliptical sentence）。省略句在口语中最为常见。例如下面一段对话中都是省略句：
— Hi!
— Morning!
— Got troubles?
— Sure have.
— Lost a friend?
— No, just tired.
— Up late last night?
— Yeah. Big party.
2） 省略是简洁文体（Laconic style）的一个特色，在警句、格言、谚语中尤为常见。有一种称为Asyndeton的省略句主要省去连词and，适用于描写快速的连续动作。例如：
I came, I saw, I conquered.
（Julius Caesar）
As a boy, he recalls, he tried to break up a fight, got a drubbing for his pains.
（TIME）
3） 略语或缩写（Abbreviation）也是一种省略，主要用于对人的称呼，一些拉丁语短语，知名的组织、机构名称、地址，等等。例如：
Mr. T. Fingar （Mister的缩略式）
Dr. E. Laine （Doctor的缩略式）
NATO （The North Atlantic Treaty Organization的缩略式）
e.g. （for example的缩略式）
i.e. （that is的缩略式）
etc. （and so forth的缩略式）
422 S Main St, Slippery Rock, PA 16057, USA （美国的通讯地址，其中有不少缩略式，如开头直书门牌号，s表示south, St或ST表示Street, PA表示Pennsylvania，等）
现代英语——尤其美国英语中缩略语有增多的趋势，但使用时注意不要让读者费解，如在文章中正式提到名称、日期等时不应当用缩略式。例如：
The first lady is visiting Pennsylvania this weekend.
（句中Pennsylvania不能用PA替代。）
On Tuesday, February 26, the editor of the Plainviez Herald announced the paper would no longer advertise X-rated films.
（句中Tuesday, February, editor等不应改缩略式。）
7.4B 重复句
1） 重复句一般是写作中应避免的东西，但它却是种常见的修辞手法。散文中的重复往往具有两个方面的目的，即为了更加连贯，或为了强调。例如：
Those of us who came to know baseball when there was little television and no big-time professional football or baseball talked its language, heard its lore, and were taken with its special sense before we had ever played an organized game or pondered its beautiful mystery. There were giants on the field, men of legend whose voice we had ever heard, whose faces we knew only from newspaper photographs or from the murky images on our bubble-gum cards, and whose records — batting average, home runs, runs battled in — suggested meaning beyond anything we understood. “Facts” supported myth, and myth magnified the facts on which it was supposed to be based.
（Peter Schrag）
上面这段文章中its和whose重复使用，加上平行结构，加强了句间的连贯和呼应，使整个段落浑然一体。
下例中no的重复及由此构成平行句式，使语气加强：
Kurtz, he realized, had “looked over the edge” and had seen the “inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraints, no faith, and no fear yet was struggling, blindly with itself.”
（Norma Youngbirg）
下例中empty的重复既加强了作家笔下描写的空旷气氛，又构成了上下句间的自然连贯：
Across the boulevard where a milk truck scurries to more lucrative fields lies the sea and miles of empty beach on which thousands come to bask and bathe in summer. The empty life-guard towers look out to sea; their boats are gone; no human being is in sight.
（John Rowlands）
2） 古罗马修辞学家昆廷利安（Quintilian）曾论及两种修辞重复：Reduplication和Synonymy（或Interpretation）。
前一种重复是相同词语的重复，例如：
“You are promoting riots, Gaius Gracchus, yes, civil and internal riots.”
“You were not moved when his mother embraced your knees? You were not moved?”
“You now even dare to come into the sight of these citizens, traitor to the fatherland? Traitor, I say, to the fatherland, you dare come into the sight of these citizens?”
在演说和辩论中的这种重复如同重锤反复敲击听话者的心灵，如同利剑连续点击敌方的痛处，具有很强的力度。
后一种重复是利用含义相同的词语，如：
“You have overturned the republic from its roots; you have demolished the state from its foundations.”
“You have impiously beaten your father; you have criminally laid hands upon your parent.”
一句话刚说完，接着跟上一句含义相同的话，使原话的力量增强，势必给听话者以深刻的印象。
7.5 长句与短句
7.5A 句子长短同句子结构的关系
句子的长短和句式结构密切相关。一般说来，简单句比较短，复合句较长。写作上忌讳的是重复使用类似长度的相同句型，例如下面这段学生的作文里就存在这个毛病：
I took a great deal of courage when I registered for class on June 11. But I am also pleased that I have finally decided to take the step. On that day I purchased all the textbooks that I would need for this class. I wanted to be sure that I would have all the material I needed.
这段作文句式单调、呆板，有3个方面的原因：
第一、整个段落中的4句话都是由“主句+从句”组成的复合句；
第二、各句都是以“I”做主语的“主—谓”句型；
第三、各句字数是14－15个。
为此，应对这个段落加以改写，下面是可采用的一种方式：
Although it took great courage of me to register for class on June 11, I'm pleased to have taken the step. On that day I also purchased all the textbooks arranged for the class, so that I would have the necessary material.
7.5B 长句与短句的不同功能
1） 从修辞角度看，长短句的不同功能主要表现为：
第一、短句的特点是具有速度和力度感，在文章的紧张或戏剧性关头连用短句能收到良好的效果。例如Joan Didion在写到圣安娜风（Santa Ana，一种吹自沙漠的干热飓风）即将到来时人们的不安心情：
There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air this afternoon, some unnatural stillness, some tension. What it means is that tonight a Santa Ana will begin to blow, a hot wind from the northeast whining down through the Cajon and San Gorgonio Passes, blowing up sandstorms out along Route 66, drying the hills and the nerves to the flash point. For a few days now we will see smoke back in the canyons and hear sirens in the night. I have neither heard nor read that a Santa Ana is due, but I know it, and almost everyone I have seen today knows it too. We know it because we feel it. The baby frets. The maid sulks ...
第二、长句适用于细节描写，人们在从容不迫地进行叙述或说明论点时也往往使用较长的句式，让事实充分展现，让说理深入透彻，而且在这样的几个长句之后出现一个短句，则有助于调整节奏；在段末出现时常常是对前述各句的一个小结。例如Robert Benchley的“How to Get Things Done”一文在节奏上就给读者一个“紧张而有秩序”的感觉，其原因之一是连续的长句之后出现短句，有的句子仅几个或一个单词（如“Now.” “Hello, what's this!”），让读者在紧张中感到一阵轻快和幽默，下面这个例子中的段末短句既是小结，又隐含着问题：“果真是这样么？”因而它具有承上启下的功能：
But the fact remains that hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country are wondering how I have time to do all my painting, engineering, writing and philanthropic work when, according to the rotogravure sections and society notes I spend all my time riding to hounds, going to fancy-dress balls disguised as Louis XIV or spelling out GREETINGS TO CALIFORNIA in formation with three thousand Los Angeles school children. “All work and all play,” they say.
The secret of my incredible energy and efficiency in getting work done is a simple one ...
2） 在写作中恰当地使用长句和短句，是一个应当认真学习的技巧，更是一种从大量实践中获得的能力，是人类思维和交际习惯的客观反映，为此，优秀作家的作品都是长短句综合运用的范例。下面再引Joan Didion的一段文章，其中不仅长句、短句用得恰到好处，各句在结构上也富于变化：
This is a story about love and death in the golden land, and begins with the country. The San Bernardino Valley lies only an hour east of Los Angeles by the San Bernadino Freeway but is in certain ways an alien place: not the coastal California of the subtropical twilights and the soft westerlies off the Pacific but a harsher California, haunted by the hot dry Santa Ana and that comes down through the passes at 100 miles an hour and whines through the eucalyptus windbreaks and works on the nerves. October is the bad month for the wind, the month when breathing is difficult and the hills blaze up spontaneously. There has been no rain since April. Every voice seems a scream. It is the season of suicide and divorce and prickly dread, wherever the wind blows.
