In 1762, Bishop Robert Lowth did a grave disservice to the English language when he published his Short Introduction to English Grammar. Rather than basing his grammatical rules in the usage of the best educated speakers and writers of English, he arbitrarily chose to base them on the Latin grammatical system. The result is that many modern usages in English, particularly an alarming number of rules of normative usage and Standard Written English, are based upon those false origins.
1762年，主教羅伯特?羅斯在他的《英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)法簡(jiǎn)介》一書中犯了一個(gè)極大的錯(cuò)誤。他根據(jù)的不是那些受過(guò)最好的高等教育英語(yǔ)人士和作家所使用的語(yǔ)法規(guī)則，而是武斷地選擇了拉丁語(yǔ)系為基礎(chǔ)。結(jié)果導(dǎo)致了英語(yǔ)里大量的現(xiàn)代用法，尤其是數(shù)目驚人的規(guī)范用法和標(biāo)準(zhǔn)書面英語(yǔ)，均來(lái)自于這些當(dāng)初的錯(cuò)誤。
These very rules continue to plague us to this day as they are still used as the foundation of many modern school English curriculums. And so, with this list, I hope to finally put an end to many of these foolish rules. [Did you see what I did?]
至今，這些語(yǔ)法規(guī)則依然困擾著我們，因?yàn)樵S多現(xiàn)代中學(xué)英語(yǔ)課程依然以這些規(guī)則作為教學(xué)基礎(chǔ)。因此，我希望能通過(guò)下面的這些例子最終廢除這些愚蠢的規(guī)則。
10
Between is for two only
The “tween” portion of “between” is a reference to the number 2, but the Oxford English Dictionary says this: “In all senses, between has, from its earliest appearance, been extended to more than two.” Many pedants try to enforce the use of “among” when speaking of groups larger than two. Even the pickiest speaker does not naturally say, “A treaty has been negotiated among England, France, and Germany.”
10 Between僅用于兩者之間
"between"中的 "tween"表示數(shù)字2，但牛津英語(yǔ)詞典解釋說(shuō)： “根據(jù)其最早的出現(xiàn)，無(wú)論從哪一點(diǎn)來(lái)說(shuō)，between已延伸到表示兩個(gè)以上” 。許多書呆子依然強(qiáng)調(diào)當(dāng)大于2個(gè)以上的群體時(shí)，使用“among”。即使是最挑刺的人也不會(huì)本能地說(shuō)： “英、法、德(among)之間已就條約進(jìn)行了商議” 。
9
Till versus ’til
Because ’til looks like an abbreviation for “until”, some people believe that this word should always be spelt ’til (some don’t object to leaving off the apostrophe). However, “till” has been in regular use in English for over 800 years, longer than ’til. It is completely correct English to say “till”.
9 Till與’til
因?yàn)?rsquo;til像是"until"的縮寫，因此，有些人認(rèn)為"until"這個(gè)字應(yīng)始終拼寫為：’til(有些人贊成省略撇號(hào))。不過(guò)，"till"在英語(yǔ)中已經(jīng)使用了800多年了，而且遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)長(zhǎng)于’til。英語(yǔ)中使用"till"是完全正確的。
8
Persuade versus convince
Some people have the strange belief that you must “persuade” someone to “convince” them, but you cannot “convince” a person. In fact, persuade is a synonym (means the same thing) for convince - and this usage goes back to the 16th century. It can mean both to attempt to convince, and to succeed in convincing. It is not common anymore to say things like “I am persuaded that you are an idiot” - though this is also correct English.
