下文中提到的語法錯誤，看著可能較為簡單，但請勿掉以輕心，在列的都是在英語論文寫作中常出現(xiàn)的問題。學(xué)明白這些內(nèi)容，對自己的英語文本理解能力和翻譯能力都有極大幫助。

1. 修飾語(Modifiers)

英文句中的語意有很大一部分是由單詞的順序所決定的，而修飾語可以是單詞、短語或從句，功能是在句子中提供描述。這些修飾語的位置很重要，要是放在不對的位置會改變語意。

例如：“I need a leave on Thursday because I am marrying my daughter.”此句中，問題點(diǎn)在于“I am marrying my daughter”這個短語，意味著該說話者將要與他的女兒結(jié)婚，這樣實(shí)在很不恰當(dāng)。他真正的意思是，他需要出席女兒的婚禮，所以他需要請假。此句的正確版本應(yīng)該是“Because my daughter is getting married on Thursday, I need a leave.”

以下列出三類修飾語常會遭到誤用：

錯置修飾語(Misplaced Modifiers)

錯置修飾語需要移至句中的他處，以避免可能的混淆。

看看這個例句：

“Simone put the bracelet on her arm that she bought yesterday.”

此句中，意思成了 Simone 昨天買了一只手臂，但其實(shí)她買的是一只臂鐲。正確的句子應(yīng)該是：“Simone put the bracelet that she bought yesterday on her arm.”。記得，要解決錯置修飾語的問題，就要將修飾語移至要修飾的詞旁。

垂懸修飾語(Dangling Modifiers)

垂懸修飾語指的是句子中不包含所修飾的詞時(shí)，也就是句子中缺乏目標(biāo)的標(biāo)題詞，無法明確指出修飾語修飾的是句子中的哪個詞。

例如：“The waiter finally served us after sitting at the table for nearly an hour.”

此句中的問題在于讀者不明白到底是誰坐在桌子旁。句子的正確版本應(yīng)該是：“The waiter finally served us after we were sitting at the table for nearly an hour.”要解決垂懸修飾語的問題，加上修飾語所修飾的特定詞就可以了。

歧義修飾語(Squinting Modifiers)

歧義修飾語，依字面上來看，意思是修飾語會讓讀者無法判斷真正修飾的部分，這類錯誤會使修飾語即可修飾前面的詞，也可修飾后面的詞。例如：“The store that had the big sale recently went bankrupt.”此句的意思有兩種可能：

1. 最近辦過大特賣的那家店鋪倒閉了。(The store that recently had a big sale went bankrupt.)

2. 辦過大特賣的那家店鋪?zhàn)罱归]了。(The store that had a big sale went bankrupt recently.)

因此，依照“recently”擺放的位置，句意會有所變化。將詞擺放在適當(dāng)?shù)奈恢蒙?，對傳達(dá)正確的訊息來說是很重要的。

2. 錯詞(Wrong Word)

有時(shí)因?yàn)樵~跟詞之間的發(fā)音太過相似，寫作中常會用錯，如 their、there、they’re 的發(fā)音相同，但各自的語意都不相同?？s寫也可能造成問題，should’ve 聽起來和 should of 很像，但這其實(shí)是 should have 的縮寫。

錯誤：You’re semester is difficult because your taking too many classes.

You’re 意指 you are，而后面的 your 是所有格，這兩個詞在此句中的用法都錯了。

正確：Your semester is difficult because you’re taking too many classes.

這個句子中的You’re 及 your 在句中的用法才正確。

缺少平行結(jié)構(gòu)(Lack of Parallel Structure)

同樣重要的想法于表列中或比較中呈現(xiàn)時(shí)，應(yīng)該使用同樣的語法形態(tài)，不平行結(jié)構(gòu)會令讀者混淆，因?yàn)樵诒砹兄杏蒙喜煌恼Z法形態(tài)時(shí)，意味著表列中的項(xiàng)目不屬于同類。

錯誤：Biology is my major because the subject is challenging, interesting, and excites me.

? “Excites me”與表列中的其他項(xiàng)目的語法結(jié)構(gòu)不同，讀起來相當(dāng)別扭。

正確：Biology is my major because the subject is challenging, interesting, and exciting.

? 表列中的三個項(xiàng)目在結(jié)構(gòu)上對等且平行。

錯誤：Biology is my major because the subject is challenging, interesting, and I plan on being a veterinarian.

? “I plan on being a veterinarian”與表列中的其他項(xiàng)目的語法結(jié)構(gòu)不同，讀起來相當(dāng)別扭。

正確：I plan on being a veterinarian, so biology is my major. I also chose biology because I find it challenging and interesting.

? “I plan on being a veterinarian”似乎比表列中的另兩項(xiàng)還要來得重要，因此可以將這段討論拆成兩句。

3. 錯誤的平行結(jié)構(gòu)(Faulty Parallelism)

務(wù)必在表達(dá)一系列的兩個以上相符想法或項(xiàng)目時(shí)，使用語法對等的句子元素。

錯誤：The candidate’s goals include winning the election, a health program, and education.

正確：The candidate’s goals include winning the election, enacting a national health program, and improving the educational system.

4. 句子不完整(Fragments)

顧名思義，就是不完整的句子，是由獨(dú)立從句的一部分所組成。

錯誤：The University will have to raise tuition next year. Because the state government will not raise taxes to support education.

? “Because the state government will not raise taxes to support education”有主語和動詞，但是“because”讓句子形成了附屬從句，無法自己表達(dá)完整的意思，需要與主要從句連接才能形成完整句。

正確：The University will have to raise tuition next year because the state government will not raise taxes to support education.

? 該附屬從句成為主要從句的一部分了。

錯誤：The inevitable laying off of faculty and staff.

正確：The laying off of faculty and staff is inevitable.

? 此句不再是不完整句，因?yàn)橛辛酥髡Z“the laying off of faculty and staff”和動詞“is inevitable”。

5. 模糊代詞指涉(Vague Pronoun Reference)

代詞必須有清楚指涉的主語。當(dāng)代詞可以指涉超過一個的主語或是該代詞指涉的主語沒有點(diǎn)明時(shí)，就會產(chǎn)生所謂的模糊代詞指涉。

錯誤：If your students don’t do well on their quizzes, they must not be very good.

? “They”是個模糊的代詞，不確定在句中指涉的是students 或是 quizzes。

正確：Your quizzes must not be very good if your students don’t do well on them.

? 本句中，they 明確指涉 quizzes，而非 students。缺乏代詞一致性(Lack of Pronoun Agreement)使用代詞要準(zhǔn)確、一致。代詞必須與數(shù)字、性別、主語類型一致。

錯誤：Each member of the rowing team had to set their alarm for three in the morning.

? “Each member”是單數(shù)，代詞也必須是單數(shù)。

正確：Each member of the rowing team had to set her alarm for three in the morning.

? 名詞和代詞皆為單數(shù)。

6. 不清楚的代詞指涉(Unclear Pronoun Reference)

代詞必須要清楚地指涉限定的指涉對象名詞，使用 it、they、that、these、those、which 時(shí)要小心，以免造成混淆。

錯誤：Einstein was a brilliant mathematician. This is how he wasable to explain the workings of the universe.

正確：Einstein, who was a brilliant mathematician, used his quantitative ability to explain the workings of universe.

錯誤：Because Senator Martin is less interested in the environment than in economic development, she sometimes neglects it.

正確：Because of her interest in economic development, Senator Martin sometimes neglects the environment.

7. 不必要的時(shí)態(tài)轉(zhuǎn)換(Unnecessary Tense Shift)

動詞時(shí)態(tài)要保持一致，如果句子以現(xiàn)在時(shí)起頭，不要隨意地轉(zhuǎn)換成過去時(shí)。有時(shí)候可能需要轉(zhuǎn)換時(shí)態(tài)，反映時(shí)間的變化，但是非必要的轉(zhuǎn)換可能會使讀者混淆，搞不清寫作內(nèi)容的時(shí)間關(guān)系。

錯誤：Someone pulled the fire alarm yesterday, so we get out of class without taking the quiz.

? 此句中，沒有明確的理由就從過去時(shí)“pulled”轉(zhuǎn)換成現(xiàn)在時(shí)“get”。

正確：Someone pulled the fire alarm yesterday, so we got out of class without taking the quiz.

? 因?yàn)闆]有明確的理由轉(zhuǎn)換時(shí)間，所以兩個動詞都是過去時(shí)。

8. 一致性錯誤(Agreement Errors)

名詞與代詞的一致性

代詞包括 he、she、they、his、hers 等字，可以指涉前面的名詞，或代替名詞。代詞應(yīng)該與所代表的名詞保持一致，復(fù)數(shù)名詞應(yīng)該使用 they 作為代詞，所有格代詞為 their。

? The Beatles wanted their music to convey a message, so they created music and lyrics that others would remember.

單數(shù)名詞應(yīng)該使用對應(yīng)性別的單數(shù)代詞和單數(shù)所有格代詞。

? (陽性)Jerry wanted to spend his weekend camping, but he knew he’d have to talk Linda into it.

? (陰性)Linda had wanted to spend her weekend at the spa, but she knew Jerry wanted to go camping.

? (中性)The raccoon got into the ice chest and cut its paw on a sharp knife.

補(bǔ)充：部分跨考同學(xué)可能不知道英語名詞中四種不同類別的“性”：陽性、陰性、通性和中性。概念較為簡單，具體可以自己百度查詢了解。

集合名詞

上述的簡單規(guī)則會在導(dǎo)入集合名詞和集合代詞后變得更加復(fù)雜，集合代詞包括 everyone、all、everybody、committee、staff。當(dāng)一個詞指涉的是集體中的每個個體時(shí)，如 everybody、everyone、each，則使用單數(shù)動詞和單數(shù)代詞。

? Everyone in this store is buying chips.

? Everybody needs to bring his or her book to the meeting.

當(dāng)一個字將個體視為一個團(tuán)體時(shí)，如 committee、staff、faculty等，使用單數(shù)動詞和代詞。

? The committee is making a decision.

當(dāng)一個字指涉的是為許多個體組成的團(tuán)體時(shí)，如 all、some等，使用復(fù)數(shù)動詞和代詞。

? Some people are going to the movies.

? All people listen to their own type of music.

在非正式寫作和演說中，有時(shí)候也會用在性別中性的情況下，they 可以作為單數(shù)的中性代詞，如 everyone 一樣。

? Everyone has their own opinion.

許多人認(rèn)為這樣的用法是錯的，并且偏好使用 his、her 或his/her。要處理這個狀況，可以將名詞或代詞轉(zhuǎn)為復(fù)數(shù)。

? We all have our own opinions.

動詞時(shí)態(tài)

有時(shí)候?qū)懽髡邥诙温渲懈淖儎釉~的時(shí)態(tài)，因而導(dǎo)致混淆，為了避免混淆，應(yīng)確保動詞時(shí)態(tài)的一致。

錯誤：The method we use is interview and survey. We found that most people voted for the candidate whose name is familiar, regardless of the candidate’s political leanings.

正確1：The method we use is interview and survey. Our findings indicate that people vote for the candidate whose name is familiar, regardless of the candidate’s political leanings.

正確2：The method we used was interview and survey. We found that most people voted for the candidate whose name was familiar, regardless of the candidate’s political leanings.

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