Most novelists and historians writing in the early to mid-twentieth century who considered women in the West, when they considered women at all, fell under Turner’s spell.这句话的中文意思是从本世纪初到本世纪中叶从事写作的小说家和历史学家只要描写妇女,就会描述西部妇女,而且都被特纳迷住。这句话的主干是Most novelists and historians fell under Turner’s spell.其主语和谓语间被writing引导的修饰用的短语,一个由who引导的用于修饰Most novelists and historians的定语从句,和在这个由who引导的定语从句中的状语从句所分割开来。
当然有时还会存在这样的情况,即同位语或同位语从句与先行词的分割是为了照顾句子结构平衡或突出强调的需要。
例如:
After Galileo’s work the feeling grew that there were universal laws governing the motion of bodies and that these laws might apply to motion in the heavens as well as on earth.这句话的中文意思是在伽利略著作之后,这样的认识加强了,即认为存在着支配物体运动的普遍规律,这些规律不仅支配着地球上的而且也支配着天体上的物体的运动。在这句话中the feeling和that引导的从句被分割。
此外,还有定语(或定语从句)与中心词被分割;某些词与其所要求的介词被分割;动词与其宾语被分割等等许多情况。总之,英语的分割遵循的是尾重原则,即将长而复杂的成分放在句末,从而使结构平衡均匀,以避免主语部分太长,谓语部分太短),和句尾信息焦点原则,即把新信息(往往是语义的重点)放在句子末尾。所以阅读时一定要注意先找出句子主干来,再来分析句子的其他部分。
A contiguous zone is an area extending seaward from the territorial sea in which the coastal or island nation may exercise the control necessary to prevent or punish infringement of its customs, along with its fiscal, immigration, and sanitary laws and regulations that occur within its territory or territorial sea (but not for so-called security purposes)。
句子解析:这句话的主干部分十分简单就是A contiguous zone is an area。后面的extending引导的短语是用来定义和解释area的,而再后面的in which引导的定语从句部分也是用来修饰它的,而在这个定语从句中还有一个由that引导的定语从句,用于修饰其前面的infringement但它被一起修饰作用的介词短语所分割。
句子翻译:毗连区是从领海向外海一侧伸延的一片海区,沿海国或岛国在这一海区内可行使必要的管制,以防止或惩罚在其领土或领海内违反其海关、财政、移民和卫生法律与规章的行为(而不是所谓的安全目的)。
Anyone considering taking part in a work of transformation of those forms of older art which seem to us in many ways unsatisfactory, so that they should be more in turn with the changing timers, and anyone who does not quail at the prospect of seeking out new forms of expression for new materials and new building function, will find spiritual kinship, observing Borromini’s buildings.
句子解析:这句话很长但这句话的主干很简单就是Anyone and anyone will find spiritual kinship,在两个并列的主语之间加入了一大段的用于解释说明第一个anyone,并且在这一大段中还有which引导的定语从句用于修饰those forms of older art,而在第二个主语同谓语部分之间还被一个由who引导的用于修饰第二个anyone的定语从句所分割,observing Borromini’s buildings只是这个主干部分的状语部分用于进一步说明。
句子翻译:旧艺术形式在许多方面似乎不能令我们满意,这就有待于我们去变革这些形式以更好地跟上变化多端的时代步伐,任何考虑参加这项工作的人,任何勇于为新材料和新建筑功能探索新表现形式的人,观察一下博罗里尼的建筑,都会发现精神上的类似。