“小看”獨立主格結構

看下面三個例題:

1. The country has already sent up three unmanned spacecrafts， the most recent ______ at the end of last March. (2007山東)

A. has been launchedB. having been launched

C. being launchedD. to be launched

2. The children went home from the grammar school， their lessons _____ for the day. (2007重慶)

A. finishingB. finished

C. had finishedD. were finished

3. I was told that there were about 50 foreign students ______ Chinese in the school， most _____ from Germany.

A. study; of whomB. study; of them

C. studying; of themD. studying; of whom

以上三個題的答案分別是B、B、C，所考查的都是獨立主格結構。

其實我們不必把獨立主格結構看得過于復雜，無非就是一個主格(名詞、代詞等)加上非謂語形式。實際上我們沒有使用謂語動詞本身就取消了這個結構獨立存在的可能性，使它只能依附句子的主體部分而不能夠單獨存在。這樣我們就有了獨立主格結構這么一個概念。這里的這個主格也只是作為非謂語動詞短語的一個邏輯主語而存在。這個主格的存在是必要的，如果沒有這個主格結構，非謂語動詞則為一個垂懸結構而失去依靠，這在英語中是絕對不容許的。

其實，我們如果從動詞入手，問題更容易解決，甚至根本不必引入獨立主格結構這一概念。我們知道謂語動詞是一個分句的核心和靈魂，一個分句有且只有一個謂語部分(有并列除外)，這實際上也是我們解決英語中很多結構問題的關鍵所在。

我們以第1題為例，has already sent up這一部分應該是句子的謂語部分，由于這個句子的兩部分中間是由逗號隔開的，故而前后仍然屬于一個句子，因此逗號后邊不能出現謂語動詞，我們可以首先排除答案A。而C、D項屬表意方面的問題，C項表示正在被發射，D項表示將被發射，與整個句子的意思不吻合，答案B則是完成、被動兩方面的含義都有，符合整個句子的表意需要。在這個例子當中，我們用the most recent和現在分詞短語having been launched構成獨立主格結構，主格和分詞短語也只有邏輯上的主謂關系，因此也構不成句子。

另外，以上三個例子可以作如下轉化:

第1題題干可以轉化為:

The country has already sent up three unmanned spacecrafts， and the most recent has been launched at the end of last March.

The country has already sent up three unmanned spacecrafts; the most recent has been launched at the end of last March.

第2題題干可以轉化為:

The children went home from the grammar school， and their lessons were finished for the day.

The children went home from the grammar school; their lessons were finished for the day.

第3題題干可以轉化為:

I was told that there were about 50 foreign students studying Chinese in the school， most of whom were from Germany.

I was told that there were about 50 foreign students studying Chinese in the school， and most of them were from Germany.

I was told that there were about 50 foreign students studying Chinese in the school; most of them were from Germany.

編輯/梁宇清