这虽然是一个新概念4上的一个老问题,但是一直没看到好的语法解释。可以明确说明的是:用a brief period of lying down当然是可以的,而没有of的a brief period lying down也没错。看到大家在那争论,有些跑题了,之前就说过,内卷确实没意义,我们需要的是有意义的外卷。问题倒很简单:a brief period lying down到底是什么语法结构,它与a brief period of lying down是否有区别,如果有,区别在哪里?对此我想说说自己的理解,供大家琢磨。
Quirk在5.118节和17.108节有提到:
With temporal nouns in the plural, the apostrophe is sometimes omitted (cf 17.108):
several weeks (weeks') vacation.这两种都可以。
依据此是否可以类比得出a brief period lying down是period后省略了's?对此我持怀疑态度,因为a brief period形式上不同于several weeks,这是其一;其二是似乎并没有见到a brief period's lying down这样类似的描述,当然,类似以下这样的描述倒是有:
two weeks’ living in the country,这里的动名词living实际上已经彻底名词化了。
但是也有two weeks (of) living in the country的描述(of可以有也可以无),不一定是省略了's,也许这就是其完整形式。
我觉得还是得寻找另一些解释。
Jespersen在名著“A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles”第4卷的12.2(4)中写道:
Similarly with expressions denoting, the time occupied by something, we find (1) in + ing, (2) 0f + ing, (3) on + ing, a + ing, (4) ing.
他提到的第(4)类时间名词+V-ing也是指the time occupied by something,这就表明a brief period lying down中的a brief period是lying down修饰的对象,我们可以从以下几个例句中看出确实是这么回事:
1.A period living in Los Angeles followed and then she moved to Australia with her first husband Ricky Fataar, a musician with the Beach Boys, and had her daughter, Paloma.
2.Apart from a brief period living in England while her father studied at Reading University, Thura and her sisters - Aula, seventeen, and Sama, seven-have spent their whole lives in Baghdad.
3.Her two years in Australia and a brief period living in Auckland had not diminished her love for her home.
4.I remember long periods sitting around in doctors' offices waiting to get shots.
有人说,这是否是V-ing作为后修饰,你硬要这么理解也行,只是若是后修饰,请问这是属于V-ing的哪一种后修饰,是同位语吗?这下犯难了......。其实时间名词+V-ing的句法形式很早就有,一直延续至今。
可以确定地说a brief period lying down中的主导成分是a brief period,而a brief period of lying down的结构其主导成分是lying down,of前的a brief period修饰的是lying down。简而言之这是两种句法结构,虽然都能用,但句法上并不一样。
最后附上一些有of和没of的例句供大家琢磨:
5.After a brief period of living in flimsy huts, the inhabitants built solid houses of mud, then other buildings of stone.
6.After a brief period of living in Stockholm and Copenhagen, the Rachmaninoff family moved to the United States.
7.After a brief period of living in Canton, China, with her husband, she got a divorce and returned to the United States with the goal of continuing her education.
8.After a short period living in New York, and some years traveling in Europe and Asia, Merrill purchased a house in Stonington, Connecticut, and settled there.
9.Early fitting, a few days after amputation and before healing has occurred, is undoubtedly preferable, since it gets the patient upright after only a short period lying down.