长句和短句

通常有些人会误解，认为文章中的句子越长越好，生怕短句给人文字功底不到家的感觉。其实，句子的长短是为要表达的内容服务的，而不应该成为判断文章好坏和语言功力的标准。虽然对一个以英语为第二语言或外语的中国人来说，能写出正确、流畅、地道、乃至漂亮的英语长句的确是英语水平的一种体现，然而真正能体现写作水平的却是能适当地运用长句与短句。

长句与短句的使用取决于写作目的和上下文。脱离了目的和上下文，短句会显得琐碎单调，同样，长句会显得沉重，使人读来费力。好的作者懂得利用句子长短的变化来表现不同的情绪和态度，描写动作或事件，或者来强调某个观点。

我们先来看一段文章：

Dick Boulton looked at the doctor. Dick was a big man. He knew how big a man he was. He liked to get into fight. He was happy. Eddie and Billy Tabeshaw leaned on their cant-hooks and looked at the doctor. The doctor chewed the beard on his lower lip and looked at Dick Boulton. They could see from his back how angry he was. They all watched him walk up the hill and go inside the cottage. (E. Hemingway, The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife)

这是海明威一篇小说中的一段。Dick 比医生要强壮得多，海明威在此运用了很多简洁的短句来强调Dick的身形高大。同时，Dick自己知道自己在身体上的优势，因此很庆幸，这些短句营造了Dick面对医生时的这种气氛。

而以下这段文字则将长句和短句结合在一起使用，请在阅读时注意作者在哪些地方运用了短句，那些地方运用了长句，这样使用的理由又是什么。

When the dyke swept out, Al turned and ran. His feet moved heavily. The answer was about his calves when he reached the truck. He flung the tarpaulin off the nose and jumped into the car. He stepped on the starter. The engine turned over and over, and there was no bark of the motor. He choked the engine deeply, and there was no cough. Over and over, slower and slower. Al set the spark high. He felt under the seat for the crank and jumped out. The water was higher than the running-board. He ran to the front end. Crank-case was under water now. Frantically, he fitted the crank and twisted around and around, and his clenched hand on the crank splashed in the slow flowing water at each turn. At last, his frenzy gave out. (John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath)

不难发现，作者描述的是Al在大水里艰难地发动卡车。在描述他发动卡车的动作时作者用了一连串长句，如“He flung the tarpaulin off the nose and jumped into the car. He stepped on the starter. …Al set the spark high. He felt under the seat for the crank and jumped out. The water was higher than the running-board. He ran to the front end.” 而在描写卡车发动机缓慢的反应时则用了较长的句子，如“The engine turned over and over, and there was no bark of the motor.”这样写的目的是以短句来写出Al急促的动作，并由此反映他急切的心情，以长句来表现发动机缓慢的反应，两者形成对照。

She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaned against the window curtains and in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne. She was tired. (James Joyce, Eveline)

以上的这段文字则在两句长句后用一个只有三个单词的短句来总结，效果是有力地强调了“她”的疲惫。

上面的三个例子表明短句可以很好的为作者的目的服务，而且能和长句结合在一起，起到很好的效果。而长句如果恰当地使用也会起到很好的效果。一般来说，长句比较常见与相对正式的文体中，如法律文书，官方文件和学术论文等等，体现一种严谨和庄重，防止任何误解和歧义。比如联合国宪章的导言就是一句有170个单词的长句。而在文学语言中则不同，长句常常用来表现接连发生的动作和感受，描写同时或连续不断的动作，或者表现直接的因果关系等。

The concrete highway was edged with a mat of tangled, broken, dry grass, and the grass heads were heavy with oat beards to catch on a dog's coat, and foxtails to tangle in a horse's fetlocks, and clover burrs to fasten in sheep's wool; sleeping life waiting to be spread and dispersal, twisting darts and parachutes for the wind, little spears and balls of tiny thorns, and all waiting for animals and for the wind, for a man's trousers cuff or the hem of a woman's skirt, all passive but armed with appliances of activity, still, but each possessed of the anlage of movement. (John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath)

同样是Steinbeck，同样出自The Grapes of Wrath（《愤怒的葡萄》），和前面一段Al发动卡车截然相反，这里作者运用了一个优美的长句表现了播种过程，把很多容易被人忽视的细节写的非常美丽。

这一期，我们讨论了长句和短句在文中的不同作用，最重要的就是写作时必须根据目的和上下文来选择。

思考题：
长句和短句分别有哪些表现力？
试试看用长句来改写海明威的那段文章，看看改写之后有什么不同的效果。