問：Could you tell me the reason why she refused to go abroad?
你能否告訴我為什麼她不願意出國?
鄭孝通編著《高中英語重點· 難點縱橫談》(二) (中國科技大學出版社, 1997, p. 177) 說上面句中的why 子句是同位語子句。但我認為是形容詞子句, 不知您以為然否?
答：雖然《高級英語文法》(高教出版社, 1994, p. 794) 等英語著作都把上句中的why 子句看作是同位語子句, 但是我們卻認為它是限制性形容詞子句。應當注意, 在the reason why(that) 結構中, why 或that 是關係副詞, 而不是像在同位語子句中那樣是連接詞。讓我們看一看R. Quirk 等人對這一結構的分析:
“Where and when, and to a lesser extent why, are also used as relatives…”(CGEL §7. 53)
(“where 和when 以及較少使用的why 還可用作關係副詞…”)
“The preposition + pronoun can be replaced by special adverbs, e g: That’s the reason? for which why she spoke. (CGEL § 17, 18) ”
(“介係詞+ 代名詞”可以用特殊的副詞代替, 例如⋯⋯”)
“The rare use of for which after reason strikes most people as clumsy and unnatural, while the reason why seems tautologous; there is general preference for zero [5a]…
Is that the reason they came? [5a]”(CGEL, § 17. 19)
[“reason 之後接for which 鮮為人用, 因為大多數人都覺得它累贅, 不自然, 而the reason why 又顯得語意重複, 人們普遍喜歡使用零關係副詞(例[5a]…) ”]
請注意CGEL 的作者們把why 或that 明確地叫做關係副詞, 而把省略掉的why 或that 叫做零關係副詞。
讓我們再來比較一下真正的同位語子句, 便可看出the reason why 與它們之間的區別:
- The news that we are having a holiday tomorrow is not true. 明天放假的消息是不真實的。
- Your original question, why he did not report it to the police earlier, has not yet been answered. 你最初提出的他為什麼不早些報警的問題尚未得到回答。
很容易看出, 同位語子句的第一個特點, 是同位語子句所表達的概念在內涵上應當等同於其中心詞:
- the news = we are having a holiday tomorrow
- your original question = why he did not report it to the police earlier
而the reason 與why 子句卻不存在這種關係:
同位語子句的第二個特點, 是可以用中心詞作主詞, 而把同位語子句改為述語子句。
此時, 句子在內容上是成立的。
- The news that we are having a holiday tomorrow it not true.
→ The news is that we are having a holiday tomorrow. - Your original question, why he did not report it to the police earlier, has not yet been answered.
→ Your original question is why he did not report it to the police earlier.
而the reason why 卻不能這樣進行改寫:
- Could you tell me the reason why she refused to go abroad?
× The reason is why she refused to go abroad. - That’s the reason why she spoke.
× The reason is why she spoke.
綜上所述可見, 在the reason why (that) 結構中why (that) 引導的是形容詞子句, 而並不是同位語子句。