TED演讲:修饰语滥用对写作的危害(2)

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　　The modifying phrase in this sentence seems unrelated to anything else,  这句话中的修饰短语似乎并没有与任何东西相连，

　　and so we're clueless about who the chocolate-loving criminal could possibly be. 所以我们不知道这个喜爱巧克力的窃贼会是谁。

　　Giving the modifier something to modify will solve the problem. 给修饰语一个修饰对象就会解决这个问题。

　　Then there's another group called the squinting¹ modifiers because they're stuck between two things and could feasibly refer to either. 还有一种叫做岐形修饰语，因为它们被卡在两样东西之中，修饰哪一个都讲得通。

　　Often, these modifiers are adverbs, like the one in this sentence:  通常，这些修饰语是副词，就像这句里的：

　　"Robbers who steal chocolate bunnies rapidly attract the outrage² of onlookers³." “这个窃贼偷巧克力兔子很快引起了旁观者的愤怒。”

　　"Rapidly" is the modifier here, “很快”在这里是修饰语，

　　but what's not clear is whether it's referring to the speed of the chocolate thievery, or how quickly it alerts the furious onlookers. 但不清楚是指偷巧克力很快呢，还是说很快引起了愤慨的旁观者的愤怒。

　　To clarify, we can either put the modifier closer to its intended phrase, which works in some cases,  为了使之清晰，我们可以把修饰语放得离修饰对象近一点，有些情况这样是可行的，

　　or we can entirely⁴ reword the sentence so that the modifier no longer squints⁵, but clearly applies to only one part. 或者我们可以改述这句话，从而使修饰语不偏向双方，但还是明确地指代一个部分。

　　"Chocolate bunny-thieving robbers rapidly attract the outrage of onlookers." “偷巧克力兔子的窃贼很快激起了旁观者的愤怒。”

　　Justice will eventually come to the chocolate thief, but in the meantime, 正义最终会使巧克力窃贼受到惩罚，

　　our task is to avoid verbal ambiguity⁶ by making it clear which parts of the sentences modifiers belong to. 但同时我们的任务是通过使句中的修饰对象清晰，从而避免歧义。

　　That way, we can at least maintain grammatical law and order. 这样一来，我们至少能保持原有的语法规则和次序。

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