Shelookedaroundforthedog,whosedutyitwastopreventthissortofoccurrence(她四望尋狗:那隻狗的責任,是防止這類事情)一語,it字有什麼用?可以刪去嗎?
那it字假如刪去,句子文法沒有錯,意思也沒有變。請看以下句子:Shelookedaroundforthedog.Thedog'sdutywastopreventthissortofoccurrence。用whose取代thedog's而把兩句接連,句子就變成Shelookedaroundforthedog,whosedutywastopreventthissortofoccurrence。
又請看以下句子:Shelookedaroundforthedog.Itwasthedog'sdutytopreventthissortofoccurrence。用whose取代thedog's而把兩句接連,句子就變成Shelookedaroundforthedog,whosedutyitwastopreventthissortofoccurrence。Whose、which之類關係代名詞(relativepronoun)宜盡量貼近所代表的名詞,所以不說Shelookedaroundforthedog,itwaswhoseduty...而應說Shelookedaroundforthedog,whosedutyitwas...。
也許須附帶一談的,是Itwasthedog'sdutytopreventthissortofoccurrence文法上等於Topreventthissortofoccurrencewasthedog'sduty,不過,以「to+動詞」作句子主詞(subject),說起來不順口,所以一般會用it取代,而把「to+動詞」置於句末。
FeltIhadtowrite是不是倒裝句法(inversion)?
這一句似乎是動詞置於主詞之前,符合「倒裝」定義,但其實不是倒裝句,而是省略句。口頭英文往往把句前可以意會的字略去,例如:(1)(I)FeltIhadtowrite(我覺得我要動筆)。(2)(Doyou)Finditamusing?(覺得有趣嗎?)