六. 指代不清(ambiguous reference of pronouns)
指代不清主要讲的是代词与被指代的人或物关系不清,或者先后所用的代词不一致。试看下面这一句:
mary was friendly to my sister because she wanted her to be her bridesmaid.
(玛丽和我姐姐很要好,因为她要她做她的伴娘。)
读完上面这一句话,读者无法明确地判断两位姑娘中谁将结婚,谁将当伴娘。如果我们把易于引起误解的代词的所指对象加以明确,意思就一目了然了。这个句子可改为:
mary was friendly to my sister because she wanted my sister to be her bridesmaid.
例1. and we can also know the society by serving it yourself.
剖析:句中人称代词we 和反身代词yourself指代不一致。改为:
we can also know society by serving it ourselves.
上一篇: 英语:Living Alone