语法
本章有7小节：
- 没文化的人才讨厌语法
- 无论如何都要学语法
- 阻碍语法学习的幻觉——“那我没学中文语法不一样能用好中文么？”
- 了解语法书的结构和查询方法
- 很多中国学生学的是数学式语法而不是英语语法
- 应该给自己买一本以上的语法书
- 反复通读至少一本语法书
1. 没文化的人才讨厌语法
去菜场买菜，却不需要懂语法，因为说的都是短句、断句。
《货币的祸害：货币史片段》（Money Mischief）一书中，Milton Friedman的“Money is much too serious a matter to be left to central bankers.”被译作：货币是不能拿来开玩笑的，所以要交给中央银行。这是商务印书馆出版的书。
2. 无论如何都要学语法
英国首相Winston Churchill的回忆录：
By being so long in the lowest form I gained an immense advantage over the cleverer boys. They all went on to learn Latin and Greek and splendid things like that. But I was taught English. We were considered such dunces that we could learn only English. Mr. Somervell — a most delightful man, to whom my debt is great — was charged with the duty of teaching the stupidest boys the most disregarded thing–namely, to write mere English. He knew how to do it. He taught it as no one else has ever taught it. Not only did we learn English parsing thoroughly, but we also practised continually English analysis. Mr. Somervell had a system of his own. He took a fairly long sentence and broke it up into its components by means of black, red, blue, and green inks. Subject, verb, object: Relative Clauses, Conditional Clauses, Conjunctive and Disjunctive Clauses! Each had its colour and its bracket. It was a kind of drill. We did it almost daily. As I remained in the Third Form three times as long as anyone else, I had three times as much of it. I learned it thoroughly. Thus I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence — which is a noble thing. And when in after years my schoolfellows who had won prizes and distinction for writing such beautiful Latin poetry and pithy Greek epigrams had to come down again to common English, to earn their living or make their way, I did not feel myself at any disadvantage. Naturally I am biased in favor of boys learning English. I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honour, and Greek as a treat. But the only thing I would whip them for is not knowing English, I would whip them hard for that.
– My Early Life: A Roving Commission, Thornton Butterworth [UK] and Charles Scribner’s Sons [US], 1930)
美国总统林肯的传记也提到专门学习过语法：
“Spoke to me one day and said: ‘I had a notion of studying grammar‘, recalled Graham. “There was none in the village and I said to him: ‘I know of a grammar at one Vance’s (a man named John Vance), about six miles. Got up and went on foot to Vance’s and got the book. He soon came back and told me he had it. He then turned his immediate and almost undivided attention to English grammar. The book was Kirkham’s Grammar, an old (1826) volume.”
– “My Childhood’s Home” Growing Up With Young Abe Lincoln, by Richard Kigel
林肯描述过一个语法不好，同时思维混乱的人：
Monday, [April] 24th
On Saturday last we had General Rosecrans before our committee, and his account of the campaign of Western Virginia makes McClellan look meaner than ever. On last Friday went with Indianans to call on President Johnson. Governor Morton transgressed the proprieties by reading a carefully prepared essay on the subject of reconstruction. Johnson entered upon the same theme, indulging in bad grammar, bad pronunciation and much incoherency of thought. In common with many I was mortified.
– Lincoln the Lover: III. The Tragedy, Wilma Frances Minor
人们讨厌语法是因为基因天生短视：
the evolutionary costs and benefits of innovations work like the economics of pharmaceutical research. The Pfizer Corporation spent over $I00 million and many years developing the drug Viagra before the drug made a single cent of profit. The costs accumulated early, and the benefits came only later. Drug companies can cope with this delayed gratification, and have the foresight to undertake the research that leads to such profitable innovations. But evolution has no foresight. It lacks the long-term vision of drug company management. A species can’t raise venture capital to pay its bills while its research team tries to turn an innovative idea into a market-dominating biological product. Each species has to stay biologically profitable every generation, or else it goes extinct.
– The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature, by Geoffrey Miller, ANCHOR BOOKS 2000
3. 阻碍语法学习的幻觉——“那我没学中文语法不一样能用好中文么？”
产生幻觉的原因是：
- 表达简单思想的，用的都是简单词汇、简单句型；
- 只用简单句型，也降低了犯错的可能性；
- 把“能够用母语熟练地进行日常交流”当成“熟练使用母语”，即把菜市场的交流当成正式场合（写文章、演讲）的交流。
人们畏惧演讲，是因为语法和思维能力差，而不是心理素质不好、发挥差、准备不充分。美国总统林肯年轻时钻研了几年语法后，才去参加竞选。
4. 了解语法书的结构和查询方法
先看语法书的结构。
想了解哪方面的语法，就去查。查着查着就谙熟于心。把最常用的语法知识经过反复查阅应用后牢记，剩下的，只要拿出语法书能查到就行了。
当遇到没有一个生词却读不懂句子时，首选锁定功能词，例如that, and, as, of等等。
例如，Woman as she is, she's very brave.看不懂这句，就去查语法书，查功能词as。拿出《朗文英语语法》，翻到索引页：
as: conjunction in clauses concession 1.50, manner 1.47.1 reason 1.48.1, time 1.45.1, as and because 1.48.2; not so much … as 5.13; with past progressive 9.20.2; preposition 8.4.4. the same as 6.30.4 as like, such as App 25.25
去1.50章查阅。再拿《新编英语阅读手册》，找到“As的主要用法和判别”一章：
III. 让步状语从句连词as 虽然，尽管，无论。
Busy as he is, he studies English very hard. 尽管他很忙，他还是努力学习英语。 …
Much as I should like to see you, I am afraid you could not have any free time. 虽然我特别愿意见你，但恐怕你不可能有空余时间。 …
Study as he may, he won’t get good marks, because his method of studying is not scientific. 虽然可以学习，但他得不了好分数，因为他的学习方法不科学。 …（总计六个例句）
这种让步状语从句的特点：把从句里的表语、状语或者实义动词，尽管这就是as，然后再跟随其他成分。
必须注意，本句型偶尔可用于表示原因状语从句。只能根据上下文来判别。如果主句和从句之间在意义上有转折，这从句为让步状语从句；如果主句和从句之间有因果关系，则从句为原因状语从句。例如： 7.a Old as he is, he dares the danger of icy North. 虽然他老了，但仍敢于冒北方冰寒的危险。 7.b Old as he is, he has to go to bed early. 因为他老了，他不得不早去睡觉。
5. 很多中国学生学的是数学式语法而不是英语语法
初等数学一切都是确定的。微积分和概率统计，才开始处理复杂性和不确定性。
语法并不是“规定你应该怎么说”，而是“尽量”“系统地”解释“人们为什么普遍这么说”。所以，不能把语法规则当作数学公式，语法规则并不保证按照它拼凑出来的句子一定有意义并且正确。
学英语的窍门之一是耐心。透彻的了解能够帮助保持耐心。
语法的本质是解释“人们为什么普遍这么说”。去理解人们为什么普遍这么说，就更容易保持耐心，也更容易记住。
6. 应该给自己买一本以上的语法书
6.1 《朗文英语语法》和《朗文高级英语语法参考及练习》
这两本书的作者也是《新概念英语》的作者。《朗文高级英语语法参考及练习》里总计有60个单元，每个单元都配备一片阅读文章，随后附加上相应的语法练习题。
6.2 《剑桥中级英语语法》
《剑桥中级英语语法》，作者Raymond Murphy（外语教学与研究出版社）。外语教学与研究出版社出版。这本书的原版书名叫《English Grammar in Use》。
这本书的好处在于它里面的所有例句，都是真实的、最常用的、精心选自日常生活中的句子。可以把这本书当作很好的口语教材。里面的每个句子都值得背下来。
做替换练习是掌握语法知识的最有效方法。
这本书介绍100多个重要语法点，单数页介绍一个小节，双数页是针对前一页的填空练习。如果每天读上2～3个小节，并完成随后的练习，大约两个月多一点点可以完成一遍。
要逼着自己反复做上至少三遍——总计大约需要半年时间。
把最基础的东西弄清楚弄明白，有好处。
6.3 《Collins COBUILD英语语法大全》
这本书原名叫《Collins COBUILD English Grammar》。
这本语法书最大的特色在于：
- 所有的例句全部来自基于真实世界的语料而搭建的数据库。
- “以功能为导向”的，而不仅仅是过去那种“以规则为导向”的。常用“如果你要……那么你可以……”来介绍语法。
- 第九章（篇章构成）与第十章（信息结构），是之前所有其他语法书中都不曾清楚地涉及的。
- 各个页面上的词表。如：
下列名词用来返指想法，同时又表示对这些想法的态度：
analysis, assessment, assumption, attitude, belief, conclusion, conjecture, concept, deduction, delusion, diagnosis, doctrine, doubt, estimate, evaluation, fear, finding, guess, hope, idea, illusion, inference, insight, interpretation, misinterpretation, notion, opinion, picture, plan, position, reasoning, supposition, theory, thinking, view, viewpoint, vision, wish
基于语料库的英语词典，现在有很多种，其中最有用的可能是《Oxford Collocation Dictionary for Students of English》，当然还有另外一个就是柯林斯的《Collins COBUILD Dictionary on CD-ROM 2006》（现在已经有Lingoes版本）。而柯林斯电子辞典更老一点的版本中，含有《Collins COBUILD英语语法大全》的英文原版内容。
商务印书馆还有一套总计十本的分类语法书，叫《COLLINS COBUILD英语语法系列》，包括：
介词 构词法 冠词 易混淆词 转述法 同音异义词 隐喻 拼写法 连词 限定词及数量词
6.4 《新编英语阅读手册》
原名：《实用科技英语阅读手册》。
7. 反复通读至少一本语法书
如果一个人学会查词典，学会查语法书，再肯于多查几部词典、多查几本语法书，他基本上就具备在中国的任何一所民办英语培训机构做老师的基本素质了。
只有尽早反复通读一本语法书，才可能快速摆脱对老师的依赖，而后做自己的明师。尽管语法知识看起来非常枯燥，但是只要换一种读法，就可能会有很大的改观。
学习外语的真正难点在于母语和外语这两种语言之间的非一一对应之处。
例如，“请问，这个座位有人么？”对应的不是
“Please ask, is there anyone at this seat?”，
而是
“Excuse me, is this seat taken?”；
“如果我没有记错的话……”不是
“If I didn't remember wrong, …”，
而可能是
“If my memory serves, …”
“The impact that technologies have had on our daily life and society in general, is undeniable.”
上句里面，“...的影响”用从句表达，中国人会用of表达；“一直以来”用时态“have had”现在完成时表达，这些都是英语和母语非一一对应的地方。
作者的方式是：
- 把这个于我来讲“非一一对应”的句子做个标记；
- 把它摘抄到笔记本上；
- 再想想这个句子能否当作替换练习模板，如：
The impact that the internet has had on every respect of our daily life, is undeniable. The impact that parents and their attitudes have had on their children’s personality development, is undeniable. The impact that one’s early education has had on his or her later life, is undeniable.
造几个句子后，这种表达方式就记住了，也可以熟练运用了。
作者建议通读语法书的方法：
- 逐页浏览；
- 仔细阅读每一个例句（而那些语法概念能不能完全理解，能不能一次就记住倒在其次）；
- 判断这个例句的英文表达与中文表达是否相当地“非一一对应”？如果是，则做出标记（要是有“呀，让我用英语表达这个意思，可能说出来的就不是这样了！”的念头的话，就应该做标记了）；
- 积累到一定数量，就把这类句子摘录出来，做成替换练习模板，反复造句并朗读，直至熟练； 继续浏览；
- 通读一遍之后，如此反复几次。
语法概念并不需要一次性弄清楚全记住，反复浏览，难的概念就会自然消化吸收。即使有些概念弄不清，也没有关系，只要看到能理解就可以了。
原文阅读地址：
http://zhibimo.com/read/xiaolai/everyone-can-use-english/chapter6.html