Most adverbs are unnecessary. You will clutter your sentence and annoy the reader if you choose a verb that has a specific meaning and then add an adverb that carries the same meaning.
No one likes feeling useless, but adverbs might justifiably feel that way. Adverbs find themselves much maligned because they’re often redundant or awkwardly placed.When they are good they are incredibly useful.
在On Wrting中, Stephen King 說(shuō) : The adverb is not your friend. Adverbs, like the passive voice, seem to have been created with the the timid writer in mind.
The Elements of Style 中說(shuō): Adverbs are easy to build. Take an adjective or a participle, add -ly, and behold! you have an adverb. But you’d probably be better off without it.
Don’t tell us that the radio blared loudly; “blare” connotes loudness. Don’t write that someone clenched his teeth tightly; there’s no other way to clench teeth. Again and again in careless writing, strong verbs are weakened by redundant adverbs. So are adjectives and other parts of speech: “effortlessly easy,” “slightly spartan,” “totally flabbergasted.” The beauty of “flabbergasted” is that it implies an astonishment that is total; I can’t picture someone being partly flabbergasted. If an action is so easy as to be effortless, use “effortless.” And what is “slightly spartan”? Perhaps a monk’s cell with wall-to-wall carpeting. Don’t use adverbs unless they do necessary work. Spare us the news that the winning athlete grinned widely.
以上提到的這些副詞的使用過(guò)于重復(fù)和多余(repetitive and redundant)，從而減弱了動(dòng)詞的力量也使句子失去了活力(most of the time, a descriptive verb will suffice) — 如果你不是故意而為之的話(huà). 例如上一段中用到了 “justifiably”這個(gè)副詞，就是故意用了來(lái)調(diào)侃副詞的多余。
我們平時(shí)或許會(huì)寫(xiě)出 “She smiled happily” 這樣的句子 — no one would smile happily while reading your (un)carefully crafted sentence. The norm is to smile when you're happy. Only an unusual smile needs the highlighting of an adverb–a crafty smile or a resigned smile may merit a descriptor.
在寫(xiě)作的時(shí)候要盡量避免用 “extremely” “definitely” “very” “really” — the ones often used carelessly as intensifiers. 解決的方法是去找到更恰當(dāng)?shù)膭?dòng)詞或者形容詞來(lái)讓你的表達(dá)有力量, 有感情。
例如剛看到一句話(huà) “When you peruse your close-to-final draft, critique your adverbs on a usefulness scale.” 這里的peruse就是一個(gè)很好的詞, 它的意思是 “read thoroughly and carefully” — 找到那個(gè)更有效的動(dòng)詞。
如果你夸一個(gè)女孩子漂亮, 你可以說(shuō)她beautiful. 但是你的女神不是very/really/more beautiful — 試試用gorgeous, stunning, elegent,charming,angelic,marvelous… 或者你可以說(shuō) “Your smile is so dazzling” “I like your eyes. They look like water in the sunshine”… 總之不要像個(gè)小孩子一樣: 你非常非常非常非常漂亮 — 找到那個(gè)更有效的形容詞。
And while we’re at it, let’s retire “decidedly” and all its slippery cousins. Every day I see in the paper that some situations are decidedly better and others are decidedly worse, but I never know how decided the improvement is, or who did the deciding, just as I never know how eminent a result is that’s eminently fair, or whether to believe a fact that’s arguably true. “He’s arguably the best pitcher on the Mets,” the preening sportswriter writes, aspiring to Parnassus, which Red Smith reached by never using words like “arguably.” Is the pitcher—it can be proved by argument—the best pitcher on the team? If so, please omit “arguably.” Or is he perhaps—the opinion is open to argument—the best pitcher? Admittedly I don’t know. It’s virtually a toss-up.
副詞如同蒲公英。
你或許會(huì)寫(xiě)，或者讀過(guò)這樣的句子: “Shut up!” Eric said angrily.
Angrily在這里是多余的: Let the substance of the dialogue get across the way it’s being said. 在這方面, Stephen King深?lèi)和唇^:
“I insist that you use the adverb in dialogue attribution only in the rarest and most special of occasions… and not even then, if you can avoid it.”
他舉了以下的例子:
接著他控訴說(shuō):
The three latter sentences are all weaker than the three former ones, and most readers will see why immediately. “Don’t be such a fool, Jekyll,” Utterson said contemptuously is the best of the lot; it is only a cliche?, while the other two are actively ludicrous.
讀過(guò)這篇文章，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)你讀過(guò)的許多文章中都或多或少的有“明知故犯” -- Do as I say, not I do! Stephen King也承認(rèn)自己 “I’m just another ordinary sinner”. 他的理由是:
When I do it, it’s usually for the same reason any writer does it: because I am afraid the reader won’t understand me if I don’t”.
無(wú)論是The Element of Style, On Writing Well, 還是Stephen King的 On Writing, 大概都有一個(gè)共識(shí): timidity is at the root of most bad writing. 我們怕別人讀不懂，于是就啰啰嗦嗦；我們不想讓別人看出來(lái)其實(shí)我們自己都沒(méi)有想清楚，于是就大量的使用被動(dòng)語(yǔ)態(tài)。 除此之外，但凡試圖給語(yǔ)言定個(gè)規(guī)矩的都免不了被一些人批斗。我們膜拜“風(fēng)格的要素”為寫(xiě)作圣經(jīng)，可也有許多人對(duì)之嗤之以鼻。EB White在修訂恩師的寫(xiě)作圣經(jīng)的時(shí)候坦白說(shuō): “我了解恩師受不了the fact that這個(gè)表達(dá)，可是我很多時(shí)候也會(huì)濫用”。盡管如此還是有像William Zinsser, Stephen King這樣的優(yōu)秀作家苦口婆心的來(lái)寫(xiě)這種“寫(xiě)作圣經(jīng)”, “There is core simplicity to the English language and its American variant, but it’s a slippery core.”
對(duì)我們來(lái)講，用不著“錙銖必較”,“副詞潔癖”.我們?nèi)チ私鈱W(xué)習(xí), 閱讀琢磨, 爭(zhēng)取在寫(xiě)作中找到我們的思考和聲音, find our humanity! 如同Stephen所說(shuō): All I ask is that you do as well as you can, and remember that, while to write adverbs is human, to write he said or she said is divine. 總結(jié)來(lái)說(shuō)就是學(xué)會(huì):learn, unlearn, and relearn(感受一下)
回到標(biāo)題的圖片:
毀掉一句名言的方法之一就是給它加上副詞:
聯(lián)系客服
