Podcasts for Learning English--< Grammar Girl（1）>

berninaUID: 2503038

Grammar Girl

今天给大家推荐个关于语法的podcasts, 完善自己的语法，不再不明不白的丢分。之所以这么说，是因为这个cast涉及的都是一些重要但往往被忽略的语法小问题，很多老米自己都搞不太清楚（这个cast本身就是针对本地人的。。），非常之实用。

其实大家对大的语法问题都掌控的不错，就是那些犄角旮旯里的小点，被很悲哀的忽略掉了。 更悲哀的是，我们对此一无所知，我们并不是没有好好检查，而是根本不知道这样写不对。。。

我强烈推荐这个Podcast，是因为它让我明白了很多语法小问题，让我写作时更清楚怎样写正确，怎样避免confuse reader。所以，如果觉得写作时总是不确定，不清楚，那么这个cast绝对适合你。一集一集认真学下来，一定会有很大的收获，对如何写作有更清晰的了解。

先贴上一集的讲义给大家看看，有些长，需要大家的一点耐心。看到那几个problems的时候，会不会找到自己写作的影子捏？:lol

What Is an Antecedent?  

Whatever kind of pronoun you have, the pronoun takes the place of a specific noun you’ve already mentioned. The noun that a pronoun refers to is called an antecedent.That’s spelled with an  “a-n-t-e,” not an “a-n-t-i.” "Anti-" is a prefix meaning “against,” as in “antisocial.” “Ante” is a prefix for things that go before other things; “ante mortem” means “before death,” for example.
  
In the sentence “The driver totaled his car,” the word “his” refers back to “driver,” so “driver” is the antecedent of the pronoun “his.” It would sound silly to repeat the noun: “The driver totaled the driver’s car.” So, in simple sentences like this, readers are clear on what pronoun is replacing what noun.On the other hand, when you have a complicated sentence or series of sentences, your antecedent may get lost—or may even be absent!—and readers can get confused. Let’s look at three common pronoun-antecedent problems.

Problem 1: Missing or Faraway Antecedents

"It" and "they" seem to be especially tempting to use without an antecedent or with the wrong antecedent, so be especially vigilant around them.
Our first antecedent problem concerns antecedents that are missing or very far from their corresponding pronouns. For example, it would be incorrect to write, “Here at work they expect us to show initiative” (1). In that case, “they” does not refer back to any plural noun. Those lurking bosses are implied but not actually mentioned. Therefore, the antecedent is missing. To solve this particular error, we just need to name who “they” is: “Our bosses expect us to show initiative.”
  
Now for the first of those silly sentences we promised you. This one comes courtesy of the useful Grammar Desk Reference: “Breathe in through your nose, hold it for a few seconds, then breathe out through your mouth” (2). This crazy sentence illustrates how easy it is for readers to accidentally think that the antecedent is the noun closest to the pronoun. The pronoun “it” seems to refer to “nose,” the singular noun closest to the word “it”; however, the writer did not mean for you to hold your nose. What’s missing here is a clear antecedent: “your breath.”
  
For some reason the pronouns "it" and "they" seem to be especially tempting to use without an antecedent or with the wrong antecedent as you saw in the last two examples, so be especially vigilant around them (3). “It” and “they” also seem to be likely to appear far from their antecedents. Making your reader search through an entire paragraph to find the antecedent for a lagging "it" or "they" won't endear you to your audience (4). So when you use an “it” or a “they,” make sure a specific and definite antecedent is nearby.  

Problem 2: Anticipatory Reference

Our second antecedent problem is what’s called “anticipatory reference,” which Bryan Garner calls “the vice of referring to something that is yet to be mentioned (5)," meaning that the writer puts the pronoun before the antecedent—a no no.Whoever came up with the phrases “Don’t put the cart before the horse” and “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch” could have been talking about pronouns that appear before their antecedents. For example, if you say, “If it’s available, be sure to order the champagne,” your readers will wonder what “it” refers to. Only when readers get to the end of the sentence do they learn that “it” means “champagne.”To avoid confusing your readers, make sure the antecedent comes first. In many cases, you can solve the problem by switching around the noun and pronoun: “If champagne’s available, be sure to order it.”

Problem 3: Ambiguous Antecedents

The third and last antecedent problem concerns ambiguous antecedents. Pronouns pop up in almost every sentence, and sometimes readers may feel as if they are juggling. They’re trying to remember which nouns have already been mentioned so that they can correctly match them up with later-appearing pronouns. Don’t turn your readers into a circus act. Your job is to provide a pleasurable and easy reading experience. Ensure that your pronouns and antecedents are clearly marked.
  
Take this odd pair of sentences, in which we meet an ambiguous antecedent: “The room contained a chair, a desk, and a lone light bulb. It was twenty-six feet long by seventeen feet wide.” That’s a pretty big light bulb! The pronoun “it” could, in theory, refer to various singular nouns in this sentence: “room,” “chair,” “desk,” or “light bulb.” Naturally, readers pair “it” with “light bulb,” the closest singular noun, and so you get an absurd sentence.In this case, repeating the antecedent could help, but it sounds awkward: “The room contained a chair, a desk, and a lone light bulb. The room was twenty-six feet long by seventeen feet wide.” A better move is to combine the sentences: “The room, twenty-six feet long by seventeen feet wide, contained a chair, a desk, and a lone light bulb.”
  
Here is the last promised ridiculous sentence, this one quoted from a church bulletin and featured in Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale. I hope this odd sentence will convince you to monitor your pronouns more carefully: “The ladies of the church have cast off clothing of every kind, and they can be seen in the church basement Friday afternoon” (6). The pronoun “they” finds itself in an awkward position. Does it refer to the ladies or the clothing? Well, we can guess that “items of clothing” is the intended antecedent, but it doesn’t appear that way.Of course, there's another problem with that sentence--one could also interpret it to mean the church ladies are running around in their birthday suits, but we'll save that problem for another day.

下载方法：
1， 在iTunes上搜索grammar girl 下载。如果没有iTunes，就下载安装一个，然后注册个美国账号，好处良多。具体方法google之。疯狂建议大家弄个iTunes，上面的podcasts都是免费的英语听力资料，内容涉及各个方面，应有尽有，不应有的貌似也有。。。。:L 。挑你喜欢的感兴趣的下载下来放在mp3里，无论怎样，对听力也是个提高嘛。。

2， GG的官网。每一集的音频和讲义，还有听众的comments，大家对内容的讨论，也很不错。http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/pronouns-and-antecedents.aspx


podcasts for Learning English 总贴连接https://bbs.gter.net/thread-1065083-1-10.html

我会不时事更新此贴，一点发现有利于咱们gters的casts，我就会发布上去:loveliness: