| 词组 | from whence, from thence, from hence |
| 释义 | from whence, from thence, from hence Present-day usage writers take the position that from is redundant with whence, thence, and hence. The basis for this assertion is that the notion of from is already present in the words. The objection boils down to a conflict you will encounter again and again in this book: English idiom against logic based on Latin. The questioning of these phrases is not recent. Samuel Johnson in his Dictionary of 1755 termed from whence "A vitious mode of speech." ( Vicious was not so strong a word in 1755 as it is now.) And after the comment, Johnson quotes Spenser and Shakespeare. It was not a mode of speech unfamiliar to him: • There is nothing served about there; neither tea, nor coffee, nor lemonade, nor anything whatever; and depend upon it, Sir, a man does not love to go to a place from whence he comes exactly as he went in — Samuel Johnson, quoted in Boswell's Life, 1791 Among the 18th-century grammarians who discussed the subject, Priestley 1798 noted that the sense of the preposition was present in the words and thought that the preposition seemed superfluous. But he knew the practice was common (16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century literature is full of the phrases), and he felt that the omission of the preposition in many cases might seem "stiff and disagreeable." Priestley here had reached the heart of the problem: writers used the preposition when it sounded right and left it out when it sounded right. Priestley was aware of literary usage—he quotes Dryden and Swift. Hodgson 1889 is also aware of literary usage, quoting Smollett and Kingsley. American usage writers ofthe late 19th century (Bache 1869 and Ayres 1881) are more severe towards the phrases and less interested in literary practice. More recent usage commentators are for the most part dogmatic, for two reasons: the phrases are much less common than they were two centuries earlier, and the commentators may be unacquainted with the older literary sources. Here are a few instances from the past, to give you a feel for how the phrases have been used: • From hence the long continuance of the club, which I shall have frequent occasion to speak further of— Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, 111 I • I shall be able, I expect, to dispatch the waggon with the servants from hence, about the 9th. of March — Thomas Jefferson, letter, 27 Feb. 1809 • ... I suppose he will write to us from thence —Jonathan Swift, Journal to Stella, 10 Apr. 1711 • How many unsolicitous hours should I bask away, warmed in bed by the sun's glorious beams, could I, like them, tumble from thence in a moment —Samuel Johnson, The Idler, 10 June 1758 • I from thence considered industry, as a means of obtaining wealth and distinction —Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, 2d part, 1784 • Let them be whipp'd through every market town till they come to Berwick, from whence they came — Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI, 1592 • Love still has something of the sea From whence his mother rose—Sir Charles Sedley, "Song," before 1702 • ... he went soon after to Carolina, from whence he sent me next year two long letters —Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, 1771 • She is at present in a mad house, from whence I fear she must be moved to an hospital —Charles Lamb, letter, 27 Sept. 1796 Even though Benjamin Franklin knew and used all these phrases, there is little likelihood that you will. From hence has hardly penetrated the 20th century. A reason contributing to its dropping from the active lexicon is that hence is little used today in reference to a physical location. It is more often used of time—"five years hence"—and in other senses. From hence is to all intents and purposes an archaism. From thence does have 20th-century use, but it can hardly be called frequent—it is, in fact, quite rare. • ... he timed the run from Watford to Mark Lane, and the farther walk from thence to the entrance to the docks —Freeman Wills Crofts, The Loss ofthe 'Jane Vosper', 1936 Thence, however, is used of place, and therefore the possibility of from thence is greater. Most of our 20th-century examples of from thence come from British publications; it may be less common in American English. From whence is still alive in both British and American English. Its frequency has made it the chief focus of critical comment, from Samuel Johnson's time to the present. We have plenty of 20th-century evidence of its use, although it is not nearly as common as whence alone. From whence is a very old phrase, going back at least to 1388. It may have been kept fresher in the public consciousness by its occurrence in the King James Bible, especially in the 121 st Psalm: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." This passage may also help account for the frequent occurrence of from whence with the verb come. • Mr. Praeger, as orderly and meticulous as Vienna, (from whence he came) —N. Y. Times, 11 Aug. 1957 • ... dumps them on flat, sanded earth in the sun, from whence in a few days he takes them to the kiln — The Autobiography of William Allen White, 1946 • ... shot through the hedge and down a thirty-foot drop into a midden, from whence he emerged with no bones broken, but covered with smelly mud —K. M. Elisabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words, 1977 • The fourth lesson was to remember, always, from whence I came —Tip O'Neill with William Novak, Man of the House, 1987 From whence is the only one of the three phrases that shows signs of continuing vitality, even though it is undoubtedly less common then it was a century or two ago. We see no great fault in using it where it sounds right—and great writers have used it where it sounded right all along. |
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英语用法大全包含2888条英语用法指南，基本涵盖了全部常用英文词汇及语法点的翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。