| 词组 | in, into |
| 释义 | in, into You will not find many subjects in this book over which more ink has been spilled to as little purpose as this one—the distinguishing of the prepositions in and into. The real distinction is simply stated: into is used with verbs of motion; in is used with verbs that show location and also with some verbs of motion. The OED gives the history: in Old English in originally had all the work; with verbs of location it took a noun in the dative case, and with verbs of motion a noun in the accusative case. Eventually the two cases became indistinguishable, and to was dragged in to help with the accusative instances. By modern times, into had carved out a pretty sizable piece of the original territory of in. The grammarians, though, want usage to be even simpler. There must be one function for in, one function for into, and no sharing. They have been insisting on this simplification of English since at least Joseph Hervey Hull's Grammar of 1829 (and he very likely was not the first), and they are still beating the same drum as recently as Shaw 1987, Belanoff et al. 1986, and Little, Brown 1986. It is a hoary tradition. But in has remained in use with verbs of motion all along. There seem to be various reasons for its survival. The OED lists several verbs with which in is regularly and idiomatically associated—one or two of them appear in the examples that follow. There are other idiomatic expressions that require in rather than into (the poker game, for instance, is spit in the ocean). And there is the constant influential presence of the adverb in, which combines idiomatically with many verbs. Goold Brown (10th edition, 1880) also notes the influence of speech patterns; he finds a grammarian's "split into two" less satisfactory than "split in two" because, he says, the shorter word is better in the unemphatic position (split also happens to be on the OED list). Here are a few examples of in with verbs expressing motion, spread over about 300 years: • FLORIO. My Rosaura! They embrace. • Enter Podesta and Bricklayer. ROSAURA. My husband! Faint, faint in my arms!—John Crowne, City Politiques, 1683 • Your plants were taken in one very cold blustering day & placed in the Dining room —Jane Austen, letter, 1 Oct. 1808 • ... will turn round halfway in his chair and spit in the fire! —Mary Chesnut, diary, 1 Jan. 1864 • You never know when something you may say might make them go jump in the lake —Flannery O'Connor, letter, 20 May 1960 • You can't get a waiter to wait ten seconds. You go in a restaurant, he hands you a menu ... , and in three seconds he starts tapping his pencil —And More by Andy Rooney, 1982 The last example above makes another point: into would have given more prominence to the fact of entering the restaurant than the writer wanted. The points to remember are these. Sometimes you need into to distinguish motion from location, as in this example: • ... their sturdy little ship, the Roosevelt, backed out of her berth into the East River —E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime, 1975 Some verbs and some expressions idiomatically call for in—we've seen "go jump in the lake" and "split in two," for instance. Cook 1985 says that place requires in; nobody had to explain that to Jane Austen. And when you have a choice, remember that into gives more prominence to the idea of entrance; if you want to deemphasize that, as Andy Rooney did, you use in. Both in and into are standard with verbs of motion no matter how some commentators might wish things to be. But you must, as always, use your ear. |
| 随便看 |
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。