| 词组 | while |
| 释义 | while The earliest meanings of while—"during the time that," "as long as"—are temporal, but senses unrelated to time have been established in English since Shakespeare's time. American commentators decided that such use was questionable early in the 20th century, and they have continued to express doubts about it in the years since. Here are a few examples: • While it looks innocent enough, the white sand is a cause of miners' silicosis —Laurence Learner, Harper's, December 1971 • The hit shows are always sold out, and while there may be an occasional gem being ignored, most of what's left is third rate —And More by Andy Rooney, 1982 • While Hume was very far from disparaging the ancients,... he was happy to live in eighteenth-century Britain —John Butt, English Literature in the Mid-Eighteenth Century, edited & completed by Geoffrey Carnall, 1979 • ... seemed to have been over-cleaned in restoration, while other pictures, which were gummy and dark, seemed to need restoration —Sanford Schwartz, New Yorker, 16 Sept. 1985 The mostly British whilst is also used in this way: • It is generally agreed that almost all of these alternative theories are excluded by the albeit meagre, experimental data, whilst none has the aesthetic appeal of Einstein's theory —P. C. W. Davis, Space and Time in the Modern Universe, 1977 • The second part of the report deals with the detailed treatment of fences, railings, paths, and the like; whilst the final section puts forward ideas for the redevelopment of Quayside —Book Exchange, June 1974 These uses are established and standard. They are also extremely common. Bryant 1962 cites a study that shows while meaning "whereas" to be just as common as whereas. A number of commentators raise the specter of ambiguity with respect to nontemporal uses of while. It is not very difficult to work up a sentence in which while can be understood in more than one way. If you happen to write such a sentence, you should certainly revise it. But you will notice that the examples above offer no ambiguity, and they are typical of the citations in our collection. Ambiguity is not an inherent problem in these uses of while. |
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