Splitting sentences（断句）
As it is mentioned in numerous treatises and professional papers that
,English is a language,in cmparison with Chinese which puts an emphasis on
describing the outward beauties of the described , that is particularly
logic,probing into the abstract interior essence of things.Accoding to the
thinking modes of Chinese,they would like to describe a thing neatly,that
is to say,to set great store by the wholeness of the matter,not willing to
neglect or delete any segment of a thing to be pictured ,and they manage
,by various means whatsoever,to arrange a matter according to a kind of
rule,in terms of time,location,etc.However,English turns the Chinese rule
of writing upside down by creating a kind of writing orderless and
seemingly messy in a Chinese point of view,which actually reflects the
English style of life and the way of meditation.
Splitting sentences is a typical technique that prevails in English
writing.Many experts have pointed out that learning how to split sentences
is a key step towards standard and excellent English writing.Splitting
sentences,as its name suggests,is to break a presumably whole sentence into
several parts,thus looking as if it had eliminated the original confluence
it should have had.Actually,in the eyes of an advanced English
learner,splitting sentences has even better promote the confluence of a
sentence.Although it has broken a whole sentence,it does not break the
interrelationship between every single part of the sentence,and all the
independent segments of a splitted sentence are closely linked to each
other,so to speak,they are not strictly independent .In other words,each
part is insegregable from the splitted sentence,and the loss of any part
will destruct the order and harmony within it. Splitting a sentence cements
the elements of it by scattering them .It reflects the English way of
thinking and works out a logical co-existence between each part.
The following are excerpts from some English essays that are classic
splitted sentences considered by me.
1. There are two sorts of avarice:the one is but of a bastard kind,and that
is,the rapacious appetite of gain;not for its own sake,but for the pleasure
of refunding it immediately through all the channels of pride and
luxury;the other is the kind,and properly so called;which is a restless and
unsatiable desire of riches,not for any farther end or use,but only to
hoard,and preserve,and perpetually increase them.(Abraham Cowley: Of
Avarice)
2. When I am in a serious humour,I very often walk by myself in Westminster
Abbey,where the gloominess of the place,and the use to which it is
applied,with the solemnity of the building,and the condition of the people
who lie in it,are apt to fill the mind with a kind of mechancholy,or rather
thoughtfulness,that is not disagreeable.(Joseph Addison: Thoughts in
Westminster Abbey)
3.The sun did not shine clearly,but it spread through the clouds a
tender,diffused light,crossed by level cloud bars,which stretched to a
great length,quite parallel.(William Hale White: An Afernoon Walk in
October)
4.Living thus,he came by chance one day to a clear fountian,and (being in
the heat of noon)lay down by it;when beholding in the water his own
image,he fell into such a study and then into such a rapturous admiration
of himself,that he could not drawn away from gazing at the shadowy
picture,but remained rooted to the spot till sense left him;and at last he
was changed into the flower that bears his name;a flower which appears in
the early spring;and is sacrid to the infernal
deities,----Pluto,Proserpine,and the Furies.(Francis Bacon: Narcissus;or
Self-Love)
