做一道燒腦題，理解啥叫牽一髮而動全身

本文首發於立文悉通微信公眾號（Transystom）

以下這三個句子的意思相同嗎？

1.The 20% of patients without inguinal lymph node enlargement who had micrometastases received this therapy.

2.Twenty percent of patients without inguinal lymph node enlargement, who had micrometastases, received this therapy.

3.Twenty percent of patients without inguinal lymph node enlargement who had micrometastases received this therapy.

我們在做論文中譯英的時候遇到過一個翻譯難題，於是引申出了上面這個問題。

我們在LinkedIn上詢問各位編輯，發現很多母語編輯回答得似乎也不太令人滿意。

終於，

我們發現了一個答案，哎呦，還不錯哦：

Albert Beijering （似乎不是英文母語人士）

This is how I see it:

- First sentence: of the patients without enlargement of the inguinal lymph node, 20% had micrometastases. The latter received treatment.

- Second sentence: 20% of patients without enlargement of the inguinal lymph node received therapy. They did have micrometastases, but that in itself was no condition for this cohort to receive treatment. (Its as if the second sentence could also have read: ", who **by the way** did have micrometastases".)

- Third sentence: of the group of patients who had no enlargement of the inguinal lymph node, but did have micrometastases, 20% received treatment. For this group to receive therapy, having micrometastases was a condition.

說得很在理，也就是說：

1. The 20% of patients without inguinal lymph node enlargement who had micrometastases received this therapy.

在無腹股溝淋巴結腫大的患者中，有20%的患者有微轉移，而這20%的患者接受了這項治療。

2. Twenty percent of patients without inguinal lymph node enlargement, who had micrometastases, received this therapy.

在無腹股溝淋巴結腫大的患者中，有20%的患者接受了這項治療，而這20%的患者有微轉移。

問題來了，是不是只有這20%的患者有微轉移呢？從這個句子無法得出這個結論，這個句子只告訴我們這20%的患者有。因為，後面還有可能出現這樣的句子：Thirty percent of these patients, who also had micrometastases, received another therapy. The others, none of whom had micrometastases, received no therapy.

第二句和第一句之所以會產生句意上的差別，就是因為第一句有一個定冠詞the，而第二句沒有定冠詞the。用專業的說法就是：第一句屬於限制性定語從句，第二句屬於非限制性定語從句。（關於限制性定語從句和非限制性定語從句的英文表達方法可以看看英語插入語的用法）

3. Twenty percent of patients without inguinal lymph node enlargement who had micrometastases received this therapy.

這一句又可以有另外的理解，即：無腹股溝淋巴結腫大但有微轉移的患者中，20%的患者接受了這項治療。也就是說，以上劃線部分是一個整體。

所以，在英文寫作中，諸如冠詞、介詞、標點甚至時態這些細小之處也要萬分地注意，稍有不慎，意思就會發生改變。絕對是牽一髮而動全身！從另一方面來說，我們也可以通過掌控這些細小之處，來準確地表達我們想要表達的內容。