until (till) 之后不可以接-ing分句嗎？

——《朗文英語語法》中的一個瑕疵

本站特約作者  李  翔

L. G. Alexander著 Longman English Grammar《朗文英語語法》(雷航等譯，外語教學與研究出版社1991年1月第1版) p61：

現在分詞可以用于時間連詞after, before, since, when和while之后，但不能用于像 as, as soon as, directly, until等連詞之后（原文：Present participles can be use after the time conjunctions after before since when and while. They cannot use after as, as soon as, directly, until etc.——L. G. Alexander  Longman English Grammar 1988）

實際上，L. G. Alexander的說法是不符合英語實際情況的，這不能不說是Longman English Grammar的一個瑕疵。因為另外四位頂尖級的英語語法專家Randolph Quirk，Sidney Greenbaum，Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartvik早于1985年就在其合著的A COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE p1078就明確表示：

Adverbial -ing clauses of time are introduced by one of the following subordinators: once, till, until, when, whenever, while, whilt (作時間狀語的-ing分句由下列從屬連詞之一引導)：once, till, until, when, whenever, while, whilt。隨后由特別指出Some speakers find until only marginally acceptable with -ing clause (有些人覺得until + -ing分句僅勉強可以接受)：

? Until meeting your parents, I had no idea that you were annoyed with me.

? I’ll wait here until hearing from you again.

由此可見，這四位專家認為until 之后可以接 -ing分句，不然其中的兩位專家Sidney Greenbaum and Randolph Quirk就不會于1997年在其合著的Longman A STUDENT’S GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE即《朗文英語語法》(宋玉梅等譯，吉林教育出版社2003年4月第1版) p393上再次強調：

作時間狀語的-ing分句由以下從屬連詞引導：once, till, until, when, whenever, while和whilt (尤見于英式英語)

幾乎就在同時，另外一位語法專家 Sylvia Chalker 于1996年在其著作Collins Cobuild English Guides 之Linking Words即《連詞》(劉萬存譯，外文出版社2001年4月第1版) p19上認為：when, after, since, before, until 和while可引導-ing小句。

The 65-year-old accepted his judgment until hearing a radio broadcast in 1988 about a similar case.

再者，蕭鳳歧編著的《現代英語慣用法實例詞典》（北京理工大學出版社 1989 年10月第一版）p799上也認為until 可引導-ing分句：有人認為until that-clause不能壓縮為verb-ing形式的短語，但實際上這樣使用until的實例卻不少，這不能都說成“英美人常有的錯誤”。請看：

Trans American Airlines Flight Two was twenty minutes out of Lincoln Internatinal, and in a steady climb which would continue until reaching thirty-three thousand feet near Detroit, in eleven more minutes.

…he had scarcely ever drunk tea at all until knowing Gwen.

He even tried to persuade me to go, where before I had been earnestly recommended not to go, until finding I would not.

上述用法有個規律，即verb-ing形式的邏輯主語須是主句的語法主語。

除了英語語法專家的著作可以證明until 之后可以接-ing分句之外，英國英語中的大量真實事例也可以證明until 之后可以接-ing分句。請看例證：BNC(英國國家語料庫http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk):和BUY-BNC BRTISH NATIONAL CORPUS (UK,1980s-1993) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University ) http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/：

CB4  Geoff took up Vet running at a serious level two or three years ago and has forged through the ranks until arriving at the top of the O50s this season.

H09  Arriving in this country they established themselves as farmers and in the early 19th century they farmed at Allington Castle and then travelled through various parts of England as farmers until arriving back in Kent.

H9X  I was fortunate enough to obtain permission to go, but I had waited until arriving at Rizé before applying for it.

ASC  But he was going to have to wait until reaching England before he had the chance to branch into opera production.

CLV  Keeping the aircraft low, and as level as he dared, he raced over the target as the bombs fell away, and kept going at rooftop height until reaching the outer suburbs of the city.

JY5  She had never even met him until coming to the club.

J1B  Both aircraft head-to-head at Farnborough were built in 1944 at the Oklahoma City plant, but beyond that they went very separate ways until meeting up in the UK in September, both toting turboprops.

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