二、 dozen一詞的相關(guān)用法實(shí)際上，英美語言專家對(duì)此已有十分明確的闡述。

    Michael Swan的《Practical English Usage》 (第三版) 指出：After a number, the words dozen, hundred, thousand, million and billion have no final -s, and of is not used. This also happens after several and a few.（當(dāng)hundred, thousand, dozen等詞用在數(shù)詞或several，a few后面時(shí)，沒有復(fù)數(shù)形式，后面也不用of。）

A J Thomson和A V Martinet合編的語法專著 A Practical English Grammar (Fourth Edition 1986)也指出：

The words hundred, thousand, million and dozen, when used of a definite number, are never made plural（hundred, thousand, million 和 dozen,與數(shù)詞連用時(shí)，從來不用復(fù)數(shù)形式）。

《Collins Cobuild English Usage》(2004) 在給出On the trolley were two dozen cups and saucers以及four dozen things, three dozen chocolate chip cookies等例證以后特意指出：Note that you use the singular form dozen after a number. You do not talk about ‘two dozens cups and saucers’. You also do not use ‘of ’ after dozen. You do not say ‘two dozen of cups and saucers’.(注意，dozen在數(shù)詞后用單數(shù)，不要說two dozens cups and saucers, dozen后也不要用of，不能說two dozen of cups and saucers.)

J.B. Heaton和N.D. Turton合編的《朗文常用英語正誤詞典》（譯文 / 朗文版1994）也指出：“數(shù)百個(gè)孩子”用hundreds of children。如說具體數(shù)字：二百個(gè)孩子則不用of，直接說two hundred children。dozen和hundred一樣。例如：‘dozens of eggs’ ，‘two dozen eggs’。

通過以上論證，我們不難得出這樣的結(jié)論：“基數(shù)詞(或不定冠詞)+dozen”修飾泛指的可數(shù)名詞時(shí)，后面不能用of，dozen也不能用復(fù)數(shù)。所以，《詳解詞典》的two dozen of police/eggs和《簡明英語搭配辭典》的two dozens of pencils在現(xiàn)代英語中都是不能成立的，應(yīng)該改為two dozen police /egg/pencils。92年全國高考第29小題的選項(xiàng)A. dozen of也不能成為正確答案。

必須說明的是，當(dāng)“數(shù)詞/a+dozen”修飾代詞以及被限定的名詞時(shí)，后面須加of，這時(shí)dozen仍然要用單數(shù)。例如：a dozen of his friends，three dozen of them，two dozen of the(se) eggs。

上一頁  [1] [2]