regret to have done是否符合慣用法

■倪肖丁（西安） 

 《薄冰英語(yǔ)慣用法詞典》(薄冰主編，王福禎執(zhí)行主編,商務(wù)印書館國(guó)際有限公司，2009)第833頁(yè)指出：regret后接不定式的完成式時(shí)，其意義相當(dāng)于regret接v-ing形式，都表示對(duì)已發(fā)生之事感到遺憾、后悔。例如: He regrets to have done (或having done, doing) such a thing. 他后悔做了這件事。

《薄冰英語(yǔ)慣用法詞典》的上述說(shuō)法是否符合英語(yǔ)習(xí)慣？回答是否定的。

首先，英文的習(xí)慣是：表示對(duì)已發(fā)生的事情感到后悔，regret后的動(dòng)詞形式應(yīng)該用-ing分詞，無(wú)論是doing sth還是having done sth。當(dāng)然也可以用that分句。例如：

I regret telling you that John stole it. (= I regret that I told you that John stole it.) (UEG)

I regret wasting/regret having wasted so much time last year. (OGEG)

這種情況下不能用regret to have done形式。例如，LDCE指出：When you are talking about the past, use regret doing sth or regret that. 例如：

I have often regretted leaving the police force.

I now regret not having worked harder at school.

但不能說(shuō)* I now regret not to have worked harder at school.

Longman Essential Activator在談到regret用于對(duì)已經(jīng)發(fā)生的事情表示后悔時(shí)也明確指出：Don’t say “I regret to do it”or“I regret to have done it”. Say I regret doing it or I regret that I did it.

顯然，英美辭書對(duì)regret to have done用于“表示對(duì)已發(fā)生之事感到遺憾、后悔”持否定態(tài)度，這也與我們的日常閱讀體驗(yàn)相一致。

至于regret后接動(dòng)詞不定式to do...，則用于對(duì)即將傳遞（或已獲得）的信息表示遺憾或難過(guò)。CCEG（2011）指出：Regret is only used with the to-infinitive of a small number of verbs that share the meaning of giving or receiving information.

完整內(nèi)容請(qǐng)查看：https://www.cpsenglish.com/article/97