99%的英语学习者没有真正吃透的托福词汇

　　在写完本文之后我问了一下我的同事万炜老师的意见，他建议我主题不用局限于 if, not, 可以去写if, 我觉得很有道理，但是思考再三，还是觉得先不扩展了，因为如果主题放宽，篇幅就太长了，而且不够focus, 所以if的探讨打算另起一篇文章。所以，这并非是一篇试图去涵盖一个很大主题的文章，这篇文章只试图去帮助大家理解一个词组某种具体的用法， 而且这里不探讨表示否则的if not用法: You should study. If not, you won't pass the test.本文关心的是这样一种形式下的if not: [Part A of sentence,] if not [partB of sentence].马上看一个例子:

来源：新东方 沈施铨

　　He is a good basketball player, if not a great one.

　　大家怎么理解这句话?

　　认识这个词的大部分人可能会翻译成：他是一个好的篮球运动员，甚至是(就算不是)一个伟大的篮球运动员。笔者以及很多老师为了上课效率平时在教学过程中也往往会传达给学生这种理解方式。

　　但这个词的用法并不单一。笔者曾经非常困惑于这个词，在查阅了不少资料之后发现我不是一个人，很多人包括很多 native speakers 甚至一些英语大牛也觉得这个词的用法很棘手：

　　Garner’s Modern English Usage (4thedition ) 作者Bryan A. Garner

　　谈及if not时说它是“often an ambiguous phrase to be avoided.”(经常是模糊不清可能产生歧义应该避免使用的短语)

　　The Economist(经济学人)上有一篇文章也说这个短语是“A usage that is almost always ambiguous, if not impossible to interpret”

　　(它的用法经常是有歧义的，甚至不可能去理解)

　　…

　　这个词的ambiguity来自哪里呢?有心的同学如果去查阅英文词典的话就会发现有些词典甚至都没有收录这个词条，而收录这个词条的词典对它的定义也并不一定全，我们可以浏览一些词典的解释：

　　Merriam Webster: and perhaps even

　　Oxford dictionary: Perhaps even (used to introduce a more extreme term than one first mentioned)

　　Garner’s Modern English Usage: either (1)“but not; though not”;or (2) “may be even”.

　　结合笔者在线下及网上查询的其他资料以及个人的阅读经验if not主要有以下两种用法：

　　Perhaps even

　　though not

　　为什么会有这两种用法，笔者没有查到具体的词汇演变过程，个人的一个猜想是，if一词多义，最重要有表条件和表让步的两种用法(表条件和让步区分打算在另一篇文章中探讨);而表让步的用法中包含 even if(就算)和 though(尽管)的两种用法，所以 if not 就可以有 even if not 和 though not 两种理解。其中的 even if not 和 even 意思是类似的，为什么?请看例子：

　　Jason is so kind hearted that he donates hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars every year.

　　If not 按照 even if not 和 even 理解分别是：

　　1)Jason is so kind hearted that he at least donates hundreds of dollars every year, even if he does not donates thousands of dollars.

　　2)Jason is so kind hearted that he donates hundreds of dollars every year，perhaps even thousands of dollars every year.

　　第一句话：他每年捐款就算没有数千也有数百美元。(至少数百，也可能到数千)

　　第二句话：他每年捐款数百美元，甚至数千美元。(至少数百，也可能到数千)

　　接下来请看几个我从Garner’sModern English Usage(4th edition )以及Oxford Dictionary 摘录下来的关于两种用法的例子：

　　Perhaps even:

　　1. “If all this is true, the president Reagan should go down in history as one of the greatest, if not the greatest.” William L. Jones, “The president, Iran, and the boland Amendment,” San Diego Union-Trib.,20 Dec.1986,at B11.

　　2. ”The vast number of papers which had all been piled up seemed to have hundreds if not thousands of pages.“

　　Though not:

　　1. “She gave proficient, if not profound, readings.” Josef Woodard“ Monroe Plays Mostly in a Classical Mode”, L.A.Times,12 Apr. 1996, at F14.

　　2. This is the story William Kleinknecht lays out competently if not stirringly in the ‘The NewEthnic Mobs’, a useful primer on the shifting criminal threat” Ralph Blumenthal,” Books of the Times”, N.Y. Times, 5 Sept. 1996, at C21.

　　考过或以后会考GRE的同学可以注意一下以下从GRE试题里面摘录的例子：

　　填空：

　　1)Several studies dispelled the assumption that paper cups, because they were made of natural products, were more environmentally friendly than cups made of plastic (polystyrene). Indeed, these studies indicated that the environmental costs of producing and recycling paper cups were similar to, if not (even) more than, those related to the production, disposal, and recycling of polystyrene cups.

　　2)The modern iron suspension bridge dates from the early 19th century, but it did not have propitious debut: many early suspension bridges were damaged, if not (even) out right destroyed, by the wind. There were few practical alter natives however, so the form persisted.

　　阅读：

　　1)While historian Linda Nicholson sees women’s participation in voluntary associations asactivities consistent with the increasing relegation of women’s lives to aseparate, “private” sphere in nineteenth-century Europe, historian Katherine Lynch argues that these kinds of activities enabled women to join with one another and to develop a kind of shadow citizenship within civil society, if not (though)the formal state.

　　2)But the Analytical Review was also quite mistaken, for if, as popular writers, eighteenth-century women produced a large body of eminently forgettable (if not(even) unreadable) works, the many modern readers of the new paper back editions of these women’s novels remind us that eighteenth-century women novelists also created an abundance of works marked by their quality and originality, as well as their historical interest.

　　3) Those who wrote about White characters were, in effect, questioning the definitions of the Black writer, if not (even) of African American literature itself.

　　4) A defender of Burke’s called Woll stone craft’s book an incoherent mass of treacherous candour, interested generosity, and, if not (though) false, at least unnecessary accusation.

　　那怎么区分这两种用法呢?

　　很遗憾，不少情况，很难区分。

　　看一个例子:

　　I'm a good basketball player, if not a great one.

　　这句话既可以理解成：

　　我是一个好的网球运动员，甚至是一个伟大的网球运动员

　　也可以理解成：

　　我是一个好的网球运动员,尽管我不是一个伟大的网球运动员

　　我勒个去，那咋整?

　　如果在口语中，那好办，说话者可以通过语调去强调或弱化great的方式来明确表达的意思，听者也可以通过语调去分辨。

　　如果是书面语，我们读者主要只能靠语境去理解，比如以上例子中如果语境中看出是在突出“我”特别好那就是第1种理解;如果“我”只是一般的好而不是伟大那就是第2种理解。或者如果你知道作者是一个很骄傲的人，那应该更可能是第1种理解，而如果作者是一个谦虚的人，那更可能是第2种理解。如果没有额外信息则很难判断。

　　所以，对于if not这个词，建议写作者尽量不要使用，以免把握不好产生歧义。

　　而如果阅读中如果碰到的话，Bryan A.Garner 在Garner’s Modern English Usage(4th edition )中提供建议是“general speaking, when an understated term such as adequate or competent precedes if not, it means though not; when a more laudatory term precedes the phrase, perhaps even applies.” (一般来说，一个类似于adequate 或 competent 这样更低调平淡的词出现的时候，if not等于though, 而一个更有赞颂的含义的词出现在前的时候，if not等于even) 我觉得这个建议可以参考，但有局限性，因为 1. 除了赞颂还有其他感情色彩，2. 低调平淡是相对的概念。

　　所以我们还是要看语境具体情况具体讨论。不过据笔者个人经验，一般出现even这种用法的情况要更多，所以功利一点的做法是可以先用even这个意思套，没有问题就这么理解，特别是对于参加 GRE，GMAT，LSAT, SAT，Toefl 等时间很紧张的考试的考生，在考试中遇到if not，如果感觉真的很难确定哪种用法，其实可以先默认是even的用法(出现最多)——对考试的影响不会很大，因为反正两种都是让步。不过GRE考生特别要注意, [Part A of sentence,] if not [part B of sentence] 结构里，B is always stronger than A,无论是哪一种情况，A和B相比，A一定是更弱的一方，B一定是更强的一方，参考I'm a good basketball player, if not a great one.

　　所以涉及到GRE填空题，如果A或B有空格，可以靠此来解题。

　　总结结论，对于if not,

　　1. 写作者慎用，避免引起歧义

　　2. 对于阅读中碰到，需要靠语境确定具体意思，如果是考试，在难区分的情况下先理解成even (情况最多)。

　　以下是 if not 在一些具体的作品中的使用，有兴趣的人可以参考阅览一下，增加对这个词组的认识：

　　David Hume thought commerce ‘rather favourable to liberty, and has a natural tendency to preserve, if not produce a free government’ and that ‘nothing is more favourable to the rise of politeness and learning, than a number of neighbouring and independent states, connected together by commerce and policy’.

　　The Rational Optimist

　　Ptolemaic astronomy was ingenious and precise, if not quite accurate, but it was never used for navigation, because astronomers and sailors did not meet.

　　The Rational Optimist

　　Americans learn that Edison invented the incandescent light bulb out of thin air, when his less commercially slick fore runners, Joseph Swan in Britain and Alexander Lodygin in Russia, deserve at least to share the credit, if not rather more.

　　The Rational Optimist

　　“I believe all this is very dangerous, sir. If word got out that German leaders were even talking about fomenting strife in Mexico, and encouraging Japanese aggression in California, American public opinion would be so outraged that the declaration of war could come much sooner, if not immediately.

　　Fall Of Giants

　　By highschool, he had accumulated a few more friends, joined the Woodrow Wilson golf team, and managed to make himself inoffensive if not popular.

　　The snow ball— warren buffett and the business of life

　　Well aware of her husband’s unusual qualities—if not of the apparent riskiness of the course he was charting—Susie arranged for the movers to come, said good-bye to the neighbors, sent out the change-of-address cards, had the telephone service turned off, and packed up their belongings.

　　The snow ball— warren buffett and the business of life

　　She soon had a large circle, many if not most of whom were gay men.

　　The snow ball— warren buffett and the business of life

　　“We talked for a considerable length of time. They stayed until midnight.” Finally, it was just Buffett and Munger. Buffett went to bed, feeling that matters were, if not under control, at least starting to be straightened out.

　　The snow ball— warren buffett and the business of life

　　Beta can be a god send in helping manage an unmanageably large portfolio. Criticism of beta could also, therefore, be directed at the investors who put money in to unmanageably large funds that are diversified this way, and then expect them to outperform the market every year, if not every quarter.

　　The snow ball— warren buffett and the business of life

　　The high–power distance of Colombians could have created frustration on the part of the first officer because the captain failed to show the kind of clear (if not autocratic) decision making expectedin high–power distance cultures. The first and second officers may have been waiting for the captain to make decisions, but still may have been unwilling to pose alternatives.

　　Outliers (p. 207). Penguin Books Ltd.

　　What’s more, programming itself was extraordinarily tedious. This was the era when computer programs were created using cardboard punch cards. Each line of code was imprinted on the card usinga key punch machine. A complex program might include hundreds, if not thousands,of these cards in tall stacks. Once a program was ready, you walked over to whatever main frame computer you had access to and gave the stack of cards to anoperator.

　　Outliers (p. 43). Penguin Books Ltd.

　　参考文献：

　　Garner’s Modern English Usage(4th edition )

　　Oxford Dictionary

　　The economist

　　Merriam Webster Dictionary

　　Collins Dictionary