James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher

維基百科，自由的百科全書

「James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher」這個英文句子是用來說明用詞歧義和標點符號的重要性；[1]標點符號的作用就是代替口語中的語調、[2]重音和停頓。[3]在探討人類如何處理資訊的研究中，常用這句話來說明讀者會藉助標點符號來理解句子的意思，尤其在掃讀多行文字時更是如此。[4]

句子的背景和意思[編輯]

故事起自有兩個學生，James（詹姆斯）和John（約翰）。他們曾經需要在一個英語考試上描述一個曾經着涼的人。約翰寫的句子是「The man had a cold」，這句在文法上不正確；而詹姆斯寫的句子在文法上正確：「The man had had a cold」。老師於是註記「由於詹姆斯的答案是正確的，所以它對於老師有一個較好的效果。」

如果加了標點符號，這句句子會比較清楚：

James, while John had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher.[5]

（翻譯：詹姆斯在當約翰用「had」時用了「had had」，老師認為「had had」的效果更好。）

如果重排句子，意思會更清楚：

James had had "had had", while John had had "had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher.

（翻譯：詹姆斯用了「had had」，而約翰用了「had」，老師認為「had had」的效果更好。）

應用[編輯]

這句子可以作為一個文法遊戲[6][7][8]或一條考試題目，[1][2]考生需要賦予合適的標點符號來明晰句子意思。漢斯·賴申巴赫（Hans Reichenbach）在1947年出版的《符號邏輯要素》一書中用了一個類似的句子（「John where Jack...」），給讀者作為練習，以說明語言的不同層次，例如目標語言及元語言，其用意是讓讀者為句子添加所需的標點符號，使之具有語法意義。[9]

在說明人們如何理解環境中不同信息的意義是，這個句子被用來證明看似隨意的決定能極大地改變其意義。類似於句子中標點符號的變化如何使老師時而喜歡詹姆斯的作品，時而喜歡約翰的作品。例子：「James, while John had had "had," had...」與「James, while John had had "had had,"...」。[10]

這句話也是為了顯示「had」（完了）的語義模糊性，也是為了說明用字和提字的區別[11]。也有人以它為例，說明語言的複雜性、語言的解釋及其對人的認知的影響[12]。

為了讓讀者清楚地了解句法結構，這個句子至少要求兩個短語之間用分號、句號、橫線分開。不過，賈斯珀·福爾德的小說《失落的情節之井》還是採用了這一短語的變體，以說明即使是標點良好的寫作也可能產生混亂[13]：

""Okay," said the Bellman, whose head was in danger of falling apart like a chocolate orange, "let me get this straight: David Copperfield, unlike Pilgrim’s Progress, which had had 'had', had had 'had had'. Had 'had had' had TGC’s approval?""

參見[編輯]

參考資料[編輯]

  1. ^ 1.0 1.1 Magonet, Jonathan. A rabbi reads the Bible 2nd. SCM-Canterbury Press. 2004: 19 [2009-04-30]. ISBN 9780334029526. You may remember an old classroom test in English language. What punctuation marks do you have to add to this sentence so as to make sense of it? 
  2. ^ 2.0 2.1 Dundes, Alan; Carl R. Pagter. When you're up to your ass in alligators: more urban folklore from the paperwork empire Illustrated. Wayne State University Press. 1987: 135 [2009-04-30]. ISBN 0814318673. The object of this and similar tests is to make sense of a series of words by figuring out the correct intonation pattern. 
  3. ^ Hudson, Grover. Essential introductory linguistics. Wiley-Blackwell. 1999: 372 [2009-04-30]. ISBN 0631203044. Writing is secondary to speech, in history and in the fact that speech and not writing is fundamental to the human species. 
  4. ^ van de Velde, Roger G. Text and thinking: on some roles of thinking in text interpretation Illustrated. Walter de Gruyter. 1992: 43 [2009-04-30]. ISBN 3110132508. （原始內容存檔於2020-05-06）. In scanning across lines, readers also make use of the information parts carried along with the punctuatuion markes: a period, a dash, a colon, a semicolon or a comma may signal different degrees of integration/separation between the groupings. 
  5. ^ "Problem C: Operator Jumble" （頁面存檔備份，存於互聯網檔案館）. 31st ACM International Collegiate Programming Conference, 2006–2007.
  6. ^ Amon, Mike. GADFLY. Financial Times. 2004-01-28 [2009-04-30]. （原始內容存檔於2012-07-22）. HAD up to here? So were readers of last week's column, invited to punctuate "Smith where Jones had had had had had had had had had had had the examiners approval." 
  7. ^ Jackson, Howard. Grammar and Vocabulary: A Resource Book for Students. Routledge. 2002: 123 [2009-04-30]. ISBN 0415231701. Finally, verbal humour is often an ingredient of puzzles. As part of an advertising campaign for its educational website , the Guardian (for 3 january 2001) included the following familiar grammatical puzzle. 
  8. ^ 3802 - Operator Jumble. [2012-01-07]. （原始內容存檔於2008-10-13）. 
  9. ^ Reichenbach, Hans (1947) Elements of symbolic logic. London: Collier-MacMillan. Exercise 3-4, p.405; solution p.417.
  10. ^ Weick, Karl E. Making Sense of the Organization 8th. Wiley-Blackwell. 2005: 186–187 [2009-04-30]. ISBN 0631223193. （原始內容存檔於2020-10-31）. Once a person has generated/bracketed part of the stream, then the activities of punctuation and connection (parsing) can occur in an effort to transform the raw data into information. 
  11. ^ Lecercle, Jean-Jacques. The violence of language Illustrated. Routledge. 1990: 86 [2009-04-30]. ISBN 0415034310. （原始內容存檔於2020-05-07）. Suppose I decide that I wish to make up a sentence containing eleven occurrences of the word 'had' in a row ... 
  12. ^ Hollin, Clive R. Contemporary Psychology: An Introduction Illustrated. Routledge. 1995: 34 [2009-04-30]. ISBN 0748401911. Do readers make use of the ways in which sentences are structured? 
  13. ^ Fforde, Jasper. The Well of Lost Plots. Hodder & Stoughton. 2003 [2012-04-30]. （原始內容存檔於2020-11-04）. 
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