這天路過某茶座，見桌子旁邊豎起一個告示牌，上寫著：
This seating area is exclusive for our patrons only.
查字典，exclusive 解作「專用的」、「獨有的」，已含 only 之意，根本不用疊床架屋，在句末補上 only。告示牌之所以這樣寫，栗子妹只想到兩個原因：
1. exclusive 太深，怕別人不懂，所以要補上較淺易的 only (我這個解釋夠牽強了吧？
2. 非法佔用位子的人太多，所以要加強語氣 (這個理由更廢！要坐的要怕你這個牌子嗎？
其實說到底，就是這句英文根本有問題！
[補：乏言先生提議改為 This seating area is for our patrons ONLY，這個最好！
Neither of your reasons legitimize the sentence.
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For one thing, it's grammatically incorrect. Since it modifies the verb "is", it's an adverb, so it should be exclusively.
And yes, "exclusive" + "only" = redundancy, not unlike "although" + "but".
[版主回覆07/19/2009 13:12:00]Thanks for your support, Teacher!
But I think 'exclusive' is alright? Isn't the word modifying 'seating area'? (I'm thinking about sentences like 'This document is important to him.')
栗子妹！早晨呀
回覆刪除看來你Blog的回應欄，也要加上「 exclusive for our friends only」 喎！
[版主回覆07/19/2009 13:13:00]午安呀, 南爾
嘩，頭先刪廣告刪到我一頭煙......
This one may be worth looking into. My experience has been that if exclusive is to be used as an adjective, it should precede the noun it describes, like an "exclusive seating area for our patrons". A sentence with "exclusive for" somehow doesn't flow right. That's just my opinion.
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In your example of "important" and "important to", both are adjectives, I agree.
[版主回覆07/20/2009 08:43:00]You're right, Teacher. The use of 'exclusive' in the notice is problematic. They should write something like 'This seating area is for the exclusive use of our patrons.' or 'This seating area is available exclusively for our patrons.'
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=26808&dict=CALD
我只希望那塊牌如果有中文的話，不是寫成「只張客戶尊享」已經要偷笑。
回覆刪除[版主回覆07/25/2009 20:53:00]嘻，我今早特意拐過去看，中文乾淨多了，就指「客戶專用區」五個大字
又上了一課.
回覆刪除我想栗妹第一個原因比較符合吧
回覆刪除This seating area is for our patrons ONLY.
回覆刪除是否已足夠？
[版主回覆07/22/2009 08:29:00]這個最好！簡單直接。
謝乏言先生！
Teacher is right. If you want to write sth is exclusive for sb, the adj exclusive must be changed to exclusively (the adv is to modify the verb is). On the other hand, sth is exclusive for sb is grammatically incorrect as exclusive (in this sense) should be followed by preposition to, not for. So, one can write this sentence in 3 different ways. 1. This seating area is exclusively for patrons. 2. This seating area is exclusive to patrons. 3. This seating area is for patrons only. Learners of English often over-focus on the meaning of the word and neglect the elements around it.
回覆刪除[版主回覆11/04/2010 05:39:00]Thanks a lot for your explanation! I thought that 'exclusive' is always followed by 'for'. (Should have checked the dictionary more frequently )
Actually, the adj exclusive is seldom used with prep for. Exclusive is ususally associated with prep of or to, but the two sentence patterns carry different meanings. We say sth is (exclusively) for you, prep for has nothing to do with the adj exclusive. We can similarly say sth is (specially) for you, or simply I've got sth for you. So prep for here operates independently.
回覆刪除[版主回覆11/05/2010 08:28:00]Thanks for the further explanation.