“……是X，而不是Y” 四种句型 强调句型漫谈

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给时光以生命：强调句型漫谈
2015年5月，笔者重游英国牛津大学，在St Edmund Hall学院的长椅上，看到下面这句话（如图所示）。
1 It's not the years in your life that count; it's the life in your years.
这是献给一位25岁即已逝去的年轻生命（In loving memory of Katie Ashbridge who died 15th May 2007 aged 25 years）的一句话。上面这个句子是何意呢？
语法结构又该如何分析呢？这就是本文我们要讨论的内容。

语义分析
上面的句1是一个结构为“It is…that…”的强调句型，被强调的两个元素分别是the years in your life和the life in your years，我们可以分别以X和Y来代替，因此，原句的基本结构可总结为以下的句型一。
句型一： It is not X that…; it is Y.
这个句型的基本含义是“……不是X，而是Y”。为了避免重复，句1的第二个分句省去了that counts，完整的句子为：“It's not the years in your life that count; it's the life in your years that counts.”我们可以看到，这句话很巧妙地把years和life互换位置，就构造出了一个很有深意的句子，意思是：“真正重要的不是生命中的岁月，而是岁月中的生活。”
这就如同数学家帕斯卡所说的“给时光以生命，而不是给生命以时光”。因为逝者只有25岁，所以这句话用于纪念逝者非常贴切。它想要表达的是，生命的意义不在于其长度，而在于其宽度和厚度。我们无法决定自己生命的长度，但我们可以拓展它的宽度，增加它的厚度。它让我想到，人这一辈子除掉睡眠只有一万多天，人与人的不同在于，你是真的活了一万多天，还是仅仅生活了一天，却重复了一万多次。

结构分析
从句法结构角度来看，文章开头的例句可以有多种说法，我们可以采用以下多种句型来表达。
句型二：It is Y that…, not X.
此时例句改为：It's the life in your years that counts, not the years in your life.
我们也可以采用“not…but”来连接X和Y，得出句型三。
句型三： It is not X but Y that…
此时例句改为：It's not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts.
我们还可以采用“not so much…as”连接X和Y，此时得出句型四。
句型四： It is not so much X as Y that…
此时例句可以改为：It's not so much the years in your life as the life in your years that counts.
其他例句展示
下面我们来看这些强调句型在真实的语言交际中是如何应用的。请看下面这个例句。
2 It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives; it's what we do consistently.
解析：
这句话采用了上述句型一，同样在第二个句子后面省去了that shapes our lives。完整的句子为：“It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives; it's what we do consistently that shapes our lives.”句子的意思是：“造就我们生活的不是偶尔做一回的那些事情，而是我们持之以恒做的事情。”
我们可以采用其他三个句型来改写上面这个句子。
① It's what we do consistently that shapes our lives, not what we do once in a while.（句型二）
② It's not what we do once in a while but what we do consistently that shapes our lives.（句型三）
③ It's not so much what we do once in a while as what we do consistently that shapes our lives.（句型四）
3 Like I always say, it's the thought that counts, not the timing or so much the gift.
解析：
这句话采用了上述句型二来表达，意思为：“如同我一直说的，重要的是有这份心，而不是送礼物的时间，甚至也不是礼物本身。” 而且这个句子还使用了（not）so much the gift，其实就是句型四中的“not so much…as…”句式。下面我们分别用句型一、句型三和句型四来改写这个句子。
① It's not the timing or the gift that counts; it' s the thought.（句型一）
② It's not the timing or the gift but the thought that counts.（句型三）
③ It's not so much the timing or the gift as the thought that counts.（句型四）
我们再来看下面这段话。
4 A young man wanted to invite a young lady out for a special dinner. There was only one problem: He didn't have any money! Instead, he made a simple meal and, although it was a stormy night, he took the woman to the beach where he treated her to a candle-lit dinner. It wasn't the cost or the food that made the meal special; it was the thoughtfulness the man showed and the romantic mood he created.
解析：
这段话的最后一句其实运用的就是上面的句型一，这句话的第二个分句省略了that made the meal special，完整的句子是：“It wasn't the cost or the food that made the meal special; it was the thoughtfulness the man showed and the romantic mood he created that made the meal special.”
我们也可以采用其他句型来表达，具体如下。
① It was the thoughtfulness the man showed and the romantic mood he created that made the meal special, not the cost or the food.（句型二）
② It wasn't the cost or the food but the thoughtfulness the man showed and the romantic mood he created that made the meal special.（句型三）
③ It wasn't so much the cost or the food as the thoughtfulness the man showed and the romantic mood he created that made the meal special.（句型四）
综上所述，以后我们要强调说“……是X，而不是Y”，就可以采用下面四种句型。
句型一：It is not X that…; it is Y.
句型二：It is Y that…, not X.
句型三：It is not X but Y that…
句型四：It is not so much X as Y that…

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