問:有報紙專欄說,以下一句犯了三個錯誤,先生認為怎樣?──The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education is an
organisation to advocate and provide support services for students(香港資優教育學院的任務,是為學生鼓吹及提供支援服務)。
答:讀者附下的那篇專欄文字說,provide support services for students應改為provide
support services to students。其實for是正確用法,to是常見的錯誤,這一點拙欄談過兩次,今不復贅。
又那位專欄作者認為,The HKAGE is an organisation to advocate等等,應作The HKAGE is an organisation which advocates,殊不知兩個寫法都正確。To可以用在名詞之後,帶出該名詞所說事物的用途,例如:(1)This is a book to introduce you to the basic tenets of
Buddhism(這本書給讀者介紹佛教的基本道理)。(2)The
Gridiron Club is an organisation to promote ease and fluency in public speaking(炮烙會的宗旨,是提高公開演講技巧,務求講者不怯場,言詞流暢)。例句二摘自一九一六年四月號國際扶輪社雜誌The
Rotarian "I Didn't Expect to be Called on──"一文。
那位作者說的第三點,是advocate and二字應刪去,但文法上to
advocate support services這說法沒有問題。Advocate是「鼓吹」或「主張」,其後的名詞,表示所鼓吹或主張的事物,例如麥美倫出版社字典Macmillan Contemporary
Dictionary有以下例句:The council advocated a change of
policy(議會主張改變政策)。