Should We Think 'Outside' or 'Outside of' the Box?

跳出思维定式是用“Outside”还是“Outside of”？让北京翻译公司北京金橄榄外文翻译有限公司与您一起看看以下内容：

Hello!

大家好！

This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question about the adverb "outside" from Philip in China.

在本周《名师答疑》节目中，我们要回答来自中国的菲利普一个问题：关于副词“outside”。

He writes:

他写道：

Hi,

嗨，

Could you please tell me the difference between "outside of" and "outside"?

你能告诉我“outside of”和“outside”的区别吗？

Please tell me which is better,

麻烦告诉我哪个哪个更好一些？

We should think outside the box.

我们应该跳出思维定式。（使用outside）

Or: We should think outside of the box.

还是：我们应该跳出思维定式。（使用outside of）

Dear Philip,

亲爱的菲利普，

Thank you for writing to us.

感谢你写信给我们。

"Outside" can have one of four uses in English, as a noun, adjective, adverb, or preposition.

“Outside”在英语中有四种用法：名词、形容词、副词或介词，用作哪一种都行。

It is not surprising that you found it hard to understand.

你觉得它难以理解，这并不奇怪。

Your question brings up an interesting dispute between grammar experts in the United States and Britain.

你问的这个问题引发了美国和英国语法专家之间的一场有趣辩论。

The Oxford English Dictionary says that "outside" in phrases like "outside of the box" is an adverb.

《牛津英语大词典》说，在像“outside of the box”这样的短语中，“outside”是一个副词。

It changes the meaning of the verb, in this case, "think".

它会改变文本中动词的意思，本例中意思发生改变的动词是“think”。

Together with the preposition "of" it becomes a two-word preposition.

和介词“of”一起，它变成了一个由两个词组成的介词。

Here are other examples of such two-word prepositions:

下面是其他这样由两个单词组成的介词的例子：

A baby bird flew out of the nest.

一只雏鸟飞出了巢。

He was never close to his sister.

他和自己的妹妹从来没亲近过。

Your example uses "outside of" or "outside" to talk about the space the subject occupies.

你给的例子使用“outside of”或“outside”来谈论主语所占据的空间。

You can use either "outside" alone or with "of" in that sense.

从这个意义上说，你可以单使用“outside”，也可以和“of”一起使用。

There is another use where "outside of" means "apart from" or "besides".

还有一种用法：“outside of”是指“apart from”或“besides”。

Here are examples of that use:

下面是那种用法的例子：

Outside of their later songs, I do not enjoy the Beatles' music.

我不喜欢披头士乐队的歌曲，他们后期的歌曲除外。

I cannot think of a time outside of high school when I wore a tie.

我想不起除了高中以外的时候我还打过领带。

The Merriam-Webster Learners Dictionary says "outside of" is a North American use.

《韦氏学习词典》称“outside of”是北美一种用法。

Another British dictionary, the online Oxford Dictionaries also sees the use of "outside of" to talk about location as "chiefly North American".

另一本英国词典， 《牛津在线词典》也认为主要是北美地区用“outside of”来谈论位置。

But its use in the "apart from" sense is seen as normal for British and American English.

但其意思为“apart from”的用法在英式英语和美式英语中很正常。

So in British English, you would usually hear,

所以在英式英语中，你通常会听到，

Think outside the box.

跳出思维定势。（单使用“outside”）

And in American English, you might hear it that way or

在美式英语中，你可能也会听到它被那样使用，或者

Think outside of the box.

跳出思维定势。（和“of”一起使用）

What question do you have about American English?

关于美式英语，你有什么问题吗？

Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com.

如果有的话，那就发送电子邮件至learningenglish@voanews.com吧。

And that's Ask a Teacher.

以上就是本期《名师答疑》的全部内容。

I'm Jill Robbins.

吉尔•罗宾斯为你播报。

来源：iyuba