so little 还是such little

■倪肖丁（陕西西安）

有这么两个句子：

(1) John doesn’t understand you because he knows ________ Chinese.

A. such few     B. so few    C. such little      D. so little

(2) Tom showed such little interest in his lesson that he almost failed.

     《薄冰英语常见共性问题解答》（商务印书馆2008）第75页认为句(1)应该填so little，不能填such little，因为“such little+名词”常后接that从句，例如句(2)。

有读者对于这样的解释感到困惑：难道用so little...还是such little...真的取决于后面有没有that从句吗？

对此，答案显然是否定的。 so little和such little的确都可能修饰名词，但与后面是否跟that从句没有关系。两者的区别关键在于little的词义。

当little表示“少（small amount）”的时候，它是数量限定词，与much相对。这时候通常用so little直接修饰不可数名词。例如：

It's regrettable that classical music receives so little attention.

It's grotesque to expect a person of her experience to work for so little money.

如果little表示“小”，它是形容词，意为small, young, unimportant，short in time/distance等。这时候可数名词复数或不可数名词前可用such little修饰。例如：

Well now, one surely would have thought that for such little things those great big waves might have seemed threatening.

They arise chiefly from what is passing at the time, and though I sometimes amuse myself with suggesting and arranging such little elegant compliments as may be adapted to ordinary occasions, I always wish to give them as unstudied an air as possible.

Transport facilities in Nepal are very limited; few independent nations in the world of comparable size have such little road mileage and so few motor vehicles.

St. Michael's information was likely to be correct in this instance; he would never have invented a piece of matrimonial intelligence which gave such little scope for supplementary detail of the kind he loved to supply.

如果修饰单数可数名词，则要注意冠词的使用。例如：

She's such a little monkey.

It contains a surprising amount of info for such a little book.

当然，so little也可修饰单数可数名词，表示“如此小”。但此时的little（与其它形容词一样）须符合so + little+ a/an这一特定语序。例如：

        Never has weight control been so little a problem. 

The intrinsic value of a certain cancelled stamp might be inestimably small, whatever so little a piece of old paper was worth; but its extrinsic value, if it were a rare item, might be enormous.

不过，表示“小”的little本身的使用频率并不很高。所以，无论是such little、such a little还是so little a/an，相对都比较少见。

在《薄冰英语常见共性问题解答》引用的填空题中，Chinese只可能用“少”来修饰，不可能用“小”来修饰，所以只能填so little。这是对的。

但在其例句Tom showed such little interest in his lesson that he almost failed中，little看来已被作者用作“小”的意思，所以前面才会用such；如果是“少”（not much）的意思，则本应该用so修饰，类同so little money, so little time等。

英语的interest（兴趣）像例句中那样用“小”来修饰倒也并非不可（比如“兴趣不大”），但更常见的是用“少”来修饰（比如“没多少兴趣”）。所以，such little interest和so little interest 都是可能的。例如下面两句均源自美国《时代周刊》杂志：

       Dolly Parton, on why her proposed TV series about a country star turned gospel singer met with such little interest .

And though he had so little interest in Interior's affairs that he at first declined the job, he could not resist a personal appeal from Bush.

但so little interest显然比such little更为常用，后者使用率大概不到前者的十分之一。

总而言之，《薄冰英语常见共性问题解答》的解答没有说到点子上。用so little还是such little修饰名词，主要取决于little的词义以及其后名词的特点，与后面接不接that从句毫不相干；而其Tom showed such little interest in his lesson that he almost failed一句中，such如果改成so，则表达更符合英语习惯。