先行词揭秘：定语从句中的关键角色与识别技巧

解读定语从句中的“先行词”

在语言的构建中，定语从句是一个复杂且精妙的元素，用于进一步描述和限定一个名词或代词。而在这个结构中，“先行词”则是一个核心概念。先行词，顾名思义，它总是在定语从句之前出现，是被定语从句修饰的对象。与普通形容词修饰名词时形容词位于名词之前不同，修饰先行词的定语从句总是放在它之后。

先行词的存在和重要性在于，它是定语从句所依附的“锚点”。无论是单词、短语，还是完整的句子，都可以作为先行词，为定语从句提供语境和语义上的支持。但要准确识别先行词，并不仅仅依赖于定语从句前的名词，更需要深入理解定语从句的语义内涵，以判断关系词真正的指代对象。

在不同的句子中，先行词呈现出多样的形态和角色：

在“Behaviorists, in contrast, say that differences in scores are due to the fact that blacks are often deprived of many of the educational and other environmental advantages that whites enjoy.”这句话中，最后的that引导的定语从句修饰的是advantages，因此advantages是先行词。

而在“He likes climbing hills, which is a good exercise.”这句话中，which引导的定语从句修饰的是climbing hills这个动名词短语，所以climbing hills被识别为先行词。

“This trend began during the Second World War, when several governments came to the conclusion that the specific demands that a government wants to make of its scientific establishment cannot generally be foreseen in detail.”这个句子则展示了when引导的定语从句修饰的是the Second World War这个名词短语，使其成为先行词。

在“He is quite lazy, which is known to all his neighbors.”这句话中，which修饰的是整个句子“He is quite lazy”，因此整个句子作为先行词。

1、“The food supply will not increase nearly enough to match this, which means that we are heading into a crisis in the matter of producing and marketing food.”这个句子中的which引导的定语从句修饰的是前面的整句话“The food supply will not increase nearly enough to match this”，因此整句话作为先行词。

先行词的多样性和复杂性体现了语言的丰富和精妙。它不仅是理解和解析定语从句的关键，也是深入探索语言结构和语义内涵的窗口。