only for

enti · 发表于 2018-9-6 21:16:58

本帖最后由 enti 于 2018-9-6 21:16 编辑

India’s Supreme Court struck down a colonial-era law criminalising homosexual acts. Section 377, which classified gay sex an “unnatural offence” alongside paedophilia, sodomy and bestiality, was enacted in 1860. A court repealed it in 2009, only for the Supreme Court to overturn that decision in 2013. But now, “Criminalising carnal intercourse is irrational [and] manifestly unconstitutional,” said one presiding judge.

我知道这句话是说 2009年一个法庭推翻了 337 法案，但是到了2013年最高院又恢复了这个同性恋禁令。但是具体 “only for”是什么意思呢？

经典与古典 · 发表于 2018-9-8 19:41:00

wiki这样解释：Introduces an unexpected situation that renders the aforementioned effort inadequate or irrelevant.

trivialstuff · 发表于 2018-9-6 23:13:29

本帖最后由 trivialstuff 于 2018-9-6 23:16 编辑

You can use only before an infinitive to introduce an event which happens immediately after one you have just mentioned, and which is rather surprising or unfortunate. （用于不定式前）不料，结果却

结果却被最高法院撤销了那项决定。这里在only to do sth中插了个for sb。

tomcruiz · 发表于 2018-9-6 22:33:27

是否可以译为 “只是”

流星冲击 · 发表于 2018-9-6 22:47:11

字面意思可以译为“仅为”。

enti · 发表于 2018-9-6 23:12:10

我看到 “only for” 的时候下意识就把它等同于 “only if” ，“only when”，但是这里应该是分开的两个词吧? only 作 “反而” 讲，这样勉强能理解一下。可是 for 应该不是当原因，然后是什么我也想不出来了。

enti · 发表于 2018-9-6 23:20:34

啊，这样就能解释了。实在是太感谢了！

[语言求助] only for