■ partially 与 partly

由于形容词 partial 有“局部的”和“偏袒的”两个差别很大的词义，它的派生副词 partially 有时候也会发生歧义，例如：

• The testimony was partially recorded.

这句话可以是“证词部分地记录下来了”，也可以是“证词被带偏见地记录下来了”。此时如果是前一个意思，最好避免 partially 而用 partly 或 in part。Partly 只有“部分地”、“局部地”的词义。它和 partially 都大约从 15 世纪就开始在英语中出现，其“部分地”的意义相近。对于 partially 能否表示“局部地”，许多语言学家争论激烈。后来 Henry W. Fowler 提出了 partially 与 partly 的区别标准，这个标准大体上可以站得住，就是：partially 偏重于“质”方面的“不完全”，而 partly 则偏重于“量”方面的“不完全”。

• It is partly wood.这有一部分是木质的。
• ... his partially re-established health …他多少有点恢复了的健康；
• ... their ramble did not appear to have been more than partially agreeable. (Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, Chapter X)…他们的游玩，看来只不过是略微有点愉快而已。
• ... steps were taken to furnish these partially trained forces with whatever equipment could be made available. (George C. Marshall, The United States at War)…对于这些只局部受到过训练的部队，就设法因陋就简，有什么就拿什么来装备他们。
• ... but he has only partially succeeded in it. (Times Liberary Supplement, Apr. 16, 1970)…但是他在这件事情上只是局部地成功了。

但是这个区别也不是绝对的。有时候即使偏重“质”，也可以用 partly。

• ... while not convincing, is at least partly true. (Edwin O. Reischauer, The New York Times Book Review, May 23, 1954)…尽管不能服人，但起码局部是真实的。

partially 与 partly 除了在词义上略有差别之外，在句法形式上，用法也有差别。在表示原因的词组或从句之前，更多用 partly 而少用 partially（尽管这是“质”而非“量”方面的“不完全”）。

• ... it is also partly (*partially) because Chaucer's English lies almost directly behind our own. (W. F. Bolton, A Short History of Literary English)…这也是因为乔叟的英语几乎是直接发展成我们今天的英语的。
• Partly (*partially) for this reason, the search... was not undertaken.(Noam Chomsky, Columbia Forum, Spring 1968)局部由于这个原因，征聘…没有举行。