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| 2010/07/16 21:07:17瀏覽6726｜回應0｜推薦3 | |
中國人大概不太會用這樣的英文, 像 What's in it for me ? （這對我有什麼好處）? The tickets will be waiting for you at the booking office. 票會等你? A pair of letters sits on the coffee table in front of me.(The Rule of Four) 信函坐在那兒? We collapsed on cafe chairs.( Historian by Elizabeth Kostova) 這種坐法真是傳神, 就好像整個人崩塌在咖啡椅中 It happened in a fraction of second, but a thrill of horror washed over me, head to foot.( Historian by Elizabeth Kostova) 驟然間, 驚聳的恐怖從頭浸染到腳, 多傳神的描述呀 Did you notice anything out of the ordinary in Professor Rossi's behavior? ( Historian by Elizabeth Kostova) 這種寫法平實卻有力 get off 不見得只是下車之意, 像 Let’s get off the subjects already. 係指別再談論該問題, 用 already 是因為已談論太久了。 He never told on me. 告狀的意思 He asked me to fetch Hassan too, but I lied and told him Hassan had the runs.(The Kite Runner) have the runs 指的是拉肚子(diarrhea) 這本小說的中譯本(追風箏的孩子,李靜宜譯,木馬文化) 16頁 錯譯成"跑得不見人影" English idiom 是挺有趣的, 我常問 English major 的中國人Why is American English so heavily idiomatic? 鮮有答得出的, 因為idiom 係指賦予一群早有其意的字另外的新意 (the assigning of a new meaning to a group of words which already have their own meaning) 根據專家的答案是, 當我們不斷推陳出新觀念之際, 因為較懶, 不想創新字, 所以用一些眾人早已知悉的字, 卻另生新意。（The most probable reason is that as we develop new concepts, we need new expressions for them, but in stead of creating a brand new word from the sound of the language, we use some already existent words and put them together in a new sense.) 這類表達法廣泛使用於口語中, 比如: Why don’t you get a European car? 你為何不買歐洲車？ Because you have to pay through the nose to get it repaired. 因為修理費大得驚人。 Gary pays lip-service to his boss, but I don’t think he respects him very much. Gary 嘴上吹捧他老闆, 但我看他不怎麼尊敬他。 有連字符號的慣用語如 run-of-the-mill 是平凡(ordinary)之意, up-and-coming 則為有前途的(promising), 而像 be in the know, 用法也怪, Only the president and his secretary are in the know. 係指知道內情。 英文中比喻式的表達法其實亦挺有趣,像”People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. “係指別五十步笑百步,與”The pot calling the kettle black”.有異曲同工之妙. 所以,英語慣用語(Idiomatic Phrases) 實係指那些字面上不易看出其含意的片語,同時也會因使用在不同的文句脈胳中而產生截然不同的內涵,比如說: Where did you get on the bus? 上車 I want to get on in my career. 進展 I must get on with my work. 繼續 Tom gets on well with John. 相處良好 He’s getting on now-----must be 60.) 變老 Trying to distinguish one from the other is enough to get on your nerves. 心煩 你想過 run 這個簡單的字嗎？ 我們來寫幾個句子： There was a run on the bank. 銀行產生擠兌 I’ve got the runs. 拉肚子 The movie has run for three months. 電影已上演三個月 The book ran into ten edition. 該書已出版到第十版 The train ran off the metals. 火車出軌 He ran a red light. 他闖紅燈 I have the run of a well-stocked library. 我可以很方便的利用ㄧ所收藏豐富的圖書館 They don’t even have running water in the house. 他們的房子甚至連自來水都沒有 He has a running nose. 他流鼻水 She has a run in her stocking. 她褲襪上有處脫針 He just hit a home run. 他剛打出一支全壘打或古羅馬時的軍團, You run up a bill. 你錢用多了 In the long run we all are dead. 長期下來吾人均已作古(名經濟學家凱因斯之語） He knows how to run a business. 他知道如何經管企業 字典的充分使用是有效學習英文不可或缺的好習慣, 英文大師吳炳鍾先生過去在對孜孜學子演講時, 便不斷強調使用英英字典的重要性, 記得他舉出一個他過去未仔細查核字典的字cohort, 他原以為是一個好字,指的是一群同屬性的人, 或古羅馬時的軍團, 後來查字典才發現,原來美國人使用此字有貶低人的意思, 係指同謀者,比如 the mayor and his disreputable cohorts.(市長和他那群臭名昭彰的同夥) . 不查字典可真危險啊! 余光中教授在為朗文當代高級辭典(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English)寫的序中, 亦提到他自己在多年前與一位美國太太聊天, 提到一位晝家, 余教授說了一句話:It seems you’re intimate with him. 不料對方「笑容頓失, 險色尷尬, 言語囁嚅, 不知如何是好」原來這個字intimate雖是指關係密切,但用在形容男女關係時要格外小心, 因為有性的含意, 如果說成”They were intimate three times” 則指他們有三次性行為. 所以余教授再三強調,查字典是一門學問, 一大鍛鍊. 以個人的觀察, 當你向學生推薦便用英英字典之際, 他們總立即回應, 字典若以英文解釋怎磨看得懂? 當然也可以使用英英.英漢雙解辭典,其實像朗文(Longman)及Macmillan English Dictionary 對使用者均有貼心的考量, 其解釋用字係以最常用的2000-2500 字為之, Macmillan English Dictionary甚至將這2500個稱之為界定用字窠（Defining Vocabulary)詳列於字典後供使用者參考.除非你的字彙水準低於2500字,否則使用上述兩種英英字典應得心應手. 西方文學史上，約瑟夫‧康拉德（Joseph Conrad 1857—1924）被視為“現代主義”的鼻祖,以一位波蘭人而言, 他實在了不起,19歲才開始學英文.卻成為英文的體裁大師(stylist),真不簡單.記得以前台大顏元叔教授推薦大家讀那本 Nostromo(這是二十幾年前的事了,我現在才想去做).康拉德行文好用長句僻字，含意百轉千迴，主題奧妙深晦，原文已難讀懂， 看他的筆調: The political atmosphere of the Republic was generally stormy in these days. The fugitive patriots of the defeated party had the knack of turning up again on the coast with half a steamer's load of small arms and ammunition. (Nostromo, pp.22) 同樣這個字knack(訣竅)看Hillary如何用: Bill wanted to approach health care reform from a new angle, and Ira, with his brilliant and creative mind, had a knack for coming up with inventive ways of looking at issues.(Living History,pp.143) 是不是都用得很棒? 關於翻譯, 我的想法也是比較趨於流暢,因為 太拘泥於原文的結構或形式 ,讀起來定覺生澀, 進而影響文章的可讀性, 當然正確性乃是好譯文的必要條件. 像 He did not add to my mortification, 譯成「落井下石」,挺傳神的另外像 He can not stop flipping the pages. 譯成「愛不釋手」應該蠻貼切的. 以書名形成的英文如 catch 22, 係以1962年Joseph Heller的小說名引申為特殊含意,表示自身矛盾的狀態,稱為It is a catch 22 situation. 所以像, I can’t get a job unless I belong to the union, and I can’t join the union until I’ve got a job. 便可以說 It’s a case of catch 22. 這難道不就是黑色幽默（black humor）嗎? 查查英英字典解釋為 humor dealing with the unpleasant side of human life, 以人類不愉快的生活面為素材所構成的幽默事例或故事便稱為黑色幽默, 這二個辭也都可以在字典中查到. 還有用書中人物做譬喻的像Humpty-Dumpty (Lewis Carrol的Through the looking glass書中出現的蛋人)便常被使用,如Mission Impossible第三集Tom Cruise 一爬上牆便說了一句「Humpty-Dumpty sat on the wall」也算是有趣的引用. 聖經中所用的世界末日邪惡之戰Armageddon也常被引用. 又如前文提過的五十步笑百步, 英文可用 The pot calling the kettle black 或 People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. 來表達,也算貼切了. 如果利用欣賞電影來學英文則更是逸趣橫生,配合目前 DVD 的播映技術,司以白由控制字幕的出現, 讀者可以利用反覆練習達到學習聽說英文的效果. 可以把每個練習段落放可以把每個練習段落放短,譬如十五分鐘,先把字幕消除,其次再用英文字幕,再換中文字幕,最後就是要聽懂無字幕的情節. 使用英文字幕時, 可利用暫停的方式記下用字或查字典,徹底了解其意, 更重要的是要學習劇中人的語調(intonation) , 多加模仿（imitate), 自然能進步神速,這可達到耳濡目染, 潛移默化之效.( Learning by osmosis.) |
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