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| 2010/07/24 21:35:31瀏覽2224｜回應0｜推薦3 | |
我常聽人家說 “醉翁之意不在酒”, 人云亦云的答案似乎都指向 “女人” 吧？讀了原詩才知道 “在乎山水之間” ; 稱讚別人 “明察秋毫”. 應該是觀察入裡, 眼光卓越吧, 怎麼下一句是 “不見轝薪” ? 不是見樹不見林嗎？Lost forest for the tree? 意思完全走調, 真是奇怪。過去我們常引用“沈默是金”(Silence is golden.), 其後我也看到接了一句 “ But speech is silvern.” 恩, 說話是銀, 挺對的, 沒有一竿子打翻船; 記得 “ Beauty is only skin deep.” 指美麗只有皮膚那麼淺, 沒錯, 內涵才重要呀, 可是最近我又聽到ㄧ位老外寫下一句, “ But ugliness goes to the bone.” 醜之入骨？真是沒天良！ 談人力資源(Human Resource), 總會談到性騷擾(Sexual Harassment), 因為該行為常會涉及濫權(power abuse), 這就有歧視(discrimination)的性質會涉入, 如果老板對屬下提出條件, 可能會涉及對價關係(quid pro quo), 比如答應吃飯就有升遷機會, 就是 something for something 的情況。電影 “ 桃色交易”(Indecent Proposal)中, 男主角(Robert Redford )對女主角(Demmy More)的先生說 “ Suppose I offer you one million dollars for spending a single night with your wife.” 就是一種 quid pro quo 建議。 “ catch-22” 有時也會被使用, “麥克米倫高級英漢雙解詞典”(Macmillan English-Chinese Dictionary) 將之解釋成 “ 讓人左右為難的情況”, 這用語來自美國作家Joseph Heller 1962年出版的同名小說, 英文解釋為 “ a difficult situation that is impossible to escape from because each part of the problem must be solved first.” 這樣讀者恐怕仍不太清楚, 我可以提供一條例句供參考 “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.” (除非我是工會會員, 否則無法得到工作; 而除非我有工作, 才能加入工會會員。) 學語文雖然逸趣橫生, 有時也要小心, 常會有些假朋友出現, 記得早期大陸英漢字典出版時, eat your words 便誤譯成 “食言”, 這是違背諾言耶, 其實只是 regret what you said or admit that you were wrong about something you said. 至於食言, 則是 go back on your word. 這種辭彙, 語言學(Linguistics)上稱之為 “假同源詞”(false cognate), 在“麥克米倫高級英漢雙解詞典” 附錄4中, 蘇正隆教授花了4 頁的篇幅說明這類辭彙, 頗值得一讀, 像 green bean(四季豆), bald eagle(白頭海雕), bank holiday(公共假期), boot camp(新兵訓練中心), bootleg CD(盜版CD), crow’s feet(魚尾紋), flatfoot 扁平足, 但是flat-footed 卻又有別意, 如 A recent drought caught the government flat-footed. 係指讓政府 “ 窘態百出, 束手無策” , fourth estate(新聞界), hard shoulder(路肩), heavy duty(耐用), hobby horse(愛談之老話題), killer whale(虎鯨), labor of love(興趣於願為之事), loose canon(不按牌理的危險人物), a miss is as good as a mile(反正沒發生), moonshine(月光, 私酒, 餿主意, 愚蠢評論), pet peeve(讓人討厭之事), mug shot(嫌犯拍照存檔), not that I know of(就我所知不是這樣), oak(櫟), on the couch(看心理醫生), operating theater(手術室), rite of passage(成年儀式), rocket science(困難之事), show stopping(表演精彩), Siamese twins(連體嬰), sing a different song(迎合別人, 改變自己主張), sound bite(電視新聞公眾人物講話片斷), spin doctor(政府化妝師), stop press (最新消息), talk shop(三句不離本行), talking shop(光說不練), tax return(報稅), technically(嚴格說來), The police trained a water canon on the mob. (警察用水柱瞄準鬧事的群眾) 台灣廣告傳單, 像flyer, brochure, 常稱為DM, 很多外國人聽不懂, 可能是 Direct Mail 的縮寫, 醫生說的 DM 是指糖尿病, 我父親在世時, 曾告訴我當時日本的VD很流行, 我聽了大吃一驚, VD(Venereal Disease)不是性病嗎？經再查問原來指Video Disk 的縮寫, 這也太誇張了吧, 但還比不上我大學ㄧ位女同學, 她查到的 VD 是 Venerable Disease, 她還很大聲的問, 什麼是 “ 可尊敬的病” ? 我完全被打敗。不過, 我建議蘇教授也可以把 insurance policy(保險單)擺進 false cognate 中。 最近看到 The New York Times(Tuesday,Nov 3,2009) Liesl Schillinger 的文章 “It’s been a capricious period for awards.” 談到美國國家圖書獎的頒發, “capricious” 係指 impulsive, unpredictable 不按常理, 無法預料的意思, 他筆觸鋒利又具嘲諷, 說到甫獲頒諾貝爾和平獎的歐巴馬總統 “ for work as yet undone” ;謂諾貝爾文學獎 Herta Muller “for works most people haven’t read” ; 對十月中頒的美國國家圖書獎 “ Three of the five candidates in the fiction category were not born in America; two of those three live abroad.” (五位中, 有三位並非在美國出生, 其兩位住在國外) 不過, 下面這段話寫得真好, “ --- how much a reader can appreciate cultural preoccupations that differ too greatly from the reader’s own” 讀者恐怕不易欣賞文化差異極大的內涵, 所以, 不是每種品味都能傳揚四海(Not every taste travels.) 但卻無損於它原本的內在價值(But that doesn’t rob it of its intrinsic value, or its appeal to the land that produced it.) 學了很久文法, 你是否覺得下面這些句子怪怪的？ Go slow. The truth stands firm. It’s me. I would like to ask you a question. I will be happy to go with you. Please lay down. Peggy and Karen are alumni of the same high school. Your words seem to infer that John is a liar. The judge sentenced the murderer to be hung. Take three spoonful of this medicine every three hours. 其實, (1) 至 (5) 句的說法都是正確的, 接下來正確的句子應該是： Please lie down. Peggy and Karen are alumnae of the same high school. Your words seem to imply that John is a liar. The judge sentenced the murderer to be hanged. Take three spoonfuls of this medicine every three hours. Infer 有推論之意, 所以可以說 by the inference of logic. “alumni” 是男校友, 女校友要用“alumnae”。 “A man for all seasons” (良相佐國) 電影中, 有句對白 “If the Earth is round, will the king command it flat? If the Earth is flat, will the king command it round? The truth stands firm.” 真理是屹立不搖的。“firm” 在此係作副詞用, Go slow 的 “slow” 也已用作副詞, 另外類似的用法像 Still water runs deep. (大智若愚) 的 “deep”。如果你覺得有趣, 我們再試幾句： We have just interviewed an applicant(who, whom) the committee believes is best qualified for the position. She is one of those gifted writers who (turn, turns) out one best seller after another. Don’t sound so (incredulous, incredible); what I am saying is absolutely true. We were totally (disinterested, uninterested) in the offer. Your criteria (is, are) not valid. 好啦, 答案是：(1) who (2) turn (3) incredulous (4) uninterested (5) are criteria 是複數, 它的單數為 criterium, 這樣的字還有很多, 像 bacterium/ bacteria(細菌), datum/data, etc. 先談到這裡。
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