2012年6月11日星期一

古德明: 補習社傳單




問:有英文補習社傳單說:Is your child between 5-13 years of age and needs help with their English?(你有五至十三歲孩子須補習英文嗎?)補習老師自言是英國人,有二十五年教英文經驗,不承認句子有兩個文法錯誤,先生認為怎樣?

答:Is your child between 5-135-13等於5 to 13,那to應改為and。此外,英文不可以說Is your child... needs help。全句可改寫如下:Is your child between 5 and 13 years of age and in need of help with their English? 累贅一點,則可說Is your child between 5 and 13 years of age, and do they need help with their English? Is your child needs的錯誤,那位讀者也看到了。

但他說的另一個錯誤卻值得斟酌:單數名詞child不可配複數的their。英文childpersoneveryone之類名詞,沒有說明性別,而英文沒有不分性別的單數代名詞,傳統文法以he / him / his充數,但女權分子不高興,而且有時會很荒謬,例如紐約州議會曾有議員說:Everyone will be able to decide for himself whether or not to have an abortion(人人可自行決定墮不墮胎)。這似乎是說男人墮胎,himself最好改為themselves。事實上,以they / them / theirchildperson等的代詞,古已有之,例如十八世紀名作家Jonathan Swift Polite Conversation中有以下一句:Every fool can do as they're bid(無論哪個獃子,都可按吩咐辦事)。這用法舊例不少,今天更加常見,不能算是錯誤。