高樓低廈,人潮起伏,
名爭利逐,千萬家悲歡離合。

閑雲偶過,新月初現,
燈耀海城,天地間留我孤獨。

舊史再提,故書重讀,
冷眼閑眺,關山未變寂寞!

念人老江湖,心碎家國,
百年瞬息,得失滄海一粟!

徐訏《新年偶感》

2012年8月17日星期五

古德明: 我的朋友、類比句法



問:He is my friendHe is one of my friendsHe is a friend of mine這三句,意思和用法有分別嗎?

答:He is my friend即「他是我的朋友」,說時人家應該知道那個朋友是誰。例如你和朋友約翰一起,碰到某人,向他介紹約翰時,可以說:This is my friend John

He is one of my friendsHe is a friend of mine都是說「他是我的一個朋友」,但聽者未必知道是哪一個。One of my friends可以是既定一些朋友中的一個,a friend of mine則是泛指所有朋友中的一個。例如:(1One day I went hiking with several friends. It was scorching hot. We all felt thirsty and exhausted after several hours, and one of my friends suffered a sunstroke(有一天,我和幾個朋友去遠足,由於天氣苦熱,幾小時之後,我們又渴又倦,一個朋友還中暑)。(2One day, I was told that a friend of mine was getting married(有一天,我聽說一個朋友要結婚了)。

問:讀雜誌,見到以下一句:P & G is to toiletries what VW is to cars這是什麼句式?是不是常用的口語?

答:這一句是說:「P & G之於盥洗用品,猶如VW之於汽車。」換言之,兩者在其行業之中,地位相埒。A is to B what C is to D是常見的英文句式,絕對不限於口語。例如:Money is to him what water is to a thirsty man(他之求財,猶如渴者之求水)。