2012年8月21日星期二

古德明: 各自、政治語言



問:《牛津高階英漢雙解詞典》each條有以下例句:(1They lost $40 each(他們各失四十元)。(2We each have our own car(我們各有自己的汽車)。這兩句可不可改寫為They each lost $40以及We have our own car each

答:They lost $40 each可改為They each lost $40Each of them lost $40,而We each have our own car則可改為Each of us has our own car,但不可以改為We have our own car each

Each用於句末,是表示前文所說的人、物「各有多少……」或「各是多少……」,例如:(1We have two cars each(我們各有兩輛汽車)。(2The concert tickets cost $400 each(音樂會入場券每張四百元)。We each have our own car這一句,和數量無關,不應用這句式。

問:奧威爾"Politics and the English Language"文中有以下一句,句末的pure wind是什麼意思?──Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind

答:Wind是「風」,可引伸解作「空言」,例如:His promises are just a lot of wind(他的諾言無非空話)。讀者示下那一句,wind譯作「空氣」或「空言」都可以:「政治語言,是要使謊話聽來像是真話,把謀殺都說得可敬,使百分之百的空氣都顯得實在。」