第三章英汉语言对比
1. 英语有形态变化, 汉语没有严格意义的形态变化。
1) 构词形态,即起构词作用的词缀变化包括 大量的前缀和后缀。英语可以运用丰富的 词缀构词造句,如:
• His moved astonishingly fast. • He moved with astonishing rapidity. • His movements were astonishingly rapid. • His rapid movements astonished us by their rapidity. • The rapidity of his movements was astonishing. • The rapidity with which he moved astonished me. • He astonished us by moving rapidly. • He astonished us by his rapid movements. • He astonished us by the rapidity of his movements.
——Mother Goose’s Fairy Tales (英国民间童谣)
trespass?
3)指示意义相同,在一种语言中有 丰富的联想意义,在另一种语言中
却没有
例:“竹”与“bamboo”
咬定青山不放松,立根原在破岩中。
千磨万击还坚劲,任尔东西南北风。
——郑板桥《竹石》
竹色君子德,猗猗寒更绿。
Chaucer在《坎特伯雷》故事的引子中说: “When the sweet showers of April fall and shout … / From which there springs the engendering of the flower, / When also Zephyrus with his sweet breath / Exhales an air in every grove and heath. / Upon the tender shoots, and the young sun.”
例:“西风”与“west wind” 中国:
咸阳古道音尘绝,音尘绝,西风残照,汉 家陵阕。
——李白“忆秦娥” 古道西风瘦马,夕阳西下,断肠人在天涯。
——马致远的“天净沙,秋思” 海天未必知天数,空对西风老泪滂。
——艾性de to the West Wind)中 就对west wind进行了高度的赞颂,把它作 为希望和力量的象征。
2. 英语词序比较灵活, 汉语词序相对固定。
• 形态变化与词序有密切的关系。形态变化 越多的语言,词序越灵活,反之亦然。汉 语是典型的分析语,词没有形态标志,位 置不能随便移动,词语之间的关系主要通 过安排及使用虚词来表达。
1) 英汉句子的主要成分如主语、谓语动词、 宾语或表语的词序基本上相同,一般地说, 英汉的排列顺序都是:主—谓—宾(表)。 但与汉语相比,英语词序倒装的现象比较 多。
1)指示意义相同,联想意义 不同或截然相反
例:“龙”与“dragon” 中国:真龙天子;龙的传人;龙凤呈祥 西方:撒旦:the great dragon.
The woman is a dragon.
例:“蟋蟀”与“cricket” 中国:
昨夜寒蛩不住鸣,惊回千里梦,已三更。 ——岳飞“小重山”
——欧阳修的《弄部看竹》
食者竹笋,庇者竹瓦,载者竹筏,衣者 竹皮, 书者竹纸,履者竹鞋。真可谓不可
一日无此君者也 耶!
——苏东坡
“黄水仙花”与“daffodil”
I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud
William Wordsworth
I wondered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils ; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in the neverending line Along the margin of a bay : Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced ; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee : A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company :
I gazed-and gazed-but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought : For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude ; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.
2)指示意义相同,联想意义 部分相同
例:“玫瑰”与“rose” 爱情 under the rose?
例:“猫头鹰”与“owl” 不吉利、凶兆、死亡
Macbeth: “I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?”
Lady Macbeth: “I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry”。 ——Shakespear
• 现代英语的形态变化主要是动词的变化和 名词、代词、形容词及副词的变化以及上 述的词缀变化。这些变化有:性(gender)、 数(number)、格(case)、时(tense)、 体(aspect)、语态(voice)、语气 (mood)、比较级(degree of comparison)、 人称(person)和词性(parts of speech)等。
第三章 英汉语言对比
英汉语词汇的文化意蕴之对比
词的意义
• 理性意义:指词语在语言交际中所表达出 来的最基本的意义,是对客观事物主要特 征的反映和概括。理性意义还可以划分为 概念意义与指称意义两种。
• 联想意义:指语言标志所唤起的想象和形 象。联想意义不是词语本身所固有的而是 一种附加在理性意义之上的意义。
4)各自文化中特有的词汇,即 文化中的词汇缺项
例:客气 哪里,哪里 阴阳 风水 hippie punk
英汉思维方式与句法差异
思维方式差异
西方:主客对立 中国:主客一体
西方:形式逻辑思维 中国:直觉思维
西方:个人主义 中国:集体主义
句法差异
一、综合语与分析语 (Synthetic vs. Analytic)
但闻四壁虫声唧唧,如助余之叹息。 ——欧阳修的“秋声赋”
蛩唱如波咽,更深似水寒。 ——杜牧的“寝夜”:
西方: “I have not had all the luck I expected; but … am as merry as a cricket”。
——C Kingsley Two Years Ago
• New factories are being built all over the country. 全国到处都在兴建新工厂。
• During the wartime, years like these would have meant certain death for many people. Many would have become beggars and others would have been compelled to sell their children. 战争期间(要是)碰到这样的年景,很多人肯定会 死去,很多会逃荒要饭,很多人会被迫卖儿卖女。
• What a beautiful voice you have! (惊叹倒装)
• A pair of black eyes might have done some execution had they been placed in a smoother face. (假设倒装)
• Inexpressible was the astonishment of the little party when they returned to find that Mr. Pickwick had disappeared. (平衡倒装)
• 分析语的特征是不用形态变化而用词序及虚词来 表达语法关系。The Random House College Dictionary给分析语定义为:An analytic language is “characterized by a relatively frequent use of function words, auxiliary verbs, and changes in word order to express syntactic relations, rather than of inflected form”。
有了这些变化,一个词(或词组)常常可
以同时表达几种语法意义,例如从词的形
态可以判别它的词类、在句中的作用、与 其他词的关系等。
• 严格来说,汉语没有形态变化。
汉语的数量助词(如“们”表示复数)、 动态助词(如“着”、“了”、“过”表 示动词的体)与结构助词(如“的”、 “地”、“得”表示定语、状语与补语), 虽类似英语的形态变化,但这些成分的使 用在汉语里常常缺乏普遍性。