单词 | 引申 |
释义 | 〔equal〕It has been argued thatequal is an absolute term— two quantities either are or are not equal—and hence cannot be qualified as to degree.Therefore one cannot logically speak ofa more equal allocation of resources among the departments. However, this usage was accepted by 71 percent of the Usage Panel in an earlier survey.What is more, objection to the usage betrays a widespread but questionable assumptionthat it is in mathematics and logic that we find the model of accuracy most appropriate to the everyday use of language,a supposition that also underlies traditional grammatical discussions of words such asunique, parallel, and center. According to this account,the "precise" or "literal" meaning ofequal is realized in the use of the equal sign in an arithmetic expression such as 5 + 2 = 7; and the ordinary-language uses of the term,though they may be permissible,represent "loose" or "imprecise" extensions of that sense.But in fact the mathematical concept of equality is a poor model for using the wordequal to describe relations between things in the world. As applied to such things,statements of equality are always relative to an implicit standard of tolerance.When someone saysThe two boards are of equal length, we assume that the equality is reckoned to some order of approximation determined by the context;if we did not,we would be required always to usenearly equal when speaking of the dimensions of physical objects. What is more,we often want to predicate equality of things that do not admit of quantitative measurement,as when we sayThe college draft was introduced in an effort to make the teams in the National Football League as equal as possible, orThe candidates for the job should all be given equal consideration. In all such cases,equality is naturally a gradient notionand so is amenable to modification in degree.This much is evident from the existence of the wordunequal. The prefixun- attaches only to gradient adjectives: we sayunmanly but not unmale; and the worduneven can be applied to a surface (whose evenness may be a matter of degree) but not to a number (whose evenness is an either-or affair). ·The adverbequally is generally regarded as redundant when used in combination with as, and the following examples employingequally as were termed unacceptable by 63 percent of the Usage Panel in an earlier survey: 单词equal 一向被认为是一个很绝对的词语—— 两个数量要么相同要么不同——这样就不能有程度上的差别。所以,如果有人说在各部门间对资源更公平的分配 ,那么就不合逻辑了。 但是这种用法在早先的用法调查中被百分之七十一用法使用小组的人接受。而且,对这种用法的反对体现出了一种很流行但却值得怀疑的假设,那就是我们从数学和逻辑中得出适用于日常语言准确性的实例,而这种假设也可从我们对一些词,如unique,parallel 和 center 传统的语法讨论中体现出来。 根据这个解释,equal “准确”或“书面”的意思则是由在算术表达式,如5+2=7中所运用的相同的符号而表达清楚的; 而该词在日常语言中的用法,虽然被允许,但却代表了其含意“松散”或“不严谨”的引申。但是实际上用数学概念上的相等来运用equal 这个词描述世上各种事物之间的关系是一个很差劲的例子。 当该词应用于生活中的事物时,相等的观念往往与暗含的容忍相关联。当有人说两块木板同样长 时, 我们会认为由于上下文的关系,相等可以被看作大约近似;如果我们不这样想,那么当我们谈到物体的尺寸时,就要经常使用nearly equal 。 另外,我们常常会预测和数量无关的事物的相同性,比如我们会说,引入大学的要求是为了使全国足球联合会中的各队尽可能平等 , 或者应给予该项工作的应征者同等的考虑 。 在所有这些例子中,相等是个可变化的概念,所以可在程度有所不同。Unequal 这个词的存在就是很好的证明。 un- 这个前缀只附加于有程序变化的形容词, 我们说unmanly 但不说 unmale ; 而uneven 这个词只能用于某物的表面(其平坦可有程度上的差别), 而不能用于数目(数目只能说相等或不相等)。Equally 这一副词在与 as 连用时通常被认为是多余的, 在早先的用法调查中,以下这些使用equally as 的句子遭到百分之六十三使用小组的人反对: 〔materialize〕This usage has been criticized,but it is well established in reputable writing and follows a familiar pattern of metaphoric extension.The same logic that allows us to sayThe plans did not materialize allows us to use equivalent and unobjectionable paraphrases with expressions such as take form and take shape. 这种用法曾经受到批评,但是它曾在一些享有声望的作品中很好地被运用并且跟随了隐喻引申含义的常见模式。我们说计划没有实现 时所用的逻辑允许我们使用相同的、无任何异议的其他表达方式,例如 take form 和 take shape 〔parallel〕In its mathematical usageparallel is an absolute term— two lines either do or do not intersect—and as such does not admit of qualification as to degree.Some grammarians have arguedthat this restriction should apply as well to nontechnical uses of the word.According to this logic,one may not sayThe two roads have been made more parallel, except perhaps as a loose way of saying what is rendered more precisely by expressions such asmore nearly parallel. Like the analogous objection that has been made to the comparison ofequal, the point betrays a misconception about the relation between mathematical concepts and their ordinary-language equivalents.Applied to objects in the world,parallel can only denote a rough approximation to a geometric ideal. A pair of rails or parked cars cannot be truly parallel in the mathematician's sense of the termbut only more or less so,just as a road or shelf cannot be truly straight in the geometric sensebut nonetheless may be described as very straight or relatively straight.The grammarians' compunctions make even less sense when applied to metaphorical uses ofparallel, as inThe difficulties faced by the Republicans are quite parallel to those that confronted the Democrats four years ago, in which the intended meaning has nothing to do with the possibility of intersectionbut instead suggests the structural correspondence of two distinct situations.In this sense, parallelism is clearly a matter of degreeand the wordparallel can be modified accordingly. See Usage Note at equal ,perfect ,unique 在数学用法中,parallel 是一个绝对的表达法—— 两条线要么相交,要么就不相交——它既没有限定性也没有程度差别。一些语法学家曾提出,这种限制也应该适用于该词在非科技方面的用法,按照这种逻辑,人们不能说这两条路已被修得更加平行了, 除非作为用例如更接近于平行 这样的表达方法更精确地表示的东西的不够精确的说出方法。 象对equal 的比较所做的类似反对一样, 这个观点使数学概念与普通用语中等价词之间的关系引起误解。当运用到世间的实物时,parellel 仅能指与几何理想状态大致接近的状况。 一对铁轨或停放的车辆不可能按数学家对于这个术语的理解来真正地相互并行,而不过是大致平行而已,正如公路和架子不可能是真正几何意义上的笔直,但仍可被描绘成很直的或相对而言的笔直。在用到parallel 的比喻用法时,语法学家的不安就更显得意义不大了, 例如:共和党人所面临的重重困难与四年前民主党人遇到的困难十分相似, 在这句话中,该词的引申意义与相交的可能性毫无关系,然而它暗指了两种不同情况结构上的一致。在此意义上,相似性明显是程度的问题,相应地,parallel 一词也能被其它词限定修饰了。 参见 equal,perfect,unique〔parameter〕In recent yearsparameter has become the archetype for the borrowing of scientific terms into general usage and as such has occasioned a good deal of skeptical comment.Some of its new uses can be justified as useful extensions of the technical senses of the word.For example, the provisions of a zoning ordinance that limit the height or density of new construction can be reasonably likened to mathematical parameters that establish the limits of other variables.Therefore one can properly sayThe zoning commission announced new planning parameters for the historic Lamping district of the city. But other uses suggest that the writer has not understood the technical senseand has chosen it primarily as a way of injecting an aura of scientific precision into what would otherwise be a pedestrian communication.Thus there is no semantic justification for usingparameter as a general substitute for characteristic, as inThe Judeo-Christian ethic is one of the important parameters of Western culture, an example found unacceptable by 80 percent of the Usage Panel. ·Some of the difficulties with nontechnical use ofparameter appear to arise from its resemblance to the word perimeter, with which it shares the sense "limit,” though the two words differ in their precise meaning.This confusion doubtless explains the use ofparameter in a sentence such as U.S. forces report that the parameters of the mine area in the Gulf are fairly well established, where the wordperimeter would have expressed the intended sense more exactly. This example of a use ofparameter was unacceptable to 61 percent of the Usage Panel. 近些年来,parameter 已成为一个从科技术语借用到普通用法的原形, 同时也引起了大量的怀疑批评。它的某些新用法可被看作是该词科技含义的有益扩展。例如,某一区域性法规中关于新建筑高度或密度的条文能被合理地与制定其它变量限度的数学参量进行比较。因而,人们当然可以说地区委员会公布了历史上该城有名的灯区新计划方案 。 但其它的一些用法说明说话人还没有理解它的科技含义,并且选用了这个词主要作为给将是普通交流的东西注入一些精确的科学气息的途径。因此,用parameter 作为 characteristic 的一般等价词毫无语义上的合理性, 如在犹太教与基督教的道德规范是西方文化中重要的限制因素 , 是80%的用法小组成员不接受的例子。Parameter 的非科技运用中的一些难点是由于它与 perimeter 都有“限制”的含义造成的, 尽管两个词的确切含义是不相同的。这种混淆无疑解释了parameter 在例如 美军报告说,海湾地雷区的环形防线设置得相当不错 的句子中的运用, 这里perimeter 可能会更确切地表达这种引申含义。 61%的用法小组成员不接受这个运用parameter 的例子 〔chagrin〕The ultimate etymology of the wordchagrin, which comes directly to us from French, is considered uncertain by many etymologists. At one timechagrin was thought to be the same word as shagreen, "a leather or skin with a rough surface,” derived from French chagrin. The reasoning wasthat in French the word for this rough material, which was used to smooth and polish things,was extended to the notion of troubles that fret and annoy a person.It was later decided, however,that the sense "rough leather" and the sense "sorrow" each belonged to a different French wordchagrin. Other etymologists have offered an alternative explanation,suggesting that the French wordchagrin, "sorrow,” is a loan translation of the German word Katzenjammer, "a morning-after-the-night-before feeling.” A loan translation is a type of borrowing from another languagein which the elements of a foreign word,as inKatzen, "cats,” and Jammer, "distress, seediness,” are assumed to be translated literally by corresponding elements in another language,in this case,chat, "cat,” and grigner, "to grimace.” The actual etymology is less colorful,with the word probably going back to a Germanic word,.gramī, meaning "sorrow, trouble.”Chagrin is first recorded in English in 1656 in the now obsolete sense "anxiety, melancholy.”我们从法语直接借用的词chagrin 的最终词源被许多词源学家认为是不能确定的。 Charin 曾经被认为和由法语词 chagrin 派生出来的 shagreen “有粗糙表面的皮革或皮肤”是同一个词。 理由是,这种粗糙材料是用来打磨和抛光物品用的,法语里的这个词被引申到有了使人懊恼和烦恼的意思。但后来才确定,“粗糙的皮革”的含义和“沮丧”的含义分属于一个不同的法语词chagrin 。 别的词源学家提出了另外一种解释,说法语词chagrin “沮丧”是借译于日耳曼语词 Katzenjammer “醉后的难受感”。 借译是借用另一种语言,即外语词的成分,如Katzen “猫”,和 Jammer “沮丧,不舒服”, 并照那种语言的对应成分直译过来,在这种情况下为chat “猫”和 grigner “做怪相”。 实际的语源没有这么富于趣味,这个词极可能要追溯到日耳曼语词grami , 意思为“愁苦,麻烦”。Chagrin 第一次出现在英语里有记载的时间是在1656年, 当时的含义“焦虑,忧郁”现已过时不用〔neighbor〕Loving one's neighbor as oneself would be much easier,or perhaps much more difficult,if the wordneighbor had kept to its etymological meaning. The source of our word,the assumed West Germanic form.nāhgabūr, was a compound of the words.nēhwiz, "near,” and .būram, "dweller, especially a farmer.” A neighbor, then, was a near dweller.Nēahgebūr, the Old English descendant of this West Germanic word, and its descendant in Middle English, neighebor, and our Modern English neighbor have all retained the literal notion,even though one can now have many neighbors whom one does not know,a situation that would have been highly unlikely in earlier times.The extension of this word to mean "fellow" is probably attributable to the Christian concern with the treatment of one's fellow human beings,as in the passage in Matthew 19:19 that urges love of one's neighbor.象爱自己一样爱邻居会更容易,也可能更难,如果neighbor 这个词保持其词源意义的话。 这个词的来源,假定在西日耳曼语中形式为nahgabur, 是nehwiz “附近的”和 buram “居住者,尤指农夫”的合成词。 那么邻居就是附近的居住者。Neahgebur 这个西日耳曼词发展的古英语形式, 中世纪英语形式nerghebor 及现代英语 neighbor 形式, 都保持了字面意义,即使现在一个可能有许多人都不认识的邻居,这是一种以前很不可能有的情况。这个词的引申意义“人”大概出自基督徒关心如何对待世人,比如在《马太19:19》中就有要求热爱自己邻居的篇章〔amplification〕An addition to or expansion of a statement or idea.扩充,引申:对一个论断或看法的补充或扩展〔cayuse〕The nouncayuse comes from the name of the Cayuse people in the Pacific Northwest. Cayuse is used chiefly in the territory of the word's origin—the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho—although its use has also spread into other Western states. A verb meaning "to buck,” derived from the noun,is cited by Ramon F. Adams inOld-Time Cowhand (1961): "What cowboys in other sections calledbuckin', the Texan called pitchin', and a term used in South Texas, though seldom heard in other sections, wascayusein'. ” 名词cayuse 源自太平洋西北部卡尤塞人的名字。 Cayuse 一词主要在该词的起源地区——华盛顿州、俄勒冈州和衣阿华州使用——尽管它也被其它一些西部州使用。 从名词引申的动词意为“碰撞”,被拉门·F·亚当斯在过去时代的牛仔 (1961年)中引用: “牛仔们在其它地区称为buckin', 得克萨斯人称 pitchin', 而在南得克萨斯经常使用, 在其他地区很少听到的一个词是cayusein' ” 〔fair〕The history of the wordfair illustrates how words can weaken in meaning over time. In Old English the ancestor offair, fæger, had senses such as "lovely, beautiful, pleasant, agreeable,” a far cry from our modern sense "mildly good or satisfying.”The Old English senses passed into Middle English,where the wordfair started to take a slight turn in the direction already alluded to. Fair could mean "highly to be approved of, splendid, good,”but it could also be used ironically,as in Chaucer's observation after a horse threw the Cook on the pilgrimage to Canterbury:"that was a fair feat of horsemanship by the Cook.”This ironic use was probably not responsible for the semantic weakening offair, but it shows how a positive word can have its meaning reversed.The weakening offair was most likely caused by "the determined optimism which led to the use of fair . . . rather than direct expression of discontent,”in the words of George H. McKnight.One might add as another cause the desire to avoid hurting other people's feelings.单词fair 的历史表明随岁月的流逝单词的语意变弱。 在古英语中fair,f?ger 本意是“可爱的,漂亮的,愉快的”, 与我们现在的“比较好或满意的”大相径庭。古英语传到中世纪英语时,fair 已开始在引申的方向上有微小的转变。 Fair 可以表达“被高度赞许的,辉煌的,好的,”但也可用作反语,如在往坎特伯雷朝圣的途中马将科克摔下时后,乔尔斯评论道:“那是科克精湛骑术的体现”。这种反语用法也许对fair 语义学上的弱化没有联系, 但它表明了一个褒义的单词可以变得意思完全相反。fair 的弱化很大程度上缘于“坚决的乐观主义导致 fair 的用法改变, 而不是直接表达不满意的意思,”乔治赫·马克奈特如此评论。人们可以再添上其它原因以免伤害别人的感情〔scoot〕Scoot comes from a Scandinavian verb related to the verb shoot and, borrowed into Scots dialect, originally meant "to squirt with water.” Two derived senses, both intransitive verbs, have become even more common:"to slide suddenly across a surface" and "to move quickly": The mouse scooted across the floor. In the American Midlands, there is a phrasal verbscoot over, meaning, in its transitive sense, "to push (someone or something) to the side to make room.”Scoot 源于斯堪的纳维亚语的一个与动词 Shoot 有关的动词,被借入到苏格兰方言中,最初意为“用水喷”。 它的二个都为不及物动词的引申意甚至变得更为常见: “突然滑过表面”和“快速移动”: 老鼠突然窜过地板。 在美国中部地区,有一动词词组scoot over , 它作及物动词时意为“把(人或物)挪开以让路”〔etymon〕A word or morpheme from which compounds and derivatives are formed.用于形成复合词或引申字的词或复合语〔self〕"For some of us, the self's natural doubts are given in mesmerizing amplification by way of critics' negative assessments of our writing"(Joyce Carol Oates)“对我们中的有些人来说,自我意识的天生疑问已通过评论家们对我们作品的否定评价而在令人迷惑的引申中显露出来”(乔伊丝·卡罗尔·奥茨)〔careen〕The implication of rapidity that most often accompanies the use ofcareen as a verb of motion may have arisen naturally through the extension of the nautical sense of the verb to apply to the motion of automobiles, which generallycareen, that is, lurch or tip over, only when driven at high speed. There is thus no reason to conclude that this use of the verb is the result of a confusion ofcareen with career, "to rush.” Whatever the origin of this use, however,it is by now so well establishedthat it would be pedantic to object to it.在多数时候,careen 作为动作动词使用时具有速度迅捷的含义。把该动词在航海方面的意思引申,使其义应用于汽车的运行,也许这样就很自然地产生了迅捷的含义; 因为汽车只有在高速行驶时通常才careen ,即突然地侧倾或偏斜。 据此,如果下结论说动词的这种用法是混淆了careen 和表示“急驰,猛冲的” careen 的结果,这是毫无道理的。 然而,不论这用法的起源是什么,如今它已得到确认,要对此表示异议的话未免过于迂腐了〔momentarily〕Momentarily is widely used in speech to mean "in a moment,”as inThe manager is on another line, but she'll be with you momentarily. This usage rarely leads to ambiguitysince the intended sense can usually be determined on the basis of the tense of the verb and the context.Nonetheless, many critics hold that the adverb should be reserved for the senses "for a moment" or "moment by moment,”and the extended usage is unacceptable to 59 percent of the Usage Panel.Momentarily 被广泛用于说话中, 表示“立即”,如在经理在和别人通话,但她马上会与你通话的。 这种用法很少导致语义模糊,因为要表达的意思通常可以由动词时态和上下文来决定。可是,许多评论家认为这一副词只应保留“片刻”或“即刻”的含义,对于其引申的含义,用法专题讨论小组中59%的人不予接受〔metaphysical〕Often Metaphysical Of or relating to the poetry of a group of 17th-century English poets whose verse is characterized by an intellectually challenging style and extended metaphors comparing very dissimilar things. 常作 Metaphysical 玄学派诗歌的:属于或关于17世纪英国诗人的诗歌的,这种诗歌的特点是风格极具智慧,引人深思,善用引申的暗喻来对比极其不同的事物〔dialect〕 Argot applies especially to the language of the underworld or, by extension, to that of any specific group. Argot 特别适用于下层社会的语言,或者通过引申,适用于任何特殊集团的语言。〔branch〕branch out from physics into related scientific fields.从物理学而引申到相关科学领域〔funky〕When asked which words in the English language are the most difficult to define precisely,a lexicographer would surely mentionfunky. The meaning offunky seems well captured by Geneva Smitherman in Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America, where she states that funky means “[related to] the blue notes or blue mood created in jazz, blues, and soul music generally, down-to-earth soulfully expressed sounds; by extension [related to] the real nitty-gritty or fundamental essence of life, soul to the max.”Be that as it may,funky is first recorded in 1784 in a reference to musty, old, moldy cheese. Funky then developed the sense "smelling strong or bad,” which could be used to describe body odor.Butfunky was applied to jazz, too—a usage explained in 1959 by one F. Newton inJazz Scene : "Critics are on the search for something a little more like the old, original, passion-laden blues: the trade-name which has been suggested for it is ‘funky’(literally: ‘smelly,’ i.e. symbolizing the return from the upper atmosphere to the physical, down-to-earth reality).” Funky comes from the earlier nounfunk, which meant "a strong smell or stink.” This noun can probably be traced back to the Latin wordfūmus, "smoke.” 当被问及英语中最难准确定义的是哪些词时,词典编纂者肯定会提到funky 这个词。 Funky 的含义似乎被热纳瓦·史密斯曼在 语言和证明: 美国黑人语言一节中解释得很清楚,她认为 funky 指“主要在爵士乐、布鲁斯歌曲、灵乐这些发自灵魂深处的音乐中创造出的音符式的忧郁; 由此延伸为与生命本质精髓有关的,表现美国黑人及其文化特点到极致的。”Funky 最早可能被记录于1784年,用于指发霉的、过期的奶酪。 后来,funky 引申到这层意思“闻起来强烈或有异味的,” 可以用来形容身体的气味。但funky 也用于指爵士乐方面, 这种用法于1959年在一位名叫F·牛顿的人的书爵士舞台 中有所解释: “批评家们正在找一种有些更象原始的、激情洋溢的老布鲁斯歌曲一样的东西:用来表现后的词就是‘有气息的’(字面意义:‘有气味的,’也就是说,从高高在上的格调降回到自然而率直的风格)。” Funky 一词来自较早出现的名词funk, 意为“一种刺鼻的气味或臭味”。 这个词可能可追溯到拉丁词fumus, “烟” 〔amplify〕To write or discourse at length; expatiate:引申,发挥,详述:详细地写或说;详细解释:〔glitch〕Although in retrospectglitch seems to be a word that people would always have found useful, it is first recorded in English in 1962in the writing of John Glenn:"Another term we adopted to describe some of our problems was ‘glitch.’”Glenn then gives the technical sense of the word the astronauts had adopted:"Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in voltage in an electrical current.”In this very passage we see how the word moved from its narrow, technical electronic sense to a more general sense, even if the astronauts were not necessarily the first to extend the meaning ofglitch. Since then the word has passed beyond technical useand now covers a wide variety of malfunctions and mishaps.回溯历史,尽管glitch 似乎是一个向来有用的单词, 但是直到1962年它才首次在英语中有记录,在约翰·格林著作中:“我们所采用的另一个用来描述我们的问题的词汇是‘glitch’”。格林给这个词下了为宇航员所采用的专业定义, “严格来说,glitch是指电流中电压受阻或变化。”。在这里,即使宇航员不一定是第一个引申了glitch 的含义,可是我们看到这个词是如何从它狭义的电子技术上的意义发展到更普遍的意义。 此后这个词超出了技术上的使用范围,现在可指多种功能故障和灾祸〔holocaust〕When referring to the massive destruction of human beings by other human beings,holocaust has a secure place in the language. Fully 99 percent of the Usage Panel accepts the use ofholocaust in the phrase nuclear holocaust. Sixty percent accepts the sentenceAs many as two million people may have died in the holocaust that followed the Khmer Rouge takeover in Cambodia. But because of its associations with genocide,extended applications ofholocaust may not always be received with equanimity. When the word is used to refer to death brought about by natural causes,the percentage of the Panel's acceptance drops sharply.Only 31 percent of the Panel accepts the sentence holocaust 在指人类之间大规模的杀害时用法稳定。 百分之九十九的用法专题使用小组成员接受holocaust 在 nuclear holocaust 中的用法。 百分之六十的成员接受在红色高棉组织接管柬埔寨之后,高达两百万的民众死于那场大屠杀 。 但由于它和种族灭绝有一定联系,人们并不总能很平静地接受holocaust 的引申用法。 当用这个词表示由于自然灾害引起的死亡时,用法小组接受的百分比明显下降。只有百分之三十一的成员同意这样的用法: |
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