英语的最近变化/语言学 - ※英语毕业论文网※2

〔5〕a "Can I help who‘s next?”

ｂ“Can I help whoever‘s next?”

Carl Mills (9.689)则认为‘who’的这种用法可在许多方言中找到,包括俄亥俄州南部和俄勒冈州。Waltmart (9.702)指出美国新版《圣经》中像“It is I who says...”这样的表达式多次出现。

(4)静态动词出现进行体的-ing形式

Lynn Santelmann (9.686)观察到人们越来越多地在诸如‘know’和‘like’这样的静态动词中采用进行体形式,

如:〔6〕“I‘m liking that.”比较:“I like that.”

与此同时,Marcia Hagg (9.686)提供更多的实例,

如:〔7〕“I‘m wanting to go.”“are you wanting to be leaving?”“I‘m not understanding that.” “are you knowing what you‘re wanting?”“is your food tasting all right?”(在一餐厅里)

(5)Between

关于‘between’用法的变化,我曾专题作过报道(“Between用法众人谈”,《外语与外语教学》1998年第7期)。在本次讨论中也有涉及,值得补充的有:

Gerald B. Mathias(9.689)认为‘between A and B’变为‘between A to B’始于1975年。关于用‘among’的场合改用‘between’也不是最近出现的事,他举以下一例:

〔8〕“… with a small party of miners on board who carried about a million and a half dollars in gold between them…”(Scientific America, ,1897年8月关于Klondike淘金热的报道)

(6)fun语言学家对‘fun’有较多讨论,他们发现‘fun’可出现在名词前的位置(Earl Reinhardt,9.752;Bwald,9.795),如:〔9〕“This is a fun restaurant.”“It’s a real fun game.”Bwald评论说这是从“It’s (real) fun.”发展起来的儿语。他还经常听到说话人在不同程度上把‘fun’作为形容词,可是他本人接受不了这种用法:

〔10〕“This game is funner than that.”“This is the funnest game I ever played.”“It was so fun that I forgot to go to school./ I don’t think it’s so fun.”(Bwald自己会说It was so much fun that...)

“It’s not that fun.”(如同“It’s not that red.”)(Bwald自己会说“It’s not that such fun.”)

“So, tell me, how fun is it?”(如同“How red/tall/dangerous, etc. is it?”)(Bwald自己会说“How much fun is it?”,但“how much red/tall/dangerous…..”似乎不顺。)

根据上述情况,Bwald认为“fun”是一个物质名词,或不可数名词,不是一个形容词。但Bwald不认为这是ＮＮ结构,因为不同于‘stone wall’或‘wood wall’这两个名词。主张‘fun’是形容词的也大有人在,Alexis MR (9.775)解释道‘fun game’似与‘super game’一样,没有人会把‘super’看作名词。他还提出可用以下二法测定,一为重读最小音差测定法(accentual minimal pair)。前者指通过重音的不同区别意义为‘great game’(了不起的游戏,重音在后)的‘super game’,其读音不同于意义为‘game in which one pretends to be a NY janitor’(把自己装做纽约的房屋管理人的把戏,重音在前)。后者指两个词能否通过连词并列,如我们可说‘a card or checker game’(纸牌游戏或跳棋游戏),把纸牌与跳棋并立,但不说‘a card or fun game’(纸牌游戏或好玩的游戏)。‘fun’从名词演变出形容词用法可能受语义学和语用学的影响。

(7)‘mad/crazy‘作限定词

〔11〕“There were mad people at that party.”

Lance Nathan (9.701)认为例〔11〕中的‘mad’不是指“the people there were angry/insane”(那里的人在生气发疯),而是“There were a lot of people at that party.”(那集会上有许多人)。虽然这是俚语,但从俚语人们可以预期语言的变化。值得注意的是‘mad’的变化将给封闭类增加一个新成员。

(8)以‘like /go’代替‘say’

Lance Nathan还举下例说明有人以‘like’或‘go’代替言语动词‘say”。她认为这可能是近二三十年出现的变化。

〔12〕“So I was like, ‘How did you do on the syntax exam?’and my friend goes, ‘not too bad.’”

(9)Thankfully

有人从用语合乎规范的科技杂志《科学美国人》(Scientific American)上发现本该用‘hopefully’的地方,用了‘thankfully’,如:

〔13〕“Life is un predictable. Thankfully, the accord is not.”(1991/11ｐ 91)

(10)Just

Suzette Elgin (9.675)谈到,过去人们说:〔14〕“You can’t just rely on your intuition..”意思为“you have to rely on something more than your intuition.”(你应该依靠其它东西,更甚于你的直觉。)可是现在人们说:

〔15〕“You just can’t rely on your intuition.”

这个说法过去的意思接近于“Shucks, you can’t rely on your intuitions.”(呸!你不能依靠你的直觉)。

(11)其它Marc Picard (9.720)发现有人用‘good’代替‘fine’,如:

〔16〕A: Hey, how are you today?

B: I’m good. How are you?

Rick McCallister (9.720)解释说原先这是不标准的用法,但十至十五年前受教育的人也这么说,因而这成了区别“代沟”的标记。David Robertson (9.729)列举以下一些说法:

〔17〕a “you can only give the patron their due date and fine amount.”

B “Okey, let me give you my social security number.

C “does it〔印好的日程表〕give the time?”

D “May I take your date of birth?”

把‘date’,‘number’,‘the time’等与‘give’和‘take’这样的动词连用,其出现和迅速传播是主宰美国的信息文化所决定的。

3 句法变化

(1)并列结构中的两个成分不匹配Karen Coutenay (9.702)曾收集大量的例子,说明并列结构中两个成分在结构上并不一致。这里仅举几个例子示意:

〔18〕ａ “Do you live in Japan and are looing for a summer job teaching Japanese there?”(一为现在式问句,一为进行体问句)

ｂ “Does anybody have experience with analysis of homepages and can giveme some advice?”(一用助动词ｄｏｅｓ,一用助动词ｃａｎ)

ｃ “Have you got some one you are seeking and can not find any clues?”(一用完成体的助动词have,一用情态助动词否定式cannot)

Michael Newman (9 716)认为上引例子都是病句,不能看作在句法上的创新。(2)在宾语位置使用代词形式Kevin Caldwell (9 720)发现两个代词同现时常见到如下形式:

〔19〕ａ between you and I

ｂ for you and I

c say a little prayer for I (摘自通俗歌曲)

Carl Mills (9 686)承认在主流美国英语中这是新的用法。但当人们为了抑制这一自然趋势,用非标记形式代替标记形式,也可起到更为令人注意的效果,如:

〔20〕a “ it’s mine.”

B “me Tonto, him Lone Ranger”

C “How are thee?”

按Mills的解释,莎士比亚有时也是这么说的。

(3)The problem is...

麻省大学Peggy Speas (9.690)表示,在下面例句中,他会说(ａ)或(ａ′)句,但他听到别人说(ｂ)句。

〔21〕(ａ)(What the problem is) is that no one can meet after 6 p.m.

(ａ′)〔The problem〕 is that no one can meet after 6 p.m.

(ｂ)The problem is is that no one can meet after 6 p.m.

Ellen F. Prince (9.701)解释说Charlotte Linde在70年代曾做过这方面的研究,并以George Lakeoffｆ的‘syntactic amalgams’(句法溶合)理论回答。

其它例子为:〔22〕ａ The thing is, is that…

b The thing of it is, is that...

(4)副词被形容词代替

Peter R. Burton (9.702)提出的问题为:美国人几乎都有把形容词替代副词的倾向,而且有些用法似乎已早就开始了,如:

〔23〕You done good (而不是说You did well).又如:

〔24〕1 Think different.

2.Think differently.

3.Think something different.

4.Think something that is different.

5.Think of something different.