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向?qū)W習(xí)英語(yǔ)者講話10--Double Negatives

2020-03-29 00:12:2601:33 290

聲音簡(jiǎn)介

An English editor of a famous classic says in his notes to the book: “Double negatives in Elizabethan2 grammar amount, not to an assertion as they do3 in current English, but to4 an emphatic negation”.
It is true that in Elizabethan literature, a double negative amounts to an emphatic negation, rather than to an assertion, as the man in the street5 may think. Thus, “I don’t want nothing” is only an emphatic form for I don’t want anything or I want nothing. This sounds6 quite unreasonable, but it is the fact.
What I wish to tell you is that this unreasonable fact is not peculiar to7 Elizabethan literature. It exists at present. Double negatives used as an emphatic assertion may be said to be found in current English, unless by current English is meant English current among educated people alone8.
Have you ever found such double negatives in your reading, reader? I believe you have, if you have read a modern novel or drama or short story. I do not want you to use this unreasonable construction (I want you to talk and write like an educated person). But I believe every learner of English should know it.
There are several English usages that every learner of English should know, but which many, or even most, Chinese learners do not know, because these are not to be understood by means of mere logic9 and are not to be found in ordinary grammars10. The double negative is one of them.

NOTES
1.Double Negatives 雙重否定。
2.Elizabethan 英國(guó)女王伊麗莎白一世(1533—1603)時(shí)代的。(現(xiàn)在英國(guó)女王的名字也是伊麗莎白，一般稱作伊麗莎白二世(1926 — )。
3.do=amount to
4.amount, not to …, but to … 不等于……而等于……
5.man in the street 一般人
6.sounds 聽(tīng)來(lái)似乎
7.peculiar to ……所獨(dú)有的
8.by current English is meant English current among educated people alone 所說(shuō)的當(dāng)代英語(yǔ)就是指只通行于受過(guò)教育的人們中間的英語(yǔ)
9.are not to be understood by means of mere logic 并非只靠邏輯就能被理解

一本著名經(jīng)典著作的英國(guó)校訂人在他為這本書(shū)作的注解中說(shuō)道：“在伊麗莎白時(shí)代的語(yǔ)法中雙重否定并不像當(dāng)代英語(yǔ)中那樣等于一個(gè)肯定，而是等于一個(gè)加重語(yǔ)氣的否定”。
的確如此，在伊麗莎白時(shí)代的文學(xué)中，一個(gè)雙重否定等于一個(gè)加重語(yǔ)氣的否定，并非像一般人認(rèn)為的那樣等于一個(gè)肯定。例如“I don’t want nothing”只是“I don’t want anything”或“I want nothing”的著重式而已。這點(diǎn)聽(tīng)來(lái)十分不合理，但這是事實(shí)。
我要告訴你的是：這個(gè)不合理的事實(shí)并不僅限于伊麗莎白時(shí)代的文學(xué)。它現(xiàn)在也存在。只要所說(shuō)的當(dāng)代英語(yǔ)不是指只通行于受過(guò)教育的人們中間的英語(yǔ)，那么被用作加重語(yǔ)氣否定的雙重否定在當(dāng)代英語(yǔ)中也是見(jiàn)得到的。
讀者，你在閱讀中曾經(jīng)見(jiàn)到過(guò)這種雙重否定嗎？假使你讀過(guò)現(xiàn)代的章回小說(shuō)、劇本或者短篇小說(shuō)，我想你是見(jiàn)到過(guò)的。我不要你使用這個(gè)不合理的結(jié)構(gòu)（我要你講得和寫(xiě)得像一個(gè)受過(guò)教育的人）。但是我相信每個(gè)英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者都應(yīng)該知道它。
有一些英語(yǔ)習(xí)慣用法，每個(gè)英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者都該知道，可是有許多，或者竟然可以說(shuō)大多數(shù)，中國(guó)學(xué)習(xí)者并不知道，因?yàn)樗鼈儾⒎侵豢窟壿嬀湍鼙焕斫猓以谝话阏Z(yǔ)法中是見(jiàn)不到的。雙重否定就是其中的一個(gè)。