世界巧合的事多不勝數，連書名都不例外。征服英語混淆字是在香港出版，而英語易混淆字比較分析則在台灣出版。
這次要比較兩本書對學習英語字詞，澄清詞語誤解有多少幫助。
先說香港的《征服英語混淆字》吧。好處方面，此書分為兩個部分，由淺入深。每篇都有例句和少許練習。
至於缺點，就是解釋不足、甚至錯誤。鑑於篇幅所限，只列出三個例子證明，希望讀者不要學英語混淆字反被作者混淆，浪費寶貴時間。
(一)解釋不足
Example
One
在談及ironic跟sarcastic分別時，作者解釋如下 (見186頁)
ironic: (某事)諷刺的、用反話的 e.g
It was ironic that police station was burgled.
sarcastic:
(語帶)挖苦的、諷刺的、嘲諷的 e.g
His boss made sarcastic comments on his work.
以上可見，作者指出ironic是針對事情，而sarcastic則針對語氣。
然而，Macmillan Dictionary對ironic定義如下：[LINGUISTICS]expressing the opposite of what you really think,
especially in order to be humorous
an ironic comment, an
ironic little smile.
至於sarcastic
, Macmillan
Dictionary定義如下：using
sarcasm to upset someone or to show anger
Alan can be very sarcastic.
She made some sarcastic comment about my clothes.
Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary English 對ironic則有以下定義。
1 an ironic situation is one
that is unusual or amusing because something strange happens or the
opposite of what is expected happens or is true:Your car was stolen at the
police station! How ironic!
It's ironic that her husband smoked for thirty years, and yet she's the
one who died of lung cancer.
2 using words that are the
opposite of what you really mean, often in a joking way:When I told Lucy I
loved her book, she thought I was being ironic.
至於sarcastic
, Longman定義如下：
saying things that are the opposite of what you mean, in order to make an
unkind joke or to show that you are annoyed
He can't help making sarcastic comments.
以上可見，ironic也可以是表達語氣，而且可以表達幽默(humorous)、有趣的(amusing)的事情。而sarcastic表達的是負面情緒，可以是不懷好意(unkind)、懊惱(annoyed)。可見作者解釋不夠詳細。
Example
Two
至於談及amiable跟amicable時，作者解釋也有點不足。(見121頁)
amicable
(某人)和藹可親的，容易相處的 She
had been surprised at how amiable and polite he had seemed.
amicable
（說明）友善的，（給人）和睦合作的(感覺）They
split after amiable talks.
無疑，作者指明amicable是指人。這點我明白。可是單憑以上的解釋我還不能掌握amicable可以用在什麼地方，跟amiable有什麼不同。
Macmillan Dictionary對amicable定義如下：
friendly and without arguments
We have reached an amicable settlement of the dispute.
an amicable divorce
至於Longman定義如下：
amicable
an amicable agreement, relationship etc is one in which people feel
friendly towards each other and do not want to quarrel:
Their relationship hasn't always been amicable.
amicable settlement/agreement
The two parties have reached an amicable settlement.
—amicably adverb:
In the end, the matter was resolved amicably.
Longman的解釋比Macmillan詳盡，可見amicable
跟amiable主要分別就是前者有固定的詞語配搭(collocation)。Amicable可以跟agreement (協議)、settlement（協定）relationship
(關係)等。就如作者的例句，通常夫妻、情侶、和平分開，慣常的說法是to split amicably. 以上可見，作者只有例句，解釋不足。
(二)解釋錯誤
可幸的是，作者這方面出錯較少。
Example
One
在談及salary跟wage分別時，作者解釋如下 (見84頁)
salary
年薪（非體力勞動者收入）
wages
週薪（體力勞動者收入）
然而，Macmillan Dictionary對salary定義如下
a fixed amount of money that you earn each month or year from
your job
an annual salary of £25,000
Longman:
money that you receive as payment from the organization you work for, usually
paid to you every month
至於wage
, Longman定義如下：
[singular] money you earn that is paid according to the number of
hours, days, or weeks that you work
Macmillan Dictionary
an amount of money that you earn for working, usually according to how
many hours or days you work each week or month
由此可見，首先，salary可指月薪或年薪 (年薪通常會說是annual salary) ，wage不一定指週薪，而是根據工作幾多小時、日子、星期來計算，換句話來說，wage的計算單位比salary仔細。而且收入較不穩定。然而salary數目是固定的。
“Salary is a fixed periodical payment paid to a person for regular
work or services; a wage is usually paid by the day or week for work or
services which are of a more irregular nature.”
所以，wage未必是非體力勞動者收入，salary也未必指體力勞動者收入。最後一句，
數了這本書幾項錯處，我的目的並不是想大家杯葛此書，我覺得它是有一定的幫助。不過，我建議讀者如果想學好英語字詞之間分別，就應該自己查英語字典，例如我上面引用的Macmillan
Dictionary和Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary English。查字典最好同時查兩本，這樣才會增進對詞語的了解。
此書可在公共圖書館借閱。
沒有留言:
張貼留言