大學英語自學教程unit 09 學術詞彙與普通詞彙

09-A. Learned words and popular words

In every cultivated language there are two great classes of words which, taken together, make up the whole vocabulary. First, there are those words with which we become familiar in ordinary conversation, which we learn, that is to say, from the members of our own family and from our friends, and which we should know and use even if we could not read or write. They concern the common things of life, and are the stock in trade of all who speak the language. Such words may be called “popular,” since they belong to the people at large and are not the possession of limited class only.

On the other hand, our language includes a large number of words which are relatively seldom used in ordinary conversation. Their meanings are known to every educated person, but there is little occasion to use them at home. Our first acquaintance with them comes not from our mother's lips or from the talk of our classmates, but from books that we read, lectures that we hear, or the more formal conversation of highly educated speakers who are discussing some particular topic in an elevated style. Such words are called "learned", and the difference between them and "popular" words is of great importance to a right understanding of language.

The difference between popular and learned words may be easily seen in a few examples. We may describe a girl as “lively” or as "vivacious." In the first case, we are using a native English word formed from the familiar noun life. In the latter, we are using a Latin derivative which has exactly the same meaning. Yet the atmosphere of the two words is quite different. No one ever got the adjective lively out of a book. It is a part of everybody's vocabulary. We cannot remember a time when we did not know it, and we feel sure that we learned it long before we were able to read. On the other hand, we must have passed several years of our lives before learning the word vivacious. We may even remember the first time that we saw it in print or heard it from some grown-up friend. Both lively and vivacious are good English words, but Lively is popular and vivacious is learned.

The terms "popular" and "learned,” as applied to words, are not absolute definitions. No two persons have the same stock of words, and the same word may be "popular" in one man's vocabulary and "learned in another's. There are also different grades of "popularity." Still, the classification into "learned" and "popular" is convenient and sound. Different opinions may come up as to the classification of any particular word, but there can be no difference of opinion about the general principle. We must be careful, however, to avoid misconception. When we call a word "popular," we do not mean that it is a favorite word, but simply that it belongs to the people as a whole that is, it is everybody's word, not the possession of a limited number. When we call a word "learned” we do not mean that it is used by learned persons alone, but simply that its presence in the English vocabulary is due to books and the cultivation of literature rather than to the actual needs of ordinary conversation.

【課文譯文】

學術詞彙與普通詞彙

每一種發展起來的語言中都有兩大類詞彙，這兩大類詞彙合起來就構成整個詞彙。首先是我們在平時談話中所熟悉的詞，也就是説，這些詞是我們從家人和朋友那兒學來的，即使我們不會讀書寫字我們也應該知道這些詞。它們與生活中常見的事情有關，是説這種語言的人都具備的。這樣的詞叫“普通詞彙”，因為它們屬於普通大眾，而不屬於某個有限階層的人們。

另一方面，我們的語言中還包括大量日常談話中較少用到的詞。每個受過教育的人都知道它們的意思，但是在家裏卻很少用它們。我們第一次認識這些詞不是來自於母親的話，也不是來自於同學們的談話，而是來自於我們所讀的書，所聽的講座或者受過高等教育的人以嚴肅的'風格討論某個特定話題時的更為正式的談話。這樣的詞叫做“學術詞彙”。學術詞彙與普通詞彙之間的區別對於正確理解語言極其重要。

從下面幾個例子中就可以容易看出普通詞彙與學術詞彙的不同。我們可以描述一個女孩是“lively”或“vivacious”。在第一種情況中，我們用的是一個由大家所熟知的名詞life形成的本土英語詞；在後一種情況中，我們用的是一個有着完全相同含義的拉丁派生詞。然而，這兩個詞的使用環境很不相同。人們不是從書本上學到lively這個形容詞的。它是每個人詞彙的一部分。我們不曾記得什麼時候不知道這個詞，而且我們確信早在我們能讀書之前就學到了這個詞。另一方面，我們肯定是在經過幾年的學習生活之後才學到vivacious這個詞的。我們甚至記得什麼時候第一次從書上看到它或從某個朋友那兒聽到它。lively和vivacious兩個詞都是很好的英語單詞，但lively是個普通詞而vivacious是個學術詞。

“普通的”和“學術的”這兩個術語，當用於給詞分類時，並不具有絕對明確的定義。任何兩個人所掌握的詞彙都不一樣。同一個詞在一個人的詞彙裏可能是“普通的”，而在另一個人的詞彙裏可能是“學術的”。“普通性”的程度也不一樣。然而，把詞彙分成“普通的”和“學術的”是方便的、合理的。關於某個特定的詞的分類可能會出現分歧，但是關於一般原則不會有不同的意見。然而我們必須仔細，以免造成錯誤想法。當我們把一個詞叫做“普通詞”時，我們並不是説它就是個人們喜歡的詞，而只是意味着它屬於大家——也就是説，它是每個人的詞，而不是某一有限數量的人們的詞。當我們把一個詞叫做“學術詞”時，我們的意思並不是它只為有學問的人所使用，而只是意味着它在英語詞彙中的出現是由於書籍和文學的培養，而不是日常談話的實際需要。