暖冬cool夏
這裏一年四季溫暖如春，沒有酷暑沒有嚴寒......
先來分享最近在Vogue雜誌上看到的一句英語。It’s better to cry in a Rolls-Royce than to be happy on a bicycle.—Patrizia Reggiani
Patrizia Reggiani是意大利人, 因雇人殺害前夫Maurizio Gucci—(Gucci品牌創始人的孫子)而入獄18年(被判26年)。 這是她1970s的名言。
這句英語與我們中文裏的那句"寧願在寶馬車裏哭，不願在自行車上笑"如出一轍。如果不是因為中文這句也是有出處(節目《非誠勿擾》裏有個女生首創) ，我都以為中文是從其他語言翻譯過來的。
前一陣網友心城特意前來詢問英語筆記的更新，一下子讓我有了動力接著歸納總結。以前當老師的時候，對"教學相長"這個說法深有同感，而今日與網友間的分享交流則更是讓我自己受益匪淺，因為每個人的視覺不同，看一個單詞/句子的角度不同。雖說寫這個係列的初衷是為自己，督促自己整理筆記，在此留個備份，便於今後進一步拓展和增添，但是實際上，在與你們大家的分享中我又有諸多新的收獲，從不同角度加深了理解。
據不完全統計, 英語中的名詞(隻限common nouns, 不包括 proper nouns, pronouns) 在所有被統計的詞匯裏占據27% (https://pdodds.w3.uvm.edu/files/papers/others/1994/hudson1994a.pdf). 這個占了比1/5還要多比例的名詞，我應該從怎樣一個角度寫，心裏真沒有底。所以一日我問某人:
我: "你知不知道英語中的glitter, flicker, glow, burst, escape, mention可以作名詞用? "
他答: "你研究這個幹什麽？ 你這個問題就好比問人家茴香豆的"茴"字有幾種寫法。"
我堅持到: "你先回答問題。"
答: "那些詞當然可以作名詞的，很常見啊。"
我: "那你有沒有覺得看到這些常常作動詞用的詞，偶爾作名詞用時，覺得這些名詞用的特別形象，帶有動感?"
他答，"沒有。你們文科生就是沒事找事。。。"
說得我一下子沒了信心寫。
不過人的信心不應該這麽容易受打擊，還是寫自己想寫的，萬一大家和我感同身受呢:))。為了寫這一篇，我把陳年老賬都翻出來，不過以前的筆記不記出處的，而且很多時候是從學寫作的角度、欣賞的角度記下來的，所以這裏羅列的都不是什麽生僻的用法，很多都是比較常見的詞匯。當然，這個係列寫長了，這篇的內容可能跟以前有一篇寫詞性間的轉換使用有點overlap.
轉入正題。
先看下麵一個句子。這個例句中劃線的三個名詞的構成有一點點不同，第一個詞succession是動詞succeed的名詞形式，第二個詞surrender可能以動詞形式出現的頻率更高些，第三個詞stopover是個組合詞。
The protocols were multilayered: a succession of PCR tests by nurses from the Royal Clinics: a Gulfstream jet in the middle of the night from Riyadh; a convoy from a deserted airstrip; a surrender of electronic devices; a stopover at a mysterious guesthouse visible in satellite photos but unmarked on Google Maps. (The Atlantic April 2022)
眾所周知，在英語中，名詞可以從動詞或形容詞演變過來，有時隻需要在後麵加後綴即可變為名詞，比如下麵所列舉:
動詞變名詞，如nourish —nourishment, criticize—criticism, stop—stoppage, reveal—revelation, disclose—disclosure, divulge—divulgence, betray—betrayal, continue-- continuity 等等
形容詞變名詞, 如are -- rarity, convenient--convenience, short—shortage, private--privacy等等
I. 但是英語中也有些詞，它的詞性可以是多元的，既可以作動詞用，也可以做名詞用(或是形容詞用)，當然出現的頻率有高有低。我不知道大家看到了一個習慣作動詞用的詞以名詞出現時，大腦會不會興奮一下，就好比你看見一位老熟人一日喬裝打扮，給了你一種新鮮感一樣。比如前麵提到的flicker一詞，當它用在 a flicker of hope (一閃而過的希望) a flicker of inspiration (短暫的啟迪/靈感)這樣的表達法時， 你會不會覺得很生動形象，帶有動感? (希望你們的回答是yes:))) 當然讀多了，常常遇見，就像習慣看見老朋友的新裝束，人的感覺也會漸漸麻木的:)。
看更多的例子:
Then, with a rush and a cry, a raven soars past, drawing your attention to the unexpected details around you. A flicker of movement makes you grab your camera, but the lizard darts away before you take a picture. Now you notice flowers growing in the shadow of a rock. More surprises await.
February is a time of transition—a month that often begins beneath a mantle of snow and ends with a flicker of warming that presages the arrival of spring.
"Yosemite Valley… is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and gold and wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space. "—photographer Ansel Adams
Light dances around the walls and pastel yellows and blues offer a burst of color.
英語很常見的動詞作名詞用，比如:
The book is a surprisingly buoyant read. (Vogue, August 2021)
Maybe, but the irony is that many people who behave foolishly consider themselves to be “in the know", to be in possession of inside knowledge; access to it, for them, is a point of pride.
下麵的這些作名詞也很常見，我個人很喜歡這樣的詞，非常簡潔明了。
Despite a report on Tuesday showing a plunge in housing starts and building permits in March, housing remains a bright spot amid indications that economic growth slowed to a crawl in the first three months of the year.
The economy has been hobbled by a strong dollar and weak global demand, which have undermined exports. Lower oil prices are also a drag, as they have eroded the profits of energy firms and prompted them to slash spending on capital projects. (這個顯然是很多年前的新聞:))
A number of problems had reached a slow boil.
Alienating the Saudi monarchy, he suggested, would harm Biden’s position. “It’s up to him to think about the interest of America. “ He gave a shrug.
Yet, pushed to the brink of despair, it’s her big sister, someone she looked up to when they were young, someone who’s been a comfort to her in other rough times, that she wants to talk to, someone she imagines might be able to comfort her now.
It is the push and pull of these “other desires”—namely motherhood and the impact childbearing can have on a career, a body, a mind—that the track “King” explores so affectingly. (Vogue May 2022)
In the months that followed his death, we would pull ourselves together and find a resolve we didn’t know we had. (The Atlantic June 2022)
Exactly when the therapeutic virtues of comic books were recognized is unclear. Justin Green, an American cartoonist, gave clinicians a nudge with “Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary”, a bawdy autobiographical account of growing up tortured by religious guilt and compulsive neurosis, published in 1972. (The Economist May 21st 2022)
The VC scene has its roots in the 1960s and had been a misfit in the financial world. (The Economist December 11th, 2021)
But there is a catch: Maine’s money may go only to schools whose curriculums are “nonsectarian”. (The Economist December 11th 2021)
Every day is a scramble to justify a sorry existence. (The Economist December 4th 2021)
While the sides bickered, Mr Peterson became a sensation. (The Economist December 4th 2021)
Rarely can a spoonful of rice have caused such a stir. (The Economist December 4th 2021)
II. 英語中有些名詞，同一個名詞可以用來指事，也可以指人，而不需要加個什麽-er之類的來表示。比如下麵這些句子。
I never particularly thought of myself as a gossip until I saw my first child, age one and a bit, hold a banana to her ear in the kitchen and say ”whatsthegoss?” into one end. (Vogue, December 2021) (嚼舌頭之人)
Gomez remembers being a teenager, at a Shania Twain show in Las Vegas with her dad, when a stranger yelled that her dad was a wetback. (Vogue April 2021) (這個詞有好幾種解釋，一種解釋是指墨西哥一帶偷渡過來，從河流中遊過來，背都還濕的，有點類似我們的fresh off the boat.另一種解釋是，整天麵朝黃土背朝天，幹活幹的濕透了衣背的勞動者。)
Softy: He broke with the post-Stalin Soviet Union after deciding that Nikita Khrushchev was a softy. (The Atlantic May 2022) 類似中文裏的"軟蛋":)
At 18, when she was still filming Wizards, Gomez entered a serious relationship with a teen heartthrob, an entanglement whose off-and-on ups-and-downs were dissected constantly and voraciously until it ended in 2018. (Vogue April 2021) (讓人心跳加速的名人，性感之人，或心愛之人)
He’s a regular fixture as Singh’s venues, sometimes seating guests. (Harper’s Bazaar, September 2021) (指常年在一個地方或是一個位置的人)
Virtually every important name in fashion-- YvesSaint Laurent， John Galliano， Tom Ford， the list is endless-- has been a regular at one time or another. (Vogue, May 2022)
Olivia Colman, in an indelible performance, plays a vacationing academic named Leda, squarely in middle age, who sees his Greek-island idyll spoiled by a boisterous American family that has descended upon the resort. (Vogue, November 2021) (in the moive The lost Daughter)
That Utah is such a laggard is probably down to the lasting influence of the Mormon church and believers' tendency to marry young and have large families. (The Economist September 18, 2021)
Ramakrishna， a nineteenth-century mystic, told his devotees that madness was a mark of devotion and should never be mocked. (The Atlantic, October 2022)
既然說到這裏，再加一點。我們都知道，很多時候以--er結尾的單詞是表示人，比如下麵這個句子:
By dint of her personality, as well as the fact that she was a young woman in the spotlight, she had to be unconditionally grateful, composed, sparkling. “I am just such a people-pleaser,” she adds.
但是肯定是有例外。記得上中學時，老師反複強調cook和cooker的區別，cooker是指燒飯的容器，cook才是做飯的人。
再看下麵兩個例句，都不是指人的。
A rich broth livened by star anise, cloves, ginger, and mild jalapenos warmed our bones as the sun set over the skyline of Wyoming’s Wind river Range, while the hint of fish sauce and burst of lime hit us with flavors that we simply do not usually encounter in the backcountry. After all those samey-samey chilis and pastas, this pho is a gamechanger. (Backpacker)
It was a kind of no-brainer. (Vogue Nov 2021) (這個很常見，指這個東西很簡單，不需要用腦都知道，而非無腦之人:))
II. 組合詞: 英語中的組合詞俯拾皆是，比如現在常用的lockdown,就是由動詞和副詞組合的名詞，這樣的例子舉不勝舉，有些時候兩個單詞間還保持著hyphen, 有些就是兩個詞直接聯係在一起。中間有沒有hyphen我想是應該是約定俗成的吧。
下麵簡單列舉一些:
Verb+adverb/preposition: lockdown, meltdown, crackdown, takeaway, getaway, bail-out, fall-out, sell-off, trade-off, handover, hangover, carryall, comeback, breakthrough, downturn (reverse the order)
Noun+noun: bottleneck, bullhead, ponytail, heartbeat, holidaymaker, backwater, rosebud, cornerstone, spotlight
Verb+verb: hip-hop, tick-tock, tictac, flip-flop, chitchat, humdrum, hotch-potch (podge)
Adj+noun: Shortfall, top-notch, tightrope (walk the tightrope), mainstream, mainstay
Verb+noun: touchstone, runway
再比如Know-how，must-have 等等等等。
用在句子中:
Yosemite National Park, a World Heritage Site, is here, roughly 3 ½ hours east of San Francisco. Whether you hike a mountain, ski the steeps, or lounge in a hot tub beneath a canopy of stars, you’ll find your perfect getaway.
One of the big takeaways of the pandemic is that communities survive better than individuals. (Vogue August 2021)
The crown prince has legalized cinemas and concerts, and invited notably raw hip-hop artists to perform. (The Atlantic April 2022)
Add more humdrum annoyances such as launch delays, which are common, and space tourism may remain a hobby for a few super-rich daredevils with lots of time to spare. (The Economist July 17th, 2021)
It was all quite humdrum-- and that was the point. (The Economist Dec 4th, 2021)
But the realm of the gods is a very real mountain located in central Greece, just north of the fertile Thessalian plain and a hairsbreadth from the Aegean Sea. (Backpacker Spring 2022)
Mainstay: The couple, who married in 1922, were mainstays of Zurich’s fledgling Dada movement. (Vogue Nov 2021)
Keepsake: Glazman points out, suggesting fragrance as a much more effective travel keepsake than a pilfered bottle of shampoo. (Vogue Nov 2021)
Mainstream: Because of their tendency to become quasi-natural monopolies are not exactly mainstream in Washington, DC, but nor are they completely alien to the political debate there. (The Economist November 21-27th, 2020)
Yet his appeal transcends his backwater milieu. (The Economist May 21st 2022)
Mr Berry paints the community in atmospheric hues, each brushstroke deepening the reader’s understanding of how the link between soil and people sustains the town. (The Economist May 21st 2022)
That versatility scored the brand a windfall.
His eight novels and more than 50 short stories are usually set in Port William, a stand-in for Port Royal. (The Economist May 21st 2022)
Indeed, something far more basic explains the run-up in inflation: a surge in stimulus-fuelled demand, compounded by disruptions to supply. (The Economist May 21st 2022)
And so his plan to raise revenue is a hotch-potch of unothodox measures. (The Economist December 4th 2021)
Rob Witwer, a former Republican state lawmaker and co-author of "The Blue-print", wonders whether the Republican Party in Colorado has been too damaged by Mr. Trump to make a comeback. (The Economist September 3rd 2022)
總而言之，英語文字的這種特點， 一詞多性，詞與詞之間的組合，賦予了其語言的生動性，靈活性，常常簡潔又傳神。
這就暫告一個段落了。又想起某人說的"茴香豆的茴字有幾種寫法"。我想文字最終的用處不是用來咬文嚼字，它更重要的在於傳遞信息，傳遞思想，傳遞情感。而閱讀的關鍵在於量，大量的閱讀會在潛移默化中讓我們對文字產生一種感覺, 就是我們平常說的語感，讓我們在享受文字之美的同時，感受文章的深度和力度。
竟然漏掉了暖冬這篇非常讓人受益的好文，暖冬有才又有心，每次都分析得非常透徹，我是看過，讀過，從來沒有好好想過，學習了，英文的詞語的用法也是非常有挖掘的潛力了，收藏了好文！
我一向不思進取滿足現狀，慚愧。
周末快樂！
我也談不上特別愛好，否則基礎會比現在好很多，人有時是一種慣性呢。謝謝水沫，夏安！
暖冬這樣的專研精神真是我學習的榜樣，不過感覺暖冬絕對不是為了專研而是樂在其中~~~
And you are right again that native speakers don't pay so much attention to the transformations from verbs/adjectives to nouns, etc., the way we do, as I recall how J learned the vocabulary, or if their textbooks (if any, a lot of time they don't have textbooks in Middle/High School) emphasize the features at all.
Perhaps I won't dwell on the individual vocabulary like this any more in the future, as it is more fun to enjoy the taste of 茴香豆 than to analyze the strokes of the word:)) Thanks, my friend, for your reading and comments.
That's a great line.
> 動詞作名詞用
> 形容詞變名詞
I enjoyed the examples and agreed that they did brighten up the sentences.
I doubt the native speakers have such concepts, though.
To them, the nature of a word could simply depend on its part in the sentence.
> "revel -- revelation"
I think revelation is more related to 'reveal' than 'revel'
because the former was from
latin velum (veil)
and latter
latin rebellare (to rebel)
Oncemm說得好，你這麽一說，我心裏一下有底氣了，我們就是屬於對文字敏感的，能享受美，享受它的妙筆生花，不像某人，麻木不仁，還把別人都當成孔乙己:)) 下次我理直氣壯地告訴他，Oncemm寫過一百遍，就一個寫法，怎樣?:)) 我這也要準備去健身跳舞了，Oncemm玩得開心!夏安！
“ 我想文字最終的用處不是用來咬文嚼字，它更重要的在於傳遞信息，傳遞思想，傳遞情感。而閱讀的關鍵在於量，大量的閱讀會在潛移默化中讓我們對文字產生一種感覺, 就是我們平常說的語感，在享受文字之美的同時，感受文章的深度和力度。” 說得好！很認同！讚了！
期待暖冬下一篇！順祝暖冬暑期清涼！周末愉快！
我就這點小愛好，做過老師有癮的:) 小小謙虛了，你是學數學的，這個才厲害，女生學高等數學，我想都不敢想的。而且你很全麵的，音樂舞蹈書畫樣樣行! 就像某人說的，其實不需要總結的，語言貴在會用。謝謝小小，周末快樂！
周末快樂！
學的許多知識早還給老師了，來暖冬這裏深感自己太不努力上進了~~~
暖冬做事認真，總是在不斷提高自己，佩服：））
暖冬是個好老師，啟發式的文字，是啊，有時看到動詞被用做名詞，讚歎用的巧妙，賦予了名詞動感：））
可經常是一帶而過，從來沒有認真想過，更沒有總結歸納。要向暖冬學習：））
問好暖冬，周末愉快！