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约翰逊语言专栏
Ill-gotten gains
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How America saved old-fashioned English grammar
美国是如何拯救老式英语语法的
Is America ruining English or giving it new life? Most of this old transatlantic debate concerns words. Is elevator an improvement on lift? Why say transportation when transport will do? Sometimes it involves spelling, specifically the American reforms that made British centre into American center. Pragmatic change or dumbing down? And, of course, the quickest way to tell a Yank from a Brit is by pronunciation.
美国是在毁灭英语还是赋予英语新的生命？大多数大西洋两岸的旧争论都是关于语言的。Elevator 是对 lift 的改进吗？既然有 transport 就能做名词，为什么还要有 transportation 呢？有时还涉及到拼写，这就不得不提到美国人把英式英语里的 centre 变成了美式英语里的 center。务实的改变还是简化？当然，区分美国人和英国人最快的方法是通过发音。
But the differences between British and American English go beyond words, sounds and spelling to grammar itself. Here they can be subtle, but they are many: the index of the “Cambridge Grammar of the English Language” mentions regional differences in 95 places. America being the parvenu, most people assume that any variations between the two countries result from American innovation, to the (sometimes mock) horror of Britons. In reality, America has often been the conservative one, and Britain the innovator. When British speakers borrow American habits, they are sometimes unwittingly readopting an older version of their language.
但是英式英语和美式英语之间的区别不仅仅是单词、发音和拼写，而是语法本身。在这里，它们可能是细微的，但它们是很多的：《剑桥英语语法》的索引提到了95个地方的地区差异。美国是暴发户，大多数人认为两国之间的任何差异都源于美国的创新，这让英国人感到恐惧(有时是嘲笑)。事实上，美国常常是保守的一方，而英国则是创新的一方。当说英式英语的人借用美国人的习惯时，他们有时会无意中重新使用一种较旧的英语。
Take the past participle of get, which in Britain is got and in America gotten. To some Britons, American gotten is a cute or irritating invention. In fact, it is the older form, which came from Old Norse. “Gotten” appears in a Bible translation of 1535: “Treasures that are wickedly gotten, profit nothinge.” It persisted for centuries before fusing with the past tense, got, in Britain. Not that America was entirely conservative; it has a got too. But Americans use it differently: “He’s got a car” means he owns one, while “He’s gotten a car” means he has acquired one.
以get的过去分词为例，在英国是got，在美国是gotten。对一些英国人来说，美式英语是一个可爱或令人讨厌的发明。事实上，它是更古老的形式，来自古斯堪的纳维亚语。“Gotten”一词出现在1535年的圣经译文中：“Treasures that are wickedly gotten, profit nothinge（不怀好意得到的财宝，毫无益处）.”它持续了几个世纪，直到在英国与过去时态“got”融合。并不是说美国完全保守；美式英语中也有一个got。但是美国人的用法不同:“He’s got a car”意思是他有一辆车，而“He’s gotten a car”意思是他得到了一辆车。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
