Re: [寫作班] Aliengirl , Christmas

看板ST-English (英文科技寫作)作者dvlin (Dee)時間17年前 (2007/12/27 08:11)推噓1(1推 0噓 3→)

留言4則, 1人參與討論串3/5 (看更多)

Hey, DJ, did you delete your original post, or did one of us accidentally delete it? Anyway, please allow me to share some of my opinions. ※ 引述《fizeau (Gratias ad Opus)》之銘言： : ※ 引述《djnospam (DJ)》之銘言： : : -> can't enjoy it because .... : : "The whole holiday" technically isn't wrong, but I believe the : : objective here it to write "better" and "idiomatic" English -- : : fixed/common expressions used by (well-educated) native speakers : : of English, not just something barely enough to get by. : It goes without saying that native speakers idiomatic or vernacular : expressions is a standard to look up to in language learning. But : that doesn't mean the freedom of speech/writing be stripped absent : justifications. Sadly, writing or speaking English "correctly" is almost never good enough. After so many years, this is something I still struggle with at times. A sentence that makes perfect grammatical sense can still be a bad one, if it's not the way people "use" it. That is not to say "idiomatic" English is "better". It isn't necessarily "better", and it is by no means a "standard". In fact, there really is no such thing as a "standard". English is a living language, and therefore is subject to constant changes. Of all contemporary languages, English is perhaps the most poorly structured, despite that it's the most popular. Or maybe, it's the most popular because it is poorly structured, because it incorporates so many elements of other Indo-European languages, and allows greater freedom of expression for the speaker/writer. : So, why a NATIVE SPEAKER here would say "enjoy it" rather than " : enjoy THE WHOLE HOLIDAY" ? : First, "it" is a cataphora used to refer to a preceding noun, so : "can't enjoy IT" means "can't enjoy the Christmas." : Second, can or can't we say "can't enjoy the WHOLE holiday." Why : not? If one is unable, due to whatever reasons, to enjoy a holiday : as best as he/she can, of course he/she can say it that way to : emphasize the degree of disappointment. That being said, I think "enjoy the whole holiday" is plain wrong, because nobody uses English that way. However, the freedom of expression lies in that there are other ways to express the idea. "Enjoy it" doesn't cut it, because it doesn't indicate the degree of enjoyment. Here's one that works: "enjoy it to the fullest". -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 99.231.10.180 ※ 編輯: dvlin 來自: 99.231.10.180 (12/27 13:38)