英譯現(xiàn)代散文●略談英文文法 ◎ 梁實秋

略談英文文法

A Little Chat about English Grammar

◎　梁實秋

◎　Liang Shiqiu

三百多年前，英國沒有講英文文法的書。英文沒有文法么?英國人說話不根據(jù)文法么?不。話不是這樣說。任何文字當(dāng)然有它一套組成的法則。大家說話，當(dāng)然要根據(jù)一套公認(rèn)的法則，否則大家隨便亂講，彼此無從互相了解了。不過，我們要知道，所謂文法也者，不是任誰武斷訂定的，乃是由公認(rèn)的語言習(xí)慣中歸納出來的一個系統(tǒng)。先有語言，后有文字，然后再有文法書。三百多年前的時候，英國有一些學(xué)者開始感覺到有撰寫文法書的需要，于是以拉丁文的文法為藍(lán)本，利用拉丁文法上的各種專門術(shù)語，編寫英文文法書。莎士比亞的時代，英國人尚沒有研讀英文文法的。如果他們研讀文法，研讀的是拉丁文法。那時候英國的中學(xué)叫做“文法學(xué)校”，那文法是拉丁文法，不是英文文法，那時候尚無英文文法這樣一個名詞。大體講來，英文本是一種北方的語言，硬用拉丁文法去分析英文，其結(jié)果當(dāng)然不免要有一些牽強(qiáng)，更隨時要遇到例外。

Over 300 years ago, there were no English grammars in England. Was it because at that time the English language had no grammar or Englishmen spoke without following any grammatical rules? No, that was not the case. Any language of course has rules to go by. All people speak a language according to a set of generally accepted rules, for otherwise their speech would be all topsy-turvy and unintelligible. We ought to know, however, that grammar, rather than something arbitrarily created, is a system drawn from common linguistic usage. Speech comes first, then the written language, and then the grammar book. Over 300 years ago, some scholars in England, realizing the necessity for an English grammar, began to work on it on the model of Latin grammar, borrowing heavily from its terminology. In Shakespeare's time, nobody in England studied English grammar. What they studied was Latin grammar. Middle schools then were known as“grammar schools”, the word“grammar”referring to“Latin grammar”instead of“English grammar”, a term then non-existent. As English was largely a northern language, the forced application of Latin grammar to its analysis ended inevitably in inadequacies and frequent exceptions to rules.

語言是活的，隨時在變，字義以及句法等等都在變。我們現(xiàn)代所認(rèn)為不合文法的詞句，往往正是二三百年前大家通用的英文。不用說兩三百年，三五十年間就可能有顯著的變化。所以“標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的英文”是很難講的。每一時代有其不同的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，拿五十年前甚至一百年前的文法書來衡量現(xiàn)代的英文，實在是自尋煩惱的事。

A living language changes all the time. Its word meanings, sentence structures, etc. all keep changing. Phrases and sentences which we today think ungrammatical were often in common use 2–3 centuries ago. It might take only 3–5 decades rather than 2–3 centuries for a marked linguistic change to occur. Therefore, it is very difficult to speak“standard English.”Each historical period has a different standard of its own. It will be much ado about nothing to judge of modern English by its grammar of 50 or even 100 years ago.

國人學(xué)習(xí)英文，喜歡從文法下手，以為一旦文法通曉，英文即可豁然貫通。這當(dāng)然不是沒有理由。不過這是一個舊法子，較新的法子是不從死板的抽象的文法理論下手，而去直接的去學(xué)習(xí)那活的語言方式。我們兒時學(xué)語，何嘗理會什么文法，一年半載的工夫我們就會說話了。學(xué)習(xí)外國語，當(dāng)然比較難得多，但是道理還是一樣。合理的學(xué)習(xí)語言的方法，那是自然的學(xué)習(xí)方法。

People of our country tend to overstress the importance of grammar when they begin to study English, thinking that once they have acquired a good knowledge of grammar, they will have thoroughly mastered the language. The method they pursue is outdated though not a hundred percent wrong. The new method is by learning directly from the living speech instead of by starting with the rigid and abstract theory of grammar. When people learn to speak in childhood, they never study any grammar. And yet they learn to speak in but a year or so. Of course it is much more difficult with the study of a foreign language. But the same reason holds good. The proper method is by learning naturally.

這一點粗淺的道理，誰都曉得。所以我們的課程標(biāo)準(zhǔn)明白規(guī)定不許學(xué)校單獨講授文法?？墒鞘聦嵣?，我知道許多學(xué)校依然是在講解文法，學(xué)生們依然是在鉆研文法。其所以如此，是因為大家都不免有一點惰性，不易接納新的觀點，同時也是因為平時我們沒有把英文教好學(xué)好，急來抱佛腳，以為研讀文法是學(xué)習(xí)英文的捷徑。

The above-mentioned shallow view is common knowledge. Therefore our school syllabus has explicitly ruled out the teaching of grammar in the classroom as an independent subject. But, fact is, as far as I know, many schools are still teaching a grammar book and students are still buried in its study — partly because people are generally inert and reluctant to accept new ideas, and partly because, having failed to teach or learn successfully, they hastily seek help from grammar at the last moment, regarding it as a shortcut to mastering English.

文法不是不可以講。句子的構(gòu)造法最關(guān)重要。例如說，“我有一本書”，這在中文英文沒有什么分別，用不著特別致力的去學(xué)習(xí)。“你住在哪里?”這句話中英文就不一樣了。這就需要反復(fù)練習(xí)，以養(yǎng)成語言習(xí)慣。中文語法和英文語法究竟有多少不同處，需要徹底研究，以這研究的結(jié)果來做英語教學(xué)的準(zhǔn)則，是最合理的學(xué)習(xí)英文的方法。死記文法規(guī)則，“形容詞分幾種”，“子句有幾種”……是事倍而功半的。

Nevertheless, we still have to mind our grammar. Sentence structure is of great importance. For instance, the English sentence I have a book and its Chinese equivalent Wo you yi ben shu(我有一本書) are practically the same in structure, and hence can be learned without too much difficulty. On the other hand, the English sentence Where do you live? is different in structure from its Chinese equivalent Ni zhu zai na li?(你住在哪里?), and hence needs repeated drilling till you get used to it. It requires a thorough study to find out where the two languages differ grammatically so as to facilitate the teaching and learning of English. The mechanical memorizing of such grammatical details as“classification of adjectives”,“classification of clauses”, etc. will achieve little result despite great effort.

梁實秋所著《略談英文文法》一文，言簡意賅，老馬識途，指出死摳語法書是國人英語學(xué)習(xí)的一大通病，具參考價值。