評論
打印
There was a King's (or Queen's)English to be proud of. The Elizabethans blew on it as on a dandelion clock, and its seeds multiplied, and floated to the ends of the earth. "The King's English" was no longer a form of what would now be regarded as racial discrimination.
這樣便有了一種值得引以自豪的"標準英語"。伊麗莎白時代的人沒費吹灰之力，使其影響日盛，遍及全球。"標準英語"再也不帶有今天所謂的種族歧視的性質了。
Yet there had been something in the remark of the Australian. The phrase has always been used a little pejoratively and even facetiously by the lower classes. One feels that even Mistress Quickly-a servant-is saying that Dr. Caius-her master-will lose his control and speak with the vigor of ordinary folk. If the King's English is "English as it should be spoken," the claim is often mocked by the underlings, when they say with a jeer "English as it should be spoke." The rebellion against a cultural dominance is still there.
不過，那個澳大利亞人所作的解釋也有一定的道理。下層階級在用這一名詞時總帶著一點輕蔑或譏諷的味道。我們會發現，就連快嘴桂嫂這樣一個婢女也會說她的主子凱厄斯大夫會管不住自己的舌頭，而講起平民百姓們所講的那種粗話。如果說標準英語就是所謂"規范英語"，這種看法常常會受到下層人民的嘲笑譏諷，他們有時故意開玩笑地把它說成是"規反英語"。下層人民對文化上的專制仍是極為反感的。
There is always a great danger, as Carlyle put it, that "words will harden into things for us." Words are not themselves a reality, but only representations of it, and the King's English, like the Anglo-French of the Normans , is a class representation of reality. Perhaps it is worth trying to speak it, but it should not be laid down as an edict, and made immune to change from below.
正如卡萊爾所說，始終存在著的一種危險是，"對我們來說。詞語會變成具體的事物"。詞語本身并不是現實，它不過是用以表達現實的一種形式而已。標準英語就像諾曼底人的盎格魯法語一樣，也是一個階級用來表達現實的一種形式。讓人們學著去講也許不錯，但既不應當把它作為法令，也不應當使它完全不接受來自下層的改變。
I have an unending love affair with dictionaries-Auden once said that all a writer needs is a pen, plenty of paper and "the best dictionaries he can afford"-but I agree with the person who said that dictionaries are instruments of common sense. The King's English is a model-a rich and instructive one-but it ought not to be an ultimatum.
我一向對詞典有著始終不渝的酷愛一奧登說過，一個作家的全部所需就是一支筆、夠用的紙張和"他所能弄得到的最好的詞典"-但我更贊同另一種說法，即把詞典看成是一種常識的工具。標準英語是一種典范-一種豐富而有指導作用的典范-但并不是一種最高的典范。
