The Bilingualist

In a utopia, you treat people the way you want others to treat you because you believe people will treat you the way you treat others. Now imagine your utopia as one of those snow globes with a castle inside. Your snow globe may be completely intact, all shiny and pretty. Or cracks are starting to appear on the surface. Or the globe has shattered completely, yet the castle still stands. Or, with the globe gone, the castle is already showing signs of crumbling. Or, worse still, you have long since lost your snow globe with a castle in it, so long that you don't even remember you once had a globe like that. In what state is your snow globe?

  (Source:  https://dshk.edu.hk/the-dalton-plan/ ) 今日睇新聞，得知有間叫道爾頓學校嘅疑似國際學校吞併咗玫瑰崗，上官網八掛之際見到佢地學校嘅 motto “I am not led, I lead.” 有少少問題。  呢度出現咗一個 comma splice，即係不正確地用咗 comma 分隔開兩句句子。 要明白點解呢度唔可以用 comma，首先要有子句 (clauses) 嘅概念。 clauses 嘅定義係必須由一個 subject 同一個 finite verb（即有顯示 tense 嘅 verb）組成。 結構上，words 組成 phrases，phrases 組成 clauses，clauses 組成 sentences，所以可以粗略地將 clauses 理解為比句子細一級嘅部件。 要留意嘅係，有啲句子只有一個 clause，例如 “I go to school by bus.” 就係一句只得一個 clause 嘅句子，呢種可以獨立成句嘅 clause 叫 main clause 或 independent clause。 呢度嘅 “I am not led” 同 “I lead” 係兩句 independent clauses。要將佢地連接，中間必須加入 “and”、“or”、“but” 或 “so”。如果想用標點符號代替，只可以用 semi-colon。又或者直接將 comma 改返做 full stop，分返開兩句。 當連接得唔岩，就會出現病句，而呢款病句就叫做 comma splices。 （題外話：其實右邊嘅 “virtuous” 都有點奇怪，點解唔係同其他橙色字一樣用返 noun form？）

去澳門旅行時見到呢張告示。 同上次一樣，今次都係 dangling modifier 嘅問題。 原句： To avoid becoming the breeding ground of mosquitoes and bacteria, [p]lease do not throw food. 想檢查自己嘅句子有無出現 dangling modifiers，首先係要搞清楚句子嘅 main clause 同埋佢嘅 subject。 呢度嘅 main clause 係 “[p]lease do not throw food”，而佢嘅 subject 係一個省略咗嘅 “you”。 大部份情況下，英文係唔容許句子無 subject 的，所以點解中文可以話「落雨喇」而英文要講 “it’s raining”、中文可以話「有棵樹喎」而英文要講 “there’s a tree”，呢度嘅 “it” 同 “there” 叫做 dummy subjects（dummy 即係時裝店門口做 display 嗰啲假人），佢地係句子裡面係唔帶任何意思的，純粹為咗 satisfy 英文嘅 grammar rules 而存在。 而例外情況，亦即今次嘅 main clause 點解可以省略咗嗰 “you”，係因爲 “[p]lease do not throw food” 係一句 imperative sentence，亦即祈使句。 imperative sentences 嘅例子包括 “shut up”, “keep calm and carry on”, “don’t use the lift in case of fire” 等等，佢地嘅特點係以 verb 開頭而唔係以 subject 開頭，呢種句式多數用黎下命令或俾指示，而且一定係「我」向「你」講，所以個 subject “you” 可以省略。 搞清楚 main clause 嘅 subject 係 “you” 之後，好容易就會發現前面嘅 “to avoid becoming the breeding ground [...]” 意思上係無可能修飾 “you” 的，詳細可以睇返 呢個 post ，呢度唔重複。 改返岩： To prevent the breeding of mosquitoes and bacteria, please do not

唔知係咪 confirmation bias，覺得最近條街真係出現多咗奇怪英文，所以覺得想紀錄一下，順便俾機會自己寫多啲呢類型嘅嘢。 原句： To express our sincere gratitude, you can enjoy half-price discount when travelling on MTR lines on 8, 9 April and 13, 14 May 2023. 原句最大問題在於 “to express our sincere gratitude” 呢個 dangling modifier。 dangling modifiers 中文大概係修飾語錯配，原句嘅 subject 係 “you”，亦即乘客、市民，而 “to express our sincere gratitude” 呢個 clause 就係修飾緊個 “you”，咁好明顯邏輯上就唔正確，因為想表達謝意嘅係港鐵公司，而唔係乘客自己，當出現一個咁嘅 mismatch，就可以話句句子出現咗個 dangling modifier。 建議修改： To express our sincere gratitude, the MTR Corp is offering a half-price discount to anyone travelling with us on 8, 9 April and 13, 14 May 2023.