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前阵子读到一本有点历史的文法书:The Reader Over Your Shoulder:A Handbook for Writers of English Prose,1943。有趣的是,这本书尝试为相近字排列顺序,这部分的内容出现在「明确叙述的原则Principles of Clear Statement」的章节中。这项原则是:「谈到多少或多久时,绝对要精确无误」。书中对于用字精确度的重视,显示出用字选择的重要性在过去这七十年中,几乎没有太大的改变。
这本书的作者表示此「比例的普遍度量」表没有收录在任何字典或参照表中,内容如下:
Not nearly(几乎没有)、nearly(几近)、almost(几乎)、not quite(不完全)、all but(将近)、just not(唯独没有)、within an ace(差一点)、within a hair's breadth(毫厘之差)、oh!by the skin of my teeth(就差那么一点)、just(刚好)、only just(差一点不能)、with a bit of a rush(有几分仓促)、comfortably(从容)、easily(轻松)、with plenty to spare(时间充裕)。
身为读者的我们也许不赞成这个排列顺序,甚至还想加入其他词。这些片语中,有些看来武断,有些则是过时,但看到这些词按顺序一字排开,还挺有趣的。如果您曾疑惑nearly或almost哪个比较接近指涉目标,以下两位细心的读者认为,nearly更接近目标。
Graves和Hodge认为「比例的普遍度量」(如nearly、part of等)可以转换成百分比,他们将这个转换结果如下列出(底线为本文作者所加):
(100%)Mr.Jordan's fortune consisted wholly of bar-gold.
(99%)Practically all his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(95%)His fortune consisted almost entirely of bar-gold.
(90%)Nearly all his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(80%)By far the greater part of his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(70%)The greater part of his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(60%)More than half his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(55%)Rather more than half his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(50%)Halfhis fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(45%)Nearly half his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(40%)A large part of his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(35%)Quite a large part of his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(30%)A considerable part of his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(25%)Part of his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(15%)A small part of his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(10%)Not much of his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(5%)A very small part of his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(1%)An inconsiderable part of his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
(0%)None of his fortune consisted of bar-gold.
Graves和Hodge认为这是「普遍接受」的量表,但同时也遗憾的表示作者常常为了戏剧效果而将程度提高5%,进而导致量表混乱。这或许是出于对文章内容缺乏信心,许多作者常为了效果或强调而夸大事实。
我们不难想像在某些情况中,这个量表或许存在着无法解决的争议,但至少提供了一个基础的参照点。正如我们对色谱的定义都不太一样,我们对于the greater part(较大一部分)和a small part(小部分)到底是指多大一部分,想法也未必一致。如果用百分比来说我吃了35%的苹果派,或许我就可以精确列出怎样能放纵大吃的公式了吧。