觀讀聽 09-5-3

兩本“戀讀”書，兩本“英文”書。

用中文寫作的日本人新井一二三，從前在香港偶然可從本地報紙雜誌讀到她的文章。她的書，上星期初相逢。一本叫我和閱讀談戀愛，另一本雖叫東京時刻8點45，其實主要還在跟閱讀談戀愛。她的戀愛對象，都是日本作家的作品，戀得發乎情止乎禮，不是熱戀苦戀生死戀那類。作為讀者，讀得舒服，也有得著。

－　新井一二三官方網站

Julia Cresswell談cliche，書名取為The Cat's Pyjamas - The Penguin Book of Cliches。所謂the cat's pyjamas，指做某事情做得棒極了的人。以我的英語水平，覺得這語句頗為生僻，距cliche程度尚遠。無論如何，下面是Penguin Australia提供的簡介：

From centuries-old sayings, like beggars can't be choosers a friend in need, to today's tried and tested phrases, such as at the end of the day, not fit for purpose and it's not rocket science, the English language seems so full of cliches that sometimes it's hard to see the wood for the trees. Here eagle-eyed word detective Julia Cresswell takes a long hard look at the history of some of the worst (and best) culprits and spills the beans on their curious, often surprising origins. Who would have thought, for example, that mad for it dates back to 1670, a finger in every pie originates with Shakespeare or that lie back and think of England comes from an Edwardian lady's diary? Whether they relate to sport, business, songs, journalism, food or politics, here is the low-down on those expressions we're all a bit guilty of using too much (day in and day out) and that make our language – whether we like it or not – what it is.

另一本，是Jeremy Butterfield的A Damp Squid - The English Language Laid Bare。權威學究出書指點英文水平墮落，即使不買來讀，在書店應也見過很多。其實，英文的發展和使用，是一成不變的嗎？還是說，變幻才是永恒？反過來說，大部分人的用法才是“正確”的用法嗎？這我不知道，也沒資格評說，不過，書中指出，今天大部分人的“錯誤”用法的確可能明天成為“正確”。就以書名為例，a damp squid，濕淋淋，軟綿綿，那會是甚麼好東西。這個cliche（？）似乎很好懂。但其實，這是一個習非勝是的例子，原來應是a damp squib。濕了的火藥，還有甚麼用！但squib一字，那麼生僻，慢慢的，越來越多人覺得a damp squid既形象，又好懂，錯得多了，變成“對”了！

OUP提供的簡介：

When James Murray compiled the OED in the 19th century, he used a small army of volunteers--and thousands upon thousands of paper slips--to track down the English language. Today, linguists use massive computer power--including the world's largest language databank, the Oxford Corpus, which contains more than two billion words--to determine for the first time definitively how the English language is used. From evidence contained in the gargantuan Oxford Corpus, Jeremy Butterfield here uncovers a wealth of fascinating facts about the English language. Where does our vocabulary come from? How do word meanings change? How is our language really being used? This entertaining book has the up-to-date and authoritative answers to all the key questions about our language.