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"Four Fish" or "Four Fishes"?

2007, December 27 - 11:51am — vyvy

A few days ago I saw the following phrase from a book for kids:

... caught four fish.

I grinned at the low quality of the book: How can such an easy-to-spot typo allowed? "Four Fishes" not "Four Fish", please! But as I continued to read further, the same phrase appeared again in another page:

... she has four fish.

What?! Two similar typos? Hmm... I grinned no more and thought that I might be wrong!

Yes, I was wrong! I did some research and just learned the proper way to use "fish" and "fishes":

  • Only one fish: use Fish;
  • A quantity of fish from the same kind (i.e., many from a single species): use Fish, not Fishes! (This is the 'trap' I didn't know!)
  • A quantity of fish with variety (i.e., many from more than one species): use Fishes.

Did you know about this?

马来西亚人常念错的华语

2007, June 27 - 11:29am — vyvy

最后更新：二零零九年四月十三日

我在教孩子华语时，当然尽量想教正确的华语。在这过程中发现自己和身边许多人念错某些字词，而又必须教会孩子认清正确与本地常用错的华语，不简单。在此把某些问题写出来共享。如有错误，敬请指正。

常念错的字词

不同人念错的不同的字词，在此仅举列出较严重的。以下用1234分别表示华语声调的四声，即阴平、阳平、上声、及去声。不写表示轻声。

I hear and I forget : 不闻不若闻之

2007, March 28 - 4:59pm — vyvy

多年前在一英文课本内看到了一段非常有意思的文字：

I hear and I forget;
I see and I remember;
I do and I understand.
   -- Confucius

这段简洁的文字一针见血地道出了学习的窍门！它对我的学习生涯有很大的帮助。然而，我找了好多年却找不到这段原文。刚写了个求助，但几分钟后却让我谷歌(Google)到了！（可能以前还不太会用搜寻器…）其原出处可能意译自于以下文字：

不闻不若闻之，闻之不若见之，见之不若知之，知之不若行之。学至于行之而止矣。
   -- 《荀子·儒效》

故这段文字出自儒家的重要代表人物荀子，并非直接出自于孔子。但这段文字的直译与以上那段英文有些许出入。硬要直译的话，可这么译：

To ignore it is not better than to hear it;
To hear it is not better than to see it;
To see it is not better than to understand it;
To understand it is not better than to practise it.
Once you have practised it you can stop.

这直译肯定不太好。以下这样意译念起来较顺畅：

To hear it is better than to ignore it;
To see it is better than to hear it;
To understand it is better than to see it;
To practise it is better than to understand it.
You will truly master it after putting it into practice.

若有更好的翻译，请指教！这里有许多 To ... it，有点多余，但拿掉又怕文法不对，可能还有办法改进。还是我搞错了，“I hear and I forget ..." 可能出自于他处？

荀子的儒效篇里还有其他不错的文字，如以下文字就与以上的相对应：

故闻之而不见，虽博必谬；见之而不知，虽识必妄；知之而不行，虽敦必困。不闻不见，则难当，非仁也。

仅共勉之。要找类似的哲学思想，可看看锦绣中华之一页，有许多不错的资源。

谢谢Jia提供了许多宝贵意见！

生死去来 棚头傀儡 一线断时 落落磊磊

2006, August 5 - 3:14pm — vyvy

这是我从日本动画＜攻壳机动队2：无罪＞(Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence)所看到的一段文字。受到动画主题的影响，看到这段文字时真令人有些许感触。当然有许多文字对生死也作出类似的比喻，但相信许多看过这段文字的人还是会对它的文字与比喻加以回味。

不谈感触的部份，只谈语言的部份。查了查，文字出自日本能剧大师世阿弥（1363-1443）的能乐书＜花镜＞。何谓能乐？能乐是日本代表性的传统舞台艺术。在2001年，能乐更被联合国教科文组织列为人类非物质文化遗产。能乐演员都戴着面具表演。（在＜无罪＞动画中，这段文字就被安排出现在一个包括介绍能剧的大游行后。）有趣的是，这段六百多年前的日文似乎可完全用古汉文的知识来理解。古日文与古汉文有多少相似度呢？还请高手赐教。

文中第一句｀生死去来＇说明了要谈生与死的看法。

第二句｀棚头傀儡＇应源自于佛学临济宗创立者义玄禅师（787?－866）所说的的三玄三要的第一句：｀但看棚头弄傀儡，抽牵全藉里头人＇。三玄三要是临济宗修行的法门。我们的傀儡躯体能动，全因里头人使然。什么是里头人？这就难倒许多人了。禅宗说你可得自己悟出来；生物学家说那是脑细胞活动的表现；在＜攻壳机动队＞的故事里作者士宗正郎干脆就把这里头人称为Ghost，并免去了定义的麻烦。

第三句｀一线断时＇，即人死了而里头人不再操控这傀儡躯体时。

第四句｀落落磊磊＇，应可解释为｀磊磊落落＇的倒置，原型为｀磊落＇。｀磊磊落落＇在日语及汉语皆为成语，意义皆为一一分明的样子，也形容胸怀坦荡。根据＜古汉语常用字字典＞（第4版，商务印书局），｀磊磊＇为乱石堆积的样子，而｀磊落＇有以下解释：1. 多而杂乱的样子；2. 宏伟壮观的样子；3. 俊伟的样子；4. 胸怀坦白，光明正大。综合上下文与这是出自于能乐书的文字来考虑，较贴切的解释似乎为：牵着傀儡的线断后，傀儡就掉下来乱堆成一堆了。有人觉得这解释较悲观，故认为可将之解释为：人应该光明磊落地死去。但前者的解释似乎较符合日本人的美意识。看了＜花镜＞后应该会明白作者真正想表达什么。有谁看过了呢？请指教。另，将｀磊磊落落＇倒置成｀落落磊磊＇，应是想将句末的｀磊＇（lei3）与第二句句末的｀儡＇（lei3）押韵。

无论如何，以上仅是鄙人用有限的汉语知识来分析的。这分析是否真的可用在这段古日文呢？有趣的是，查了查平假名，发现｀傀儡＇为かいらい（kai rai），｀磊落＇为らいらく（rai raku）。故将第四句倒置之说似乎可成立。

子曰：未知生，焉知死？好好珍惜活着的每一刻吧！

Why "Roger That"? Why Not "Peter That"?

2006, February 9 - 11:00am — vyvy

I have been following the fantastic 24 series from FOX. If you do so too, you should have noticed that the phrase "Roger that" has been used by field agents frequently. Well, it's easy to guess that it means "I acknowledge and understand your message", but what is the origin of the phrase? I have done some research and here are my findings.

Its origin traces back to the use of the Phonetic Alphabet [en.wikipedia.org] and the Morse code [en.wikipedia.org]. A phonetic alphabet is a list of words used to identify letters clearly in a voice communication. E.g., to convey the spelling of "Harp", you can spell it with phonetic alphabet as "Hotel Alpha Romeo Papa". There is currently a standard, commonly known as the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, which is recognized internationally and used in some occasions.

Now take a look at the Morse code. There are some prosigns (or Procedural Signals) in the Morse code that have special meanings. A common prosign is letter R (dot-dash-dot), which has the special meaning of "Received and understood".

During World War II, the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet has been developed for use in joint Allied operations. In that (obsolete) standard, the letter R was spelled as Roger. Somehow, the special meaning of R in Morse code was adopted in the voice communication in the military. Naturally, Roger becomes the word to mean "heard you and understood" in voice communication.

The use of Roger becomes so popular that it survives that shift of phonetic alphabet standard. Today, Romeo is used to spell the letter R in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet. But Roger still retains that special meaning...

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