酷兔英语

从海涅退诗稿想起

---------谈标点符号的重要性

诗人海涅办了个诗刊。有一回,他收到了份诗稿。作者写道:"编辑先生:我这个人不大拘于小节。只写了诗,标点请您给我补上。"海涅马上给他回了信:"亲爱的先生:以后你要写诗的时候,只需寄些标点来就行了,诗我们会写。"有人也许会说:差几个标点也无伤大雅,海涅是小题大做。其实,标点符号在写作中的确是十分重要的,乱用标点是不行的。请大家看这两个例子:

Mr Jackson said,' Let Tom do this work.'

Jean said, ' He is a boy. It's too hard for him to do it.'

Mr Jackson said,' He is a boy? He is so tall and can eat so much every day.'

Jean said, ' He is a boy! He is tall, but he is only fifteen years old.'

这里,如果翻译成中文,就是:

He is a boy.--- 他是个孩子。

He is a boy? ---他能算个孩子吗?

He is a boy! ---他才不过是个孩子呀!

这三句一样吗?如果把三个标点换一下,意思就完全乱套了。

我们再看另一个例子:

Who is fooled?

Just as the teacher was coming into the classroom, one of the boys, Tom, said loudly, ' The teacher is a real fool.'

To their surprise, they found that the teacher pretended not to have heard this. He paid no attention to anyone and said nothing. He just went up to the teacher's desk and began the class. He said, ' Today we are going to study punctuation. Punctuation in a sentence is very important. Look at this sentence, please, boys and girls.'

He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote the following sentence on the blackboard: Tom says the teacher is a real fool.

The class laughed immediately.

'Now,' the teacher went on, 'With two commas, I can change the meaning of the sentence completely.' Then he put two commas in the sentence and so the sentence read: Tom, says the teacher, is a real fool.

我们且不谈修养如此差的老师该不该受到学生的骂,但他用两个逗号改的句子却是的确可以成立的。

大家看到,在普通的对话中,标点尚且不可乱用,更何况在惜字如金的诗歌创作中,没有标点怎么可以呢?所以海涅是完全正确的,对标点如此马虎的人的诗是根本不值一读的。

另外,没有标点的文字是什么样子的呢?大家只要看一看中国的古书就可以明白了。中国古代的书是完全没有标点的。只有在私塾里才能看到由私塾先生用红笔画出来的小红圈圈,那叫'断句',是为了教学生读书用的。到了清末民初,才发行了沿用私塾的小红圈圈断句的书。那时候有一个笑话,讲的是一个年轻人到城里去读书。春节就要到了,该贴对联了。他父亲就请人来,他念,那人写。老人当然是净挑些吉利的话说啦:"今年好 晦气少 不得打官司 猪仔大似象 老鼠死干净"。年轻人回到家。发现家门口贴了副对联,就念了起来:"今年好晦气 少不得打官司 猪仔大似象老鼠 死干净"。如果有标点符号,能闹出这样的笑话吗?我们现在读古文嫌难,还是人家都给你标好了标点,如果没有标点符号,那才真难哪!我在学德语的时候发现,德语有时在商品包装盒也有这样的文字。他们是整句话连在一起,铁板一块,单词之间没有间隔,也没有标点,真不知他们是怎么看得懂的。

标点符号是表达我们感情和语气的重要的手段。而在教学中,屡屡发现有的学生不注意标点符号,随随便便就加上个点,也不知道是逗号还是句号。写完了连读都不读一遍就算完事。有的学生甚至在写完一个字就随意的点一个点。殊不知这样的点一下去,句子就没法读了。例如,When he finished his work. he took his coat and went home.前面半句是从句,不能算句子,当然不能加句号。后面半句是主句,头个字母却没有大写。这样写出来的文章,别人是很难理解你的意思的。希望大家都能正确地使用标点符号,写出明白易懂的好文章。

Yours

Micropiggy
关键字:经验技巧
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