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先有鸡?先有蛋? 牛津词典告诉你
添加时间:2015-06-12 12:49:11 浏览次数: 作者:未知
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  • There are two famous riddles1 about chickens. One investigates the reasoning behind the chicken’s desire to cross the road (“to get to the other side”), while the other poses the ontological quandary2: “which came first, the chicken or the egg?”

    有两个关于小鸡的难解问题,一个是为什么小鸡喜欢过马路,另一个就是先有鸡还是先有蛋这个本体论难题。

    We shan’t attempt to answer the question in a philosophical3 or biologicalmanner, but we can answer it lexicographically. And, looking in the Oxford4 English Dictionary (OED), we can reveal that the answer is… not conclusive5.

    也许我们无法从哲学或生物学角度回答这个问题,但是我们可以从词汇涵义考虑它。但看过牛津英语词典里的定义后我们发现答案是。。。无法确定。

    Chicken

    Interesting, the earliest recorded use of chicken in English refers to the ‘young of the domestic fowl6’ in a simile7. The word dates to an Old English interlinear gloss8 of the Lindisfarne Gospels: ‘Suæ henne somnigas cicceno hire.’ This is taken from Matthew 23:37, where Jesus says of Jerusalem that He has ‘longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings’ (in the New International Version).

    有趣的是,英语中chicken一词最早用来比喻还没长大的家禽。这一词最早出现在《林迪斯法恩福音书》的注释中。该注释取自马太福音23:37,书中耶稣这样形容耶路撒冷,他说他渴望保护子女就像母鸡将小鸡保护在羽翼之下一样。(新国际版圣经)

    In this quotation9, chicken is used to describe the young of the fowl, rather than the adult (chicken as a domestic fowl of any age is first found, according to current OED research, as late as the 19th century) – but the same verse is also one of the earliest recorded examples of hen (the adult female of the common fowl).

    在该引用中chicken被用来形容未长大的家禽而不是长大了的家禽(据现在通用的牛津英语词典记载直到19世纪chicken才用来指各个生理阶段的家禽)但同样在这一诗文中也第一次出现了hen 一词(指同类成年雌性家禽)。

    Egg

    Things get a bit more complex when we turn our attention to egg. One of the oldest examples of the word in English is found in an Old English excerpt10 that translates as ‘But if it be a fast-day, they are to be given a wey of cheese, and of fish, butter, and eggs, as much as they can get’. In this instance, listed alongside cheese, fish, and butter, it is clear that the egg is (as the OED definition phrases it) ‘an egg of a domestic fowl as an article of food’.

    egg一词的词义可能更为复杂。英语中有关egg一词的最早记录出现在一个古老的英语摘录中,摘录中写道“但如果是斋戒日他们就能吃到自己想吃的一切,一韦(古时计量单位)奶酪、鱼肉和鸡蛋。该句中egg 与奶酪、鱼和黄油放在一起显然说明了egg(正如牛津英语词典里解释的那样)是指用来作为事物的家禽的蛋。

    All well and good. But we are more interested (for the purposes of this riddle) in egg meaning ‘the (more or less) spheroidal body produced by the female of birds and other animal species, and containing the germ of a new individual, enclosed within a shell or firm membrane11’. Well, this is found in another Old English document: ‘On æge bið gioleca on middan’ (‘In an egg there is a yolk12 in the middle’). Although the egg-as-offspring must predate the egg-as-culinary-fare, we do not know which was written about first.

    这样的解释当然令人满意,但我们还是对egg 一词的另一个解释(让我们产生疑惑的原因)更感兴趣,即由雌性鸟类或其他种类产下的(类似)球状体,包括任何保护在坚固的壳或膜里的新生动植物的胚层。在一个古老的英文文献中我们还发现了这样的记载,即鸡蛋的中央是蛋黄。虽然与有关蛋是一种烹饪食材的记载相比人们最先找到了有关蛋是禽类后代的文献资料,但我们并不能确定哪种定义是最先问世的。

    A draw

    模糊词汇

    So, when somebody asks you “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”, you can question what they mean by chicken and what they mean by egg, but you can’t offer a conclusive lexicographical answer; both date from the Old English period, so we’ll call it a draw. It is also worth noting that neither chicken nor egg have yet been revised in the ongoing13 creation of the third edition of the OED. It’s possible that this question will be resolved when the entries are updated, but for now we can’t be certain.

    所以当有人问你是蛋生鸡还是鸡生蛋的时候,你就问他鸡和蛋指的是什么但不要给出这两个词的绝对定义,因为这两个词都起源于古英语时期所以我们可以把它们称为模糊词。因此在正在编撰的第三版的牛津英语词典中也没有必要对chicken 和egg的含义进行修订。也许等到词典词目得到更新后这一问题会得到解决吧,但至少现在我们还不能确定。

     12级    双语 


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    1 riddles ['rɪdlz] 77f3ceed32609b0d80430e545f553e31   第7级
    n.谜(语)( riddle的名词复数 );猜不透的难题,难解之谜
    参考例句:
    • Few riddles collected from oral tradition, however, have all six parts. 但是据收集的情况看,口头流传的谜语很少具有这完整的六部分。 来自英汉非文学 - 民俗
    • But first, you'd better see if you can answer riddles. 但是你首先最好想想你会不会猜谜语。 来自辞典例句
    2 quandary [ˈkwɒndəri] Rt1y2   第11级
    n.困惑,进迟两难之境
    参考例句:
    • I was in a quandary about whether to go. 我当时正犹豫到底去不去。
    • I was put in a great quandary. 我陷于进退两难的窘境。
    3 philosophical [ˌfɪləˈsɒfɪkl] rN5xh   第8级
    adj.哲学家的,哲学上的,达观的
    参考例句:
    • The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem. 老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
    • She is very philosophical about her bad luck. 她对自己的不幸看得很开。
    4 Oxford ['ɒksfəd] Wmmz0a   第8级
    n.牛津(英国城市)
    参考例句:
    • At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford. 他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
    • This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London. 这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。
    5 conclusive [kənˈklu:sɪv] TYjyw   第9级
    adj.最后的,结论的;确凿的,消除怀疑的
    参考例句:
    • They produced some fairly conclusive evidence. 他们提供了一些相当确凿的证据。
    • Franklin did not believe that the French tests were conclusive. 富兰克林不相信这个法国人的实验是结论性的。
    6 fowl [faʊl] fljy6   第8级
    n.家禽,鸡,禽肉
    参考例句:
    • Fowl is not part of a traditional brunch. 禽肉不是传统的早午餐的一部分。
    • Since my heart attack, I've eaten more fish and fowl and less red meat. 自从我患了心脏病后,我就多吃鱼肉和禽肉,少吃红色肉类。
    7 simile [ˈsɪməli] zE0yB   第10级
    n.直喻,明喻
    参考例句:
    • I believe this simile largely speaks the truth. 我相信这种比拟在很大程度上道出了真实。
    • It is a trite simile to compare her teeth to pearls. 把她的牙齿比做珍珠是陈腐的比喻。
    8 gloss [glɒs] gloss   第10级
    n.光泽,光滑;虚饰;注释;vt.加光泽于;掩饰
    参考例句:
    • John tried in vain to gloss over his faults. 约翰极力想掩饰自己的缺点,但是没有用。
    • She rubbed up the silver plates to a high gloss. 她把银盘擦得很亮。
    9 quotation [kwəʊˈteɪʃn] 7S6xV   第7级
    n.引文,引语,语录;报价,牌价,行情
    参考例句:
    • He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare. 他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
    • The quotation is omitted here. 此处引文从略。
    10 excerpt [ˈeksɜ:pt] hzVyv   第7级
    n.摘录,选录,节录;vt.引用,摘录;vi.摘录,引用
    参考例句:
    • This is an excerpt from a novel. 这是一部小说的摘录。
    • Can you excerpt something from the newspaper? 你能从报纸上选录些东西吗?
    11 membrane [ˈmembreɪn] H7ez8   第9级
    n.薄膜,膜皮,羊皮纸
    参考例句:
    • A vibrating membrane in the ear helps to convey sounds to the brain. 耳膜的振动帮助声音传送到大脑。
    • A plastic membrane serves as selective diffusion barrier. 一层塑料薄膜起着选择性渗透屏障的作用。
    12 yolk [jəʊk] BVTzt   第9级
    n.蛋黄,卵黄
    参考例句:
    • This dish would be more delicious with some yolk powder. 加点蛋黄粉,这道菜就会更好吃。
    • Egg yolk serves as the emulsifying agent in salad dressing. 在色拉调味时,蛋黄能作为乳化剂。
    13 ongoing [ˈɒngəʊɪŋ] 6RvzT   第8级
    adj.进行中的,前进的
    参考例句:
    • The problem is ongoing. 这个问题尚未解决。
    • The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area. 报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

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