● Back Numbers 065〜068 

 「国後と択捉はどこにあるか?」----「そんなの決まってるさ、北海道の北方だよ」。でも、これを英語で言うと、ほんの小さな間違いが大きな政治問題に発展する場合も... 頭ではわかっていても、上級者でさえ、会話ではよく間違えるポイントです。

マーク No. 065 Where are Kunashiri and Etorofu?
      ---国後と択捉はどこにあるか?

I was quite surprised recently when I heard an advanced learner of English make a very basic mistake several times in a speech.

He was completely confused about the two different sentences:

I live west of Tokyo.(私は東京の西方に住んでいる)
I live in the west of Tokyo.(私は東京の西部に住んでいる)

The first of these means, "I do not live in Tokyo, but outside Tokyo, and in a western direction from Tokyo". This could mean just a few hundred metres west of Tokyo, or could mean thousands of kilometres west of Tokyo, depending on the context.

The second sentence means, "I live inside Tokyo, but in the western part of Tokyo".

One could imagine a Japanese government spokesman who was explaining, in English, Japan's position regarding the Northern Territories. If he said, "The position of the Japanese Government is that Kunashiri and Etorofu are north of Japan", he would probably lose this job!

Kunashiri and Etorofu are certainly north of (the main island of) Hokkaido, but they are in the north of Japan (as far as the Japanese government is concerned). The Russian government, of course, has a different position. Their position is that Kunashiri and Etorofu are north of Japan, and in the south of Russia.

● Words & Phrases ●
  • in a speech 
    演説で、スピーチで
  • spokesman
    スポークスマン
  • One could imagine
    〜を想像できるでしょう。このoneは「(一般的な)人」を表す

(帝京大学教授 Christopher Barnard)

次回掲載予定5月29日

 

 今回は、不可算名詞の中でも、日本人がとくに理解しくく、学習の妨げになっている"furniture-type"について取り上げています。みなさんは、sugarもfurnitureも「数えられない名詞」と教わってきたと思います。しかし、sugarはそうだとしても、furnitureのほうはどうしても合点がいかなかったのではないでしょうか。

マーク No. 066 Some uncountable nouns like "furniture"
      ---日本人が理解しにくい不可算名詞

An uncountable noun like "sugar" or "bread" seems rather easy. Although, of course, Japanese does not have uncountable nouns, nevertheless, the concept that "sugar" is a noun that you cannot count is not so difficult for learners of English.

The noun "furniture" is also uncountable, as in:

There isn't much furniture in this room.

But "furniture" seems to be very different from "sugar" . If we look at "some sugar" closely, we will see different crystals. But these different crystals are all basically the same, without any individuality or important separate existence.

On the other hand, it is not even necessary to look at "furniture" closely to see the different pieces. And all these different pieces have individuality and a separate existence (eg, chair, table, sofa, armchair, etc.).

We can, for example, look at "some furniture" and name every part of that "furniture". We cannot do the same with "some sugar". We cannot name every part of some sugar.

It is with these "furniture-type" uncountable nouns that learners sometimes have difficulty.

Remember, that although we can see the different parts of the nouns given below, and although these parts have individuality and names, they noun itself is an uncountable noun:

equipment (装具), machinery (機械類), jewellery (宝石類), luggage, baggage, rubbish (ごみ: 英), garbage (ごみ: 米), news, advice, information, research (学術研究), wildlife (野生生物), traffic (自動車; 歩行者), poetry (詩), homework, housework (家事), fruit, music, mail, post, clothing (衣類) 

Finally, do not confuse these types of uncountable nouns with collective nouns, which I have already discussed in Columns 28, 29, and 30.

● Words & Phrases ●
  • nevertheless
    それにもかかわらず
  • concept
    考え方、概念
  • individuality
    個性、特徴
  • existence
    (個々の)存在物
  • name
    〜に名前を付ける
  • It is with ... that ...difficulty.
    もとはLearners sometimes have difficulty with these "furniture-type" uncountable nouns.だった文を「強調構文」にしたもの
  • collective nouns
    集合名詞

(帝京大学教授 Christopher Barnard)

次回掲載予定6月5日

 みなさんは、語尾に-enのつく語(動詞)があることに気づいているでしょう。語源に興味のある人はそれが「〜する、させる」を意味する接尾辞であることも知っているかもしれません。実は、これらの語は数が限られており、また、ある一定の特徴をもっているのです。今回から4回にわたり、そんな"-en動詞"について解説していきます。

マーク No. 067 Words like "strengthen" (= "make strong") (Part 1)
      ---"-en"のつく語を完全にマスターしよう(その1)

In this Column, and also in Columns 68, 69, and 70, I will discuss words like "strenghten" and "deepen" ("make deep"). The list of such words given in this Column will be rather complete, so if you master the words on it, you will have mastered almost all the words of this class in English.

In this Column, I will just give a list of these words themselves, as you can see below. I have organized these words into the three columns of: make more/make positive; make less/make negative; neutral.

For example, "lenghthen" is "make more/make positive, "shorten" is "make less/make negative", and "blacken" is "neutral".

Also, I have organized the verbs into meaning groups.

The Japanese translations given are for the verb used as a transitive verb. But those verbs in italics can be used as either transitive and intransitive. So, example, "fatten" can only be used as a transitive verb (We fattened the pigs.), therefore it is not in italics. However, "widen" is both transitive (They widened the road.) and intransitive (The road widened), so it is therefore in italics.

The list is as follows:

make more / make positive
neutral
make lessmake negative
DIMENSION (次元)
lengthen 長くする   shorten (長さ) 短くする
heighten 高くする   shorten (背を) 短くする
deepen 深くする
widen 広くする
thicken 太くする
thicken 濃くする
fatten 太らせる
straighten 真っすぐにする
steepen 急勾配にする (自動詞)
sharpen 鋭くする
roughen 粗くする   smoothen なめらかにする
flatten 平にする
 
STRENGTH (強度)
strengthen 強くする   weaken 弱くする
toughen 強くする堅くする  
tighten (紐を)しっかりと締める   loosen (紐を) 緩める
tighten (厳しくする)   loosen 緩和する
fasten 固定する・締める   loosen 解く
stiffen 硬くする   loosen 緩める・柔らかくする
harden 固くする   soften 柔らかくする
quicken 速める
    lighten 軽くする
embolden 勇気づける
 
SITUATION (状況)
    worsen 悪化する(自動詞)
    cheapen 安くする・安っぽくする
    lessen 少なくする
    quieten 静かにさせる
    deafen 耳を聞こえなくする
gladden 喜ばせる   sadden 悲しませる
 
LIGHT AND COLOUR (明るさと色彩)
brighten 明るくする   darken 暗くする
lighten 明るくする・照らす   darken 暗くする
  blacken 黒くする
  whiten 白くする
  redden 赤くする
 
LIQUID AND SWEET (液体と甘味)
  dampen 湿らせる
  moisten ぬらす
ripen 熟させる
sweeten 甘くする
freshen 新鮮にする

 

● Words & Phrases ●
  • organized 〜 into ...
    〜を...に分類整理する

(帝京大学教授 Christopher Barnard)

次回掲載予定6月12日

 今回は"-en"動詞の文法的な特徴についてです。なお、"-en"は後続の子音によって、"-em"になることに注意してください。。

マーク No. 068 Words like "strengthen" (= "make strong") (Part 2)
      ---"-en"のつく語を完全にマスターしよう(その2)

There is one interesting grammar point regarding the "strengthen" verbs given in the previous Column.

Namely they all have a causative meaning. This means that instead of saying "strengthen", we can say "make strong/stronger", and so on with all these verbs.

Here are some examples sentences to show this. Notice that "-em" is used for "-en" before b, m, or p:

I think that you should thicken the soup.
I think that you should make the soup thick/thicker.
(スープをもっと濃くした方がいいと思います)

I am going to tighten these knots.
I am going to make these knots tight/tighter.
(結び目をもっとくきつくするつもりです)

My words emboldened everyone.
My words made everyone bold/bolder.
(私の言葉はみんなを勇気づけた)

That loud music will deafen you.
That loud music will make you deaf.
(そのうるさい音楽はあなたの耳を聞こえなくさせるだろう→そのうるさい音楽を聞くと耳が聞こえなくなるだろう)

The terrible news saddened me.
The terrible news made me sad.
(そのひどい知らせは私を悲しくさせた→そのひどい知らせを聞いて私は悲しくなった)

It would be a good idea to brighten this room.
It would be a good idea to make this room bright/brighter.
(この部屋を明るくするのはよい考えでしょう)

These are examples of rather basic usage of these "strenghten" words. In the next two Columns, I will look at some more advanced vocabulary usage.

● Words & Phrases ●
  • namely
    すなわち
  • causative
    使役的な

(帝京大学教授 Christopher Barnard)

次回掲載予定6月19日

 

 

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