● Back Numbers 097〜101
今回も日本人の誤りやすいパターンを扱います。「もし…なら…」という場合、私たちは、つい"If ...., then ..." のパターンを使ってしまいがちです。しかし、このパターンを用いるには、ある条件があります。そしてそれ以外の場合には、こちらもあまり使いこなしていない人が多いと思われる、あるパターンを使わなければなりません。 |
![]() --- "If ...., then ..." のパターンを安易に使わないように |
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The Group A sentences below are grammatically correct, and the Group B sentences are incorrect: Group A If you always carry an umbrella, then you will never get wet. Group B (×)If you turn right, then you will see the building. It is not so difficult to see why this is so. In the Group A sentences, the meaning of "then" is "it follows logically that..."/"a natural result will be that...". For example, we can rewrite the above sentences like this: If you always carry an umbrella, it follows logically that you will never get wet. However, in the Group B sentences, the meaning of "then" is nearer to "after that". In this case, the correct patterns of the Group B sentences would be like this: If you turn right, you will see the building. Compare the last sentence in Group B with the following sentence: If you want to study in that room, then switch on the light. It is easy to see that the meaning of "then" is "it follows logically that you [must] switch on the light". So, in conclusion, you can use "then" in this "if" pattern as long as it has the "logical meaning". |
● Words & Phrases ●
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(帝京大学教授 Christopher Barnard) |
次回掲載予定1月16日 |
日本人が最も習得しにくい動詞のパターンの一つに"deprive A of B"があります。of=「〜の」と覚えていると、このパターンが全く理解できません。なにしろ、"deprive A of B"のAとBの関係は、「ふつうの」A of Bと逆なのですから。いったい英語はどうなっているのでしょう? |
![]() --- deprive型の動詞の用法に関する注意点(その1) |
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In Column 63, I discussed the grammar pattern of deprive-verbs. Here are some examples to remind you: I robbed him of the pen. As I mentioned in Column 63, the following pattern is rather easy to understand and use: I stole the pen from him. The English and Japanese sentences are similar in grammatical structure, with "from" = 「から」. It is the deprive-verbs, with their use of "of", which seem rather strange. Why should we use "of" with deprive-verbs? One can certainly understand the meaning of "of" in an expression like "the mountains of Japan". But the use of "of" with deprive-verbs seems to be unrelated to what we imagine as the basic, common-sense meaning of "of". Actually, "of", apart from its meaning which can often be translated as「の」in Japanese (日本の山々), has a less common meaning, namely the meaning of origin or separation. This can be called the privative meaning of "of". It is easy to see a privative meaning in the case of "from" (steal from someone). But in the case of "of" we are so used to thinking that "of = 's/の", that we tend to overlook its privative meaning. In the next Column, I will continue to look at the privative meaning of "of". |
● Words & Phrases ●
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(帝京大学教授 Christopher Barnard) |
次回掲載予定1月23日 |
今回もdeprive型の動詞について、そのバリエーションと考え方、そしてマスター法を解説しています。 |
![]() --- deprive型の動詞の用法に関する注意点(その2) |
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In the last Column, I briefly discussed the privative meaning of "of". Some examples of the privative use of "of" follow below. (I think that many readers will have learnt these uses as idioms, without thinking of them as related to each other, and with an underlying privative meaning.) Here are the examples: No one knows what became of the explorer. As readers will have noticed, the last four sentences above follow the pattern, and have the basic meaning, of deprive-verbs (i.e., rob someone of something). I think that these examples show that "of" has a privative meaning--but one which is not as obvious as the privative meaning of "from". But if we look at the following two sentences, which basically have the same meaning, we can see that both "of" and "from" can be privative in meaning: I cleared the path of the snow. (> I robbed him of the pen) To master the use of deprive-verbs the key points are to understand the privative meaning of "of", and to master the word order. Notice that the word order of "rob" (i.e., a deprive-verb) is different from the word order of "steal" (which is not a deprive-verb): I (1)robbed (2)him of (3)the pen. I (1)cleared (2)the path of (3)the snow. |
● Words & Phrases ●
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(帝京大学教授 Christopher Barnard) |
次回掲載予定1月30日 |
「覚えている/思い出す」など、「記憶/思い出し」に関わる動詞には、remember, remind, recall, recollectなどをご存知と思います。しかし、それらを正しく使い分けることができますか? 「記憶」と「思いだし」は私たちの日常生活の根本をなし、それらに関わる英語を正しく使い分けることも、英語学習の必須事項と言えるでしょう。 |
![]() ---「記憶」に関する動詞の使い分け(1) |
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There are quite a few verbs of "memory" which can be confused in meaning. Also, they have different grammar patterns. I want to look at four of these verbs in this Column and the next one. (1) remember (a) 覚えている・思い出す I can't remember (his name). It is often followed by a wh-clause, that-clause, or ~ing: I remember where he lives/that he lives in this street. (b) 忘れずに...する Please remember to take your keys with you. However, if the situation is clear, we can just use the noun as the object: Please remember your keys. (2) remind (a) 思い出させる I reminded him. = I made him remember/I helped him to remember. A common pattern here is "remind someone of something", as in: You remind me of your mother. (= You [= Your face, etc.] make me remember your mother.) (b) 気づかせる I want to remind you of the mistake you made. |
● Words & Phrases ●
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(帝京大学教授 Christopher Barnard) |
次回掲載予定2月6日 |