英語修辭與寫作·14.2　Malapropism

14.2　Malapropism

14.2A　Malapropism的含義與形式

1） Malapropism指荒唐可笑的詞語誤用，俗稱“飛白”（Mimesis），尤指使用發(fā)音相似而意義全非的詞語，例如把“破綻”的“綻”（zhan）讀成“定”（語音飛白），把“刻不容緩”改成“咳不容緩”（文字飛白，藥品廣告）等。

2） 18世紀(jì)英國(guó)著名劇作家Richard Sheridan的喜劇The Rivals中有個(gè)名叫Malaprop的人物，地位顯貴而知識(shí)淺薄，好賣弄詞藻，但因一知半解而滿口錯(cuò)字別音，鬧出許多笑話。后來就從這個(gè)人物的名字演變成為malapropism這樣一種修辭格式，即利用近音異義，有意地利用白字別音的一種語言表達(dá)形式。

14.2B　Malapropism的修辭作用

1） 由于鄉(xiāng)音重或缺乏正規(guī)教育，有些人標(biāo)準(zhǔn)音發(fā)不準(zhǔn)，以致常在說話時(shí)弄出錯(cuò)誤。例如：

“The girls were up at four this morning, packing her trunks, sister,”replied Miss Jemima; “We have made her a bow-pot.”

“Say a bouquet, sister Jemima, it's more genteel.”

“Well, a booky as big almost as a hay-stack; ...”

（Thackeray）

Jemima由于文化水平低，先是把bouquet說成bowpot，后雖經(jīng)她姐姐糾正，還是未弄清，又錯(cuò)說成booky，一錯(cuò)再錯(cuò)，既令人好笑，又令人同情，作家這樣描寫，全是為刻畫人物的需要。

2） 有的人明明知識(shí)不多，卻不懂裝懂，洋相百出。例如：

When Miss Sharp had performed the heroical act mentioned in the last chapter, and had seen the Dixonary flying over the pavement of the little garden ... and she sank in the carriage in an easy frame of mind, saying,“So much for the Dixonary; and thank God, ...”

（Thackeray）

同上例不同的是，作家在這里使用Malapropism，是為了諷刺和嘲弄Miss Sharp這類人的。

3） 在兒童文學(xué)作品中，作家常用這種辭格表現(xiàn)兒童的說話特點(diǎn)。例如：

“Ernest，”said Theobald, from the arm-chair in front of the fire, where he was sitting with his hands folded before him,“don't you think it would be very nice if you were to say ‘come’ like other people, ...?” “I do say tum,” replied Ernest, meaning that he had said “come”.

（Samuel Butler）

幼小的Ernest把come說成tum，父親糾正了，孩子還是講錯(cuò)?？磥磉€應(yīng)告訴他如何擺正舌位才行。又如：

“Sh-sh!”said Ruth. “Now you must listen. Mrs. Escobar's going to read you a lovely story about an owl and pussy, ....”

Mrs.Escobar began:

“The aul and the pooseh-cut went to sea ...”

（Leonard Xuxeley）

這里Escobar太太是在以兒童口吻給孩子講故事。她故意把owl（貓頭鷹）和pussy cat （貓）說成它們發(fā)音相近的aul和pooseh-cut這樣兩個(gè)別音詞，同孩子們逗趣。

4） 白字別音是構(gòu)成幽默笑話的常用手段。例如：

Questioner:What's usually used as a conductor of electricity?

Examinee:Why-er ...

Questioner:Correct, wire. Now tell me, what is the unit of electric power?

Examinee:The what?

Questioner:That's absolutely right. The Watt.

假若某人接受面試時(shí)能這樣歪打正著，顯然只能是說笑話罷了。又如：

A man from the Continent was travelling in England. He had caught a very bad cold. He coughed day and night. Then he put on his coat and hat and went to a chemist's. When asked what he wanted, the traveller said,“I want something for my cow, please.” ...

這是人們熟知的笑話。他根據(jù)英語字母組合-ough的發(fā)音可以是[a?]的經(jīng)驗(yàn)推測(cè)，把cough誤說成cow，試想如果不是藥店人員細(xì)心詢問，不知還會(huì)鬧出什么笑話來。