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Saturday, January 24, 2015

每日一字 28

聽劉老師大概講過啲咁嘅事:「語言講求思考邏輯,Grammar 錯,諗嘢嘅方法錯,即係胡思亂想。」

新加坡電信最近為品牌做 Rebranding, 用咗句 "Let’s make everyday better" 做 Tagline. 見到大概有兩個解法,「將日常嘅事變得更好」或者「將每一日變得更好」。

第一個解法,every 同 day 為一個字,係形容詞,英文好得意,要將一個形容詞變做名詞,只需要加個 the 响個形容詞前面就得,就好似 the rich 解作有錢人咁。呢句 Tagline 就偏偏無咗個 the.

第二個解法,every 同 day 要係兩個字,every 係形容詞,去形容個 day,解作每一日. 但句 Tagline 又只係用咗一個字喎...

無論邊個解法,個 Tagline 都係錯咗。OK, 錯 Grammar 係咪咁大件事呢? 唔太係,因為除咗文法 (Grammar),英文都講求用法 (Usage). 例如 "Think Different" 呢句 Slogan 咁,Different 係形容詞,而唔係副詞,係咪都係錯呢? 文法上的確係錯,但當你知道背後嘅故仔之後,似乎用法上係無錯:
There's a germ of a brilliant idea there," he said at the time. "Apple is about people who think outside the box, who want to use computers to help them change the world." They debated the grammatical issue: If "different" was supposed to modify the verb "think," it should be an adverb, as in "think differently." But Jobs insisted that he wanted "different" to be used as a noun, as in "think victory" or "think beauty." Also, it echoed colloquial use, as in "think big." Jobs later explained, "We discussed whether it was correct before we ran it. It's grammatical, if you think about what we're trying to say. It's not think the same, it's think different. Think a little different, think a lot different, think different. 'Think differently' wouldn't hit the meaning for me.
姑勿論係咪馬後炮,但邏輯上解得通。至於新加坡電信句 Tagline 嘛,已經無邏輯可言,係大錯。

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