9-Stative and Dynamic

静态与动态 Stative vs. Dynamic
概述


英语倾向于多用名词，因而叙述呈静态（stative）； 汉语倾向于多用动词，因而叙述呈动态（dynamic）。 R. Quirk等人对静态和动态曾作如下解释： Broadly speaking, nouns can be characterized naturally as „stative‟ in that they refer to entities that are regarded as stable, whether these are concrete (physical) like house, table, paper, abstract (of the mind) like hope, botany, length. At the opposite pole, verbs can be equally naturally characterized as „dynamic‟, they are fitted (by their capacity to show tense and aspect for example) to indicate action, activity and temporary or changing conditions.
英语的静态

汉语由动词加后缀构成的名词（如读者、教师、 打字员、观察家、修理工）用来指人，不再表示 行为或动作，因而英语这类名词往往要转换为汉 语动词：
He is a good eater and a good sleeper. 他能吃能睡。 He is a young and rapid writer. 他是个笔头快的年轻人。 You must be a very bad learner, or else you must be going to a very bad teacher. 你一定很不善于学习，要不然就是教你的人很不 会教。

英语的静态



英语常常用介词短语取代动词短语，即以“静”代 “动 ”，如： He is at his books. He is reading books. He has someone behind him. Someone supports him. The machine is in operation. The machine is working. Is this train for Chicago? Is this train going to Chicago? With these words she went away. After saying these, she went away. They immediately set out in pursuit of the enemy. They immediately set out to pursue the enemy.
英语的静态

运用名词化表达法（nominal style)可以使叙述较为准 确，贴切，但也会使语言抽象、难解。英美不少语言学 者都指出英语有过分使用名词的习惯（noun habit）。 名词使用多了，与之相随的介词（尤其是of短语）也必 然增多，与此同时，富有活力和生气的动词也就相应减 少，弱化动词be的各种形式成了hard-workers和 heavy-duty words，这就使英语的静态倾向更加明显。 如： The effect of the overuse of nouns in writing is the placing of too much strain upon the verbs and the resultant prevention of movement of the thought.

英语的静态

这一句子充满了名词、动名词和介词，其唯一的 谓语动词是“is”。这个软弱的动词必须拉动一个 满载名词的主语，还必须推动两个满载名词的表 语，这就使整个句子缺乏动态感。若将部分名词 改为动词，即可分担句子的负荷，化静态为动态： One who overuses nouns in writing places too much strain upon verbs and as a result prevents the thought from moving along. 写作时过分使用名词，势必给动词增加太多的负 担，因而阻碍思路畅通。

英语的静态



二、用名词表示施事者（Agentive Noun），以 代替动词。 英语除了用抽象名词表示行为和动作（如 realized—realization，complete—completion） 等概念外，还常用含有行为和动作意义的普通名 词代替动词。大量由动词派生（如以-er或-or结 尾）的名词既表示施事者，又保留原来动词的意 义。这类名词常常与前置形容词构成静态结构： A hard worker = someone who works hard A slow walker = someone who walks slowly
英语的静态
British history teachers a small car factory an old man‟s bicycle Excessive headline phrase condemnation is, of course, a possibility. A. It is possible, of course, to go too far in condemning headline phrases. B. it is possible, of course, to condemn the overuse of headline phrase.
英语的静态


The doctor arrived extremely quickly and examined the patient uncommonly carefully; the result was that he recovered very speedily. The doctor‟s extremely quick arrival and uncommonly careful examination of the patient brought about his very speedy recovery. 医生迅速到达，并非常仔细地检查了病人，因此 病人很快就康复了。
英语的静态



英语的静态倾向，主要表现在以下几方面： 一、名词化（Nominalization）是英语常见的现 象。 名词化主要指用名词来表达原来属于动词（或形 容词）所表达的概念，如用抽象名词来表达动作、 行为、变化、状态、品质、情感等概念。S. Potter在Changing English一书中曾指出英语 “名词优势于动词”的倾向（preponderance of nouns over verbs）。这种名词优势往往可以使 表达比较简洁，造句比较灵活，行文比较自然， 也便于表达较为复杂的思想内容。试比较：

英语的静态


三、用名词代替形容词，构成标题式短语 （Headline phrase）。 报刊标题为了节约版面，尽量略去虚词和其他次要的 词，把具有刺激性的词语（stimulating words）挤压 在一起，因而名词连用便成了一种“free-and-easy habit）如：
Sino-American Trade Review Talks Start 中美贸易回顾会谈开始 January Crude Oil Output Beats Target 一月份原油产量超过指标 500-Metre-Long Flood Prevention Dyke Built 五百米长的防洪坝建成

英语的静态



四、名词优势造成介词优势。 介词前置于名词或名词性词语，由于英语多用名词，必然 也要多用介词，因而产生了介词优势。随着英语大量废弃 名词和形容词的形态变化，介词便取而代之，起了某些形 态变化的作用。介词优势与名词优势结合，使英语的静态 倾向更为显著。 英语介词十分常见，有的学者把英语称为“介词的语言”， 例如以下一句，可谓介词充斥（propositionitis）：

英语的静态


名词连用加强了英语的名词优势，也反映了现代英语 追求简洁的总趋势，但不少语言学者反对过分堆彻名 词（noun pileups），认为这会使语言失去活力，缺 乏动态感，有时还会造成语意含混，甚至产生歧义。 E. Gowers指出: “The constant use of headline phrases is usually a sign either of unclear thinking or of unwillingness to say things as briskly and simply as possible. A headline phrase consisting of more than two words should be treated with suspicion and things tend to get even more awkward if the phrase includes an adjective as well as a number of nouns: it is not always obvious on first reading which noun the adjective qualifies, and tiresome problems of hyphenation sometimes arise.“

英语的静态


名词连用或复合名词在科技英语里尤其常见：
space shuttle flight test program 航天飞机试飞计划 computer programming teaching device manual 计算机程序编制教学方法手册 satellite communications ground station equipment repairer 卫星通信地面站设备修理人员
Adequate clearance between the rear face of the last stack in the load and inside surface of the rear doors was provided to enable the refrigerated air flowing from the front to the rear of the trailer to enter the longitudinal air channels through the load which opened on the rear of the load at this point.


英语的静态Fra bibliotek这种名词连用的短语结构简化，表达方便， 词数少而信息量大，其使用范围已大大超出了 报刊标题，在现代英语里几乎俯拾即是。
gold reserve 黄金储备 generation gap 代沟 figure control problem 保持优美身材的问题 job opportunity discrimination （因种族或 性别而异的）就业机会歧视
汉语动词因无形态方面的限制故而能比较方便地构成连动式兼语式等表达能力极强的谓语结鉴于上述差异在英译汉的过程中译者应主要采取化静为动的手段酌情将英语抽象名词转换为汉语动词从而使表达复合目的语的行文习惯以收到清晰流畅的表达效果若有悖于此受原文结构的束缚即有可能降低译文的可读性或导致不同程度的翻译腔
语言系统比较



英语的静态


这类名词有时并不指人，而是用来代替动词，如：
The real shocker was that things dragged on well beyond the two weeks I had anticipated. 最令人吃惊的是，事情拖了很久，大大超过我原 来设想的两周。 Litmus paper can be used as an indicator of the presence or not of acid in a solution. 石蕊试纸可用于指示溶液中是否含有酸。