It is often said that, provided we are not of the unfortunate minority of people who have pathological language defects, our lan

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问题     It is often said that, provided we are not of the unfortunate minority of people who have pathological language defects, our language mechanism automatically equips us to say anything we need to say. This does not mean that I can talk about all the technicalities of company law or of central heating with the glibness of a solicitor or a plumber. What it does mean is that if my job or my hobby entailed knowledge of these activities, my language would rise to the occasion.
    We thus have the general truth that any normal person has the language tools to handle anything he needs to handle. But there are odd little exceptions. Let us consider, for instance, forms of address to strangers. Quite often we need to draw a person’s attention to something that has just dropped out of pocket or handbag, or to the fact that he is just going to walk into a plate glass door. Not merely does English lack anything corresponding to the French attention, but we do not have the equivalent of M’sieur or Madame or even Mademoiselle.

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答案 人们常说,只要我们不属于那些由疾病引发语言缺陷的少数不幸者,我们的语言机制就能使我们自然而然地具备要说什么就可以说什么的本领。这并不意味着我能像律师或者管道工人那样张口即来有关公司法或是集中供暖之类的术语。它其实是说如果我的职业或者业余爱好与这些事物相关,那么我的语言就会应对自如了。 因此,我们就得出这么一个普遍真理:即任何一个正常人都可以用他所掌握的语言来应对他需要处理的任何事物。但是多少还是有例外的。例如,我们来考虑一下对陌生人的称呼。我们往往需要提醒他人有什么东西刚从他的口袋或手提包掉出来,或者需要提醒他人不要撞上一扇玻璃门。但是英语不仅缺乏像法语attention(当心)这样的词,而且我们也没有如M’sieur(先生)或Madame(夫人)或者甚至像Mademoiselle(小姐)的对等词。

解析 1.第一段第一句中的provided…意为“如果(假如)……”,是英语典型的条件句。pathological意为“病理的”,这里可译为“因疾病”或“由疾病引发的”。
2.第一段第二句中,technicalities指的是专业术语,solicitor在英国指的是“律师”,而glibness这里可译为“张口即来”。
3.第—段第三句中的rise to the occasion是英语中的习语,意思为“应对自如”。
4.第二段第一句中,language tools指的是“所掌握的语言”。
5,第二段第二句中的odd little可译为“多少还是有……的”。
6.第二段第四句中,a plate glass door直接翻译为“一扇玻璃门”即可。
7.第二段最后一句中包含法语词汇,翻泽时应按照原文引用法语词汇,在括号中使用汉语标注解释。
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