词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Proverbs in American English, Part

Broadcast on VOA News Now: November 10, 2004

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: proverbs in American English.

RS: It's tempting¹ to call Wolfang Mieder the proverbial expert from out-of-town. A professor of German and folklore² at the University of Vermont, he has dedicated³ his career to studying proverbs from around the world. After talking to Professor Mieder, we realized that good things really do come to those who wait.

AA: "Now you know originally I wanted to set up this interview for a couple of weeks ago."

WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Yah."

AA: "But then you told me that you were out of town. And then Rosanne was out of town. So what is the proverb that I'm looking for here ... "

WOLFGANG MIEDER: "When you can't find anybody, you mean?"

AA: "Or I was thinking -- "

RS: "Or count on someone."

AA: " -- or not counting your chickens before they hatch?"

WOLFGANG MIEDER: " ... before they hatch, right. And then, of course, I could have said, 'You know, Rosanne, absence makes the heart grow fonder.' So if I'm not here, maybe you try harder to reach me. You know, that's the nice thing about proverbs; you can really find one for any situation. But you can also find one that opposes it. I just mentioned 'absence makes the heart grow fonder.' But of course you know the proverb 'out of sight, out of mind.'

"So you have to keep in mind that proverbs are not a logical system, but rather that they are based on life's observations, generalizations⁴ and experiences, and they are as contradictory⁵ as life itself."

RS: "Now what is a proverb and how did proverbs come about?"

WOLFGANG MIEDER: "I think a nice definition would be a proverb is a concise⁶ or short statement of an apparent truth which has currency among the people. And I want to stress the 'apparent' truth, because, you know, proverbs are not in every situation true.

But anyhow, proverbs came about because people, especially in times when there was no writing, people observed things and realized that this seems to be recurring⁷ all the time -- let's just say the proverb 'look before you leap,' it seems to make sense that you ought to check out things before you jump ahead.

And in order to transmit that experienced wisdom, people couched them into metaphors⁸ or images with some nice forms like alliteration⁹ and rhyme and parallelism. And then they could be memorized and handed down from grandfather and grandmother to grandchild, and from generation to generation."

RS: "German is your first language -- "

WOLFGANG MIEDER: "That's right."

RS: "English is your second language -- "

WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Right."

RS: " -- what role did proverbs play for you when you came to the United States to learn American English."

WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Well, I remember I used to have trouble with 'it is six of one or half-dozen of the other.' I had a friend who made me practice it because I could never quite say it right. The proverbs that give you problems are those that are specifically cultural bound. Let me give you a modern American one. When I first came to America in 1960, among the African American population of Detroit and other urban areas of the United States, there was the proverb 'different strokes for different folks.' And, you know, that became very popular then through a rock-and-roll song by Sly and the Family Stone. You might recall that."

MUSIC: "Everyday People"/Sly & the Family Stone, 1968

"We got to live together

"There is a yellow one that won't accept the black one

"That won't accept the red one that won't accept the white one

"And different strokes for different folks

"And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee"

WOLFGANG MIEDER: "'Different strokes for different folks' happens to be my favorite American proverb by now. Now 'different strokes for different folks' is, in my opinion, a proverb that has to have grown on American soil, because it tells you and me that whomever we deal with ought to give us a chance to be our own person. In other words, to let us do the things that we would like to do and not always, at least, force onto us rules and regulations that you might like."

AA: We'll hear more from University of Vermont Professor Wolfgang Mieder next week on VOA News Now. In the meantime, if you'd like to send us e-mail, write to。。。。。。。

RS: Internet users can find all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

 

1 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

2 folklore   

n.民间信仰，民间传说，民俗

参考例句：

• Zhuge Liang is a synonym for wisdom in folklore.诸葛亮在民间传说中成了智慧的代名词。
• In Chinese folklore the bat is an emblem of good fortune.在中国的民间传说中蝙蝠是好运的象征。

3 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

4 generalizations   

一般化( generalization的名词复数 )； 普通化； 归纳； 概论

参考例句：

• But Pearlson cautions that the findings are simply generalizations. 但是波尔森提醒人们，这些发现是简单的综合资料。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 大脑与疾病
• They were of great service in correcting my jejune generalizations. 他们纠正了我不成熟的泛泛之论，帮了我大忙。

5 contradictory   

adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立

参考例句：

• The argument is internally contradictory.论据本身自相矛盾。
• What he said was self-contradictory.他讲话前后不符。

6 concise   

adj.简洁的，简明的

参考例句：

• The explanation in this dictionary is concise and to the point.这部词典里的释义简明扼要。
• I gave a concise answer about this.我对于此事给了一个简要的答复。

7 recurring   

adj.往复的，再次发生的

参考例句：

• This kind of problem is recurring often. 这类问题经常发生。
• For our own country, it has been a time for recurring trial. 就我们国家而言，它经过了一个反复考验的时期。

8 metaphors   

隐喻( metaphor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I can only represent it to you by metaphors. 我只能用隐喻来向你描述它。
• Thus, She's an angel and He's a lion in battle are metaphors. 因此她是天使，他是雄狮都是比喻说法。

9 alliteration   

n.（诗歌的）头韵

参考例句：

• We chose alliteration on the theory a little vulgarity enhances memory.在理论上我们选择有点儿粗俗的头韵来帮助记忆。
• It'seems to me that in prose alliteration should be used only for a special reason.依我看，在散文里，头韵只能在一定的场合使用。