打字猴:1.70524198e+09
1705241980
1705241981 名词,技术怪咖的状态。
1705241982
1705241983 marketroid
1705241984
1705241985 名词,公司营销部的成员。
1705241986
1705241987 mumblage
1705241988
1705241989 名词,一个人喃喃自语的话题。
1705241990
1705241991 pessimal
1705241992
1705241993 形容词,“最佳的”的反义词。
1705241994
1705241995 wedgitude
1705241996
1705241997 名词,被卡住的状态(不借助外力则无法前进)。
1705241998
1705241999 wizardly
1705242000
1705242001 形容词,与专业程序员相关的。
1705242002
1705242003 一旦深入到词根层级,我们还会发现一些杂乱无章的情形,即不规则的复数形态(例如“mouse-mice”“man-men”)和不规则的过去时态(例如“drink-drank”“seek-sought”)。不规则的形式常常结伴而行,比如说“drink-drank”“sink-sank”“shrink-shrank”“stink-stank”“sing-sang”“ring-rang”“spring-sprang”“swim-swam”“sit-sat”,或者“blow-blew”“know-knew”“grow-grew”“throw-threw”“fly-flew”和“slay-slew”。这种情况的出现,是因为数千年前的原始印欧语(即包括英语在内的大多数欧洲语言的祖语)拥有这样一个规则:通过元音的替换变成过去时态,就像我们现在在词尾添加“-ed”的规则一样。现代英语中的不规则动词或者说“强变化”(strong)动词只不过是古老规则的化石,而规则本身早已不复存在。大部分看起来本应归于不规则动词之列的动词被粗暴地排除在外,正如我们在下面这首英文打油诗中所看到的情况:
1705242004
1705242005 Sally Salter, she was a young teacher who taught,
1705242006
1705242007 And her friend, Charley Church, was a preacher who praught;
1705242008
1705242009 Though his enemies called him a screecher, who scraught.
1705242010
1705242011 His heart, when he saw her, kept sinking, and sunk;
1705242012
1705242013 And his eye, meeting hers, began winking, and wunk;
1705242014
1705242015 While she in her turn, fell to thinking, and thunk.
1705242016
1705242017 In secret he wanted to speak, and he spoke,
1705242018
1705242019 To seek with his lips what his heart long had soke,
1705242020
1705242021 So he managed to let the truth leak, and it loke.
1705242022
1705242023 The kiss he was dying to steal, then he stole;
1705242024
1705242025 At the feet where he wanted to kneel, then he knole;
1705242026
1705242027 And he said, “I feel better than ever I fole.”
1705242028
1705242029 人们只能通过死记硬背的方法来记住每个不规则动词的过去时态,不过,正如这首打油诗所显示的,人们可以敏锐地察觉出其中的变化模式,并将其运用到新的词语上,以制造出幽默的效果,就像在“官腔”(Haigspeak)或者“黑话”(hackspeak)中一样。我们当中的许多人会忍不住地使用“sneeze-snoze”“squeeze-squoze”“take-took-tooken”“shit-shat”等变化形式,觉得它们更加精巧可爱,而这正是以“freeze-froze”“break-broke-broken”“sit-sat”为类比对象。在《疯狂英语》一书中,莱德勒撰写了一篇题为《鸡舍狐狸》(Foxen in the Henhice)的短文,对英语中的不规则复数形式进行了疯狂恶搞:例如“booth-beeth”“harmonica-harmonicae”“mother-methren”“drum-dra”“Kleenex-Kleenices”和“bathtub-bathtubim”。计算机黑客则肆无忌惮地使用“faxen”“VAXen”“boxen”“meece”和“Macinteesh”等词语。《新闻周刊》(Newsweek)曾经把身着白色镶石服装的拉斯维加斯表演者称为“Elvii”(“猫王”们)。在连环画《史努比》(Peanuts)中,莱纳斯(Linus)的老师欧特玛(Othmar)小姐要求班上的学生用蛋壳制作“igli”(爱斯基摩人用雪块砌成的圆顶小屋,单数形式为“igloo”)模型。玛吉·沙利文(Maggie Sullivan)曾在《纽约时报》上撰稿,要求对更多的动词进行强变化,以达到“强化”英语的目的:
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