今天看到一封來自 Daily writing tip 的email, 講的是 folks 與 people 的差別.
前面二段原文如下:
Recently I was amused to hear Jon Stewart express bewilderment at George Bush's continued use of the word folks in inappropriate contexts. This is one of many of the President's peculiarities of speech that has bothered me for some time. Stewart was referring to this remark in the President's July 4 speech:
Many of the spectacular car bombings
and killings you see are as a result of al Qaeda -- the very same folks that
attacked us on September the 11th."
上面這一段是美國知名電視節目主持人 Jon Stewart 引述美國前總統 小喬治布希 在某年美國獨立紀念日發表演說中的一段話, Jon Stewart 引述這段話的用意在指出小喬治布希常常把 folks 用在不恰當的地方.
這段話(上面紅字那段)大意是..
近來多起驚人汽車炸彈及殺戮事件都是蓋達組織所造成的 - 這些人跟發動 911 恐攻事件是同一群人.
這段話用中文這樣描述看不出違和的地方, 但如果看英文(劃底線處), 的確很怪.
[原文第三段]
Folks is not--at least it hasn't been since Chaucer's time--an
exact synonym for people. Whereas people is
a standard word that may be used in any context, folks is
a colloquialism with definite connotations.
寫這篇電子報的人指出, folks 並不是 people 的同義詞. People (人們) 是一個中性, 標準的字, 可用在任何場合, 但 folks (中文意思也是 人們) 是一般非正式的日常用字, 且有特定的隱含意義.
[原文第四段]
Folks generally suggests a certain warmth and "down
home" flavor. Just as kids is not the most
appropriate word to use when talking about young people who have robbed a store
and beaten its owner, folks is probably not the best
word to use when referring to people who go around blowing up shoppers at the
local market or mourners at a funeral.
Folks 用來指"人們"時, 通常有一種親暱溫暖的含義在裡面. 以 kids 來比喻好了, 我們通常不會用 kids 來形容一群打劫商店, 將商店主人打得很慘的年輕人. 同樣地, 我們也不會用 folks 來形容搶劫商店/超巿或在葬禮上爆打去哀悼死者的人.
Folk 通常指一群彼此有關連的人, 像是血緣關係或職業屬性等, 比如 "my folk "(相當於 my families, 我的家人); "farmer folk"(農夫族群) 或 "the German folk".
如果用來指一個國家的人, folk 指的是那個國家的一般人.
電子報原文如下, 有興趣的, 請點下面選影像並放大即可. 不過就如文章最後講的, 語言這東西會隨著時代演進而變化, 我們也目睹了不少以前不會或不該用的字詞, 現在卻是被接受的. 所以, 誰也說不準 folks 將來會怎麼演變.
