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十七世纪来“英语已越规”的呼声自十七世纪以来,人们一直在指责英语正在退化成一种不整不洁、不合语法的语言,然而,英语依然强健,而且还在发展,人们也仍在正常地用以交际。那些说英语衰退的人,恰恰对英语史不甚了解。英语决不是完美无缺的,也从不遵循过什么一成不变的规则。我们当然应尽力遵守语法和惯用法规则,不过为了更简捷、更直接地交际起见,人脑总不免有意无意地违背或忽视部分规则,正因这样,英语才得以发展。在莎士比亚的词汇里,“pneumonia”意即“head cold”,“nice”实指“lascivious”。现在这两个词的词义与用法已截然不同了。只要英语还在使用,类似的词义和用法转变就会一如既往。但这并不是说现代英语还会象古英语和中古英语那样经历翻天覆地的变化,因为英语词
Voices of “English Beyond Gauges” in the Seventeenth Century People have been accusing the English language of being degraded into an unclean and non-grammatical language since the 17th century. However, English is still strong and still developing. People are still Used normally to communicate. Those who say English decline, precisely the history of English do not quite understand. English is by no means perfect and has never followed any immutable rules. Of course, every effort should be made to abide by the rules of grammar and idiom. However, in order to achieve a simpler and more direct communication, the human mind can not help but violate or neglect part of the rules consciously or unconsciously. As a result, English has been able to develop. In Shakespeare’s words, “pneumonia” means “head cold” and “nice” means “lascivious.” Now the meaning and usage of these two words have been completely different. As long as English is still in use, similar semantic and usage shifts will continue. But this is not to say that modern English also undergoes a drastic change as in Old English and Middle English because the English word