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我的英语不地道：the Other Side of the Coin or Two Sides of the Same Coin
[Finegan, E. and Rickford J. R., (ed.) Language in the USA: Themes for the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.]
[主要观点]
英语本身不是“纯洁”的语言，存在“标准英语”和许多变体。虽然不排除一部分非母语者可以像native speaker一样使用英语，但是作为整体，却很难让他们都说“地道英语”。《美国的语言》（Language in the USA）一书中，部分内容涉及到中国移民的语言问题，认为移民难以成为native speaker有以下原因：保持原有文化的愿望；语言歧视或隔离；思维方式的差异。
[文摘及解读]
The USA is a nation of immigrants and the children of immigrants, most of whom did not speak English then they arrived and whose adopted English will always show traces of their ancestry. [245]
其实我们也可以说英语也是如此，它来源复杂，虽然也有the King/Queen’s English的说法，好像并不像法语那样坚持语言的纯洁。最近看到一些书中English一词变成了可数，有复数形式Englishes, 如这本书的标题：Chinese Englishes（Kingsley Bolton, CUP, 2003），也从一个侧面反映了英语的这种特点。
No matter how many years I am here – even till I die – I will always speak English with an accent. That is a fact I cannot deny. That is a fact I cannot escape from. And people would never see me as an American because the conventional wisdom is that if you are American, you should speak with no accent.
Cao O, Chinese from Vietnam, in his mid-thirties [p246]
这位移民的语言表达，至少书面语言，挺不错了，可是还是无法称成为native speaker，并融入美国主流社会，可见此事之难。
An analysis of taped interactions of Chinese speakers of English at academic conferences and business meetings has identified a discourse style in which old information is followed by new information. In the presentation of information by Chinese speakers of English, the pattern is to present reasons before making the main point, so that the shared context presented first should lead to a natural acceptance of the main point. Chinese speakers felt that if the point were stated first, it might sound rude, demanding, or unnecessarily aggressive. In contrast, mainstream American English speakers reacted negatively to the absence of a preview or thesis statement because they expected a request followed by arguments to support it. Often discourse strategies effective in Chinese are transferred to interactions when the speaker is using English, and those strategies, are likely to be interpreted as behavioral differences, which are subject to misperceptions, misinterpretations, and misunderstandings. Over time such misuses (printing error: miscuses) can lead to stereotypes that are reinforced with every such interaction. [p262]
思维方式的差异决定了语言的差异，说话人往往对此是不自觉的，很难改。第二代第三代移民可能会改善，但他们不可能完全摆脱父辈的影响。
另一方面，语言也决定思维。例如，我们习惯先说原因、条件、时间、地点等“从句”，如果不是这样，我们会觉得说出来的句子别扭或带“洋味”。
所以这种思维习惯可能是说“地道英语”的最大障碍。认识到这一点，是有益于语言学习的。
Beyond pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, Asian Americans, whether native English speaking or not, face another linguistic challenge – the challenge of reconciling the differences between heritage and mainstream American discourse style and registers. For example, because of the greater gap in status between overseas-born Chinese children and parents, the parents use a more direct style with their children in exchanges such as commands and requests, while the children use a more indirect style. Among American-born Chinese parents and children, the distinction is less clear cut. [p261]
据我观察，国内年轻一代的父母对孩子说法的方式也在变，商量讨论的语气多了。
[结束语]
这篇小笔记绝非反对地道英语，“要学就学地道的”，这是学习者的目标，否则“取法乎中，故为其下”了。只不过车车的帖子在先，俺就说说问题的另一面，算是一点补充吧。变通与标准是同一问题的不同方面，两者互相作用，形成英语发展的自然过程。增强对“不同”的认识，也是为了更好地掌握外语，达到“同”的目的。关于标准英语，引一段Randolph Quirk的话：
The degree of acceptance of a single standard of English throughout the world, across a multiplicity of political and social system, is a truly remarkable phenomenon: the more so since the extent of the uniformity involved has, if anything, increased in the present century. [ A Grammar of Contemporary Enlish, p16.]
[题外话]
这本书里有一则词源考证，抄录下来，以广见闻：
The first word of American origin to reach English was guaiacum. That word took a roundabout route from the Taino language of the Bahamas where it was used for a tropical plant and the medicine derived from its resin. … in 1533, guaiacum became the first word of American origin to enter the language. (Not until 1686, in a translation from an Italian poem, did English acquire another name for the disease guaiacum was supposed to cure, one taken from the name of the shepherd-hero of the work, syphilis.) [p4]
[附送一本书，David Crystal, English as a Global Language, Cambridge: CUP, 2003. 感兴趣的朋友可以下载阅读。]
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发表于 2007-10-16 14:46:08
There are various "Englishes" in the world, and which one is the purest or the most authentic? 
发表于 2007-10-25 21:45:55
这套文库超星似乎漏了两本没扫，除这两本以外，我也没弄全，就挑了音系、句法和历史语言学方面的下载。音系学那本看完了，感觉介绍性比较强，具体的还要再看其他的教材和文章。