從今起，開始這個英語批判系列。對英語的批判，是我近十年來產生的想法，不是書齋里研究的結果，而是在使用這個語言過程中發現的問題。這裡需要說明，我不是英語專業出身，也從不從事專業英語研究工作。當然，我的工作是用英文。我不過是個使用者而已。 對英語的批判，不是隨便什麼人都能做的。 你得對英語有足夠深入的了解和認識，對英語文化有足夠多的感性認識，同時，你要有足夠多的中文根基。 中國書面語有數千年的歷史，中文的文章，在兩千年前的左傳，論語，已經達到很到很成熟的地步。到了西漢的司馬遷時代，史記未代表的文學水準，恐怕在當時的世界上也是頂尖的了。反觀英文，16世界之前，也就是莎士比亞，培根等為代表的人物所生活的時代之前，英文是下里巴人的語言，書面語沒有什麼嚴肅的作品，那是，書面語以法語和拉丁語為主，是為宮廷語言。簡言之，英語書面語，只有400多年的歷史。 英語沒有成熟的文章章法，這點，無論從實際上看，還是歷史上的著名人物，都證實這點。為了說明問題，下面轉錄一篇重要英語教材中的一篇文章，來解剖“麻雀”。 “In man's early days, competition with other creatures must have been critical. But this phase of our development is now finished. Indeed, we lack practice and experience nowadays in dealing with primitive conditions. I am sure that, with- out modern weapons, I would make a very poor show of disputing the ownership of a cave with a bear, and in this I do not think that I stand alone. The last creature to compete with man was the mosquito. But even the mosquito has been subdued by attention to drainage and by chemical sprays. Competition between ourselves, person against person, community against community, still persists, however; and it is as fierce as it ever was. But the competition of man against man is not the simple process envisioned in biology. It is not a simple competition for a fixed amount of food determined by the physical environment, because the environment that determines our evo- lution is no longer essentially physical. Our environment is chiefly conditioned by the things we believe. Morocco and California are bits of the Earth in very similar latitudes, both on the west coasts of continents with similar climates, and probably with rather similar natural resources. Yet their present development is wholly different, not so much because of different people even, but because of the different thoughts that exist in the minds of their inhabitants. This is the point I wish to emphasize. The most important factor in our environment is the state of our own minds. It is well known that where the white man has invaded a primitive culture the most destructive effects have come not from physical weapons but from ideas. Ideas are dangerous. The Holy office knew this full well when it caused heretics to be burned in days gone by. Indeed, the concept of free speech only exists in our modem society because when you are inside a community you are condi- tioned by the conventions of the community to such a degree that it is very difficult to conceive of anything really destructive. It is only someone looking on from outside that can inject the dangerous thoughts. I do not doubt that it would be possible to inject ideas into the modern world that would utterly destroy us. I would like to give you an example, but fortunately I cannot do so. Perhaps it will suffice to mention the nuclear bomb. Imagine the effect on a reasonably ad- vanced technological society, one that still does not possess the bomb, of making it aware of the possibility, of supplying sufficient details to enable the thing to be constructed. Twenty or thirty pages of information handed to any of the major world powers around the year 1925 would have been sufficient to change the course of world history. It is a strange thought, but I believe a correct one, that twenty or thirty pages of ideas and information would be capable of turning the present-day world upside down, or even destroying it. I have often tried to con- ceive of what those pages might contain, but of course I cannot do so because I am a prisoner of the present-day world, just as all of you are. We cannot think outside the particular patterns that our brains are conditioned to, or, to be more accurate, we can think only a very little way outside, and then only if we are very original.” 注意，這是從一本重要的英文教材中選出來示眾的，這不可能是一個學生的習作，而是他們“成熟”作者的作品。有足夠英語閱讀能力的讀者，請讀一下該文，想想： 1。這篇文章講的是什麼？有沒有中心？ 2。文章有沒有邏輯？是一篇邏輯清晰，觀點明確，結構明晰的文章，還是開無軌電車，東拉西扯，胡說八道？ 3。文章有沒有真正值得一讀的意思？ 請有獨立腦袋的人，好好一讀。可以告訴你們，我的回答都是否定的，或者負面的； 這是一篇既沒有條理，有沒有觀點的，簡直就是一篇垃圾！作者只有中國初中生的程度！但是，如果能找到這個作者，你一定吃驚，該人可能是個“成熟”的作者，記者，或者學者什麼的。你不必吃驚，垃圾文章不看就是，英文本沒有作文章法，他們鼓勵海闊天空，無法無天，胡說八道，天馬行空！ 不要以為這樣的文章，在英文教材中是個別的；我的家人在看該教材，我發現這樣的垃圾文章占相當大的比例。絕不是偶然現象，而是普遍的問題：英文根本沒有作文章法這麼回事！ 我從小到大，從沒有這麼罵過文章作者，因為我很少讀垃圾文章；但是，現在，在讀英文中，常常看到這樣的垃圾，充斥垃圾，怎麼解釋？ 我幸運自己接受中華文化的薰陶，讓我不至於“天馬行空，無法無天”。希望大家明白的是，英文熱有其必然，是人家科技文化的強勢造成，決不是該語言本身有什麼優勢。哪天非洲盧旺達發達了，成了世界強國，他們的土著語言，就是世界億萬人學習的“高等語言”！ 中國人，別發英語狂了！