思否20200306
Is this the most powerful word in the English language?
這是英語中最牛的單詞嗎？
'The' It's omnipresent; we can't imagine English without it. But it's not much to look at. It isn't descriptive, evocative or inspiring. And yet this bland and innocuous- seeming word could be one of the most potent in the English language.
the這個單詞可以說無處不在，我們也無法想象一個沒有它的英語世界。儘管它看著不咋地、不能用於描寫、不能引發共鳴、也不能發人深省；然而，這個平淡無奇且看似沒有攻擊性的詞可以說是英語中最有力的字眼之一了。
'The' tops the league tables of most frequently used words in English, accounting for 5% of every 100 words used. 'The' also lies at the heart of English grammar, having a function rather than a meaning.
單詞the位居英語詞頻排行榜榜首，人們每使用100個英語單詞，就會有5個是the。同時，the也是英語語法的一個核心部分，它具有語法功能卻沒有實際含義。
Although 'the' has no meaning in itself,“ it seems to be able to do things in subtle and miraculous ways,”says Michael Rosen, poet and author.Consider the difference between 'he scored a goal' and 'he scored the goal. The inclusion of 'the' immediately signals something important about that goal. Perhaps it was the only one of the match? Or maybe it was the clincher that won the league? Context very often determines sense.
詩人兼作家邁克爾.羅森表示，儘管the本身沒有意思，但是“它卻能以微小而神奇的方式起到一些作用”。就拿“he scored a goal (他進了一個球)”和“hescoredthegoal (他進了那個球)” 的差別來看，含有單詞the的那句話顯然就表現出了，那個球有某種重要的價值。也許那是整場比賽進的唯一一個球？又或者那是贏得聯賽的關鍵一球？上下文在很大程度上決定了單詞在文本中的意思。
This simplest of words can be used for dramatic effect. At the start of Hamlet, a guard's utterance of 'Long live the King' is soon followed by the apparition of the ghost: 'Looks it not like the King?'Who, the audience wonders, does 'the' refer to? The living King or a dead King? This kind of ambiguity is the kind of 'hook' that writers use to make us quizzical, a bit uneasy even.“'The' is doing a lot of work here,”says Rosen.
這個再簡單不過的詞也能帶來戲劇性的效果。在《哈姆雷特》開場的時候，守衛喊了一句“國王萬歲”，緊接著鬼魂登場了，於是守衛問道：“ 它的樣子難道不像那位國王嗎？”此時觀眾就會疑惑，這裡到底指的是哪位“國王”呢？是在世的國王？還是已故的國王？而這種模稜兩可的指代正是劇作家的“點睛之筆”，能讓觀眾產生好奇、甚至有一絲不安。羅森說：“單詞the在這裡的作用不容小覷。”
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