EnglishFrenchLatin
fastfirmsecure
askquestioninterrogate
fireflameconflagration
risemountascend
timeageepoch
shutcloseconclude
词源的不同造成语域正式程度的不同、风格的不同,这种现象是大量存在的。再看下面的同义词语,它们的formal与informal多与其词源或语源(etymology)有关:
informalformal
feelpalpate
readperuse
以下同义词语的正式程度与搭配有关:
informalformal
pick upchoose
give upabandon
go on with continue
fall outquarrel
put offpostpone
lay outarrange
3.句层语域标志:句层的语域标志也比较明显。譬如口语体英语,通常有这祥的特点:①句子短,②句法简单,③偶而有长句,但结构松散,④省略句多,⑤插入语、口头语或个人语型多。如不少人喜欢用“I mean”,“you know” 等口头语。G. L. Brook在他的 Varieties of English 一书中讲了一段 趣话,可以作为一个典型例子:
"Meaningless expletives such as in fact, you see and you know can become habits and are used far more frequently than the speakers realize. They are frequent in the speech of foreigners, who no doubt think of them as characteristic of colloquial English and deliberately try to acquire them. A German girl who spoke good English had one or two you knows in every sentence. An English dramatist interviewed on television provoked one listener to wrire to a newspaper to point out that he had used the expression I mean forty-six times in a fifteen-minute interview. Another correspondent played the game rather different by counting the number of occurrence of the words I mean within a single sentence; his highest score was five.
与上述口语体的、非正式的语域几乎成为鲜明对照的,是书面语、正式语和高雅的语域,特别是有关政治、法律和宗教等较严肃话题的语域。其特征为句子长,结构复杂而严密,几乎没有省略和插入语。
4. 段层语域标志:这里的段指句群或段落。这ー层的语域标志没有前三层的明显,但仔细留心ー下也不难发现:过渡词的使用,句子的排列,标点符号和某些数词(顺序数同)的用法,均可表明语域的正规与否。另外,有些修辞手段,如排比、重复和对仗或对偶都可使文体高雅,庄重等。
B. 汉语语域标志:汉语的语域标志也存在于音、词、句和段这四种语言层中。不过比较明显的或容易看得出的语域标志是在音、同和句三个层次中,其中又以同层标志最为明显。
1. 音层语域标志:如汉语中的“儿”化词尾和人们为模仿实际发音而选用的ー些字、词,常见于口语和非正式语言中,正规高雅的书面、公文体语言几乎是从来不用的。例如:
拐弯儿,出门儿,脸盆儿,人影儿,侄女儿,名角儿,一些儿;胖乎乎的,黑不溜秋的,稀里糊涂的,黄不拉踏的;咋,甭,孬,仨,等等。文学作品在与人物时,为了生动,也常使用这些音层语域标志。例如: