王緒東

詞匯是語(yǔ)境的基本單位,詞匯在具體的語(yǔ)境中才具有真實(shí)?豐滿?生動(dòng)?鮮明的意義?換言之,語(yǔ)境是詞匯“生命力”的根本,詞匯是語(yǔ)境具體特征的承載者?語(yǔ)境可看做是根據(jù)基本特征可被分類(lèi)和描述的篇章中的詞素?句法和語(yǔ)篇的信息?這是篇章內(nèi)部的語(yǔ)境,讀者需要掌握的篇章主旨(subject matter)的背景知識(shí),是一般語(yǔ)境(general context)知識(shí)?在處理篇章和預(yù)測(cè)詞匯類(lèi)型?范疇和意義時(shí),有能力的讀者靠一種策略嫻熟地駕馭,該策略共分五步:(1)找出生詞的詞類(lèi)?(2)觀察生詞鄰近語(yǔ)境,如果需要對(duì)該語(yǔ)境進(jìn)行簡(jiǎn)化?(3)觀察生詞的擴(kuò)展語(yǔ)境,也就是觀察包含生詞的小句與其周?chē)【浜途渥拥年P(guān)系?(4)猜生詞詞義?(5)檢驗(yàn)猜測(cè)是否正確?

一?運(yùn)用直接語(yǔ)境線索

閱讀中學(xué)生肯定會(huì)遇到一些生詞,這時(shí)候并不要求他們立即去詞典中查找這些生詞,而是要求他們繼續(xù)讀下去?有時(shí)語(yǔ)境會(huì)告訴他們這些生詞的類(lèi)型和范疇,進(jìn)而推知它們大體的意義?

Ex.1 Garlic is not as mild as its cousins,the onion and the leek.It has one of the strongest flavors known to man.It＇s been found that the oils of the garlic do not stick to the teeth,tongue,or gums.They go into the lungs instead.

在第一個(gè)句子中學(xué)生可能不認(rèn)識(shí)單詞leek,但他們確實(shí)知道leek是一種吃的東西?在第二句中g(shù)um可能是個(gè)生詞,但從上下文中可清楚地看出它是人體的一部分,尤其與mouth有聯(lián)系?由此看來(lái)即使不知道這些詞的具體意義,學(xué)生也能看懂句子的大體意思?

二?運(yùn)用同義詞語(yǔ)境線索

單詞的語(yǔ)境由其周?chē)膯卧~和它使用的環(huán)境(situation)組成?當(dāng)學(xué)生在閱讀中遇到生詞時(shí),我總是鼓勵(lì)他們根據(jù)語(yǔ)境去猜測(cè)詞義?因?yàn)樵诰渥雍投温渲谐３Ｓ幸恍W(xué)生熟知的詞來(lái)幫助他們把握詞匯類(lèi)型和范疇,甚至弄清生詞的意義,同義詞就是其中的一種語(yǔ)境線索?

Ex.2 As he spoke,he opened the door of the stove and stuffed in as many sticks of wood as he could possibly press inside.

開(kāi)始學(xué)生可能不知道stuff的意思,當(dāng)讀完該句子時(shí)他們會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)press和stuff表達(dá)的意義相同?因此,press就成了stuff的同義詞線索?

三?運(yùn)用反義詞語(yǔ)境線索

與提供相同詞義的同義詞線索不同,反義詞線索提供生詞的相反意義?

Ex.3 A special method of photography,called microphotography,was used.By this method,men could reduce writing to miniature size.Then one bird could carry thousands of dispatches on one trip.When the dispatch was received,it was enlarged by photography so that it once more became possible for the human eye to read it.

在該段落中,如果學(xué)生不知道reduce的意義,會(huì)給閱讀理解造成一定困難?當(dāng)他們繼續(xù)讀下去時(shí),語(yǔ)境告訴他們,文字首先被縮小然后又被放大?Enlarge的意義——使事物變大——會(huì)使學(xué)生推導(dǎo)出reduce的意思可能會(huì)是“使事物變小”?因此enlarge就充當(dāng)了reduce的反義詞線索,短語(yǔ)once more表示了從小到大的變化過(guò)程,這也使意義變得更加明了?

四?運(yùn)用詞的聯(lián)想語(yǔ)境線索

句子由詞或詞組構(gòu)成,表達(dá)一定的意義?從邏輯關(guān)聯(lián)意義方面來(lái)看詞或詞組的出現(xiàn),會(huì)使人們聯(lián)想到與其意義有關(guān)的一些詞語(yǔ)?例如:sea-voyage,grass-green,school-students,swim-pool,book-publish,etc.讓我們來(lái)看一個(gè)摘自Mister Imagination中的一個(gè)例子?

Ex.4 Experts in mathematics would spend weeks checking his ________ .

如果該句子單獨(dú)出現(xiàn),學(xué)生會(huì)覺(jué)得該問(wèn)題有若干個(gè)答案?但是在該篇章中語(yǔ)境告訴他們,數(shù)學(xué)是一門(mén)數(shù)據(jù)(figures)科學(xué),mathematics 和figures相聯(lián)系,在該語(yǔ)境中它們會(huì)一起出現(xiàn)?因此figures便成為該問(wèn)題的正確答案,該語(yǔ)境線索幫助學(xué)生確定了該句子中的詞際關(guān)系,即所屬范疇?

五?運(yùn)用重復(fù)語(yǔ)境線索

為了強(qiáng)調(diào)某種觀點(diǎn)或?yàn)榱耸贡磉_(dá)更明了,作者有時(shí)用不同的詞語(yǔ)去表達(dá)相同的意義?這種界定了范疇的?用來(lái)作解釋的重復(fù)意義,就稱為重復(fù)語(yǔ)境線索?

Ex.5 Henry Morton Stanley received one of the strangest assignments ever handed to a newspaper reporter.He was working for the New York Herald,and what he was asked to do was to go into the wilds of Africa to find Dr.David Livingstone,who had been given up for lost.

當(dāng)學(xué)生閱讀第一個(gè)句子時(shí)他們也許會(huì)提出這樣一個(gè)問(wèn)題: What is the strangest assignment?這時(shí)候不要讓學(xué)生停下來(lái),而是讓其繼續(xù)讀下去,作者在下面一句中就對(duì)此作出了解釋:what he was asked to do was to go into the wilds of Africa to find Dr.David Livingstone.意義的重復(fù)使學(xué)生明白了assignment的意思,即the work one is asked to do.筆者認(rèn)為,一旦學(xué)生學(xué)會(huì)了運(yùn)用重復(fù)線索技巧,其閱讀速度會(huì)得到提高,閱讀能力也相應(yīng)得到改善?

六?運(yùn)用對(duì)比,對(duì)照語(yǔ)境線索

在論述中作者常常將兩個(gè)或兩個(gè)以上主題,如人?地點(diǎn)?情景?觀點(diǎn)等進(jìn)行比較或?qū)Ρ?以便展示它們之間的相同點(diǎn)和不同點(diǎn)?

Ex.6 Carol and Ross enjoy going to the beach,but while they are there,they behave very differently.Carol has fair skin and cannot stay in the sun for long.Ross,on the other hand,is dark-skinned and can stay outdoors all day without burning.Carol,who is not a good swimmer,cannot fight the strong waves and ocean currents,while Ross,an excellent athlete and a fine swimmer,enjoys the challenge of the ocean.They bring food to the beach each day.Ross eats several sandwiches while Carol eats very little.One thing they have in common is their fondness for reading books on the beach and talking to their friends.

讀完該段落后我們得知Ross的皮膚比Carol的黑;比起Carol來(lái),Ross更喜歡玩水;在海灘上,午飯Ross比Carol吃得多?盡管有這些差別,兩人都喜歡在海灘上讀書(shū)?與朋友交談?筆者認(rèn)為,這種所屬范疇明顯的比較和對(duì)比,可幫助學(xué)生從更廣角度理解作者要表達(dá)的意思,并使閱讀效率得到提高?

七?運(yùn)用詞綴語(yǔ)境線索

附加詞綴法是英語(yǔ)三種主要的構(gòu)詞法之一?一般說(shuō)來(lái),前綴的附加,通常只引起語(yǔ)義上的改變,而不能導(dǎo)致詞類(lèi)的轉(zhuǎn)化?后綴的附加,可造成詞類(lèi)的轉(zhuǎn)化?例如:national(國(guó)家的)——international (國(guó)際的),educate (v)——education (n)?但在文章中,無(wú)論是詞義的改變,還是詞類(lèi)的轉(zhuǎn)化,只要和語(yǔ)境聯(lián)系起來(lái),就能得知其正確的意義?

Ex.7 The anti-globalization protesters had a big demonstration against the International Conference on Globalization in front of the Hilton Hotel where the Prime Minister was giving an opening speech.In order to protect the delegations from all over the world,the police formed a strong human wall pushing out the protesters.

在這一段落中,我們根據(jù)上下文不難理解anti-globalization中的anti意為against.根據(jù)短語(yǔ)the delegations from all over the world的意思可以推知International中的inter意為among 或者between.

通過(guò)討論我們看出,詞匯知識(shí)對(duì)閱讀的影響力很大,閱讀也是提高詞匯知識(shí)的重要手段?然而這些彼此之間關(guān)系的本質(zhì)以及在閱讀中該怎樣利用這些關(guān)系,仍須我們花大力氣去探索?筆者認(rèn)為:通過(guò)語(yǔ)境習(xí)得詞匯應(yīng)是提升詞匯知識(shí)的有效途徑,而且還有助于提高閱讀理解能力,應(yīng)是外語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者努力的方向?

參考文獻(xiàn)

[1] Nagy,W.E,Herman,P.A.and Anderson,R.C.Learning words from context.Reading Research Quarterly,1985.

[2] Yap,KO Vocabulary-building blocks of comprehension?Journal of Reading Behavior,1979.

[3] Holley,F.M.A study of vocabulary learning in context:the effect of new-word density in German reading materials.Foreign Language Annals,1973.

[4] Bensoussan,M.and Laufer,B.Lexical guessing in context in EFL reading comprehension.Journal of Research in Reading,1984.

[5] Laufer,B.and Sim,D.D.Taking the easy way out:non-use and misuse of clues in EFL reading.ET Forum,1985.

(責(zé)任編輯 張茂林)