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Quotations from 葛傳椝

4. Something More Important Than Enlarging One's Vocabulary 

"How to enlarge my vocabulary"---this is one of the commonest questions that I have been asked. True, the average Chinese learner of English has a very limited vocabulary, but I think he has something more important to do about his limited vocabulary than to enlarge it. He has yet to know many more words before he can master English. Nor can he master English till he has acquired a better understanding of morst of the words that are in his vocatulary.

For he may think he knows a word when he does not really know it. By knowing a word I mean knowing its true sense or senses instead of merely knowing one or more of what we call its Han equivalents. Take the word "student". Very often it is misused and misunderstood by us Chinese. It is misused and misunderstood by those who call all schoolchild students and take offence at being called students of English simply because they are no longer at school. As a matter of fact, a schoolchild is not a student, but one who studies English is a student of English though he may be an old man and may have already written many books on it.

We are apt to neglect common words. Apart from the possibility of misuse and misunderstanding we are apt to neglect their various senses, or rather idiomatic uses. Take the word "read", which you of course think you know very well. But do you know all the senses (or uses) as illustrated below?

  Can you read dreams?

  The baby cannot read the clock.

  He is reading her thoughts.

  The sentence reads like a paraphrase.

  Don't read too much into the text.

  The thermometer reads 680.

If not, you can hardly yet be said to know the word "read".

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23. Make the Word Your Own 把這個(gè)詞變成你自己的

A word is not your own until you can use it correctly. You may know one or more Han equivalents for a word and yet you may not be able to use it correctly. I am afraid that of all the English words that the average Chinese learner can translate into Han, less than half may really be called his own.

To give a few common words at random, "wise", "probable", "congratulate", "equip", "personality", "novel", "nevertheless", "meanwhile" ---all these words many Chinese learners may "know" without being able to use them correctly, reader? Please read the following sentences carefully and I have to tell you beforehand that all the words in italics are misused, and that if you fail to find any one of these wrong, that proves that that word is not yet your own.

1. The boy reads the book very well, and so he may be called a very wise boy. -(wise)

2. He is probable to pass the examination. -(probable)

3. Let's congratulate her success. -(congratulate)

4. A radio has been equipped in the hall. -(equippede)

5. He never pays his debts; his personality is bad. -(personality)

6. I don't like such novels as these short stories -(novels)

7. Nevertheless poor, the girl was neatly dressed. -(Nevertheless)

8. I bought some bananas and meanwhile some apples. -(meanwhile)

How many of these italicized words are your own? And how many are not? Look up those that are not your own in a good dictionary in order to find out why they are wrong in these sentences, and to learn their correct uses.

Remember that not every word that you think you understand well is really your own.

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29. Make Your Own Dictionary 編寫你自己的詞典

I must thank very sincerely the many readers who have written to inquire about my Dictionary of English Usage.  It was always going to be published, and it has not yet been published. This is partly beause of my occupation with other literary matters; in fact, I work on the book only off and on. But the chief reason is that being a conscientious learner of English I am always careful to avoid slipshod or perfunctory work. I take notes for the book almost every day ---both frm reading and from the questions about usage that I am asked by persons interested in the subject. Very often a seemingly simple question reminds me of some important point that I might not otherwise think of. I hope that the delay in publication will be compensated for by the richer and better contents of the book.

Now I think that every learner could make his own dictionary of usage. He could keep a notebook in which to record, in alphabetical order, such points of usage as he might find of particular interest to him. Such a book would serve him as a constant companion to composition, though many things in it might seem quite dull or useless to others.

And I think that every learner could make his dictionary of usage as large as the sum total of the books he reads. I mean that he might make a usage index, so to speak, to those books. For a particular point he would have to record only the book, the page, and the line concerned. He would some day be able to point to his library and say "This is my dictionary of English usage". What a great work!

Indeed, I wish I could find time to do this. And I believe that I could thus lay the foundation of a live and original dictionary ---quite different from those based on nothing but one or more dictionaries.