序言
本文试图做三件事情：一、介绍原版《牛津词典系列》的资料来源和编辑方针；二、指出《系 列》的特色和优点；三、展示外语教学与研究出版社所加的汉语释义的要点和作用。 本文所说的《牛津词典系列》分为三级：中大型，Concise Oxford Dictionary，简称COD， 适合大学生及更高水平的人使用；中小型，Pocket Oxford Dictionary，简称POD，适合大学生 及中级英语学习者使用；小巧型，Little Oxford Dictionary，简称LOD，适合中学生及初级英 语学习者使用。 一 外语教学与研究出版社与牛津大学出版社达成协议，将在中国出版《牛津英汉双解同典系 列》。下面以COD第9版为主脑，谈谈它的几个突出的优点。 1．利用包括1亿单词的英国国家语料库(The British National Corpus)和牛津词典编辑 部自有的电脑控制引语汇编(computerized collection of selected citations)及其他电脑控制词 典文本(computerized dictionary texts)，资料来源浩如烟海，因此覆盖面积极其广大，同时又 能及时发现当代英语的各种演变。 2．注意世界上多个英语国家(英国、美国、加拿大、澳大利亚、南非等等)的语言特点，兼收 并蓄，不陷于一孔之见。 3．关注当代因科技迅猛发展而产生的大量新词，尽量吸收。 4．调查各英语国家、各地区、各社会阶层的语言习惯，在一些重要词目中加上用法说明 (Usage)，分别予以介绍。 5．卷首有专文讲英语史，从古英语到中古英语到现代英语的种种演变，读者在此可以一 览无遗。 6．卷末有多种附录，都很有用，例如1平方英尺等于多少平方分米，摄氏21度等于华氏多 少度，在这里都可以查到。 二 我们已经了解COD的整体内容，现在让我们看看，在什么地方此书异于或超越同类辞书。 在下面，我们试把它与Webster's New World College Dictionary(1999，简称WNW)比较。 WNW在规模上与COD相当，是美国极负盛名的大学生常用工具书，美国联合新闻社(The Associated Press)和《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)、《纽约时报》(The New York Times)等主要报社都指定其为社内使用的词典(official dictionary)。 只要对比一下，就发现下面这些事实。 1．在收词方面，COD比WNW大。请看： 三 看了上文，读者对COD的整体特色和一些词目的优点已经有所了解，现在让我们看看，外 研社组织了国内二十来位学者给COD、POD和LOD加上汉语释义，主要目的是什么，对哪些 人最有帮助? 细读汉语释义200条之后，我发现它对各种水平的英语学习者都有帮助，对我这样的英语 老教师也有帮助。但是我想，最大的受益者应该是从事教学工作、传媒工作和翻译工作的人。 书内汉语释义可以分为3类： 1．科学名词、专门术语，一般人不知道，必得有专家译出，才能准确清楚。例如： saccharin 糖精 salicylic acid 水杨酸，邻羟基苯甲酸 saltpetre 硝石，钾硝，硝酸钾 sal volatile 碳酸铵 sand martin 灰沙燕 sarcoma 肉瘤 scrofula 瘰疬；疬子颈，老鼠疮 2．涵义丰富的单词和术语、口语、俗语、文学用语、典故和比喻，一般人找不到相应的译 法，要由行家来酌定。例如： scab 工贼 scruff 邋遢鬼 sandman 睡魔 scarlet woman 荡妇；妓女 sale of work 义卖 scorched earth policy 焦土政策 make oneself scarce 溜走；偷偷离开 have a screw loose 精神不大正常；乖僻 take with a pinch of salt 不大相信；半信半疑 saving your presence 恕我冒昧 3．一个英语单同可以有多种译法，但这些译语各有微妙的涵义差异和不同的搭配方式， 词典把它罗列出来，我们行文时便可以从容选择，把自己的意思表达得恰如其分，或者使修辞 效果更好。例如： scandal 恶意诽谤：背后诋毁 scatty 心猿意马的，杂乱无章的 sally 妙语，俏皮话，戏谑语 scold 大声斥责，怒斥 sarcasm 嘲笑，讽刺，嘲讽，挖苦 scowl 皱眉；蹙额 结束语 孟子说：“工欲善其事，必先利其器。”随着《牛津英汉双解词典系列》的出版，广大的中国英 语学习者已有利器在手，只要努力用功，成绩优良指日可待。 王宗炎 中山大学教授 博士生导师 序言 The ninth edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary is 14 per cent larger than the eighth and it takes further the changes in methodology and presentation that were introduced in its predecessor. These changes were in two main areas：firstly, the use of computer technology; and secondly, the aim of making the information contained in the dictionary more accessible to the user. 《牛津简明英语词典》第9版比第8版的内容增加了14％；同时，第9版在编纂方法及表述方 面均比前一版作了进一步的改进。改进主要体现在两个方面：其一，使用了计算机技术；其二，读 者更容易查阅词典所含的信息。 With regard to the use of computer technology, the COD has benefited in this edition not only from the availability of the previous edition in the form of an electronically tagged database, but from access to large bodies of corpus and citational evidence. The British National Corpus, a database containing over 100,000,000 words of text, has been the most significant of these, together with the OUP Dictionary Department's vast computerized collection of selected citations and its other computerized dictionary texts including the twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary. The gathering of evidence for new words and usages has been greatly enhanced by electronic access to these sources, and the dictionary is now able to incorporate more quickly and reflect more accurately changes that have arisen in the language since the previous edition, with additions being made to the text right up to the time of printing. As a result, this edition contains over 7,000 new words and senses in a wide variety of areas. For example, the growing availability of international cuisine in Britain and elsewhere is reflected by the use in English of terms such as bhaji, fajita, gravlax, penne, sharon fruit, and many others; in the field of politics we have dream ticket, Euro-rebel, placeman, rainbow coalition, and spin doctor; in ecology new terms such as arcology, cart, ecocide, greening, and wind farm have arisen; in science and medicine, blue box, bronchodilator, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Feynman diagram, hyperspace, nicad , packet switching, repetitive strain injury, and wormhole. 在使用计算机技术方面，本版《牛津简明英语词典》不仅获益于可使用第8版的电子标签式数据 库，而且也获益于可应用多个大型语料库存储的大量语料和引文。其中，最为重要的是英国国家语 料库，它的数据库有1亿多个文本词汇。一起使用的还有牛津大学出版社词典部在计算机中存储的 大量精选引文以及该部计算机存储的其他词典文本，包括20卷本的《牛津英语词典》由于可以通 过电子存取这些资料，新词和新用法的收集工作大为加强。现在，词典可以更迅速地收入并且更准 确地反映自上一版以来语言所发生的变化，内容可以不断增加直至付梓之时。其结果是，本版增加 了各个领域的新词和新义7，000条。例如，在英国和其他地方越来越容易品尝到世界各国的 菜肴，这一现象反映在英语中一些名称的使用上，例如bhaji、fajita、gravlax、penne和sharon fruit等；在政治领域，我们有dream ticket、Euro-rebel、placeman、rainbow coalition和spin doctor；在生态领域有arcology、carr、ecocide、greening、wind farm等新术语；在科学和医学领 域，新词有blue box、bronchodilator、Creutzfeldt—Jakob disease、Feynman diagram、hyperspace、 nicad、packet switching、repetitive strain injury和wormhole等等。 Access to large corpora has also facilitated the statistical evaluation of disputed spellings, a reassessment of the hyphenation of compound nouns and a review of the italicization or otherwise of foreign words and phrases. The general trends away from the hyphenating of compound nouns and away from the italicization of foreign words and phrases are now recorded in the dictionary. For example, instead of being hyphenated, aftercare, postdoctoral, and teardrop are now usually written as one word, while boiler room, hand grenade, and taxi driver are usually found as separate words Similarly, en route, hoi polloi, and tour de force now tend to be written in roman rather than italic script, reflecting their increased assimilation into English. In addition to these changes, some proprietary terms are now recorded in the dictionary with a lower case initial letter, also reflecting general usage (but not affecting their legal proprietary status). 使用大型语料库也有助于对有争议的拼写方式做出统计评估，有助于对复合词中连字符 当用与否做出重新评价，有助于对外来语和短语当用斜体抑或用其他方式处理做出思考。对 复合词不用连字符以及对外来词不用斜体的总趋势如今已体现在本词典中。例如，aftercare、 postdoctoral和teardrop现在通常不使用连字符，而是写成一个词；boiler room、hand grenade 和taxi driver则通常写成两个分立的词。同样，en route、hoi polloi和tour de force现在趋向 被写成正体字而不是斜体字，这反映了它们日渐被英语吸纳。除了这些变化之外，一些专利名 称词也被收入本词典中，这些词的首字母小写，以反映其一般用法(当然不会影响它们合法的 专利名称地位)。 Another important feature of this edition has been the enlisting of special consultants for North American usage, which has enabled us to improve our coverage of this area and to apply geographical labels more accurately. Examples of new North American entries are antsy, badass, ditzy, drywall, all-wheel drive, Latino, pork barrel, road kill, sweat sock, and upchuck. 本版的另一个重要特点是有北美英语用法特别顾问的参与。使我们得以提高这一地区的 覆盖范围，也使得我们可以更准确地运用地域标记。如新增的北美词条有antsy、badass、ditzy、 drywall、all-wheel drive、Latino、pork barrel、road kill、sweat sock以及upchuck等。 Special attention has been given to the improvement of coverage in science and technology. Many terms which have become familiar outside the pages of technical books and journals have been added, especially in life sciences (including natural history) and computing, such as accelerator board, biocide, client-server, flash memory, and ketamine and their definitions seek to balance comprehensibility and precision. 我们着重考虑了增加科技方面的收词范围。许多科技术语已经逸出专业书籍刊物的范围 而为常人耳熟能详。尤其是生命科学(包括自然史)和计算机领域的术语，都已增入本版词典 中，如accelerator board、biocide、client-server、flash memory和ketamine。对这些术语的定 义，我们力求达到可理解性与准确性之间的平衡。 The aim to make the information contained in the dictionary more accessible to the user has resulted firstly in extending the policy of 'denesting' begun in the eighth edition. In this edition all compound nouns have been given their own entries rather than being 'nested' under their first element. This makes them easier to find and results in fewer extremely long entries. Attention has also been given to making etymologies clearer by minimizing the use of abbreviations and bracketed information and by the use of clearer punctuation. Usage Notes, which were previously buried within entries, have been extracted, expanded, and placed at the end of entries. A clearer style of explanation has been adopted and many more illustrative examples given. 为了使词典内容更便于读者查阅，首先使第8版的“不落窠臼”的策略得以继续扩展。在 本版中，所有复合名词均单立词条而不是“栖息”在首词条之后。这样，它们更易于查找，而且 减少极长的词条。同时注意尽量少用缩略语和括号信息，使用更清晰的标点符号，词源就更易 于辨识了。用法说明原先隐没于词条之中，现在被提取出来、加以扩展并被置于词条之后。采 用的解释更加明晰，还增添了许多例证。 Finally，the pronunciations have been thoroughly revised，giving a more up-to-date representation of the standard British English accent (Received Pronunciation) by means of the International Phonetic Alphabet, in line with the system introduced into the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. 最后要说明的是，注音已经全面修订，用国际音标注出了最新的标准英国英语口音(即“标 准发音”)。这与《牛津新节本英语词典》所采用的系统是一致的。 Many people were involved in the preparation of this new edition. In addition to the editorial staff already listed on page vi, we would like to thank the following for sundry advice and contributions and for help with proofreading: Judy Pearsall, David Shirt, Catherine Soanes, Angus Stevenson，Bill Trumble, Rachel Unsworth, and Maurice Waite. 许多人参与了本新版词典的编纂。除了在第vi页上列出的全体编辑人员之外，我们愿在 此感谢Judy Pearsall、David Shirt、Catherine Soanes、Angus Stevenson、Bill Trumble、Rachel Unsworth以及Maurice Waite，感谢他们提出的各种建议、做出的众多贡献以及在校对方面给 予我们的帮助。 D．J．T．
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