像「thereof」的「化石」副詞
最近有學生問我有關副詞「thereof」和「hereof」的問題。
我們可以將「thereof」和「hereof」這種副詞,理解成以前英文演變遺留下的「化石」字形,雖在現代英文中保留了原貌,但已不多用。
除了在非常正式的寫作和某些特殊的語境中(例如法律書信),它們已很少會被使用了。
基本上,它們相當於現代英文中的介詞組「of that」和「of this」。
「thereof」和「hereof」中的「there」和「here」,其實就是代名詞「that」和「this」的意思。(「there」等如「that」,因為它們都顯示出與自己的距離較遠的意思;而「here」等如「this」,因為兩者都有距離自己較近的意思。)
介詞「of」附加在代名詞「there」和「here」的末端,成為單字副詞「thereof」和「hereof」,意思分別是「of that」和「of this」。
例如:
The company made $1M in revenue last year.
30% thereof came from sales of the new product.
「Thereof」的意思是「of that」,替代的是第前文中的「$1M revenue last year」。因此「30% thereof」就是指「30% of the $1M revenue last year」。
我們可以直接用「of that」取代「thereof」,即「30% of that came from sales…」
「thereof」(of that)和「hereof」(of this)之間的差別,在於「hereof」通常泛指「更接近」講者/作者的事物,雖然在現代用法中,這兩字也基本上是可以互換使用的。
例如:
The document I attached has detailed information about the project and a summary of the budgetary allocations hereof.
這例句中,講者/作者「附上」了相關文件,而因為這文件「接近」自己(在他/她發的電郵中),所以使用「hereof」是自然的。
「A summary of the budgetary allocations hereof」,意思是「a summary of the budgetary allocations of this(即文件中提及的項目),但使用「thereof」的話也一樣可以。
這類型的副詞還有其他例子,都是由附加在代名詞末端的不同介詞所組成,例如「therein」、「thereafter」之類,意思也一樣是「in that」、「after that」等。
例如:
The answer lies therein.(答案就在其中)
這裡的意思是「The answer lies “in that”」(答案就在其中),那是「in 甚麼」就視乎前文中提到甚麼。
我說「thereof」和「therein」等都是現代英文中的「化石」詞彙,因為現代英文中,當我們需要表達「in that」和「of that」的意思,便會用這些介詞組,而非單字副詞「therein / thereof」來表達。
這種副詞組成方式其實是Indo-European(印歐系)語言家族的Germanic(日耳曼語言)分支中的文法特徵。
英文是此家族的其中一員,因此,英文跟它的「近親」語言也有這類副詞。
例如,德文中,「therein」是同源字是「darin」。(「da」是「there」的德文同源字,「in」則與英文的「in」相同。「r」只是一個附加音,使整個詞更容易發音。)
英文和它的「近親」語言,從前也繼承了這個單字副詞的組合方式。
不過,雖然德文中,這字還是常用的,英文則隨時間演變,漸變成多用「of X」、「in X」的介詞組表達這意思,代替了「thereof」、「in that」這種副詞。
所以便說它們是「化石」字形。但當然,在某些情況,還是會用到它們的!
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小練習
請把以下句子中的「化石」副詞改寫成較自然的版本:
He finished his studies in 2020, and, thereafter, he started his own business.
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答案:
He finished his studies in 2020, and, after that, he started his own business.
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“Fossilized” Adverbs Like “Thereof”
A student asked me about the adverbs “thereof” and “hereof” lately.
We can think of adverbs like “thereof” and “hereof” as “fossils” from older forms of English that have survived unchanged into modern English, and that is why they seem unnatural now. They are rarely used now except in very formal writing and special contexts, e.g. legal writing.
Basically, these single-word adverbs are equivalent to the prepositional phrases “of that” and “of this” in modern English.
The “there” and “here” in the “fossil” adverbs “thereof” and “hereof” are stand-ins for the pronouns “that” and “this” (“there” means “that” because both indicate “away from myself,” whereas “here” means “this” because both indicate “closer to myself.”)
The preposition “of” is attached as a particle at the end of these pronouns “there” and “here” to form these single-word adverbs “thereof” and “hereof,” which mean “of that” and “of this.”
For example:
The company made $1M in revenue last year.
30% thereof came from sales of the new product.
“Thereof” means “of that.” The pronoun here refers to the “$1M revenue last year” mentioned in the context of the first sentence, so “30% thereof” means “30% of the $1M revenue last year.”
We can replace this “thereof” with “of that” – i.e. “30% of that came from sales…”
The difference between “thereof” (“of that”) and “hereof” (“of this”) is that “hereof” would tend to be referring to something that is “closer to” the speaker/writer, although when these adverbs do appear in modern usage, they are pretty much interchangeable.
For example:
The document I attached has detailed information about the project and a summary of the budgetary allocations hereof.
In this example, the speaker/writer is “attaching” the document in question, and so “hereof” is natural because the document about the project is “close” to the speaker/writer.
“A summary of the budgetary allocations hereof” means “a summary of the budgetary allocations of this (i.e. the project mentioned in the document)” – but using “thereof” would basically be the same in this example.
There are other examples of these adverbs formed with different prepositions attached to the end of pronouns, for example, “therein,” “thereafter” etc. These also mean, respectively, “in that,” “after that” etc.
For example:
The answer lies therein.(答案就在其中)
This means “the answer lies in that,” with the pronoun “that” being something that has been established in the context beforehand.
We say that words like “thereof” and “therein” are “fossils” in modern English because we do not form single-word adverbs by attaching a preposition to the end of “there” and “here” as pronouns anymore.
In modern English, when we need an adverb to express the meaning of “in that” and “of that,” we would use these prepositional phrases instead of the single-word adverbs “therein/thereof.”
These “fossil” single-word adverbs are common to the “Germanic” branch of the “Indo-European” language family, of which English is a member.
We know this because we can find versions of these same adverbs in other modern languages closely related to English, like German and Swedish, even today.
For example, the German version of the English “therein” is “darin” (“da” is the German version of the common word “there,” and “in” is identical to English “in.” The “r” is an added sound to make the word more easily pronounceable.)
English and its language “cousins” inherited this same way of forming single-word adverbs before, but throughout language change, English has lost this way of forming adverbs, leaving words formed this way, like “thereof,” as “fossils” from an older form of the language.
On the other hand, languages like German still form adverbs this way now. In modern German, the equivalent of “thereof” and “therein” are still normal adverbs that are not unnatural at all.
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Mini Exericse
“Translate” this sentence with a “fossil” adverb into more natural modern English:
He finished his studies in 2020, and, thereafter, he started his own business.
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Answer:
He finished his studies in 2020, and, after that, he started his own business.
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