在英文着作、文章、报刊、杂志中,常常会遇到一些用斜体书写的单词、句子,甚至是整个段落.斜体字总的说来起到一种提示、强调、说明和区别的作用,它能够有效地帮助作者传情达意,突出表达的目的和重点,也能帮助读者更好地理解作者或讲话者的意图.因此,英语学习者有必要了解斜体字的作用及如何恰当地在写作中使用斜体字.
一、最常见的斜体字出现在语法书中,作者为了对某一词语或语法现象进行说明或分析,往往使用斜体书写.
例1.There is workto employ thousands ofpeo-ple .
这句话中的斜体部分是不定式结构,作者在这里使用斜体字是为了说明不定式结构在存在句中可以代替相应的关系分句这一语法现象.
例2.The field areunderwater after the heavyrain .
"under"用斜体字,作者是为了强调和解释"un-der"这个介词在这句话中特殊的语法作用,表示"紧贴在下面"的意思.
二、斜体字若出现在小说的对白或其他文章、着作中往往能起到强调语意的作用.
从而引导读者领会作者的意图.
下面的例子因为分别对同一句话中不同的两个单词采用斜体字而赋予同样一句话不同的语意.
例3."Prince Oscarmustcome to the royal din-ner, Your Highness,"He said very firmly.
例4."Prince Oscarmust come to the royal din-ner, Your Highness"he said very firmly.
例3的斜体部分是"must",那么这句话是要强调"一定要去"这个语意,而例4的斜体部分是"Prince Oscar",那么例4强调的是"去的一定是Prince Oscar这个人"这个语意.由此可见,因为斜体部分的不同,同一个句子会有很大的语意上的差异.
同样的道理,如果作者有意强调某一段文字的语意,也可以采用斜体字:
例5.What does the doctor need to know?In theinitial interview the doctor needs to know as much aspossible about you , as it relates to your ailments.
This is the medical history, and although informaland brief it is the first step at arriving at a diagnosis.……此段中的斜体部分旨在强调这一段文字的重要性,要求读者格外注意.
三、在某些着作或文章中,作者若引用一些习语或某些众所周知的具有某种特殊含义的词汇或话语时,往往应用斜体字.
例6. That man, strutting, preening, posing,and spouting nonsense, is a new kind of animatedcartoon, a sort of mentalMaGoo.
这里的MaGoo是美国连环画中的人物,他有点象唐·吉诃德的味道,他眼睛异常近视,因而闹出许多笑话,因此MaGoo在美国是一个众所周知的卡通人物,他代表着一类人,它所具有的特殊含义,能够恰如其分地描述作者在句中所提到的那个人,因而作者在这里用斜体字表示借用.
例7. He was a trueMicawberwho thought thatthe world owed him a living. Micawber是麦可勃先生,是狄·更斯的小说《大卫·科波菲尔》中的人物,虽然经济上暂陷困境,但始终乐观,认为总能否极泰来.因此Micawber不仅仅是一个人的名字,而且具有特殊的含义,这句话也是形容作者所说的这个人具有Mr Micawber一样的性格和特点,同样也用了斜体字.以示强调和借用.
四、有时作者也会引用他人的话或其他公开发表过的文字来论述自己的个人观点或在文中对某一问题进行讨论,从而使自己的论述更加明确或更有说服力,这时对引用的话要采用斜体字.
例8. A recent BBC English programme asked agroup of English speakers to give their opinion on us-ing the word"Lover"to describe the person they love:
"'Lover',um, it just sounds too sexual,……""The word'lover'you wouldn't tend to use inconversations to your friends""I don't have a lover.""I don't know. It sort of implies, maybe you'renot living together, or maybe you're somebody'
s mistress.""It makes me blush a bit, actually, if people say'lover'. I always think, I don't think I reallywant to know that."Those people weren't happy about using theword"lover"to describe someone they're havinga relationship with. One of them even found theword embarrassing.
此段文字的作者旨在探讨"lover"这个词的确切含义,斜体字的部分是一些被采访者的话,这部分用斜体字是非常必要的,因为这部分既不是作者的观点也不是作者的话,作者只是将这些被采访者的话作为资料和论据来分析和总结"lover"这个词的确切含义.
例9. What they were singing was a jubilanthymn that beginsO beautiful for spacious skies, /For amber waves of grain…It was a song that al-most all Americans today can remember havinglearned.
这段文字是作者在对一首很着名的美国歌曲"America the Beautiful"进行论述时,摘抄了其中的一句歌词,因此使用了斜体字.
例10. Stop Press:"Maastricht was a treaty toofar"so says Margeret Thatcher(ex-Prime Ministerof Britain) from the Sunday Times of 28 May 1995.
Mrs Thatcher has been vehemently opposed to theMaastricht Treaty designed to set in place the frame-work for a federal United States of Europe.
这句话中的斜体部分因是作者引用英国前首相撒切尔夫人的一句话来论述作者的个人观点,因此有必要用斜体字.
五、斜体字还用在剧本的写作中,也就是说剧本中的舞台说明,习惯上是要使用斜体字的.
例11. Robbie: so do I〔He begins to turn offthe lights〕I have to turn off the lights, or else my fa-ther will get really angry. He says I never turn themout when I leave. If they come home and they're on….〔He moves his index finger across his throat toshow that his father will be angry.〕斜体字的部分为舞台说明,这种情况下使用斜体书写便于读者区分哪些是剧本对白,哪些是说明性文字.
六、书、报、杂志、电影、戏剧、音乐、美术作品的名称往往使用斜体字;某些文章的标题,特别是某些书籍、杂志的目录中为了强调某些标题也采用斜体字.
例12.Family Album,U.S.A..(书名)
例13.American Beautywas also the screen de-but for screenwriter Alan Ball.(电影名)
例14. The first favorable comment came fromthe ChicagoTribune,and was followed by thespringfieldRepublican,a Massachusetts newspaper.(杂志名)
例15. It remember January 6 of last year-that's When the first album came out- and…Baby,One More Time〔the single〕was doing really well,and I was like,"Oh my God ,I can't wait for the al-bum to come out.…"(歌曲名)
例16. It was here that he made his famous"IHave a Dream"speech, in which he told about thedream he had for his four children.(演讲名).
例17.A Ride with Bill Gates Down the Infor-mation Highway.(标题)
七、文章中出现外国文字,如:汉语的yuan(元),mu(亩),li(里),jin(斤)等或拉丁字母的拼写等,这时一般要采用斜体字.
例18. The book costs 50yuan.(汉语"元")
例19. If interested inqigong,you can take thetraining course at the club.(汉语"气功")
例20.…On which there first was graven acrowned A,And lower ,Amor vincit omnia.(拉丁文=Love conquers all)
例21.…But that which is specially to be notedis ,that those which aresui amantes,sine rivali,aremany times unfortunate.(拉丁文=Lovers of themselves without a rival)
八、在写作中,有些字母、单词或是短语等仅仅是作为字母、单词或短语而被引用,并不涉及或者是很少涉及其本身的含意时,也可以采用斜体字.
例22. His"l"s and"c"s are indistinguishable.
例23."Tactics require concentration of troops,"This is a simple sentence,Tacticsis the subject andrequireis the predicate verb.
以上例句中的"l","c","Tactics","require"等字母和单词的含意都不涉及整个句子的意义,因此用斜体字书写.
九、有时飞机、船舶,人造卫星等的名称也用斜体字书写.
例24. Later in December, theMayflowercrossed Massachusetts Bay and anchored in PlymouthHarbour.
十、有时在文章的正文前有一些说明性的文字,如对作者的简介,对正文的简介等,往往需要使用斜体字;有些文章、着作后也有一些补充说明性的文字,如文章的出处,有关的参考书目等,也多采用斜体字.
十一、若你要在你的着作或文章中使用插图来说明问题,插图下面的说明性文字一般也要采用斜体字.
十二、有时一些期刊或书籍,在编排时有意要强调作者的名字,那么要对作者的名字采用斜体字.
十三、有些报刊、杂志为了对其刊登的文章中的一些词语、句子,乃至段落进行说明,讲解或加注,往往在排版时采用斜体字,以使其更醒目突出,引起读者的注意.
十四、有些报刊杂志为了编排醒目、活泼,使用不同的字体,斜体字也是经常被采用的一种.比如某些报刊为了突出某一篇文章并使其排版富于变化而使该文章通篇使用斜体字.
以上是斜体字在写作中常见的一些用法,在现代英语中有时也用放大的黑体字或是黑体加斜体字书写代替简单的斜体字书写,但功能和作用是相同的.在手写稿中和打字稿中我们也可以采用加底线的办法来代替斜体字,同样可以起到斜体字的作用.
