彭蒙惠英语：陈旧习语的艺术(1/2)
The Art of The Cliché
陈旧习语的艺术(1/2)
The Art of The Cliché
Does the use of common phrases make us more eloquent or just lazy?
Old records are dubbed golden oldies and played nonstop on the radio. Old cars wear license tags marking them as collectibles. But old words and phrases are different—often used yet scorned as clichés.
“I don’t know why everyone says Shakespeare was such a great writer,: a student once complained to his English teacher. “Everything he wrote is a cliché.”
Of course, that student doth protest too much. The old boy was great because he wrote so many phrases that work in everyday conversation such as “All’s well that ends well” and “Forgive and forget.” So it is with the Bible:”An eye for and eye, a tooth for a tooth” and “Honor thy father and thy mother.”
Many English teachers consider cliché taboo, yet most of us cliché in everyday speech. Sure, it’s partly because we’re lazy—but it’s also because cliché are tried-and-true communication props: They can make a point and they’re handy for greasing the social skids.
Time and effort
The pace of modern life probably drives the use of clichés in many verbal exchanges when time is essential. Nobody wants to blow a deal or come off as a boring, time-wasting conversationalist. But because they’re instantly understood, cliché keep talk from bogging down. They also function as linguistic white noise, filling lulls in the chitchat.
It’s not that most of us don’t want to communicate well. We just aren’t able to express ourselves as elegantly as we would like, says Beth Young, an English professor at the University of Central Florida. She’s more tolerant of cliché than many other language pros.
“Cliché are a sign that we want to use language in colorful ways,” she says. “I encourage people interested in cliché to turn that into being innovative.”
Specialized Terms
Cliché (n) 陈词滥调 a comment that is very often made and is therefore not interesting
Skid (n) （支撑或移动重物用的）垫木；滑动垫木 a support for moving things
Blow (v) 搞砸 make a mess of or ruin
Vocabulary Focus
Eloquent (adj) 有说服力的
Collectible (n) any object which people want to collect as a hobby
Scorn (v) feel or show scorn for (sb/sth)
Doth (v) is an old-fashioned third person singular form of the verb ‘do'.
Taboo (adj) excluded from use or mention
Tried-and-true (adj) tested and proved to be good
Grease (v) put or rub grease on or in (especially parts of a machine)
Bog down (phr. v) become stuck, be delayed, be caught in
Linguistic (adj) relating to language
Lull (n) interval of quiet or inactivity
Tolerant (adj) willingness to accept behavior different from one’s own, although one might not agree with or approve of it
Discussion Question
‘Cliché are tried-and-true communication props.’ Could you name some examples?
Extra Exercise
1. Translate the following sentence into Chinese, ‘They can make a point and they’re handy for greasing the social skids.’
2. According to the recording, Naomi majored in Business Administration, right?
