問:看電影對白,見到以下一句,究竟是什麼意思?──Sometimes it's the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine。
答:Imagine是「想像」,to imagine something of someone是「想像某人如此」,例如:It seems he does not measure up to what you imagine of a Frenchman(看來,他不似你想像中的法國人)。
又句子的第一個who字,其實是受詞(object),等於whom,是不很正式的說法;第二個who字,則是主詞(subject),不等於whom。全句是說:「有時,想不到會做什麼事的人,偏會做一些誰都想不到的事。」
問:小女作文,說It was expensive to me(這對我而言十分昂貴),那to給老師改為for。但expensive for和expensive to是不是意思不同,一指「昂貴到不能負擔」,一指「對……來說十分昂貴」?
答:讀者說的兩個意思,都可以用expensive for表達,例如:Living in Hong Kong is expensive for many people(對很多人來說,香港生活費用負擔不易)。
當然,to有「對……來說」的意思,例如:To me, the Leung regime is illegitimate(對我來說,梁某的政權是非法的)。所以,文法上,你也可以說To me it was expensive / It was expensive to me,但這說法較為少見。
【代郵】何先生:《中華正聲》一欄,僕非無意續寫,惟拙文今已難容於他報,原因固不必明言。辱承錦注,謹此奉謝。