如何猜测词义

如何猜测词义

黄平霞

同学们在英语阅读中,会遇到一些生词,影响对句子和文章的理解.怎样处理这些生词?其中一种办法:猜!猜它的词性、词义和在句子中的作用。“猜” 本身就是一种领悟力、应变力。猜,没有任何法则和公式可套,但还是有迹可寻.词素分析、一定的上下文构成的语言环境、文章所叙述的内容、作者的观点和意图,这些都是猜的依据.猜,就是根据这些条件综合进行最合理的想象和推导过程.下面主要谈谈怎样根据上下文猜测词义。

上下文是指一个词或词组所在的句子或这个句子前后的其他句子或这个段落,甚至整篇文章。所以,不能孤立地猜词,应仔细分析上下文。

1、通过定义、释义、提示来猜测词义。通常有括号、破折、同位语、定语从句及be, mean, refer to等提供线索。

The IQ scores (measures of intelligence) of a group of undergraduate college students were very high during a hurricane or other kind of storm.

括号里的词起解释前面名词的作用,我们知道,intelligence是“智力”的意思,所以,推断出IQ scores是“智商分数”的意思.

These people believe life would be better in the suburbs—that is, the areas just outside the city.

此句从破折号后面的解释不难推测suburb(郊区)的意思.

Jack is now a florist, who keeps a shop for selling flowers in our district.

我们不熟悉florist这个词,但非限定性定语从句起补充说明先行词的作用,因此根据后面的从句可猜测出它的意思为“花商”。

2、通过同义或近义来推测词义.

这种方法的标志词有or, like, similarly等,还可根据其他并列句来推断.如:

Like her younger sister who is gregarious, Alice also likes to make friends.

gregarious是一个生疏的词,可是like, also这两个词给我们提供了线索,它和make friends意思相近,“合群的,爱交朋友的”.

Green loves to talk, and his brother similarly loquacious.

从第二个分句中similarly可推断出loquacious为“喜爱说话的,健谈的”.

3、通过对比关系或反义关系来推测词义.

英语句子中的每一个词都处于一种逻辑关系中，弄清这种逻辑关系有助于推测词的涵义，也便于理解全句。比较明显的逻辑关系就是对比和反义关系。提供词义信息的词汇有but, yet, on the other hand, however, in contrast, while 等

Thin people might feel depressed during cold weather. Overweight people, on other hand, may feel unhappy in hot summer months.

此句中的thin people和 overweight people, cold weather与 hot summer months 相对应，这两种人各有自己的弱点，胖人夏天沮丧，瘦人冬天压抑。depressed的意思迎刃而解，即“压抑的，不舒服的”。

     Unlike the United States, where many different nationalities make up the population, Japan’s population is quite homogeneous.

     大家知道，美国是一个大熔炉，由多个民族组成。由unlike一词引出反义关系，很容易地判断出homogeneous的意思为“单一的，由同类组成的”。

 4.根据例证断定词义。

  For example, for instance, such as 或某些缩略形式如e.g(=for example)等提供线索。

    One goal of many Americans and Canadians is to move out of a busy urban area,

Such as New York, Los Angeles or Toranto.

搬出像New York, Los Angeles和 Toranto这些繁华的城市, 显然，urban area指“市区”

In Japan, people use landmarks in their directions. For example, the Japanese will say, “Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past the fruit market. The post office is across the bus stop.”

在这个句子中The corner, the big hotel, the fruit market, the bus stop都是信息词，根据这些指路的标志判断，landmark是“路标”的意思。

5、根据因果关系推测词义。

有何种原因必定产生何种结果，这种逻辑关系再明显不过了。

The biggest power failure in the city’s history... All of our ice cream and frozen foods melted.停电必然使冰箱里的冷冻食品融化。所以，melt为“融化”之意。

6、变化词性推测词义。

For many people, there seems to be no escape from poverty; in other words, they are poor, and they have no hope that this will change.

从In other words断定, poverty意思与 poor 接近，但词性不同，poverty为名词， poor为形容词。通过词性的变化可判断词义。

     上文主要讲了根据上下文猜测词义的某些技巧，除此之外，还可根据常识、构词法等猜测词义。在阅读中，同学们只要认真思考，不断总结，一定会掌握这些猜词技巧，提高阅读能力。