| 词组 | awake, awaken |
| 释义 | awake, awaken Awake is a verb that has not yet settled down from its long and tangled history. It, like wake (see wake, waken), is a blend of two older verbs, one transitive (or causative) and the other intransitive. These two verbs had different principal parts—one set being irregular and the other regular. The OED says that one of these inflected forms in Old English became used as a separate verb with regular inflections added; this verb became our modern awaken. Awaken is still regular, with awakened as its past and past participle. Awake, on the other hand, still has its mixture of regular (awaked) and irregular (awoke, awoken) principal parts. The frequency with which these are employed has varied over the years. The OED points out that Shakespeare used only awaked. Fowler 1926 found awoke commoner than awaked in the past and awaked commoner than awoke in the past participle. Fowler does not mention awoken, which was labeled obsolete in Webster 1909. Gowers in Fowler 1965 keeps the original note on the past (awoke rarely awaked) but changes the note on the past participle to "awaked sometimes awoken and rarely awoke." Awoken presents a special problem. The OED notes that the past participle of the Old English equivalent of awake was (in modern spelling) awaken, but by the 13th century the -n had been lost, leaving a past participle awake, which survives now only as an adjective. As awake fell into adjectival use, a new past participle awoken was formed from the irregular past awoke. Awoken was so little attested that Webster 1909 listed both it and the original awaken as obsolete. Webster's Second continued the obsolete designation, apparently through someone's carelessness—there was 20th-century evidence for awoken in the Merriam-Webster files when the book was edited. British commentators are in some disarray. Partridge 1942 discovered awoken in a mystery by Agatha Christie. He called it wrong. Bryson 1984 simply repeats Partridge. Phythian 1979 thinks that awoken does not exist. Fowler 1965 recognizes it, but the OED Supplement takes no notice. Longman 1984 gives awoken as the only past participle. Awoken has staged a strong comeback in the 20th century. The evidence in our files begins just before the 1920s and comes primarily from British sources: • ... with eyes like sparks and his blood awoken — John Masefield, Reynard the Fox, 1919 • ... his sense of insecurity was awoken —E. M. Förster, A Passage to India, 1924 • ... which has awoken to the realities —Fortnightly Rev., December 1926 • The boy had awoken to this sound —Horizon, October 1941 • ... where a dozing visitor is awoken by a padding maid with an afternoon tea —Nigel Dennis, Partisan Rev., July-August 1943 • ... the householder spirit had awoken in me —P. G. Wodehouse, Joy in the Morning, 1946 • He had awoken in this rare mood —Evelyn Waugh, Scott-King's Modern Europe, 1947 • Donald had awoken at six —Angus Wilson, "Mother's Sense of Fun," 1947 • ... should not have awoken to the truth —Arnold J. Toynbee, Saturday Rev., 16 Aug. 1947 • ... the town was awoken by a wild yelling —Alan Moorehead, The White Nile, 1960 • Among the lads thus rudely awoken —Ivor Herbert, Winter's Tale, 1974 • This reference has awoken some expensive memories —Private Eye, 7 Mar. 1975 It is probable that awoken is the prevailing past participle in British English today, and we know it also exists, at least orally, in American English. Our written evidence for American English use is weak, possibly because the verb itself is less common in American English than British English. So at the present time American English has both awaked and awoken as past participle; awoken predominates in British English; awoke is considerably less common in both British and American English. The original past participle awaken appears still to exist in Jamaican English: • Mr. L. C told the Gleaner that he was awaken by noise and heat —Jamaica Weekly Gleaner, 13 Feb. 1974 |
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