| 词组 | say |
| 释义 | say The use of say for said in a narration, as in says I, is now and then pointed to as an error. There are two aspects of the problem: the use of the third person singular says with first and second person pronouns, and the use of the present where the past might be expected. Curme 1931 explains the first as a survival of older literary English. When the Northern -s was in the process of replacing the Southern -th ending in early Modern English, it was not limited to just the third person singular. (It had been used for all persons in Northern dialect.) The survival of this older form in the says I of the narrator is a mark of a conversational style of narration. It is used to identify the narrator's speech as distinct from the rest of the narrative and the speech of interlocutors. Curme has an example from one of Thackeray's less serious works. Here are a few from our own files: • Why, says I, this is a little Nosegay of Conceits, a very Lump of Salt: Every Verse hath something in it that piques Dear Mr. Bickerstaff, says he, shaking me by the Hand, every Body knows you to be a Judge of these Things —Joseph Addison, The Taller, No. 163, 25 Apr. 1710 • But I was going to tell what husband said. He says to me, says he, "Silly." I says, says I, "What?" — Frances Miriam Whitcher, "Hezekiah Bedott," 1855, in The Mirth of a Nation, ed. Walter Blair & Raven I. McDavid, Jr., 1983 • Thin we wint up to each other. 'A Happy New Year,' says I. 'Th' same to you,' says he, 'an' manny iv thim,' he says. 'Ye have a brick in ye'er hand,' says I. 'I was thinkin' iv givin' ye a New Year's gift,' says he. 'Th' same to you, an' manny iv thim,' says I, fon-dlin' me own ammunition —Finley Peter Dunne, Mr. Dooley in Peace and in War, 1898 • One of them in Texas fixed me with a seedy eye and said, "Miss O'Connor, what is your motivation in writing?" "Because I'm good at it," says I —Flan-nery O'Connor, letter, 24 Nov. 1962 The use of the present where the past might be expected appears to add a certain immediacy to the narration. Such usage is fine in a chatty, colloquial style, even though a bit iffy by modern grammatical standards. You will not, of course, use it in your high-powered, dead serious prose. |
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