Last week I was arguing with my Dutchie buddy on the use of the English word ‘bastard’. Either he was being mischievous or he really meant it; he called a girl bastard but the girl argued that bastard could only refer to boys and not girls. My Dutchie buddy didn’t believe her.
I understand that bastard originally means someone born outside a legitimate marriage, and although it was clear from dictionaries that the word could refer to a child of either sex, but I have always thought that it originally only meant a illegitimate son. In order to prove my point, I quickly looked up German and Dutch dictionaries online, then told my Dutchie buddy: the German word Bastard and Dutch bastaard are both masculine nouns, and if those words can indeed refer to both genders, they should have been of neuter gender like the word Kind (which means child in both German and Dutch).
My Dutchie buddy wasn’t convinced, so I sought to look up an etymology dictionary for the origin of ‘bastard’. It turned out that the word was originally intended for both a male and female. Since the word originates from French, I also looked up the etymology for the French cognate bâtard and reached the same conclusion. (However, the French later coined the word bâtarde to distinguish female from male.) I had to concede that he was right.
It dawned on me later that the masculine, feminine and neuter genders in European languages don’t correspond necessarily to the actual physical gender, like the German word Mädchen and Dutch meisje which both mean a little girl but are neuter in gender. By the same token, Bastard (German) and bastaard (Dutch) may well be masculine but don’t exclude females. Languages are not the easiest thing to master, and definitely not meant for showing off because it can become a source of embarrassment if not careful. I was trying to be smart but it obviously backfired.
(This Dutch guy has won another argument with me again, bastard!)
上星期跟荷蘭好友爭論英文bastard這個字。不知是他佻皮還是有意，他用bastard稱呼一個女生（就像廣東話的「正衰人」一樣），女生反駁說此字祇可用於男生身上，荷蘭好友自然不服。
我知道bastard原意解作「非婚生的」，儘管英語字典的解釋也是寫「非婚生子女」，即男女皆可，不過我也一直以為此字起源祇可指非婚生男性，為引證我的觀點，我趕快查查字典，然後跟荷蘭好友說，德語Bastard和荷語bastaard兩字都是陽性，若真的男女都適用，就應該像Kind（德、荷語都解作兒童）此字一樣是中性。
荷蘭好友不以為然，於是我便接着翻查英語字源，原來bastard此字磐古初開便無男女之分。由於此字源自法語，我再查法語bâtard的字源，也得出同一結論（不過後來法語創出bâtarde一字，以區別男、女性）。我不得不甘拜下風。
後來我也想到，歐洲語言中的陽、陰、中性跟實際性別不一定有關，例如德語Mädchen、荷語meisje，意思是小女孩，但屬於中性名詞。同樣道理，德語Bastard和荷語bastaard雖是陽性，卻又不一定專指男性。這次自以為聰明，卻聰明反被聰明誤，語言就是這樣奧妙，我這個對語言祇懂皮毛的人，還是不好班門弄斧了。
（唉，這次我又敗給這個「正衰人」，不忿不忿！）
But not everyone will appreciate this point, especially the Chief Executive of Hong Kong who tried to be too clever and poked fun at the banner ‘Bowtie keep your election promise’ when he was announcing the annual policy address. (Bowtie was his nickname for wearing a bowtie all the time.) He said that there should have been an ‘s’ after ‘keep’ to make the statement grammatically correct. How he could not have figured out that it was in fact an imperative and was already correct. When he had a chance to explain it the next day, he claimed that he meant to read the banner as ‘Bowtie keeps his election promise’ and said that there should be a comma after ‘Bowtie’ to make the meaning of the banner clearer. (Yes, he wasn’t wrong, but these days people are use fewer and fewer commas, or I should say I tend to overuse them!) What a clever rebuttal – but given his rather paltry English skills, that was probably the brainchild of his smart political assistants.
One of the highlights of the policy address was a subvention scheme for all households to switch over to energy-saving light bulbs. However, it was revealed the next day that one of the Chief Executive’s in-laws was one of the three major local dealers of a major manufacturer for those bulbs. On the estimate that Hong Kong people would collectively spend about HK$ 300 million (approximately US$ 38 million, 26 million euros or A$ 42 million) on changing all light bulbs, and that the major manufacturer has a 30 to 50 per cent market share, it certainly smells of a gravy train. Who knows whether it was meant to be a perfect ploy to generate some handsome business for the Chief Executive’s in-law, or instead it was sheer inaptness on the Chief Executive’s part for not declaring potential conflicts of interest and circumventing this awkward situation. If the latter, Bowtie really needs to smarten up and lift his game.
Here’s an article that sums up the sagas nicely.
煲呔特首似乎也不懂這個道理，宣讀施政報告時，面對議員舉起「Bowtie keep your election promise」這句標語，竟然揶揄他們keep此字忘了加s，待翌日解釋時便說是跟議員開玩笑，又說原本句字中的Bowtie後面應加逗號（當然他這點說得沒錯，但現今英語潮流，逗號是越用越少了——又或其實是我用得過多！）此君實在太逞聰明，不及溫老總虛心，不過逞聰明背後必定是有班不賴的幕僚，懂得如此出謀為主子開脫！
施政報告宣布每戶派發節能燈泡券（即港人說的慳電膽）以鼓勵大家換更省電的燈泡，但原來煲呔特首有姻親是某大節能燈泡製造商的香港三大代理之一，有人推算，全民換燈泡約要花三億港元（約3千8百萬美元、2千6百萬歐元、4千2百萬澳元），以該製造商在香港擁有三至五成的市場佔有率（份額）計算，箇中利益確實不少！究竟這是他絕頂聰明想出的利益轉移妙計，還是他蠢得連一點政治觸覺都沒有，避嫌或事先申報利益衝突都不懂？若是後者，則他在叫香港要「升呢」的時候，自己也得「升呢」才行！（「升呢」是當今香港最新最潮用語之一，原意是指打電玩過關升級，「升level」，現泛指升級、自我增值之意。）
Yesterday I had a rare chance to have lunch outside my work place. After getting a hamburger and some fries, I went to the State Library diagonally across from the fast food outlet and set myself on the lawn in front of the library to enjoy the much-needed sunshine and warmth.
There was still quite a lot of fries left when all that remained of the hamburger was only a small corner. I put aside the burger on the grass right beside me, opened the paper take-away bag, dipped my head and dug through the packet of fries. But even before I finish chewing the first mouthful of fries, I noticed that someone was trying to steal my burger. The moment I lifted my head again, I could see a seagull gripping a piece of the bread from the burger in its beaks, chased by another dozen or so seagulls. The victor kept its bounty in a tenacious grip and ran away as quickly as it could until it was safely out of reach of other predators – and out of my sight.
I knew I was being circled by the seagulls and under their constant watch from the moment I had my first bite of food. They were looking for a moment to make an advance, and one of them obviously found it when I took my eye off the burger only for a brief second. It was pretty daring of the bird to make such an approach when the burger was actually so close to me. The bird must also have been very deft and sneaky to avoid my detection in the first place, then to run away at lightning speed afterwards. I was left quite impressed by how smart these urban birds could be.
Apart from foraging, the urban birds must have picked up other handy skills to adapt to an urbanised/suburbanised living environment. Sometimes I shake my head in a mix of disbelief and bemusement when I see what the birds use as part of their nests: plastic confectionary wrappers and packaging, pieces fine nylon mesh, or even raw material from carpets left in the streets. I’ve seen birds pecking at the exposed bits of the carpets pulling out the wool or whatever fibre that could be. I won’t be surprised if the birds have found those unnatural materials to offer better warmth and keep their nests drier. They are indeed smart builders!
平時午飯都是跟同事在飯堂一同吃，昨天中午難得可以溜出去，買了漢堡包和薯條後，便到快餐店斜對面，州立圖書館正門前的大草坪坐下，享受久違的陽光和溫暖。
漢堡包吃剩了一個角，還有很多薯條沒吃過，便把漢堡包放在身旁的草地，垂頭打開紙袋，掏出薯條一口一口的吃，但第一口還沒有吃完，便驀然發現有人動了那個漢堡包，待再抬起頭時，但見一隻嘴裡銜着漢堡包那片麵包的海鷗，正被十多隻其他海鷗追逐着，那隻偷襲得手的海鷗當然不會輕易放過那寶物，一邊走一邊死銜着麵包不放，其他追逐者也鞭長莫及。
其實打從我坐下吃第一口漢堡包時，已有不少海鷗在身邊盤桓，虎視眈眈，但總沒想到把漢堡包放得離自己不遠，那一刻眼前又看不到海鷗，想必是有隻聰明海鷗乘人不防，攻其不備，從後迅速突襲得手，其覓食本領，令我佩服！
活在都市的雀鳥，與人類共居已久，也學到不少「謀生技能」，烏鴉懂得用腳爪撕開食物包裝取食物也不是甚麼新鮮事了，最有趣的，倒是有時看見雀巢有些意想不到的建築物料：糖果的塑料包裝，密孔的尼龍布，甚至我也看過雀鳥從丟在路邊的地毯啄去布料，這些非自然物料，相信比樹枝、樹葉更防水、保暖，令牠們有個更安樂的窩。這些雀鳥果然是聰明之輩！
I understand that bastard originally means someone born outside a legitimate marriage, and although it was clear from dictionaries that the word could refer to a child of either sex, but I have always thought that it originally only meant a illegitimate son. In order to prove my point, I quickly looked up German and Dutch dictionaries online, then told my Dutchie buddy: the German word Bastard and Dutch bastaard are both masculine nouns, and if those words can indeed refer to both genders, they should have been of neuter gender like the word Kind (which means child in both German and Dutch).
My Dutchie buddy wasn’t convinced, so I sought to look up an etymology dictionary for the origin of ‘bastard’. It turned out that the word was originally intended for both a male and female. Since the word originates from French, I also looked up the etymology for the French cognate bâtard and reached the same conclusion. (However, the French later coined the word bâtarde to distinguish female from male.) I had to concede that he was right.
It dawned on me later that the masculine, feminine and neuter genders in European languages don’t correspond necessarily to the actual physical gender, like the German word Mädchen and Dutch meisje which both mean a little girl but are neuter in gender. By the same token, Bastard (German) and bastaard (Dutch) may well be masculine but don’t exclude females. Languages are not the easiest thing to master, and definitely not meant for showing off because it can become a source of embarrassment if not careful. I was trying to be smart but it obviously backfired.
(This Dutch guy has won another argument with me again, bastard!)
上星期跟荷蘭好友爭論英文bastard這個字。不知是他佻皮還是有意，他用bastard稱呼一個女生（就像廣東話的「正衰人」一樣），女生反駁說此字祇可用於男生身上，荷蘭好友自然不服。
我知道bastard原意解作「非婚生的」，儘管英語字典的解釋也是寫「非婚生子女」，即男女皆可，不過我也一直以為此字起源祇可指非婚生男性，為引證我的觀點，我趕快查查字典，然後跟荷蘭好友說，德語Bastard和荷語bastaard兩字都是陽性，若真的男女都適用，就應該像Kind（德、荷語都解作兒童）此字一樣是中性。
荷蘭好友不以為然，於是我便接着翻查英語字源，原來bastard此字磐古初開便無男女之分。由於此字源自法語，我再查法語bâtard的字源，也得出同一結論（不過後來法語創出bâtarde一字，以區別男、女性）。我不得不甘拜下風。
後來我也想到，歐洲語言中的陽、陰、中性跟實際性別不一定有關，例如德語Mädchen、荷語meisje，意思是小女孩，但屬於中性名詞。同樣道理，德語Bastard和荷語bastaard雖是陽性，卻又不一定專指男性。這次自以為聰明，卻聰明反被聰明誤，語言就是這樣奧妙，我這個對語言祇懂皮毛的人，還是不好班門弄斧了。
（唉，這次我又敗給這個「正衰人」，不忿不忿！）
* * *
But not everyone will appreciate this point, especially the Chief Executive of Hong Kong who tried to be too clever and poked fun at the banner ‘Bowtie keep your election promise’ when he was announcing the annual policy address. (Bowtie was his nickname for wearing a bowtie all the time.) He said that there should have been an ‘s’ after ‘keep’ to make the statement grammatically correct. How he could not have figured out that it was in fact an imperative and was already correct. When he had a chance to explain it the next day, he claimed that he meant to read the banner as ‘Bowtie keeps his election promise’ and said that there should be a comma after ‘Bowtie’ to make the meaning of the banner clearer. (Yes, he wasn’t wrong, but these days people are use fewer and fewer commas, or I should say I tend to overuse them!) What a clever rebuttal – but given his rather paltry English skills, that was probably the brainchild of his smart political assistants.
One of the highlights of the policy address was a subvention scheme for all households to switch over to energy-saving light bulbs. However, it was revealed the next day that one of the Chief Executive’s in-laws was one of the three major local dealers of a major manufacturer for those bulbs. On the estimate that Hong Kong people would collectively spend about HK$ 300 million (approximately US$ 38 million, 26 million euros or A$ 42 million) on changing all light bulbs, and that the major manufacturer has a 30 to 50 per cent market share, it certainly smells of a gravy train. Who knows whether it was meant to be a perfect ploy to generate some handsome business for the Chief Executive’s in-law, or instead it was sheer inaptness on the Chief Executive’s part for not declaring potential conflicts of interest and circumventing this awkward situation. If the latter, Bowtie really needs to smarten up and lift his game.
Here’s an article that sums up the sagas nicely.
煲呔特首似乎也不懂這個道理，宣讀施政報告時，面對議員舉起「Bowtie keep your election promise」這句標語，竟然揶揄他們keep此字忘了加s，待翌日解釋時便說是跟議員開玩笑，又說原本句字中的Bowtie後面應加逗號（當然他這點說得沒錯，但現今英語潮流，逗號是越用越少了——又或其實是我用得過多！）此君實在太逞聰明，不及溫老總虛心，不過逞聰明背後必定是有班不賴的幕僚，懂得如此出謀為主子開脫！
施政報告宣布每戶派發節能燈泡券（即港人說的慳電膽）以鼓勵大家換更省電的燈泡，但原來煲呔特首有姻親是某大節能燈泡製造商的香港三大代理之一，有人推算，全民換燈泡約要花三億港元（約3千8百萬美元、2千6百萬歐元、4千2百萬澳元），以該製造商在香港擁有三至五成的市場佔有率（份額）計算，箇中利益確實不少！究竟這是他絕頂聰明想出的利益轉移妙計，還是他蠢得連一點政治觸覺都沒有，避嫌或事先申報利益衝突都不懂？若是後者，則他在叫香港要「升呢」的時候，自己也得「升呢」才行！（「升呢」是當今香港最新最潮用語之一，原意是指打電玩過關升級，「升level」，現泛指升級、自我增值之意。）
* * *
Yesterday I had a rare chance to have lunch outside my work place. After getting a hamburger and some fries, I went to the State Library diagonally across from the fast food outlet and set myself on the lawn in front of the library to enjoy the much-needed sunshine and warmth.
There was still quite a lot of fries left when all that remained of the hamburger was only a small corner. I put aside the burger on the grass right beside me, opened the paper take-away bag, dipped my head and dug through the packet of fries. But even before I finish chewing the first mouthful of fries, I noticed that someone was trying to steal my burger. The moment I lifted my head again, I could see a seagull gripping a piece of the bread from the burger in its beaks, chased by another dozen or so seagulls. The victor kept its bounty in a tenacious grip and ran away as quickly as it could until it was safely out of reach of other predators – and out of my sight.
I knew I was being circled by the seagulls and under their constant watch from the moment I had my first bite of food. They were looking for a moment to make an advance, and one of them obviously found it when I took my eye off the burger only for a brief second. It was pretty daring of the bird to make such an approach when the burger was actually so close to me. The bird must also have been very deft and sneaky to avoid my detection in the first place, then to run away at lightning speed afterwards. I was left quite impressed by how smart these urban birds could be.
Apart from foraging, the urban birds must have picked up other handy skills to adapt to an urbanised/suburbanised living environment. Sometimes I shake my head in a mix of disbelief and bemusement when I see what the birds use as part of their nests: plastic confectionary wrappers and packaging, pieces fine nylon mesh, or even raw material from carpets left in the streets. I’ve seen birds pecking at the exposed bits of the carpets pulling out the wool or whatever fibre that could be. I won’t be surprised if the birds have found those unnatural materials to offer better warmth and keep their nests drier. They are indeed smart builders!
平時午飯都是跟同事在飯堂一同吃，昨天中午難得可以溜出去，買了漢堡包和薯條後，便到快餐店斜對面，州立圖書館正門前的大草坪坐下，享受久違的陽光和溫暖。
漢堡包吃剩了一個角，還有很多薯條沒吃過，便把漢堡包放在身旁的草地，垂頭打開紙袋，掏出薯條一口一口的吃，但第一口還沒有吃完，便驀然發現有人動了那個漢堡包，待再抬起頭時，但見一隻嘴裡銜着漢堡包那片麵包的海鷗，正被十多隻其他海鷗追逐着，那隻偷襲得手的海鷗當然不會輕易放過那寶物，一邊走一邊死銜着麵包不放，其他追逐者也鞭長莫及。
其實打從我坐下吃第一口漢堡包時，已有不少海鷗在身邊盤桓，虎視眈眈，但總沒想到把漢堡包放得離自己不遠，那一刻眼前又看不到海鷗，想必是有隻聰明海鷗乘人不防，攻其不備，從後迅速突襲得手，其覓食本領，令我佩服！
活在都市的雀鳥，與人類共居已久，也學到不少「謀生技能」，烏鴉懂得用腳爪撕開食物包裝取食物也不是甚麼新鮮事了，最有趣的，倒是有時看見雀巢有些意想不到的建築物料：糖果的塑料包裝，密孔的尼龍布，甚至我也看過雀鳥從丟在路邊的地毯啄去布料，這些非自然物料，相信比樹枝、樹葉更防水、保暖，令牠們有個更安樂的窩。這些雀鳥果然是聰明之輩！
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