论『面子』

文/王逢鑫

我的案头有一本加拿大传教士季理斐（Donald MacGillivray）1898年初版、1911年第三次修订的《英华成语合璧字集》。这是一部百年前在上海出版的汉英词典。我查阅了关于“脸面”的词条，收录的有：脸面face；丢脸to lose face, to lose reputation, to be disgraced；丢脸的disreputable；顾脸面to have regard to face等。

汉语的“面子”“脸面”“颜面”和“情面”等词与情感、尊严和声誉相关。英语的对应词face的意思是one’s own sense of dignity or prestige in social contexts，即“一个人自己在社会语境中的尊严感和声誉感”，也与情感、尊严和声誉相关。例如：

1. “Face” is something that is emotionally invested, and that can be lost,maintained, or enhanced, and must be constantly attended to in interaction. “脸面”是情感投资的东西，它可以失去、维系或增强，因而必须在互动中不断地给予眷顾。

人需要有尊严，就有面子需求（face want、face need）。例如：

2. In the view of the linguists, politeness is one of the various rational behaviors of a Model Person to satisfy his face wants. 依据这些语言学家的观点，礼貌是一个模范人物为满足其面子需求的诸多理性行为中的一种。

to lose face 的意思是 to lose the respect of others, to be less respected, to be humiliated or experience public disgrace，或 to look stupid because of sth you have done，即“丢脸”或“丢面子”。例如：

3. John is more afraid of losing face than losing money. 与丢钱相比，约翰更怕丢面子。

to save face的意思是 to save one’s good reputation，popularity，or dignity when sth has happened or may happen to hurt sb，或to avoid embarrassment，即“保全面子”或“挽回面子”。例如：

4. To save face, he agreed to tender his resignation instead of getting an of ficial dismissal. 为了保全面子，他同意自己辞职，而不是被正式解雇。

face-saving的意思是“保全面子的”。例如：

5. The decision appears to be a face-saving compromise which will allow the mayor to remain in of fice. 这项决定看上去像是个保全面子的妥协，能使这位市长留任。

语言学家布朗和列文森提出了Face-saving Theory（面子保全论）。例如：

6. Since its establishment in 1978, Brown and Levinson’s Face-saving Theory has always been treated as a classical theory in the study of politeness and is highly in fluential in linguistic studies. 布朗和列文森的“面子保全论”自1978年创立以来，一直被视为礼貌现象研究的经典理论，在语言学研究方面也具有极大影响。

to give face的意思是“给面子”。这个词组是19世纪末由粤语“畀面”直接音译为英语的。粤语“畀面”的意思是“给面子”。例如：

7. The general manager of the company felt that he had given face to the other side by suddenly showing up himself to negotiate instead of sending a lower-ranked employee. 这个公司总经理没有派较低级别的雇员，而是突然亲自出面谈判，他觉得这样做给了对方面子。

to threaten face这个短语是由to lose face衍生而来，意思是“威胁面子”或“损面子”。face-threatening的意思是“威胁面子的”或“损面子的”。例如：

8. In fact, almost all the verbal acts in communication are face-threatening,even in an informal communicative context. 实际上，交际时几乎所有的言语行为都是威胁面子的，甚至在非正式交际语境中也是如此。

9. Refusal speech act is quite ubiquitous in daily life, but it is facethreatening by nature. “拒绝”这一言语行为在日常生活中十分常见，但它在本质上是威胁面子的。

下面一段话介绍了to lose face和to save face两个短语的来历：

“To lose face” began life in English as a word-for-word translation of the Chinese phrase “tiu lien” and has been used in English since the late 1880s. This phrase may also be expressed in English as “to suffer public disgrace”, that is, “to be unable to show one’s face in public”. “To save face” comes later. That phrase has no direct equivalent in Chinese and is merely the converse of “to lose face”.

to lose face从中文词组“丢脸”字对字翻译进入英语，而且自19世纪80年代末就一直在英语中应用。这个词组也可以用英语表达为to suffer public disgrace (当众蒙羞)，即“无法在公众前露脸”。to save face出现较晚。该词组在中文里没有直接的对应词，只是to lose face的换位反义词。 □