論『面子』

文/王逢鑫

我的案頭有一本加拿大傳教士季理斐（Donald MacGillivray）1898年初版、1911年第三次修訂的《英華成語合璧字集》。這是一部百年前在上海出版的漢英詞典。我查閱了關于“臉面”的詞條，收錄的有：臉面face；丟臉to lose face, to lose reputation, to be disgraced；丟臉的disreputable；顧臉面to have regard to face等。

漢語的“面子”“臉面”“顏面”和“情面”等詞與情感、尊嚴和聲譽相關。英語的對應詞face的意思是one’s own sense of dignity or prestige in social contexts，即“一個人自己在社會語境中的尊嚴感和聲譽感”，也與情感、尊嚴和聲譽相關。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. “臉面”是情感投資的東西，它可以失去、維系或增強，因而必須在互動中不斷地給予眷顧。

人需要有尊嚴，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. 依據這些語言學家的觀點，禮貌是一個模范人物為滿足其面子需求的諸多理性行為中的一種。

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“丟臉”或“丟面子”。例如：

3. John is more afraid of losing face than losing money. 與丟錢相比，約翰更怕丟面子。

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. 為了保全面子，他同意自己辭職，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. 這項決定看上去像是個保全面子的妥協，能使這位市長留任。

語言學家布朗和列文森提出了Face-saving Theory（面子保全論）。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“面子保全論”自1978年創立以來，一直被視為禮貌現象研究的經典理論，在語言學研究方面也具有極大影響。

to give face的意思是“給面子”。這個詞組是19世紀末由粵語“畀面”直接音譯為英語的。粵語“畀面”的意思是“給面子”。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. 這個公司總經理沒有派較低級別的雇員，而是突然親自出面談判，他覺得這樣做給了對方面子。

to threaten face這個短語是由to lose face衍生而來，意思是“威脅面子”或“損面子”。face-threatening的意思是“威脅面子的”或“損面子的”。例如：

8. In fact, almost all the verbal acts in communication are face-threatening,even in an informal communicative context. 實際上，交際時幾乎所有的言語行為都是威脅面子的，甚至在非正式交際語境中也是如此。

9. Refusal speech act is quite ubiquitous in daily life, but it is facethreatening by nature. “拒絕”這一言語行為在日常生活中十分常見，但它在本質上是威脅面子的。

下面一段話介紹了to lose face和to save face兩個短語的來歷：

“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從中文詞組“丟臉”字對字翻譯進入英語，而且自19世紀80年代末就一直在英語中應用。這個詞組也可以用英語表達為to suffer public disgrace (當眾蒙羞)，即“無法在公眾前露臉”。to save face出現較晚。該詞組在中文里沒有直接的對應詞，只是to lose face的換位反義詞。 □