以a-开头的形容词用法新探 • afraid 江苏丰县 李翔 一、afraid的用法 http://yingyu.chazidian.comA. 作表语1. 不敢[害怕](做某事)的 (unwilling to do something because you are worried about what will happen if you do it.) 相当于frightened。(1) afraid of sb / sth 害怕某人[物] 例如：Are you afraid of snakes? (=Are you frightened of snakes? / Do you fear snakes? / Are you scared of snakes? / Are you fearful of snakes?)你怕蛇吗?I was afraid of the other boys... 我害怕其他的男孩……(2) afraid of doing sth 害怕做某事 例如：He's afraid of going out alone at night. 他害怕夜晚独自出去。(3) afraid to do sth  害怕(或不敢)做某事  例如：I'm still afraid to sleep in my own bedroom. 我怕仍然不敢再自己的卧室睡觉。2. 担忧或忧虑(某事物可能产生的后果); 恐怕 (worried or anxious about (the possible result of sth)) (1) afraid of doing sth  担心做某事 例如：I didn't mention it because I was afraid of upsetting him. (=I didn't mention it because I was afraid (that) I might upset him.) 我没有提起那件事, 因为我怕他心烦意乱。(2) afraid to do sth  担心做某事 例如：Don’t be afraid to ask if you don’t understand. 你要是不懂，尽管问好了。(3) afraid that....  恐怕…… 例如：He's afraid that he might lose customers. (= He's afraid of losing customers.) 他怕失去顾客。 3. 担心(某事物[某人]会遇到危险) (frightened or worried about things that may put sth / sb in danger)afraid for sth / sb 担心某人[物] 例如：They’ve been laying people off, and Charlie is afraid for his job. 他们一直在裁员，所以查理为自己的工作担心。4. I’m afraid... (礼貌地说出令人不快、失望或感到遗憾的事)我怕，恐怕，很遗憾，对不起 (used as a polite way of telling sb. sth. that is unpleasant or disappointing, or that you are sorry about)(1) I’m afraid that... (通常省略that) 例如：I'm afraid we can't come. 很抱歉, 我们不能来。“Are we late?? “I'm afraid that we are.” “我们迟到了吗？”“恐怕是迟到了。”注：I’m afraid也可以作插入语，放在后面。例如：I can't help you, I'm afraid. 我帮不了你的忙, 对不起。(2) I’m afraid so.(=yes) 恐怕是的。例如：“Have we missed the train?” “I'm afraid so. (=I'm afraid we’ve missed the train.)” “我们误了火车了吗?”“恐怕是误了。”(3) I’m afraid not.(=no) 恐怕不是的。例如：“Was she impressed with our work?” “I'm afraid not. (=I'm afraid she was impressed with our work)” “我们的工作能给她留下印象吗？”“恐怕不能。”B. 作宾语补足语It made you afraid to step out of your house. 这使你不敢走出你的家院。C. 作状语Afraid of being cut off, they lost no time in turning back. 为怕给敌人切断，他们急忙撤了回来。   二、afraid的搭配1. be [feel, look, seem, sound, become, grow] afraid。例如：She whispered (to me) that she felt very afraid. 她小声(对我)说她觉得很害怕。2. make sb afraid。例如：What has made you so deeply afraid of your boss? 3. a little(Am.E) [a bit(Am.E), a little bit(Am.E), almost, awfully, deadly(Am.E), deathly(Am.E), deeply, desperately, extremely, genuinely, half, just, mortally, much, physically, rather, really, secretly, slightly, simply, suddenly, terribly, truly, very, very much] afraid。例如：She was tense, almost afraid to open the letter.  她很紧张，几乎不敢打开信。He was half afraid to look at her. 他有点不敢看她。You do know, don't you? You are just afraid to tell me. 你确实知道，不是吗？ 你只是不敢告诉我。■注：有的语法专著认为very不能修饰afraid；只有 much 或very much才可修饰afraid。例如：Michael Swan著Practical English Usage (International Student’s Edition Eighth impression 2002)p28:We often use very much instead of very before afraid, especially when I’m afraid means ‘I’m sorry to tell you’. 在afraid前面，经常用very much，而不单用very。如果I’m afraid 用来表示I’m sorry to tell you，尤其如此。但实际上，现在英美语中都能用very 修饰afraid。(1) 在BNC(英国国家语料库http: / / www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk)和BUY-BNC BRTISH NATIONAL CORPUS (UK,1980s-1993) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University ) http: / / corpus.byu.edu / bnc / 上共有26 例 very afraid(2)在BYU: THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY(http: / / corpus.byu / oed / )上共有1例very afraid(3) 在BUY CORPUS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH (1990-2008) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University) http: / / www.americancorpus.org / 上共有189例very afraid(4) 在TIME CORPUS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH (1923-2006) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University ) (http: / / corpus.byu.edu / time)上共有12例very afraid4. afraid for...。例如：He is afraid for his own safety. 他担心自己的安全。5. afraid of。例如：Charlie is afraid of marriage. 查理害怕结婚。6. afraid about。例如：He is afraid about what will happen.他担心将来发生的事。7. nothing to be afraid of 没什么可害怕的。例如：Go ahead! There's nothing to be afraid of. 干吧！没有什么可怕的。8. be afraid of one's own shadow(= be very timid) 很胆小; 非常胆怯。例如：He had noticed that the horse was afraid of his own shadow. 他已经注意到这匹马很胆小。   三、afraid的同义词语辨析1. be afraid of doing sth. 和be afraid to do sth. (1) Michael Swan著Practical English Usage (Third Editiion)p277：To talk about fear things that happen accidentally, we prefer afraid of +-ing.(表示害怕会偶然发生什么事，一般用afraid of +-ing。) I don’t like to drive fast because I’m afraid of crashing. 我不爱开快车，因为怕撞车。In other cases we can use afraid of +-ing or afraid +infinitive with no differenceof meaning.(其他情况下，既可以afraid of +-ing，也可以用afraid +动词不定式，意思并无不同。)I’m not afraid of telling / to tell her the truth. 我不怕把真实情况告诉他。(2)【日】田中茂范等编《外研社英汉多功能词典》(杨文江等编译 外语教学与研究出版社 2008年7月第1版)p39：表示不受害怕主语意志控制的不测事态时，用of doing，其他情况用 to do和 of doing均可。但是表示“害怕某结果而不敢做……“时主要用to do。 (3) 葛传槼编著《英语惯用法词典》(新修订本)(时代出版社 1958年9月初版)p29-30：“afraid”后面接infinitive作“怕……”或“不敢……”解；“afraid”后接“of”和 gerund通常做“恐怕将……”解，但也往往作“怕……”或“不敢……”解。如“afraid to die”是“怕死”或“不敢死”；“afraid of dying”通常是“恐怕将死”，但也往往作“怕死”或“不敢死”。“afraid to see him”是“怕见他”或“不敢见他”； “afraid of seeing him”通常是“(不要见他而)恐怕不免见他”，但也往往作“怕见他”或“不敢见他”解。假定你很怕伤风，该说“afraid to catch cold” 或“afraid of catching cold”；假定你衣服穿的少，恐怕要伤风，该说“afraid of catching cold”。(4) A. J. Thomson and A. V. Martinet著A PracticalEnglish Grammar (第四版) (外语教学与研究出版社 1991年2月第1版)p238：  be afraid of + gerund Here the gerund usually expresses an aqction which the subject fears may happen. It is normally an involuntary action(这里动名词常常表示主语担心发生的事情。这些常常是无意让发生的事情)：She avoids lonely streets. She is afraid of being mugged. 她避免在没人的马路行走。她怕遭抢劫。be afraid +infinitive means that the subject is / was etc. too frightened to perform the action. This is obviously a deliberate action(被afraid+不定式表示主语非常害怕，以至不敢采取某一行动。这些通常是有意让发生的动作)：He was afraid to jump. 他不敢跳。(他没跳。)(5) 陆谷孙主编《英汉大词典》(第2版) (上海译文出版社2007年3月第1版)p33：(afraid)后接“of+动名词”结构一般只表示“怕做某事”的意思；如后动词接不定式则侧重表示“因为担心后果严重而不敢也不愿做某事”。如He is not afraid of dying.和 He is afraid to die.两句，虽都可译作“他不怕死。”但前者只是说出一个事实，后者则包含诸如“他心甘情愿地去赴死”之类更近一层的意思；又如She was afraid of waking her husband. 和She was afraid to wake her husband.两句，虽都可译作“她生怕把丈夫弄醒了”，后一句又包含“考虑到可能招惹丈夫发怒的后果而不敢弄醒”之类的意思。    2. afraid, frightened, fear(1) afraid是普通用语，概念广泛。多用于习惯，经常 的“惧怕”某些事物，或泛指一种“恐惧心理”； frightened 常指一种突然的而且通常是暂时的惧怕，也可表示持续的恐惧与担忧；fear作动词，但不如前两者常用，常暗示由于惧怕而不敢做某事，或让恐惧影响自己的思想或行动。例如：I’m afraid to say what I think. 我不怕说出自己的想法。(意即：无顾虑)At the sight of the tiger, the little girl was too frightened to escape. 看见老虎，那个小女孩儿吓得都不敢逃走了。(突然的、暂时的惧怕)She’s always frightened when she’s alone in the house. 她一个人在家时，总是很害怕。Fearing he might be recognikzed, he decided to adop a diguise. 他因为怕被人出来，决意化妆。(由于惧怕而不以本来面目出现)(2)在口语中 be afraid 和 fear 也可表示“恐怕”或“怀疑”。例如：I’m afraid it will be too late if we hesitate any longer. 如果我们再犹豫不决，恐怕会太晚了。I fear it’s not so. 恐怕不是这样。3. fearful, scared, terrified, alarmed, apprehensive, timid这几个形容词都表示“害怕的”，“受惊的”“忧虑的”。 (1) fearful害怕的， 担心的。形容可怕之事，也指人对某事的惧怕心理，多指“担心可能发生的结果的”。 既指外界情况变化而引起的恐惧，又指来自内心的害怕与焦虑。例如：She was fearful of falling. 他怕摔倒。(2) scared  受惊吓的。多用于口语，表示受惊想逃。例如：I got scared at the sight of the snake. 一见到那条蛇我怕极了。(3) terrified 受惊吓的。指感受到“很强烈的、突如其来的恐惧”,意味着被恐惧镇住的紧张心情。例如：  The terrified children ran home. 受惊吓的孩子跑回家去。(4) alarmed 受惊吓的。 指因某种可怕的现象出现而惊恐。例如：People were alarmed when they heardabout the plague. 人们听说那种瘟疫后惊恐不安。(5) apprehensive 忧虑的，恐惧的。一般表示对未来的危险、失败或困难等忧虑和担心，多指由环境所造成的外部危险，并且是不由人的意志或性情所决定的。例如：She was apprehensive of being arrested. 她担心被逮捕。(6) timid  指“缺乏勇气和自信的”、“胆怯的”, 指“易惊怕的”和“过分谨慎的”。例如：He was timid about investing money. 他不敢投资。   4. appalling, awful, dreadful, frightful, terrible, terrific, horrible, horrific，shocking 这些形容词均含“害怕的、可怕的”之意。(1) appalling 指既令害怕又使人惊异、胆寒，用于那些令人惊恐或瞠目结舌之事物。(2) awful 用于描述那些使人深深感到一种超然的力量或重大的事情。     (3) dreadful 用于那些使人莫可名状，连连惊颤的事物。     (4) frightful 既可用于那些能立刻带或造成惊恐的事物，也可指一般性的可怕、凶恶的事物。(5) terrible 用于描述任何能造成恐怖或极度可怕、令人觉得无望的事物，可以形容不可忍受的或给情感带来伤害的东西。 (6) terrific 用于那些通过武力，能量的释放、爆炸等造成恐怖的事物。(7) horrible 用于那些引起恐怖的同时，也激起厌恶憎恨情绪的事物，或用于那些只激起憎恶佛如东西。  (8) horrific和horrible相近，但horrible强调潜在的效果，而horrific更强调实际的效果。(9) shocking 比以上几个词语气要温和些，表示某种事物因与一个人的期望、情感或道德等不相符而引起震惊的。