著者

倉島 史憲

出版者

長野工業高等専門学校

雑誌

長野工業高等専門学校紀要 (ISSN:02861909)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.22, pp.73-83, 1990-12-28

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As I have been paraphrasing English proverbs for more than ten years, and now I am doing the same way with Chinese sayings consisting of four character groups. They are appropriate teaching materials for the purpose of not only the growth and improvement of the young but also the development of expression in English, I think. They have a wider range of expression than those of the two or three character groups: they express emphasis, exaggeration, explanation, description, modification and admiration. So they sound grave, imposing, exaggerated and powerful. I arranged the paraphrased Chinese characters according to five groups: I. Noun phrase e. g.規矩準縄:criterion, models and rules in judging things II. Adverb phrase and clause e. g.円転滑脱:without arousing bitter feelings III. Gerund and Infinitive e. g.下学上達:beginning with learning easy things and arriving at high and abstract subjects by degrees IV. Sentence e. g.運否天賦:God decides on whether we are lucky or not. V. Proverb e. g.一陽来復:After a storm comes a calm. Especially, I tried to paraphrase them through using expression that cannot be found in various English dictionaries. In addition, I include illustrative sentences using the four-letters Chinese characters.