這陣子每次見到 earth 字，頭便立即痛起來。
事源某次在文稿中見到數個 earth 字，有些拼 Earth，有些則拼 earth。栗子妹看了幾遍，覺得很不順眼，於是便跑去找同事，問是否能把 earth 全改為 Earth。同事說，若指行星便應用 Earth，其他情況則 earth。
可是問題來了──我如何判斷作者是在指行星呢？譬如 I'm the happiest person on earth，憑甚麼判斷作者是想說「我是世界上最快樂的人」，而不是「我是地球上最快樂的人」？
以下兩句也是讓栗想破了頭：
The earth revolves around the sun. (字典用了細楷！)
God created the earth. (不能說神創造地球這個行星嗎？)
看來要揣摩作者的意思，真不是一件易事啊！
(又：原來今天是世界地球日。)
唔知哩個「世界地球日」係要叫人做d乜o既呢？
回覆刪除eg: "How far is the Earth from the sun?"
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Can we say if Earth with a capital E, it always goes with "the" ?
if not, "earth" will be fine.
Pls correct me if I am wrong.
[版主回覆04/23/2009 08:00:00]雲兒：請參看The Teacher的解說
栗子妹：晚安呀！
回覆刪除祝世界地球日快樂！
呵呵, 語言都有多意的煩惱
回覆刪除I had to read this a couple times before I understood. Let me give it a try:
回覆刪除Earth is capped if its context implies a proper noun, such as the name of a planet, as in the planet Earth. But if it means the world, as in "on earth", then it's not capped. The earth revolces around the sun is not capped because the statement doesn't imply a proper noun, but the statement "Mercury, Mars, Earth and Venus revolve around the same sun" implies a proper noun. The statement "God created the earth" is not to be interpreted as God created Earth, the planet, but earth, the world.
Your third paragraph confuses me. "happiest person on earth" could only mean 世界上最快樂. 地球上最快樂 is "happiest person on this planet" in English. Both statements mean the same thing, but the latter is used only if the speaker wishes to be astronomical, or academic, or less emotional.
[版主回覆04/23/2009 07:52:00]Very clear explanation! Many thanks, Teach
I got so confused because I linked the use of capital letter to the meaning. If the author is referring to 地球, then it should be capitalized. If the author is referring to 世界, then lowercase. I should focus on the concept of proper noun instead.
Little Cloud: proper nouns need no determiner in front, so it's either "How far is Earth from the sun?", or "How far is the earth from the sun?". The first one is a question in astronomy, while the second is a question of everyday knowledge.
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