英語検定ライティング準１級（第107回）

語学「英単語と漢字の成り立ちは似てる話」

We find it difficult to learn English vocabulary.
We have effective means to learn them, however.

英単語の中にも「へん」と「つくり」でも覚えるといいものがある。「機会」はいい例だ。左は「開く」でその右が「港」で「港が開けた」ら「チャンス」になるわけだ。
Various English words are composed of “prefix” and “suffix,” which might enable Japanese people to learn such words by heart more and more easily.
We have an easy example : “opportunity” has “op” and “port,” which means “open the port.”
In short, we have a chance when the port is opened.

日本語の漢字は小学校に入ると習う。簡単な例を挙げると、「木」の隣に「木」を置くと「林」になり、「林」の上に「木」を置くと「森」になる。これは分かりやすい。
Chinese characters are learned when children enter the elementary school : we put “tree” next to “tree,” so that we can gain “wood,” and we put “tree” on “wood,” so that we can obtain “forest,” which is an even easier instance.

漢字は「へん」にも「つくり」にも意味がある。そして英単語も同じだ。この法則が全ての英単語に使えたら、日本人にも英語の学習は格段に楽になると思われる。
Both prefixes and suffixes have a meaning, so do English words, which is unexpected.
We could memorize English words still more easily when this principle described above should be true of every English vocabulary, we assume.

英単語「company」の成り立ちは接頭辞と語根の組み合わせで学習したい。「com」は「一緒に」の意味がある。そして「pan」は食パンの「パン」である。
An English word “company” is composed of both a prefix and a root, “com” means “together,” and “pan” means “bread.”

つまり「一緒にパンを食べる」が原義だ。辞書で調べると「同席」と「仲間」と「会社」が出てくるが、３つを別々で丸暗記するのは効率が悪いように思える。
In short, “com” and “bread” originally means “have bread together.”
The word “company” has three different meanings : the same table, a companion and a company, when we consult the dictionary.
But this kind of approach isn’t effective when we learn these three meanings respectively by heart.

「同じテーブルでパンを食べる仲間が会社を作る」が頭の中にあれば、このまま１文だけで済む。この要領で全ての英単語が構成されるならもっと簡単に学習できる。
We eat breads on the same table to launch a company.
This sentence is easy to memorize, and “company” has three kinds of similar meanings.
We wish there were more English words we could learn in such a smart and effective way of studying.

An English word has different kinds of meanings.
This makes us memorize less and less its vocabulary.