考研英语高分秘笺 拉丁语入门

Latin is a classical language in Europe ,it is one internationally used language of learning in the 18th century. Latin has laid emphasis upon the languages of Europe, such as English,German,French,Italian,and Spain et. After some linguists’ investigation and statistics,we have known that there are almost 50%of vocabularies in English derived from Latin.

　　In the recent period the phrases and idioms of Latin are utilized in many papers and books. In order to research the English vocabularies , owning some knowledge of Latin is very useful.

　　Here are some major aspects in Latin , I think, when you grasp them, and transplant them in your English, you will find that there is a bridge to English kingdom.

　　1. General considerations

　　In the skeleton of Latin grammar,there are three main sections:gender,number and case.I am not ready to discuss them detailedly,but to indicate that when a noun is a derivative of Latin,its plural is often constructed as following:

　　Stem+a

　　Stem+i

　　(Furthermore,there are many declensions in plural formation,but ut supra are most universal.)

　　2. Latin roots

　　With the addition of prefixes and suffixes , Latin roots can combine immense words.Basically, according to the etymology,the meanings of a word are determinated by its root.As we now know that there are a great deal of derivatives in English and we can not learn them one by one,hence,we should deduce its meanings according to its root;on the other hand,root adding context can validly deduce the relevant expression of the aimed word.

　　Here are a concise list of key and powerful roots of Latin in English . You’d better memorize them clearly.

　　Infra- below

　　Pend- hung

　　Aqua- water

　　Quin- five

　　Aud- hear

　　Acr- sharp

　　Am- love,like

　　Ceed- go

　　Cide- kill

　　Duc- lead

　　Fed- group

　　Fess- declare

　　Grad- step

　　Folio- leaf

　　Jec- throw,place

　　Jus- law

　　Loc- location

　　Loq/loc- speak

　　Mand- order

　　Mon- warn

　　Melan- black

　　Pass/pat/path- suffer

　　Pound- put

　　Preci- value

　　Rend- give

　　Rect- guide;straight

　　San- health

　　Semble- appearance

　　Spec- examine

　　Tail- cut

　　Term- end

　　Tox- poison

　　Via- way

　　Voc-call

　　As we have known that the ut supra roots are most common found in English words,we can refer to many relevant books about roots or etymology to find detailed materials.

　　3. Pronunciation

　　The pronunciation of Latin is very simple comparing to English.It is valuable to understand the accent(or stress) of vocabulariy, for it is the original rule of English accent.

　　Generally,its accent lies in the second syllable from the end.On some occasions it may lay in the third from the end,or the first like German.

　　4. Latin phrase

　　Here are some frequent and effective Latin phrases which appear in the newspaper or books often.

　　Vice versa-on the other hand

　　Ut infra-as the following description

　　Ut supra-as stated previously

　　Status quo-keeping the present state

　　In toto-in all

　　All of them can add power to your speech and writing.

　　To sum up,there are many advantages in English learning if you apprehend some Latin.I think that everyone who wanna learn English successfully should learn some basic linguistic knowledge----and the Latin is the base of the base.