suffer的用法小结
suffer
def : have sth unpleasant happen to you (p.352)*
e.g. heart attack/a stroke/pain
head injuries/brain damage conquences/defeat/loss/blow
side-effects from treatment
tback/humiliation/decline/fate/indignity
occasional periods of unemployment
suffer from
def : to be badly affected by a dia, an illness, sadness, a bad condition or a lack of sth (p. 753)*
e.g. bug/cancer/AIDS/virus/flu/cold/headache
arthritis/diarrhoea/allergy/disorder/asthma/bad back
ill health/heart condition/genetic dia/poverty
breathing difficulties/lack of water/defects/shock/depression
pollution/shortage of staff
* 這二個解釋取自Diana Lea (eds), Oxford Learner’s Thesaurus: A Dictionary of Synonyms (2008)
現在讓我們來分析一下. 首先, suffer 和suffer from都可用於疾病和非疾病所引致的痛苦上. 先說和疾病有關的. 驟眼一看, 好像沒有甚麼規則可言. Heart attack和stroke只跟suffer, 但cancer, flu, asthma, aller张道清
gy等其它疾病卻和suffer from連用, 令人有點無所適從. 這已跟一般性或長、短時間扯不上任何關係. 雖然同是「風」, 我們總不能說中風是一般性的痛苦, 而傷風則是長期的或習慣性的痛苦. 同樣地, 若心臟病是短期的苦楚, 那偶發的一、二天感冒可算是長期性的痛苦嗎? 所以,以上這二種說法都不能完滿地解釋為甚麼老外會這樣用.
當今之世, 著書立說者有很多是良莠不齊的,我們學習時(不單是英文, 其它學科也一樣)不能將所學到的東西照單全收. 要細心咀嚼, 分析, 這才是學習之道. 我想現在suffer 和suffer from的用法極可能是英美在過去百多年間慢慢演化而成的慣用法或collocations. 而這也不是完全無規可循的. 我自己就理出了一點頭緒如下:
我認為suffer是用於疾病的突然發作或侵襲時(sudden start of an illness, usually vere), 如heart attack, stroke, nervous collap, migraine attack, stomach cramp, an acute attack of food poisoning等. 另外, 意外受傷和痛楚也只跟動詞suffer. 例如head injuries, broken leg, brain damage, pain等. 對此, Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary (Kate Woodford ed., 2007) 的suffer條目裡也
清楚地說明suffer an illness就是〝experience an injury or other sudden health problems〞.
除了那些突發性的病痛或受傷外, 基本上絕大部份的疾病和不適(包括精神上的困擾)都應和suffer from連用, 如acne, headache, rheumatism, airsickness, hangover, high blood pressure, shock, mental disorder, loss of memory等. 這裡要注意的是suffer所帶出的突發
性病痛或受傷是強調病發或事發時那一刻. 相對來說, 牛津高階英語詞典在第四版裡曾指出suffer from 其實帶有often have 的意思. 但這個解釋從第六版的牛津高階英語詞典開始便給當時新的總編輯Sally Wehmeier删去了, 可能從她的角度來看,這個說明並不是太重要吧. 這也印證了為甚麼在同類的高階詞典都找不到這二組字詞的區別.
所以我們在Longman (2009) 可以看到這樣的例句:
suffer a heart attack (心臟病發作) , but
suffer from heart conditions (長期或經常受心臟問題困擾/折磨)
suffer an asthma attack (哮喘病發作), but
suffer from asthma (長期或經常受哮喘病問題困擾/折磨).
後來我又在另一本書發現了以下的解釋，再一次印證我的想法是正確的。這是一本較舊的書，但在七、八十年代也算是權威之作。書名是Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English，作者
是AP Cowie（OALD第四版的編輯）和R Mackin，書分二冊。當中條目suffer from有這樣的解釋：
def : be regularly afflicted by; have as a weakness
e.g. He suffers terribly from hay fever in the summer. (pp. 316)
另外，LDOCE5的Managing Editor，Chris Fox也說suffer from的意思是sth bad keeps happening to you （cf suffer = sth bad happens to you）。根據這說法，我們知道Cobuild字典的解釋是有問題的。它說：
def : If you suffer from an illness or some other bad condition, you are badly affected by it.
e.g. He was eventually diagnod as suffering from terminal cancer.
cancer固然是嚴重疾病，但心臟病發（heart attack）同樣badly affect sb，但為什麼說suffer a heart attack呢？所以badly affected在這裏應理解為長期、持續地、經常性的受某疾病困擾比較恰當。Cobuild的解說不夠明確！
至於在跟疾病無關的情況下, 何時用suffer, 何時用suffer from就更加模糊. 經我整理手頭上的資料後, 我認為suffer 適用於下列幾種情況:
1.經歴一些不愉快的事(undergo unpleasant experience), 中文解作遭受/蒙受/承受/經歴/承担:
loss, humiliation, regret, death, ill-treatment,conquences, disadvantage, discrimination, harassment, indignity, injustice, rudeness, bad manners, insults
2. 容忍/承受/忍受疼痛
a cold winter, hunger, torture, pain, burn-out
3. 受到傷害
damage, hardship, harm, injury, loss
4. 遇到問題/挫折
blow, crisis, difficulties, problem, tback, defeat, failure
5.遭受攻擊
abu, attack, violence, percution
6.經歴減少/下跌
decrea, decline, fall, drop in sales
而suffer from 則可用於以下幾種情況:
1. 一些負面的情況(unpleasant situations), ,
pollution, shortage of food, recession, drought, flooding substandard housing, overcrowding, loss/lack of sth
2. 遭受苦難或精神上的折磨
evil dreams, trauma, feelings of guilt and shame, mental illness
3. 身體受損害/變差
chro教师年度考核表
nic malnutrition, health suffered from overwork
e.g. overworked managers suffering from stress and anxiety. (Macmilan, p. 1480)
e.g. to suffer from stress. (Oxford, p. 1530)
e.g. If you are suffering from stress, you may be more likely to become
ill. (Longman, p. 1745)
從以上看來, suffer當和stress連用時, 是一個intransitive verb, 需由給介系詞from帶出後面所遭受的痛苦. 然而, 我們也的確在一些著名的英美報刊上見到這樣的標題:
The New York Times (16 May, 2010)
U.S. Troops Suffer More Stress Than Britons, Study Says
BBC News (12 Oct, 2007)
Primary Children ‘suffer stress’
Time (21 July, 2010)
After a Disaster, Kids Suffer Posttraumatic Stress Too
The Telegraph (25 Feb, 2011)
Pets suffer from stress of marriage break-ups
上面各種說法, 莫衷一是, 令人無所適從. 為此, 我做了一些研究. 先再看看下列的報紙標題和內文:
The Telegraph (19 Jan, 2010)
標題: Third of Chine primary school children suffer stress, study says
