| 词条 | Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana |
| 释义 |
| align = right | direction = vertical | width = 250 | image1 = Brazilarcher.jpg | alt1 = A Brazilian tribesman holding a bow and arrow | caption1 = An archer about to launch an arrow | image2 = Drosophila melanogaster on banana peel.jpg | alt2 = A small fly with red eyes on the skin of a banana | caption2 = A fruit fly on a banana peel }} "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana" is a humorous saying that is used in linguistics as an example of a garden path sentence or syntactic ambiguity, and in word play as an example of punning, double entendre, and antanaclasis. Analysis of the basic ambiguities"Time flies like an arrow" is an English phrase often used to illustrate syntactic ambiguity.[1] In this connection the sentence is often seen as part of the elaboration: "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana". Modern English speakers understand the sentence to unambiguously mean "As a generalisation, time passes in the same way that an arrow generally flies (i.e. quickly)". But the sentence is syntactically ambiguous and alternatively could be interpreted as meaning, for example:[2]
In addition, the sentence contains semantic ambiguity. For instance, the noun phrase "Time flies" could refer to all time flies or particular time flies, and "an arrow" to all arrows, a particular arrow, or different arrows for different flies; compare "Fruit flies like a banana", "Fruit flies ate a banana", "Fruit flies live on a banana". Likewise, the noun "Time" could refer to the magazine. HistoryThe expression is based on the proverb: "Time flies", a translation of the Latin Tempus fugit, where "fly" is to be taken in the sense of flee. An early example of a pun with the expression "Time flies" may be found in a 1930 issue of Boys' Life: Anthony Oettinger gives "fruit flies like bananas" as contrasted with "time flies like an arrow" as an example of the difficulty of handling ambiguous syntactic structures as early as 1963,[5] although his formal publications with Susumu Kuno do not use that example.[6] This is quoted by later authors.[7] A fuller exposition with the banana example appeared in a 1966 article by Oettinger.[8] This article prompted the following response in a letter:[9] Time Flies Like an Arrow The verse is popular as a specimen of didactic humor trading on syntactic ambiguity. Like the poem The Chaos, by Gerard Nolst Trenité,[10] its themes are popular among practitioners and students in fields such as natural language processing and linguistics.[11] Other attributionsThe saying is sometimes attributed to Groucho Marx, but the earliest attribution to him dates only to 1982,[12] and there is no reason to believe he actually said it.[13] Use in linguisticsThe saying is used as a linguistic example of antanaclasis, the stylistic trope of repeating a single word, but with a different meaning each time.{{cn|date=September 2015}} It is also used as an example of punning.{{cn|date=September 2015}} The wordplay is based on the distinct meanings of the two occurrences of the word flies (the verb "travel through the air" and the noun for certain insects), and of the word like (the preposition "similarly to" and the verb "enjoy"). For example, the second clause can be read as "fruit travels through the air similar to a banana" or as "certain insects enjoy a banana". This is an example of a garden-path sentence, a phrase that the reader or listener normally begins to parse according to one grammatical structure, and is then forced to back up and reparse when the sentence ends in an unexpected way.{{cn|date=September 2015}} See also
References1. ^ Marc de Mey(1982), [https://books.google.com/books?id=tMCXlAXnVb8C&lpg=PR11&ots=F-WjBvfk6p&dq=The%20cognitive%20paradigm%3A%20an%20integrated%20understanding%20of%20scientific%20development%20D.%20Reidel%20%281992%29%2C%20University%20of%20Chicago%20Press%20%281992%29.&lr&pg=PA12#v=onepage&q=%22time%20flies%20like%20an%20arrow%22&f=false The cognitive paradigm: an integrated understanding of scientific development] D. Reidel (1992), University of Chicago Press (1992). {{DEFAULTSORT:Time Flies Like An Arrow}}2. ^{{cite book |author=Pinker, Steven |title=The Language Instinct |publisher=W. Morrow and Co. |location=New York |year=1994 |pages=209 |isbn=0-06-097651-9 |oclc= |doi= |accessdate=}} 3. ^{{cite magazine |journal= Boys' Life |quote= The official youth magazine for the Boy Scouts of America |date= February 1930 |page= 48 |publisher= Boy Scouts of America, Inc |issn= 0006-8608 }} 4. ^{{Cite journal|url= https://books.google.co.za/books?id=CgQU09UDVaIC&lpg=PA24&dq=Boys%20Life%20Feb%201930&pg=PA48#v=onepage&q&f=true |publisher= Boy Scouts of America |journal= Boys' Life |date= February 1930 |page= 48 |first= Francis J. |last= Rigney |title= Think and Grin }} 5. ^Harvard Alumni Bulletin, 66:205, 1963 6. ^e.g., Anthony Oettinger, Susumo Kuno, "Syntactic structure and ambiguity of English", Proceedings of the AFIPS Fall 1963:397-418. {{doi|10.1145/1463822.1463864}} 7. ^{{cite book |title=The computer age and its potential for management|author=Gilbert Burck |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1965 |page=62}} 8. ^Anthony G. Oettinger, "The Uses of Computing in Science", Scientific American 215:3 (September 1966); republished as Information, W.H. Freeman, 1966. Lib. of Congress No. 66-29386 9. ^Scientific American, November 1966, p. 12, correspondence column 10. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j17/caos.php |title=Archived copy |accessdate=June 4, 2008 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050415131319/http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j17/caos.php |archivedate=April 15, 2005 }} 11. ^Jurafsky, Daniel & Martin, James H. Speech and Language Processing. Pub. Pearson Prentice Hall 2008. {{ISBN|978-0131873216}} 12. ^https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!original/net.jokes/z_X93iYiJLA/W5UDCyQMs4kJ 13. ^{{cite book |title=The Yale Book of Quotations |editor=Fred R. Shapiro |editor-link=Fred R. Shapiro |publisher= Yale University Press |year=2006 |page=498 |isbn= 978-0-300-10798-2}} 2 : English phrases|Ambiguity |
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