就副總理李克強訪港的保安安排，唐司長昨日接受傳媒訪問，下面是明報的報導
有批評指有關保安安排違反言論自由及新聞自由，唐英年不認同批評，英語嚴辭指摘有關批評「完全是垃圾」（I think that is completely rubbish that we have violated civil rights, nor have we violated freedom of speech, because every single activity of the Vice-Premier has been covered by the media.）(20/8/2011明報)
看到有關報導，標少有點意外。司長一向不擅辭令，但客氣和藹，很少嚴辭厲色，突然爆出垃圾論，實為不智。這垃圾論肯定會不斷受到挖苦揶揄，這次失言，欠缺政治智慧。這類帶侮辱性罵人的話，用來罵政敵還可以，用來反駁傳媒的質詢，比江老總當年批評記者的問題sometimes naive更甚。唐司長日後還想競選特首，修辭恐怕要下點功夫。
Completely rubbish在文法上也犯錯。標少讀書成績差，僥倖才能畢業，本來不敢批評University of Michigan畢業的司長，但我依稀記得，用副詞(adverb)completely來修飾(modify)rubbish這個名詞，不合文法。副詞有3個用法，用以修飾動詞、形容詞及另一個副詞。唐司長應該講complete rubbish，用形容詞來修飾名詞才對。以語文修辭來講，司長其實可以很客氣地說'It is not a fair comment.'作回應，而無需動刀動槍。真的要罵，不如用sheer nonsense, absolutely ludicrous，起碼是針對語言，不是把傳媒人也當成垃圾。
colloquially, the word "rubbish" can be an adjective :P so i can't really see any problem with that statement, grammatically. I mean, it's just that the people don't like him B)
回覆刪除Anonymous,
回覆刪除I do not have strong feelings about him in general. I believe this slur was an inadvertent outburst of stupidity. When language becomes colloquial, it will be devoid of any rules. That said, I do not dispute language is dynamic. Thank you for your comment.
rubbish可用作形容詞.
回覆刪除To use "rubbish" as an adjective, frankly, is unheard of. In any event, thank you.
回覆刪除According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (http://www.oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary.com/dictionary/rubbish), "rubbish" can be used as an adjective.
回覆刪除匿名君，
回覆刪除不吝賜教，受益匪淺，可惜匿名君太多，無緣識荊，誰是誰也搞不清。老外及俚語字典，也有些使用completely rubbish的，是否合乎文法，已超越小弟的判斷能力。語文運用並非一成不變的，有些不合傳统法規的運用，可以約定俗成獲接受，孰是孰非，我沒資格評論。古德明教授的講法，恪守傳统，我頗受落。希望藉此拋磚引玉，獲其他語言學者的教誨。
如你所說：副詞（Adverb) 的用途甚廣，可以修飾動詞(verb）、形容詞(Adjective),或另一個副詞......
回覆刪除依我愚見（我的英語文法水平只達中五）,我覺得"that is completely rubbish"文法上沒有錯，因它正在修飾一個動詞.
"is" 在這個clause(子句)裏面是一個動詞，叫做verb-to-be。 常在外語片上聼到"That is completely crap", “That is totally shit" 相信就是這個原因。
陳雲的看法
回覆刪除句子是很長的複雜句，而且有貶義副詞的倒裝（adverbial inversion），造句的技師本領看似不錯（但開頭要用We have not violatedcivil rights），可是completely rubbish 一詞，就配錯了： completely 是三音節的詞，rubbish 是兩音節， completely rubbish 的重心， 就在completely， 而completely 的complete 是有褒義的聯想的。正確的配詞，是單音節的sheer rubbish 或雙音節的utterrubbish，兩者都可，讀音的輕重，配襯好就是。用sheer rubbish，sheer 之後要略停； 用utter rubbish，則可連珠炮發，不必停頓。口講completely rubbish 在文法上可以接受（嚴格應說complete rubbish），但這種狠話，政客不能輕率亂講。不講假話，也用詭辯自我保護，唐英年可說It is totally ungrounded toaccuse us of violating all civil rights 即可（作者按：留下餘地，必要時可承認政府略有侵犯人權）。
這些修辭，是在John Milton 的詩、莎士比亞的劇、丘吉爾的演講詞所學的，文法書只能教nor have we… 的adverbial inversion 而已。更何况，權貴階級是不屑賣弄這些花俏的英文倒裝句的。這是工人階級顯露英文知識的句子！
唐英年在上流社會和國際場合講了幾十年英語，這些語音節奏和英文風格都不掌握，比起李克強這位團派土幹部，更不入流了。
我認為"completely rubbish"是合符英文文法的，至於用得優雅與否，又是另一個問題。
回覆刪除http://www.englishinyourfavour.com/?p=338
Jo
Jo
回覆刪除Thank you for your enlightenment.
Bill
I agree with most of the comments above. There is nothing wrong with "completely rubbish" grammatically. It just so happens that it is more common for people to say "complete rubbish". Alternatively, "utter rubbish" or "total rubbish" are even more common.
回覆刪除It is correct to say "completely(adverb) rubbish(used as an adjective)".
回覆刪除http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/rubbish
"To use "rubbish" as an adjective, frankly, is unheard of. In any event, thank you."
回覆刪除I suggest you travel to Britain. By the way, I am a Brit.