HKIER

摘要

夏濟安先生（1916–1965）的學問本行是英美文學，但他的認識與能力，並不限於英文。關於中文的書面語，他率直指出，現在大家所寫的白話文，其實是「雅俗兼收，古今並包，中西合壁」的一種文體，他並不認為「我手」真能「寫我口」；大家可以不滿意這種文體，但不得不承認這個事實。他主張大家要關心的，是如何使這種文體得到合理的控制與發展，而不是故意去忽視這個存在的事實。他的意見，無論對留意中文書面語規範的人、從事語文教學的教師或標榜語文必須純淨的學者，都有提示和啟發的作用。

Abstract

Although Prof. XIA ji-an's academic life was chiefly devoted to research on English and American literature, his professional knowledge and competence were not merely confined to English. On the subject of writtten Chinese, Prof. XIA frankly pointed out that the Chinese which we write nowadays consists, in fact, of "the elegance and the commonplace", "the ancient and the contemporary", "the east and the west". He did not think that one can really "write what one talks". According to him, many people may not be satisfied with phenomena of "mixing" in language, such phenomema are nevertheless hard facts of life. For Prof. XIA, the most important concern is to face such language phenomena squarely so that the language under discussion can be properly controlled and be allowed to develop, rather than dodging problems of "mixing" in language. His view provides, no doubt, much food for thought to researchers working in the field of written discourse in Chinese to Chinese language educators as well as those scholars who advocate "purity" in languages.