Grammar, Language in 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'

Grammar, Language in 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'

《带我回家，乡村路》中的语法和语言

【听力音频】

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　　By Faith Pirlo

　　21 December 2023

　　Many Americans will travel over the winter holidays, often to return to the homes and towns of their childhood. For people from the state of West Virginia, and wider Appalachia, one song comes to mind on the trip home: Take Me Home, Country Roads. Singer John Denver co-wrote and performed the 1971 song. It became a major hit.

　　Recently, my favorite singer, Lana Del Rey, recorded her version of the song after performing in West Virginia in October.

　　In today's Everyday Grammar, we will look at parts of the song performed by Del Rey and connect it to grammar and figurative language.

　　Let's look at the first verse of the song.

　　Metaphors, appositives, and comparative adjectives

　　Almost Heaven, West Virginia

　　Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River

　　Life is old there, older than the trees

　　Younger than the mountains, growing like a breeze

　　In the first verse we have a couple of comparisons. One comparison uses an appositive as metaphor. The others use comparative adjectives and even a simile.

　　Appositives are nouns or noun phrases that go beside another noun to describe it. Sometimes we can use the appositive structure to create a metaphor.

　　"Almost Heaven, West Virginia" is a metaphor using an appositive. Here, our subject is "West Virginia" and the appositive is "Almost Heaven." The appositive is giving more information about "West Virginia." The comma takes the place of the typical verb used to make metaphors, "be."

　　West Virginia is almost Heaven.

　　Almost Heaven, West Virginia

　　"Heaven" is a perfect place. Many cultures and traditions uphold it as a beautiful, holy place people go when they die.

　　So, if West Virginia is "almost heaven," its natural landscape of mountains and rivers and trees must be a holy place of beauty.

　　Next, we have a comparison of "life" in West Virginia. It is "older than the trees" and "younger than the mountains." "Older" and "younger" are comparative adjectives.

　　Comparative adjectives compare one thing to another. They help express whether something has more or less of a particular quality.

　　The song suggests the ancient history of the land. Scientists say the mountains began to develop about a billion years ago. Life began sometime after that but before the growth of trees, the song goes.

　　And the mountains and life continue into the future, the song then suggests. The writers used the simile, "growing like a breeze," to express this idea.

　　A simile is a figure of speech in which unlike things are compared with the use of the words "like" or "as."

　　Breezes come and go and sometimes grow into a stronger wind. This verse could mean that life and land grow with ease in West Virginia.

　　Let's move onto the chorus of the song.

　　Imperatives and personification

　　Country roads, take me home

　　To the place I belong

　　West Virginia, mountain mama

　　Take me home, country roads

　　In the chorus of the song, we have an interesting grammatical feature and some figurative language.

　　We have an imperative structure that is repeated in the beginning and end of the chorus:

　　Country roads, take me home

　　Take me home, country roads

　　Imperatives are predicate-only clauses used to give instruction, direction or command. Imperative sentences use the base form of the verb and may have other information.

　　We know that this song was written about a road trip through the mountains and rural communities. The singer seeks direction from the "country roads," themselves, to find the way home.

　　We also have more figurative language. The writers refer to West Virginia as "mountain mama." This is an example of personification or the human representation of a non-living thing.

　　The reference humanizes West Virginia and suggests that it is the mother of mountains. But, it uses the more childlike term, "mama" for mother. The word expresses hominess, warmth and nostalgia.

　　Final thoughts

　　Today we looked at the beloved song Country Roads. We found figurative language like metaphors using appositives and personification, which is the humanizing of non-living things.

　　We even found some interesting grammar with the use of comparative adjectives like "younger" and "older" to describe life in West Virginia and imperatives or commands to give direction through the "country roads."

　　I'm Faith Pirlo.

　　And I'm Anna Mateo. And we're both from West Virginia.

　　Faith Pirlo wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.

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　　作者：Faith Pirlo

　　2023年12月21日

　　许多美国人会在冬季假期出行，通常是回到他们童年的家乡和城镇。对于来自西弗吉尼亚州和更广泛的阿巴拉契亚地区的人来说，回家的旅途中会想起一首歌：《带我回家，乡村路》。歌手约翰·丹佛在1971年共同创作并演唱了这首歌，它成为了一首大热歌曲。

　　最近，我最喜欢的歌手，拉娜·德雷，在10月份在西弗吉尼亚州演出后，录制了她自己的版本。

　　在今天的日常语法中，我们将看一看德雷演唱的这首歌的部分内容，并将其与语法和比喻性语言联系起来。

　　让我们看看这首歌的第一段。

　　隐喻，同位语，和比较级形容词

　　几乎是天堂，西弗吉尼亚

　　蓝岭山脉，沈纳多亚河

　　那里的生活很古老，比树还要古老

　　比山更年轻，像微风一样生长

　　在第一段中，我们有几个比较。一个比较使用了作为隐喻的同位语。其他的使用了比较级形容词，甚至还有一个明喻。

　　同位语是放在另一个名词旁边用来描述它的名词或名词短语。有时我们可以使用同位语结构来创建一个隐喻。

　　"几乎是天堂，西弗吉尼亚"是一个使用同位语的隐喻。这里，我们的主语是"西弗吉尼亚"，同位语是"几乎是天堂"。同位语为"西弗吉尼亚"提供了更多的信息。逗号取代了通常用来构造隐喻的动词"是"。

　　西弗吉尼亚几乎是天堂。

　　几乎是天堂，西弗吉尼亚

　　"天堂"是一个完美的地方。许多文化和传统都将其视为人们死后去的美丽、神圣的地方。

　　所以，如果西弗吉尼亚是"几乎是天堂"，那么它的自然景观——山脉、河流和树木，必定是一个美丽的神圣之地。

　　接下来，我们有对西弗吉尼亚的"生活"的比较。它"比树更古老"，"比山更年轻"。"更古老"和"更年轻"是比较级形容词。

　　比较级形容词将一件事与另一件事进行比较。它们帮助表达某物是否具有更多或更少的某种特质。

　　这首歌暗示了这片土地的古老历史。科学家说，山脉开始形成是在大约十亿年前。生命在那之后的某个时候开始，但在树木生长之前，歌曲如此描述。

　　然后，歌曲暗示山脉和生命继续延续到未来。作者使用了明喻"像微风一样生长"来表达这个想法。

　　明喻是一种修辞手法，其中不同的事物通过使用"像"或"如"的词语进行比较。

　　微风来去，有时会变成更强的风。这段歌词可能意味着生活和土地在西弗吉尼亚轻松生长。

　　让我们继续看这首歌的副歌部分。

　　祈使句和拟人化

　　乡村路，带我回家

　　到我属于的地方

　　西弗吉尼亚，山峦之母

　　带我回家，乡村路

　　在这首歌的副歌部分，我们有一个有趣的语法特征和一些比喻性的语言。

　　我们有一个在副歌的开始和结束都重复的祈使句结构：

　　乡村路，带我回家

　　带我回家，乡村路

　　祈使句是只有谓语的句子，用来给出指示、方向或命令。祈使句使用动词的原形，可能还包含其他信息。

　　我们知道这首歌是关于穿越山区和农村社区的公路旅行的。歌手从“乡村路”本身寻找回家的方向。

　　我们还有更多的比喻语言。作者将西弗吉尼亚称为“山之母”。这是一个拟人化的例子，或者说是对非生物的人性化表达。

　　这个参考使西弗吉尼亚人性化，并暗示它是山的母亲。但是，它使用了更像孩子的词，“妈妈”来表示母亲。这个词表达了家的感觉，温暖和怀旧。

　　最后的想法

　　今天我们一起来看看深受喜爱的歌曲《乡村路》。我们发现了一些比喻性的语言，比如使用同位语的隐喻和拟人化，即赋予非生物以人的特性。

　　我们甚至发现了一些有趣的语法，比如使用比较级形容词"年轻"和"年老"来描述西弗吉尼亚的生活，以及使用祈使句或命令来通过"乡村路"给出方向。

　　我是Faith Pirlo。

　　我是Anna Mateo。我们都来自西弗吉尼亚。

　　这节课是Faith Pirlo为VOA学英语编写的。

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　　这个故事中的词汇：

　　figurative – adj. 用于表达与基本含义不同的意思

　　verse - n. 词语以韵律模式排列的写作：诗歌或歌曲

　　breeze – n. 温和的风

　　metaphor – n. 通过将某物与具有一些相同特质的其他事物进行比较来描述它的方式，使用动词"be"

　　simile – n. 使用"like"或"as"进行的间接比较

　　particular – adj. 当你想谈论某一件事或某种特定的事物，而不是类似的事物时使用

　　chorus – n. 重复的歌曲部分；大型有组织的歌唱团体