小词详解 | enunciate

enunciate 英 [ɪˈnʌnsieɪt] 美 [ɪˈnʌnsieɪt]

SAT GRE

外刊例句

• For floating voters, the party failed to enunciate a clear message.
  对于流动选民来说，该党未能阐明一个明确的信息。
  ——《经济学人》
• Gus speaks as if he has marbles in his mouth, but if he wants to get the right response from Siri, he must enunciate clearly.
  格斯讲话含混不清，嘴里像塞了个玻璃球，但如果他想从 Siri 那里得到正确的反馈，他就必须咬字清楚。
  ——《纽约时报》

基本释义

[verb] say or pronounce clearly
[动词] 清楚地说或发音

深入解读

Enunciate 一词源自拉丁语 enuntiare （说出、表达、断言；泄露、揭露），17世纪初进入英语后用来表示“表明、表达”，发展到现在则主要表示清晰地“发音、念字”，多以听者的易懂程度为标准（yardstick）衡量清晰与否，比如：

• 她徐缓从容的声音里充满着一种不寻常的严肃语气。她每个字都念得又慢又仔细。
  Her languid voice was imbued with an unusual seriousness. She enunciated each word slowly and carefully.
• 他一字一顿，听上去很生硬。但由于他谈话中使用的晦涩行话对我是一团迷雾，我真搞不懂他在说些什么。
  His voice was harsh as he enunciated each word carefully. But I really couldn't fathom what he was talking about since the arcane jargon in his talk was opaque to me.

清楚念词和清晰发音的目的无非是尽量把自己所要表达的内容明确地传递出去，所以 enunciate 还常作为一个正式用语表示“阐明、阐释”，强调清楚而准确地表明某个观点、理论、原则等，比如：

• 他总是乐意向所有愿意倾听的人阐明他不切实际的观点。
  He was ever ready to enunciate his quixotic views to all who would listen.
• 在演讲中，这位领导人阐明了该政党可行的税收改革计划。
  In the speech, the leader enunciated his party's viable proposals for tax reform.

名著用例

With features strained hard to enunciate the syllables they continued to regard the centre of the flickering fire, the notes of the youngest straying over into the pauses of the rest.
他们的脸一个个都很紧张，使劲地唱着每一个音节，同时还不住地去看中间闪烁不定的火焰，最小那个孩子还唱得错了节拍。

出自英国小说家托马斯·哈代的长篇小说《德伯家的苔丝》（Tess of the d'Urbervilles）。小说最初在杂志上连载，1891年开始以书籍发行，主要讲述英格兰有个贫家少女名叫苔丝，她美丽、单纯且富有责任感，却遭到命运的捉弄。

同近义词

• articulate: (of a person or a person's words) having or showing the ability to speak fluently and coherently
• pronounce: make the sound of (a word or part of a word) in the correct or a particular way
• utter: make (a sound) with one's voice

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