大家好~今天我們主要來聊聊經濟學人中的詞彙。具體哪些詞彙呢？當然是那些讓人感到眼前一亮的詞咯~~它們呢，通常含有某種rhetorical devices (修辭手法)。這一次我們先來探討那些含有隱喻手法的詞彙。文章是這期《經濟學人》亞洲板塊中curry flavour最濃的那篇，其中會涉及到一些文化背景知識以及個別知識點的理解。
在這之前，先讓我們來了解一下什麼是「隱喻」
What is metaphor?
通俗點說，隱喻就是用一個概念去理解另一個概念。比如，」MORE IS UP」, 用「向上」這個概念來理解「增加」這個概念。The number of books printed each year keeps going up. 數量「向上」表示數量「增加」。通常我們是用一個較為具體的概念來理解另一個更為抽象的概念，這符合人類的思維發展模式。
Bouquets and brickbats
一看這標題我們就可以發現，這短語用了alliteration，所以讀起來很順口。
A bouquet is a bunch of flowers which can be thrown toacclaim a performance.
A brickbat is a piece of brick used as a weapon.
所以從字面上意思來理解就是「鮮花和板磚」，引申為'praise and criticism', 和我們平時說的「贊」，「踩」類似。用實物來映射抽象的口頭行為，有助於我們的理解。這種說法相比'praise and criticism'顯得更為巧妙，我們可以直觀地想像出那種送小花和拍板磚的場景，且具有音韻美。
HAPPILY for its members India’s Parliament convenes for just three sessions a year, for an undemanding 100 days in all.In early spring the finance minister traditionally launches a session devoted to the budget. Arun Jaitley,the current minister, tossed spring flowers aplenty from his saffron-coloured briefcase on February 29th. There were promises to double farm incomes within five years, to raise wages for state employees and to spark new investment, all in a「pro-poor yet pro-market」bouquet of fiscal responsibility.
Undemanding作為demanding的反義詞，表示」not requiring great patience, skill, attention」, 可以和comfortable, cozy, cushy, carefree一起記憶。這裡undemanding後面加一段時間，與前半句的just一起看就可以看出是指「時間很寬裕」。
「tossed spring flowers aplenty from his saffron-coloured briefcase」這句話乍一看很無釐頭，什麼叫「從他藏紅花色的公文包內擲出大量春季花卉」？？？再聯繫後一句中的」promise」, 很顯然這裡的」tossed spring flowers aplenty」也是隱喻，春天的花朵欣欣向榮，象徵著希望，與」promise」相對應，所以這句話就可以理解為「印度財政部長亞特力在2月29日的政府預算報告會上給出了各項充滿希望的承諾」，不由得讓人聯想到」campaign in poetry」這一用法。
此外」saffron-coloured briefcase」引起了我的注意，從圖片上看就是紅褐色嘛，為什麼要說是藏紅花色呢？為了準確性？在查了Wikipedia後，原來印度國旗中最上面的那層黃色是」India saffron」, representing courage and sacrifice. 古代印度人把火神(Agni)看作是最高的神，是力量的象徵。藏紅花色來源於火的顏色，因此在印度是一種神聖的顏色。因此，」saffron」在關於印度的語境有著特殊的含義。
Mr Jaitley is lucky to have an economic tailwind. Lower global oil prices have helped India. Its companies are vibrant. A growing domestic economy with huge potential makes some of the broader concerns about the world economy such as a slowdown in China and among Western consumers less relevant to India. Still, some of Mr Jaitley’s budget promises look less rosy now, after being roughly handled by India’s opposition and press.
A tailwind is a wind that is blowing from behind a vehicle, making it move faster.
那這裡的「tailwind」把「向前移動」映射到「向上增長」這一語義，相比」economic growth」來說更為生動形象，可以想像出順風前進的快速。與「economic tailwind」相對的就是「economic headwind」.
「rosy」原本指粉色，在這裡則有」hopeful」的含義。為什麼粉色會代表有希望呢？如果一個人的面色紅潤，就表示這人氣色好，也就意味著身體好，可以引申為積極的含義, 例如a rosy future/life. 我們可以再記一個單詞」sanguine」, 表示氣色紅潤，可以引申為「樂觀的」, be sanguine about the future/prospect.
An apparent big boost for crop insurance turns out to have been accomplished largely by shunting funds between ministries, from finance to agriculture. Additional outlays for a rural-jobs scheme for the poor may be welcome, yet before he came to power nearly two years ago, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, condemned the same programme as a monument to failure. Some analysts contend that Mr Jaitley’s claim of robust economic growth of 7.6% is based on flawed statistical modelling. And others say that Mr Modi agreed to stick with a budget deficit of 3.5%, which is restrained by Indian standards, in order to save up for a bigger splash next year, when the more crucial state elections loom.
In a democracy as sprawling and vibrant as India’s, sniping about such things is to be expected. So is a vigorous government response. Jayant Sinha, the junior minister for finance, is impatient with critics. He admits that many of the changes brought about by his government are small or not yet fully articulated. But such initiatives as a programme to open bank accounts for every household (which has already added some 212m accounts); or a hydrocarbons-exploration law that could promote a surge in investment to wean India off costly energy imports; or new bankruptcy rules that will make it easier for failed companies to be closed down; or a broad, yet-to-be-unveiled health insurance scheme aimed at the poor: all promise big returns. Taken together, he insists, such policies are transformational.
「Robust」, 「vibrant」, 「vigorous」, 我們可以把這些形容人「充滿活力」、「強健」的詞來修飾國家政府、經濟這些抽象名詞，也就是將一個國家或經濟看作一個人，具有人的特徵。那我們以後寫作文寫到國家發展、經濟增長就可以避免」with the development/growth of ... 」這種老掉牙的八股用法。
Snipe: shoot at someone from a hiding place.
那如何來理解這裡的」snipe」呢？這裡面包含了一個非常經典的隱喻」ARGUMENT IS WAR」. 為什麼說爭論是戰爭呢？我們在辯論的時候經常會說到「攻擊對方的觀點」或是「贏得了這場辯論」。戰爭中是真槍實彈，爭論中是唇槍舌戰；戰爭有輸贏，爭論同樣有輸贏。因此我們可以用戰爭來理解爭論，前者具體，後者抽象。」snipe」 有「狙擊」的意思，在爭論的語境中就有了」make a verbal attack」的含義。
That is overstating it but at least Mr Jaitley’s budget will pass. The ruling coalition has a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha, Parliament’s lower house, and India’s constitution insulates 「money bills」 from meddling by the Rajya Sabha or upper house, dominated by the opposition.
India has opened more fields to foreign capital, including recently allowing wholly foreign-owned companies into food-processing industries. But it has generally done so in a piecemeal and often grudging fashion. As for the ease of doing business, a closer look at the index reveals that although India has moved up four places in the 2016 list, it still ranks only 130th out of 189 economies. A tangled bureaucracy, knotty laws and ponderous courts mean that while India ranks eighth in protecting minority shareholders, it trails in 178th place for enforcing contracts and in 183rd place for securing construction permits.
The 「licence raj」 that began to be dismantled 25 years ago remains only half-demolished. Public-sector banks, burdened with a huge stock of bad loans to stalled infrastructure projects and ailing heavy industries, still make up seven-tenths of the banking system. The finance ministry, charged with privatising state assets, dares not touch such chronic loss-makers as Air India, which employs 28,000 voters.
Yet no amount of government tinkering or talking up is going to turn the Indian elephant into a tiger any time soon. With the central government collecting the equivalent of just 11% of GDP in taxes, it lacks transformational capacity. A commendable, long-term devolution of power from the centre to individual states means that these now spend some 1.7 times what the national government does. Some states have used this growing clout effectively. Others lag far behind, giving India huge discrepancies in economic performance between regions and states.
這裡的」elephant」和」tiger」顯然是隱喻用法。那「大象」和「老虎」分別指代什麼呢？
大象通常給人以big, slow, numb的感覺，上文出現的」ponderous」, 「heavy」與」elephant」的意象相呼應。那麼與大象相對的老虎則具有fast, sneaky, smart特點。想像一下，lumbering elephant vs. fierce tiger.
Transformational capacity would surely be boosted by a long-planned goods and services tax. It would improve government revenues and market efficiency by unifying a patchwork of sales and other taxes. Yet politics is stymying its introduction. Mr Modi blames the opposition’s obstructionism in Parliament, but his own party behaved just the same way before it came to power. Critics say that it should now be readier for political horse-trading. Its hot-headed Hindu-nationalist supporters, meanwhile, keep handing ammunition to the opposition, allowing it to change the subject from everyday economic issues to emotive questions of sectarianism or human rights.
Yet calmer voices are occasionally heard. Raghuram Rajan, who heads India’s central bank and is an advocate of prudent national finances, remains upbeat. 「All too often our public debates generate more noise than illumination,」 he says. He also warns of the danger of fixation on slow progress with certain reforms, such as privatisation, even as the overall trend remains positive. When the world’s financial markets are in turmoil, India’s strong growth prospects are something to be thankful for. 「We are in a sweet spot,」 he says. 「Let’s not waste the opportunity.」
Stymy: a situation in golf where an opponent’s ball blocks the line between your ball and the hole.
Sweet spot: the centre area of a golf club from which the cleanest shots are made.
這裡的」sweet spot」與上文的」stymy」都是高爾夫球用語。運動與政治之間有著密切的聯繫，很多體育與比賽用語會用在政治文本中，這種不同文本間的映射也屬於隱喻用法。例如bump and run defenses(衝撞與跑動防禦), play hardball (採取強硬態度), bail out (擺脫困境)。
上文列舉到的隱喻用法只是隱喻理論中的冰山一角，如果大家感興趣的話可以自行dig deeper。推薦大家兩本書，George Lakoff的Metaphors We Live By以及Mark Johnson的The Body in the Mind.
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