不可以說welcome sb to do sth嗎？

本站特約作者 李 翔

吳洪亮老師在2007年第6期《英語知識》之《可以說welcome sb to do sth嗎？》一文中認為下面兩個句子是錯誤的的，是典型的Chinglish：

Hu said the mainland welcomes more Taiwan people to do business.(摘自2006年1月26日的CHINA DAILY第一版Bejing’s “flexible approach appeals to Taiwan people”)

Hmm, well, we do welcome students to visit some of the wards at our hospitals, … (譯林版《牛津高中英語》模塊七第二單元p25.練習A對話填空)

另外，吳老師還得出一個結論：美國英語不用welcome sb to do sth這一錯誤表達方式的。

首先要澄清的是welcome sb to do sth既不是典型的Chinglish，也不是錯誤的表達方式，其次，美國英語不是不用welcome sb to do sth，而是大量使用welcome sb to do sth。請看例證：

1. BUY CORPUS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH (1990-2009) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University) http://www.americancorpus.org/:

1991I would welcome you to join me with your own meal,..

1992 …, and I would welcome you to do that.

1995 …, and if Fred wants to come by and look at every check and every dollar of income and every invoice, we’d welcome him to do so.

1996 If he requests it will you welcome him to visit here?

1998 And I want to welcome you to be in here.

1999I’d like to welcome you to join me, 7:00 p.m. Eastern,…

1999 I welcome him to help build the Reform Party an alternative to the Republicans and Democrats in this country.

2000 We’re welcomed to do it.

2003 We welcome you to share in the third annual Massachusetts Missing Children’s Day.

2004 Many Christians thoughtfully affirm Dammann’s gifts and fitness for ministry and would welcome her to be their pastor.

2005 We’ve been welcomed to stay as long as we want.

2008 And if you’re logged onto “Second Life”, we welcome you to go over to our Science Friday island and ask a question there via our SCIENCE FRIDAY “ Second Life ” avatar.

實際上，不僅美國英語中大量使用welcome sb to do sth，英國英語中也不乏welcome sb to do sth的例證：

BNC(英國國家語料庫http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk)和BUY-BNC BRTISH NATIONAL CORPUS (UK,1980s-1993) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University ) http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/：

I very much welcome the council group decision to demonstrate its confidence in Alex Salmond.

Mr Churchill said he would welcome a change in the law to steer the market in favour of coal.

Today, visitors are warmly welcomed to share Crete’s ancient history and to enjoy its breathtaking landscapes of 8000-foot mountains, deep valleys, extensive beaches, sparkling bays and lively resorts.

從以上可以看出：無論美國英語還是英國英語都在使用welcome sb to do sth，盡管詞典中還沒有收錄welcome sb to do sth。但我們都知道某個語言現象的出現要早于詞典。從這點來說，譯林版《牛津高中英語》的主編可以說是第一個吃螃蟹的人，他們可能是第一個把welcome sb to do sth引入到教材之中的人。

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