Shaw Brothers vocabulary

[skylee]

Is 保暗鏢 basically 保鏢 modified by 暗 ?

Yes. Found this explanation here which should be useful -

打明旗号，大队人马浩浩荡荡的保镖，每个山头都递拜帖，称为“明镖”；不打旗号，唯恐人知，单人匹马走道，称为“暗镖”。

[character]

Thanks for joining us, skylee! IIRC from reading this forum, you were/are based in HK, so perhaps you'll have some insight into the word choices made by these HK-based writers above and beyond your general knowledge of Mandarin.

Thanks for posting that quotation. I admit I'm struggling to get the full sense of it, but I appreciate it does show they distinguished between overt/covert guards.

FWIW, I'm about 1/4th through the screen captures for this film at this point.

[character]

醉了, 有我來服待

I will take care of you if you get drunk

有我來 -- does this mean "you have me to ..."

服待 -- is this a word?

-----------------------------------------

管得著嗎你?

Do you think you can control me?

Should I parse the first 3 characters as 管 guǎn 得著 dézháo?

[skylee]

服待 -- is this a word?

Yes it is. It means "to attend to", "to wait on", "to take care of". Take a look -> http://xh.5156edu.com/html3/13855.html

服侍

fúshi

〖waitupon〗∶伺侯;照料

[character]

Thanks skylee!

Argh... the subtitle says: 服待 vs. what you found: 服侍 (note the single stroke difference).

Is there some search engine which does fuzzy matching for (traditional) Chinese characters?

[renzhe]

有我來 -- does this mean "you have me to ..."

I think it's just a way to say "I will be there to 來服待". 有我 is like "I will be here/there".

Should I parse the first 3 characters as 管 guǎn 得著 dézháo?

I think it's a verb+得+complement construction.得 is toneless, and 著 is read as zháo.

Think of it as "can (succeed at) 管". Contrast with 管不着, which means the opposite: "can't (succeed at) 管".

Some similar examples are 看不见, 看不到, 做得到, 睡不着, etc.

[skylee]

character, I didn't note that it was 待. It was just a mistake. It had nothing to do with simplified/traditional script.

I didn't realise the typo because of the similarity of the shape of the word (服侍 is an established and common word).

[character]

I think it's a verb+得+complement construction.得 is toneless, and 著 is read as zháo.

Think of it as "can (succeed at) 管".

Thanks, renzhe! That construction seemed to make more sense, but Wenlin provided 管 guǎn 得著 dézháo. Even having covered it in class, it's abso-f*cking-lutely hard to wrap my head around a language where it's normal for words to have infix(?) modifiers.

character, I didn't note that it was 待. It was just a mistake. It had nothing to do with simplified/traditional script.

I didn't realise the typo because of the similarity of the shape of the word (服侍 is an established and common word).

Skylee, I appreciate you knowing the common word. I'm trying to get an accurate vocabulary list for the movie, so getting rid of typos helps a lot.

[character]

你為什麼要多管閒事?

Why are you so meddlesome?

閒事 -- I guess I can see it as meddlesome, but I was just wondering if this was another typo.

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我在江湖上走動向來是幫輸不幫贏的

I'm in a habit of helping the loser rather than the winner

Wenlin parses out 江湖上 as fly-by-night, but I perhaps it's more like 我 在 江湖 上 走 動向 since 江湖 is the martial world?

[renzhe]

閒事 = 閑事 -- It's not a typo, it's a variant

Dictionary translates it as "other people's business". 閑 means idle, and is used for things like gossiping (閑話). 閑事 is basically stuff that shouldn't concern you.

管閑事 is to meddle. 管 is to pay attention to or take care of something

江湖上 is "in the martial world".

Edited June 11, 2009 at 12:43 PM by renzhe

[roddy]

Note also that 向来 is 'always, up to now' - looks like you've missed that and it's affecting your parsing. 向來是幫輸不幫贏的 would be 'I always help the losers, not the winners.'

[character]

閒事 = 閑事 -- It's not a typo, it's a variant [...] 管閑事 is to meddle.

Thanks! Another lesson learned about how to use Wenlin.

Note also that 向来 is 'always, up to now' - looks like you've missed that and it's affecting your parsing. 向來是幫輸不幫贏的 would be 'I always help the losers, not the winners.'

Thanks! I saw that 動向 meant "trend; tendency" and assumed it was the "habit" referred to in the English subtitle.

[character]

小兄弟, 你夫免欺人太甚了

Buddy, you are out of line

I'm having trouble with 夫 and 免. Is the clause after the comma saying "you, man, should avoid going to far" or is 你夫 just a way to refer to a man?

[roddy]

Couldn't be a typo, could it? 未免？

[character]

看本事接招

Watch out

Is this "watch out (for my) martial arts (moves)" ?

Edited June 13, 2009 at 11:15 PM by character

[renzhe]

I think Roddy's right, and it's another typo.

未免 wèi miǎn a bit too much / over the top (you exaggerate)

Is this "watch out (for my) martial arts (moves)" ?

Kind of. Like "Watch my skill, recieve my strike"

招 is a move/technique. Very common in martial arts stories.

[character]

Thanks roddy, renzhe! With your help I'm through 400 screen captures; half done. ~450 entries so far in the list.

[character]

他們是哪條道上的 ?

Who are they?

How would you translate 道上的 ?

[renzhe]

This could be a set phrase, but it literally means "which road are they on?" Or "From which path are they?"

The 的 is a part of the 是...的 construction.

[character]

Thanks renzhe! Through 500 out of 800 screen captures so far.