新瓶不能装旧酒——从persona到person的动词问题

Lost in Translation： The Verbal Change from Persona to Person

本文藉由分析若干罗马法文句的翻译问题挑战当代的法律概念“人”（person）。本文呈现为何拉丁字persona无法成为地方语言person的字源，并主张person的当代用法来自19世纪的德国法学文献，尤其是萨维尼的作品。本文说明persona与诸如gerere、tenere与sustinere（相当于英语的bear、carry、bold）等动词构成一词组，无法单独表达意义。这类词组需要一个属格形态的名词补语，一如其同义语的及物动词“代表”或“代理”（represent）需要一个直接受格一般。另一方面，现代法学文献赋予person意义，将其看作人类个体的同义语，并将其与be动词一起使用。这种用法是现代的发明，译回拉丁文时必定产生混淆。

This paper challenges the modern legal concept of ＂person＂ by ana- lyzing the translation problems of some Roman law fragments. It shows why the Latin word ＂persona＂ cannot be the etymon of the vernacular ＂person＂, and argues that the modern use of ＂person＂ stems from the nineteenth-century German juridical lit-erature, especially that of F. C. von Savigny. This paper shows that ＂persona＂ forms a phrase with verbs like gerere, tenere and sustinere （bear, carry, hold, etc. ） and has no meaning by itself. Such phrases require a noun complement in genitive form, as their synonym ＂represent＂, which is transitive, needs a direct object. On the other hand, the modern literature attributes a sense to ＂person＂, taking it as equivalent to ＂human individual＂ and using it word with the verb ＂be＂. This use is a modern invention and cannot be re-translated into Latin without semantic confusion.