| 释义 |
transformation|trɑːnsfɔːˈmeɪʃən, træns-, -nz-|
[ad. late L. transformātiōn-em (Jerome, a 400), n. of action from transformāre to transform. Cf. F. transformation (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
The action of transforming or fact of being transformed.
1. a. The action of changing in form, shape, or appearance; metamorphosis.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 209 Monstruous transformaciones of men in to bestes be made..thro charmes of wicches. 1548Udall Erasm. Par. Mark i. 5 b, Transformacions and naturall chaungynges of thynges. 1555Eden Decades 43 margin, Fables much lyke Ouide his transformations. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. i. 44 Vpon whose dead corpes there was such misuse, Such beastly, shamelesse transformation. 1794Sullivan View Nat. I. 112 Matter is capable of many seeming transformations, but no real transmutations have ever been discovered. 1864Bryce Holy Rom. Emp. xv. 260 No more than a man feels that perpetual transformation by which his body is renewed from year to year.
†b. A changed form; a person or thing transformed. Obs. rare.
1598Shakes. Merry W. iv. v. 98 If it should come to the eare of the Court, how I haue beene transformed; and how my transformation hath beene washd, and cudgeld.
c. Theatr. More fully transformation scene: A mechanical disclosing scene in a pantomime; spec. the scene in which the principal performers were transformed in view of the audience into the players of the ensuing harlequinade.
1859Punch 5 Feb. 58/2, I have supped full of gorgeous transformations on which paint, coloured foils, Dutch metal..have been lavished. 1881Playgoer 1 Jan., A magnificent Transformation, a charming Watteau ballet scene. 1881G. A. Sala in Illustr. Lond. News 1 Jan. 3/2 Two Grand Transformation Scenes. 1885W. J. Lawrence in The Theatre Dec. 329 The account of the sixth scene is worthy of quotation, smacking as it does of the modern ‘Transformation’. 1885― in Let., During the Grimaldi era the term ‘transformation scene’ referred to that particular juncture of the performance at which the good fairy changed the hero and heroine and their two persecutors in full view of the audience into Harlequin, Columbine, Clown and Pantaloon respectively.
2. transf. A complete change in character, condition, etc.
1581G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. ii. (1586) 81 The simple soules not perceiuing that this their transformation or rather deformation, is no more seene than a pose in a mans face. 1602Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 5 Something haue you heard Of Hamlets transformation: so I call it, Since not th' exterior, nor the inward man Resembles that it was. 1746–7Hervey Medit. (1818) 59 To behold the prodigious transformation which has taken place on every individual. 1833Alison Hist. Europe I. i. §60. 104 The transformation of France..from a feudal Confederacy..to a compact and absolute monarchy. 1900R. J. Drummond Apost. Teach. & Christ's Teach. ix. 347 A regenerative transformation of humanity is practicable.
3. In scientific uses.
a. Zool. Change of form in animal life, as in the successive transformations of insects, etc.; metamorphosis.
1638Mayne Lucian (1664) 45 A Polypus I have seen, but would gladly learn its transformation from you. 1667E. King in Phil. Trans. II. 427 The black Speck..cast out of the Maggot in her transformation. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VIII. 7 Of the Transformations of the Caterpillar into its corresponding Butterfly or Moth. 1874Lubbock Orig. & Met. Ins. i. 4 Linnæus classed them among the Coleoptera, from which however they differ in their transformations.
b. Physiol. and Path. Change of form or substance in an organ, tissue, vital fluid, etc.
1834J. Forbes Laennec's Dis. Chest (ed. 4) 587 Interstitial deposition, which..constitutes what is commonly termed transformation of the organ into a cancerous substance. 1843J. A. Smith Product. Farming (ed. 2) 75 The excrementitious matters of one organ come in contact with another during their passage through the plant or animal, and, in consequence, suffer new transformations. 1860Mayne Expos. Lex., Transformation, term for a morbid change in a part, consisting in the conversion of its texture into one of a different kind, as of the soft parts into bone or cartilage.
c. Math. Change of form without alteration of quantity or value; substitution of one geometrical figure for another of equal magnitude but different form, as of a prism for a cylinder, or of one algebraical expression or equation for another of the same value; † formerly, also, alteration of the form of a solid figure by truncation of the solid angles: cf. transfigured, transformed. Also, a change of any mathematical entity in accordance with some definite rule or rules; the rules themselves; spec. = mapping vbl. n. 2.
transformation of co-ordinates, an inaccurate but accepted expression for the substitution of a new set of co-ordinates, involving a transformation of the equation of the locus. Hence, in the case in which the new co-ordinates are measured in a different plane or space, transformation is extended to the relation of correspondence between the original and resulting loci, as in projection.
1571Digges Pantom. Epist. *ij b, A Discourse Geometricall of the fiue regulare or Platonicall bodyes [with] the manifolde proportions arising by mutuall conference of these solides Inscription, Circumscription or Transformation. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Transformation of an Equation, (in Algebra) the changing of any Equation into one that is more easy. 1882Minchin Unipl. Kinemat. 234 It will be convenient to speak of this quantity K as a modulus of transformation. 1885Watson & Burbury Math. Th. Electr. & Magn. I. 157 The method of transformation used with conjugate functions. 1908[see Lorentz]. 1909Proc. Section Sci. K. Akad. van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam XI. 798 A continuous one-one transformation in itself of a singly connected, onesided, closed surface leaves at least one point invariant. 1941Birkhoff & MacLane Surv. Mod. Algebra vi. 128 The ‘similarity’ transformations of space—those one-one transformations which multiply all distances by a constant factor. 1949S. Lefschetz Introd. Topol. i. 29 If f is one to one and bicontinuous (both f and its inverse f—1 continuous), f is said to be a topological transformation or a homeomorphism. 1952E. T. Bell Mathematics vi. 354 The numerical value of f(t) is unaltered when we replace the variable t by the linear expression t + 1... Thus, the value of the function is invariant under a particular linear transformation. 1958,1964[see mapping vbl. n. 2]. 1964[see Fourier]. 1966S. Beer Decision & Control vi. 109 It is possible to specify a transformation that will map the infinite set of natural numbers on to this other finite set. 1982D. M. Schneider et al. Linear Algebra v. 181 If V and W are vector spaces, a function or transformation T from V into W is a rule that associates with every vector x in V a unique vector in W.
d. Physics. Change of form of a substance from solid to liquid, from liquid or solid to gaseous, or the reverse; Chem. change of chemical composition, as by replacement of one constituent of a compound by another.
1857Miller Elem. Chem. (1862) III. 67 In order to effect these transformations it is necessary to displace the hydrogen of the acid.
e. Change of energy from one form into another.
1877W. Garnett in Encycl. Brit. VII. 583/2 The subject of which natural philosophy treats is the transformation of energy, which in all its phases takes place in accordance with two great principles known respectively as the principles of the conservation and the dissipation of energy. 1878― ibid. VIII. 207/2 If subsequently we allow an equal amount of energy to undergo various intermediate transformations, but to be finally reduced to heat. 1902Ibid. XXIX. 158 In succeeding years [from 1840] he [Joule] published a series of valuable researches on the agency of electricity in transformations of energy.
f. Electr. Change of a current into one of different potential, or different type, or both, as by a transformer (transformer 2). Also attrib.
1884Electrical Rev. 26 July 64 Conditions for arranging a transformation coil, as regards its yield. 1911Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 173/1 Transformers may be distinguished..in accordance with the type of transformation they effect.
g. Physics. Change of one element into another, whether artificially induced or by spontaneous decay. Cf. transmutation 3 a.
1902Rutherford in Phil. Mag. IV. 395 These changes must be occurring within the atom, and the radioactive elements must be undergoing spontaneous transformation. 1926R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity xxi. 150 Similar attempts to influence the velocity of transformation of uranium and radium D, by subjecting them to the action of radiation, have also led to a negative result. 1958O. R. Frisch Nucl. Handbk. iv. 4 In each unit of time a certain definite fraction of the total number of the atoms present will disintegrate but there is nothing to indicate the moment at which a given atom will undergo the radioactive transformation. 1969Times 12 Mar. 4/8 It is to be assumed that the uranium and thorium in the galaxy were created by the nuclear transformation within densely packed matter at high temperatures.
h. Molecular Biol. The genetic alteration of a bacterial cell by the introduction or absorption of extraneous DNA (see transform v. 1 f).
1928F. Griffith in Jrnl. Hygiene XXVII. 154 Experiments with culture heated at temperatures higher than 60°C. have rarely been successful in causing transformation of type. 1960New Biol. XXXI. 72 The first clear demonstration of transformation was made in 1928 by Griffith, who discovered that an avirulent and normally harmless strain of pneumococcus was changed into a virulent strain when injected into mice together with some virulent pneumococci that had been thoroughly killed by heating. 1970Ambrose & Easty Cell Biol. x. 346 Transformation is a very inefficient process but has proved useful for gene mapping in bacteria where a suitable transducing phage is not known. 1980Sci. Amer. Feb. 36/2 In another process, known as transformation, DNA released by cell death or other natural processes simply enters a new cell from the environment by penetrating the cell wall and membrane.
i. Cytology. The modification of a eukaryotic (nucleated) cell so that it comes to possess some or all of the characteristics of a cancer cell.
1943Jrnl. Nat. Cancer Inst. IV. 202/1 The cell transformations appeared after a definite latent interval of several weeks following initial exposure to the carcinogen. 1967Nature 8 July 171/2 The concept of contact inhibition has attracted particular interest since the advent of tissue culture investigations on neoplastic transformation. 1982Sci. Amer. Mar. 71/1 Transformation..is due to the action of a gene, which must be expressed continuously to maintain the cancerous state.
j. Linguistics. An operation by which one syntactic structure is converted into another by the application of specific rules; a rule converting deep structure to surface structure (see deep structure s.v. deep a. IV c, surface structure s.v. surface n. 6 d); the process by which surface structures are generated.
1955N. Chomsky Transformational Analysis (Ph.D. Dissertation, Univ. Pennsylvania). 27 A sentence X is related to a sentence Y if, under some transformation set up for the language, X is a transform of Y or Y is a transform of X. 1957― Syntactic Structures (1962) v. 44 Let us call each such rule a ‘grammatical transformation’. 1957Z. S. Harris in Language XXXIII. 283 We can proceed to define transformation..based on two structures having the same set of individual co-occurrences. This relation yields unique analyses of certain structures and distinctions which could not be analyzed in ordinary linguistic terms. 1964Word XX. 429 Transformations..may be thought of as manipulations—reordering, combination, addition, deletion—performed on fully formed sentences. 1964R. H. Robins Gen. Linguistics vi. 242 Transformation is a method of stating how the structures of many sentences in languages can be generated or explained formally as the result of specific transformations applied to certain basic sentence structures. 1967D. G. Hays Introd. Computational Linguistics viii. 153 Such a transformation can break down the structure of one sentence and insert all or part of it at a specified place in the structure of the other. 1977Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 1976 XXI. 156 The traditional assumption that transformations do not change meanings.
4. An artificial head of hair worn by women.
1901Daily News 12 Jan. 6/7 Buying toupées, or even ‘transformations’, as those wigs are called which entirely cover the natural hair. 1903Westm. Gaz. 6 Aug. 3/2 Hairdressers are known to make most of their returns by the producing of these transformations. 1906Referee 9 Dec. 11/4 When he got to the exit door he discovered to his horror that he had dragged off the lady's ‘transformation’, and it was hanging to his sleeve-link.
5. attrib. and Comb.: transformation (playing) card, a playing card on which the suit signs are incorporated into a design or picture; transformation-dancer (Theatr.), one who dances successively in several costumes and characters; transformation-jewel, a jewel which may be worn in several ways; transformation product Chem., a new compound formed by the decomposition or destructive distillation of a complex compound often existing in nature; transformation scene: see 1 c.
[1848W. A. Chatto Facts & Speculations on Origin & Hist. Playing Cards iv. 260 In 1811 two different packs of caricature cards, imitated..from the picture-cards in Cotta's Almanack, appeared in England... On the wrapper of both packs the inscription is the same: ‘Metastasis. Transformation of Playing-cards.’] 1892Daily News 29 Jan. 7/2 She was engaged generally upon the music hall stage... Her peculiar branch was transformation dancing... She was well known as a transformation dancer. 1892Pall Mall G. 17 Mar. 1/3 French jewellers are devoting all their inventive genius to new designs for the setting of these transformation jewels. 1931H. T. Morley Old & Curious Playing Cards 152 Transformation cards, 1828. A pack of 52 cards,..printed from wood blocks. 1960H. Hayward Antique Coll. 286/2 Transformation playing cards, first issued in London 1808... Making transformation cards from ordinary packs became a fashionable pastime, pen and ink converting cards into designs of topical or personal association. 1966S. Mann Collecting Playing Cards viii. 164 Transformation cards are a rather different case... Their aim is to ‘transform’ an ordinary pip card into a picture by means of incorporating the pips in their standard positions in a larger overall design.
Hence transforˈmationist, (a) = transformist 2; (b) = transformationalist n.
1888Max Müller Nat. Relig. vi. (1889) 143 We ought to be transformationists and no longer evolutionists. 1962J. Sledd in Householder & Saporta Probl. Lexicogr. 145 The transformationists..have little interest in pedagogic problems. 1965Language XLI. 124 A Czech study on the structure of German sentences..is contrasted with a study on the same subject by an American transformationist. |