Now the word theory has a very complicated etymological history that I won't trouble you with.

理论这个词的词源非常复杂,你们不需要了解。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选

They start using first words, first sentences, first complicated constructions.

他们同时使用第一个词,第一个句子,第一个复杂结构

耶鲁公开课 - 心理学导论课程节选

The trouble with the etymology of theory and the way in which the word has been used traditionally is that sometimes it actually means practice, and then at other historical periods it means something very different from practice, something typically from which practice is derived.

理论这个词在词源,和传统的使用方法上的复杂之处在于,它有时候指的是实践，但在特定的历史时期,它指的是和实践非常不同的东西，也就是实践产生的依据。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选

That won't allow us to communicate complicated ideas.

我们无法用这些词来进行复杂的思想交流

耶鲁公开课 - 心理学导论课程节选

So I went back to the great creator raising his plastic arm and suggested that, well, maybe after all there might be some good way of complicating the meaning of Akenside by suggesting that the modern, anachronistic meaning of "plastic" would be relevant to the sense of the poem.

所以我回想了一下,当这位伟大的创造家抬起他的塑料手臂，说，也许总有办法,能让Akenside的意思更复杂,有一个很好的例子就是,“plastic“一词古今意思的差别“,和诗歌的意境有关。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选