美国有线新闻 CNN 约翰逊语言专栏--关于气候的表达(2)

 

Babbel, which makes a popular language- learning app, has collected a host of climate-related neologisms from European languages. Flygskam is perhaps the most likely to be permanently¹ adopted into English: “flight-shame”, from Swedish, was popularised by Ms Thunberg’s rise. It also has a nifty corollary: tagskryt, or “train-boasting”, from those who advertise their flygskam by taking ground transport and letting the world know. (Dutch has an equivalent: treintrots.)

Babbel是一款颇受欢迎的语言学习应用程序，它从欧洲语言中收集了大量与气候相关的新词。Flygskam可能是英语中最可能被永久采用的单词:“flight-shame（搭机羞羞脸）”，源于瑞典语，随着桑伯格的影响扩大而流行起来。它还有一个俏皮的推演词: tagskryt, 英语为“train-boasting（跑火车）”，来自那些通过乘坐地面交通工具、让全世界都知道他们飞行表演的人。（荷兰语有一个类似的词:treintrots。）

The march of the climate-protest movement has led to the coining of disparaging² terms by its critics. Italian, for example, has gretini: allegedly mindless followers³ of Ms Thunberg (-ini is a diminutive⁴ suffix⁵, and the word echoes cretini, or “idiots”). The Danish Language Council and Denmark’s national broadcaster jointnot ly chose a similar term as their Word of the Year for 2019: klimatosse, or “climate fool”, used dismissively by Pia Kjaersgaard, a right-wing Danish politician, to explain her party’s poor election performance. Being Danish, she hastened to add that her party is itself concerned about the climate, but that the klimatosser who voted for other parties apparently⁶ care about nothing else.

抗议气候变化运动的进行引起了批评者们的轻蔑言辞。例如，意大利语中就有gretini：据说是桑伯格女士的盲目追随者(-ini是一个小后缀，与cretini这个词相呼应，英语是“idiots（白痴）”。丹麦语言委员会和丹麦国家广播公司选择了一个类似的词作为他们2019年的年度词汇：klimatosse，英语为“climate fool（气候傻瓜）”，丹麦右翼政治家皮娅?克亚斯高对她的政党在选举中的糟糕表现不屑一顾。作为丹麦人，她急忙补充说，她的政党本身就关心气候，但是投票给其他政党的“klimatosser（气候傻瓜）”显然不关心其他事情。

Compared with its European cousins, English has not been creative. Oxford⁷ Dictionaries declared its word of the year to be “climate emergency”. Collins, another dictionary-publisher, nominated the slightly more imaginative “climate strike”, originally coined to denote the schooldays that climate activists⁸ such as Ms Thunberg began skipping as a protest. (Klimaatspijbelaar, “climate-school skipper”, was number three in Van Dale’s Dutch vote.)

与欧洲的同类语言相比，英语缺乏创造性。牛津词典将其年度词汇定为“climate emergency（气候紧急事件）”。另一家词典出版商柯林斯提名了稍微更富想象力的“climate strike（气候罢工）”，这个词最初是用来表示学生时代的，那时像桑伯格女士这样的气候活动人士开始逃课以示抗议。（Klimaatspijbelaar, “climate-school skipper（气候罢课者）”在范达拉出版社的荷兰投票中名列第三。）

Words of the year are a way for lexicographical types to grab a rare slice of the spotlight⁹, boost interest in language and have a bit of fun. All the same, the pessimistic trajectory¹⁰ of the outcomes suggests a darkening global mood. The American Dialect Society will vote for its word of 2019 at its annual meeting in New Orleans in January. Its previous three choices were “tender-age shelter” (a euphemism¹¹ for places where America’s border forces keep children separated from their parents), “fake news” (often, these days, meaning real news that powerful people would like to dismiss) and “dumpster fire”. Whether or not it picks a climatic word as an emblem¹² of the bygone year, it is hard to see the society choosing anything upbeat.

年度词汇是词典编纂者抓住少数关注焦点、提高对语言的兴趣和获得乐趣的一种方式。尽管如此，这些结果的悲观轨迹表明，全球情绪正日益低迷。美国方言学会将于明年1月在新奥尔良举行的年会上投票选出2019年的年度词汇。它之前的三个选择是“tender-age shelter（儿童庇护所）”(美国边境部队将儿童与父母分开的地方的委婉说法)，“fake new（假新闻）”(如今通常指的是有权势的人想要忽视的真实新闻)和“dumpster fire（垃圾箱火灾）”。不管它是否选择一个气候词汇作为过去一年的象征，我们都很难看到这个社会选择任何乐观的词汇。

Perhaps Dictionary.com captured the feeling best with its word of the year for 2019. Neither new nor fancy, it was foreboding nonetheless: “existential”.

也许Dictionary.com用2019年年度词汇捕捉到了这种感觉。它既不新鲜，也不新奇，但它是一种预兆:“existential（存在主义）”。

1 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

2 disparaging   

adj.轻蔑的，毁谤的v.轻视( disparage的现在分词 )；贬低；批评；非难

参考例句：

• Halliday's comments grew daily more and more sparklingly disagreeable and disparaging. 一天天过去，哈里代的评论越来越肆无忌惮，越来越讨人嫌，越来越阴损了。 来自英汉文学 - 败坏赫德莱堡
• Even with favorable items they would usually add some disparaging comments. 即使对好消息，他们也往往要加上几句诋毁的评语。 来自互联网

3 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

4 diminutive   

adj.小巧可爱的，小的

参考例句：

• Despite its diminutive size,the car is quite comfortable.尽管这辆车很小，但相当舒服。
• She has diminutive hands for an adult.作为一个成年人，她的手显得非常小。

5 suffix   

n.后缀；vt.添后缀

参考例句：

• We add the suffix "ly" to make the adjective "quick" into the adverb " quickly ".我们在形容词“ quick”后加“ly” 构成副词“quickly”。
• It described the meaning of suffix array and also how to built it.它描述的含义，后缀数组以及如何建立它。

6 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

7 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

8 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

10 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

11 euphemism   

n.婉言，委婉的说法

参考例句：

• Language reflects culture and euphemism is a mirror of culture.语言反映文化,而婉语则是各种文化的一面镜子。
• Euphemism is a very common and complicated linguistic phenomenon.委婉语是一种十分常见而又非常复杂的语言现象。

12 emblem   

n.象征，标志；徽章

参考例句：

• Her shirt has the company emblem on it.她的衬衫印有公司的标记。
• The eagle was an emblem of strength and courage.鹰是力量和勇气的象征。