英语听力精选进阶版 11222（在线收听）

Spam 

Professor David Crystal 

Technology always has an influence on language. When printing came 

in, it brought new words into the language. When broadcasting first 

started new words came into the language. And now the internet has 

come along so it’s not surprising that quite a large number of new 

words have come into English vocabulary since, especially the last 10 

years really since the, world wide web came into being. And of course 

if you’ve got emails, and most people have these days, then you will 

have encountered the word 'spam'. 'Spam' flooding your email box 

with ads or other unwanted messages. But why the word 'Spam' for 

this sort of thing? 

Spam was originally a tinned meat back in the 1930s, a brand name for 

a particular kind of cold meat. But it became very fashionable when 

Monty Python, the satirical television comedy series back in the 70s and 

80s, they had a sketch where just for fun they had spam with every 

item on the restaurant menu - bacon and spam, egg and spam, ham 

and spam, spam and spam. Spam spam spam spam… and they actually 

sang a song about it and it caught on.  

And therefore it became a real part of the language meaning any unwanted material of 

any kind and so when the internet came along it wasn’t surprising really that spam 

became part of that kind of experience. And the evidence that it’s become part of the 

language is not just because of the noun 'spam' which you might expect to see in the 

internet context but because it’s generated other kinds of linguistic expression as well.  

You’ve now got verbs based upon it, and adjectives based upon it. You can now have 

"I’ve been spammed" or "somebody’s spamming me" and the actual people who do the 

work themselves who send all these horrible emails out to everybody so that we’re 

flooded with these things, what are they called? Well there’s a new noun, they’re called 

‘spammers’.