2020年经济学人 约翰逊语言专栏--政治用词的影响(1)

Books & arts

来源于《图书和艺术》

Johnson

约翰逊语言专栏

Old wine, new bottles

新瓶装旧酒

Framing policies in focus-grouped language gets politicians only so far

用聚焦的语言制定政策只能让政客们到此为止

Last month Ronnie Cowan, a Westminster MP from the Scottish National Party, wrote to Britain’s Department for Work and Pensions on behalf of some incensed¹ pensioners² in his constituency. Pensioners are often incensed, but these complaints were not about inflation indexing or retirement³ ages; they were linguistic⁴. The irate⁵ retirees did not want their pensions to be called a “benefit”.

上个月，来自苏格兰民族党的威斯敏斯特议员罗尼?考恩代表其选区内一些愤怒的养老金领取者，致信英国就业与养老金部。领养老金的人经常被激怒，但这些抱怨与通胀指数化或退休年龄无关；而是与语言有关。愤怒的退休人员不希望他们的养老金被称为“benefit (福利)”。

In some other Anglophone countries, this might sound odd. What could be better than a “benefit”, which (America’s) Merriam-Webster dictionary defines as “something that produces good or helpful results or effects or that promotes well-being”? In Britain, the word means much the same in most contexts, but its other definition is more salient: as the Oxford⁶ English Dictionary has it, “That which a person is entitled to in the way of pecuniary⁷ assistance, medical or other attendance, pension, and the like, under the National Insurance Act of 1911and similar subsequent Acts”.

在其他一些以英语为母语的国家，这听起来可能有些奇怪。还有什么能比“benefit (福利)”更好的呢？(美国的)韦氏词典将“benefit (福利)”定义为“产生好的或有帮助的结果或效果或促进幸福的东西”。在英国，这个词在大多数上下文中的意思基本相同，但它的另一个定义更为突出：正如《牛津英语词典》定义，“根据1911年《国民保险法》及其后的类似法案，一个人有权获得的金钱援助、医疗或其他照料、养老金等。”

This is where teachers of English might helpfully note the difference between denotation⁸ (dictionary meaning) and connotation (associations that may not be part of a formal definition). In Britain, “benefits” carry a strong connotation. For many people, a benefit is money handed out by the state, often to the undeserving. Consider “Benefits Street”, a documentary series on Channel 4 that was widely accused of portraying⁹ recipients¹⁰ of benefits as scroungers.

这就是英语教师可能会注意到外延(字典意义)和隐含意义(可能不是正式定义的一部分的联系)之间的区别的地方。在英国，“benefit (福利)”有很强的隐含意义。对许多人来说，福利是国家发放的钱，通常是给不值得的人的。想想第四频道的系列纪录片《福利街》，它将领取福利的人描绘成骗子而受到广泛指责。

In America the equivalent term is “welfare”, which has been applied¹¹ to government aid for poor families since at least the 1930s. From the 1960s and 1970s, as Republicans became the champions of small government, they began to characterise welfare-recipients as disempowered dependents on the state, or even, sometimes, as conniving¹² parasites¹³ upon it. Campaigning for president in 1980, Ronald Reagan famously told the story of a highliving “welfare queen” from Chicago (whose exploits turned out to be somewhat exaggerated).

在美国，对应的词是“welfare（福利）”，至少从20世纪30年代起，这次词就用来指政府对贫困家庭的援助。从20世纪60年代到70年代，当共和党人成为小政府的拥护者时，他们开始将福利接受者描述为对国家失去权力的依赖者，有时甚至是对国家的纵容寄生虫。1980年竞选总统时，罗纳德?里根讲述了一位来自芝加哥的“福利女王”(她的“英勇事迹”后来被夸大了)过着奢华生活的故事。

1 incensed   

盛怒的

参考例句：

• The decision incensed the workforce. 这个决定激怒了劳工大众。
• They were incensed at the decision. 他们被这个决定激怒了。

2 pensioners   

n.领取退休、养老金或抚恤金的人( pensioner的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He intends to redistribute income from the middle class to poorer paid employees and pensioners. 他意图把中产阶级到低薪雇员和退休人员的收入做重新分配。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I am myself one of the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. 我自己就是一个我们的高贵的施主遗留基金的养老金领取者。 来自辞典例句

3 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

4 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

5 irate   

adj.发怒的，生气

参考例句：

• The irate animal made for us,coming at a full jump.那头发怒的动物以最快的速度向我们冲过来。
• We have received some irate phone calls from customers.我们接到顾客打来的一些愤怒的电话

6 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。

7 pecuniary   

adj.金钱的；金钱上的

参考例句：

• She denies obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception.她否认通过欺骗手段获得经济利益。
• She is so independent that she refused all pecuniary aid.她很独立，所以拒绝一切金钱上的资助。

8 denotation   

n.（明示的）意义；指示

参考例句：

• A good dictionary will give us the connotation of a word as well as its denotation.一本好字典不仅要告诉我们一个字的字面意义，同时还要告诉我们该字的言外之意。
• The denotation of the word "home" is "place where one lives," but it has many connotations.“家”这个词的直接意义是指“人居住的地方”,但是它还有许多涵义。

9 portraying   

v.画像( portray的现在分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The artist has succeeded in portraying my father to the life. 那位画家把我的父亲画得惟妙惟肖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ding Ling was good at portraying figures through careful and refined description of human psychology. 《莎菲女士的日记》是丁玲的成名作，曾引起强烈的社会反响。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

10 recipients   

adj.接受的；受领的；容纳的；愿意接受的n.收件人；接受者；受领者；接受器

参考例句：

• The recipients of the prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者的姓名登在报上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The recipients of prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者名单登在报上。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

11 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

12 conniving   

v.密谋 ( connive的现在分词 )；搞阴谋；默许；纵容

参考例句：

• She knew that if she said nothing she would be conniving in an injustice. 她知道她如果什么也不说就是在纵容不公正的行为。
• The general is accused of conniving in a plot to topple the government. 将军被指控纵容一个颠覆政府的阴谋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 parasites   

寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫

参考例句：

• These symptoms may be referable to virus infection rather than parasites. 这些症状也许是由病毒感染引起的，而与寄生虫无关。
• Kangaroos harbor a vast range of parasites. 袋鼠身上有各种各样的寄生虫。