词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Linguistic Profiling

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: linguistic² profiling.

WALT WOLFRAM: "What I mean by linguistic profiling is to hear a voice and on the basis of that voice make a judgment³ about that person which would sort of rate them or exclude them or in some sense not treat them fairly."

RS: Linguist¹ Walt Wolfram at North Carolina State University says this sort of thing happens all the time. For example, he notes that Americans tend to think of people from New York City and the South as sounding less educated than others. Unless you ask a New Yorker or a Southerner, that is.

AA: Lately, Professor Wolfram has been working on a series of television documentaries. The aim is to help take some of the social stigma⁴ out of language differences in America.

WALT WOLFRAM: "What's taught in terms of the English language is always going to be taught in some sort of dialect framework. So for example, where is there no dialect of English? The Midwest certainly has a dialect. I may not be as salient as Southern dialect, but it's still dialect.

"So it's actually, although most learners of English as a second language aren't aware of this, it's virtually impossible to learn English without learning some dialect of English."

AA: "Well, I'm curious what you think of this fairly recent development of American companies putting call centers in India, using Indian workers to answer technical questions, and computer support and so forth⁵. And the workers are being taught American English, they're being shown American programs. In some cases they're supposed to tell customers that they're actually in the United States. And I guess there's been some anger at outsourcing or offshoring of jobs, but what do you think about this, and ... "

WALT WOLFRAM: "Well, I mean that's a perfect example of linguistic profiling, in a sense. So, for example, if an American calls up and they hear an Indian accent, you know, even though the speaker may have been a native speaker of English, which is often the case, there's a certain kind of prejudice that they have.

"What we're trying to do in our series of documentaries is to show the American public, and particularly in the state of North Carolina where most of them have aired, what we're trying to do is show them how linked language is with cultural background, how natural language differences are as a part of different cultural experiences, and how this is something that should be accepted -- and in fact embraced -- as a part of cultural heritage, rather than rejected as not standard English and therefore not worthy⁶ for mainstream⁷ uses.

"So, for example, we've done documentaries on mountain speech; we've done documentaries on Outer Banks speech, you know, coastal⁸ speech; we've done documentaries of sort of the whole state of North Carolina, showing African American dialects and so forth. And the point of our documentaries is to counter some of the illegitimate feelings and reactions that people have to these varieties when they hear them."

AA: "And what's been the reaction to programs that take that position?"

WALT WOLFRAM: "So far the reaction has been very positive. I mean, we've gotten very few complaints that our programs are trying to simply encourage bad speech."

RS: "Now, are these programs being used in the public schools?"

WALT WOLFRAM: "Yes, actually we have an experimental program in middle schools where we use vignettes from these programs to educate students about language differences as a part of cultural differences."

RS: "And how are the kids responding?"

WALT WOLFRAM: "The kids love it. The fact of the matter is, people find language differences intriguing⁹. They don't always view them fairly. But they sort of stop and listen and people speak differently. And if you can sort of take that plum and dangle¹⁰ it before kids and then run with it, they find it really an engaging activity."

AA: Walt Wolfram is the William C. Friday Distinguished¹¹ Professor in the English Department at North Carolina State University. His accent, in case you're wondering, is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

RS: That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is。。。。。。And you can download all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

MUSIC: "The English Language"/Winston Slade (Southern country singer) 1997

I've searched the dictionary, every page in my thesaurus Trying to find the words to fit into this chorus And I can say I love but I want to say so much more I don't think the English language has the words I'm looking for

So I go oh-ee oh-ee oh-ee oh-ee ooo-ee ooo-ee ooo Aa-aa baby, I've got it bad for you Oh-ee oh-ee oh-ee ooo-ee ooo-ee ooo And that's about as close as words can come

 

1 linguist   

n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者

参考例句：

• I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家，后来成了作家。
• Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。

2 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。

3 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

4 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

5 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

6 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

7 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

8 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

9 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 dangle   

v.(使)悬荡，(使)悬垂

参考例句：

• At Christmas,we dangle colored lights around the room.圣诞节时，我们在房间里挂上彩灯。
• He sits on the edge of the table and dangles his legs.他坐在桌子边上，摆动著双腿。

11 distinguished   

adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的

参考例句：

• Elephants are distinguished from other animals by their long noses.大象以其长长的鼻子显示出与其他动物的不同。
• A banquet was given in honor of the distinguished guests.宴会是为了向贵宾们致敬而举行的。