国外青年潮爆新词
干物女、奔奔族、月光族……语言的有趣之处就在于日新月异、层出不穷,由于全球青少年们在互联网络上的生力军地位日益加重,他们自创的词语也以最快的速度传遍全球。快听听国外青年都在说什么,别被人骂了还蒙在鼓里哪!
Hello, and welcome to Trend UK, your 1)shortcut to popular culture. In the next few minutes we're going to be talking about new words and phrases.
New words enter the English language all the time. In fact, English has always been in a state of 2)evolution, and in recent years more and more words and phrases have entered the language, partly due to the increased willingness of 3)lexicographers to include them in the dictionaries. But where do all these new words come from? Our reporter, Mark, has been finding out.
Mark:If you want to know what words like “screenager” (screen+teenager) and “splod” mean, the man to ask is John Simpson, Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. John, what's your favourite new word at the moment?
John: Really, I don't have favourite new words. But let's say that one of my favourite new words is “screenager,” which is a young person or a teenager who spends a lot of time in front of the computer.
Mark: Any other favourites, John?
John: Some of those rather unpleasant words, like “splod,”—somebody who is socially 4)inept: a sploddy person.
Mark: And where do these new words and phrases come from?
John: Well, words come out of the culture that they represent and they describe. So, if you’ve got a new development in medicine, for example, “bird flu,” then you’ll get a new word coming out of that. If there’s a military conflict that may well 5)bring all sorts of new words to the fore. Going back in time, the First and Second World Wars were times of great creativity of language because people from different countries met each other and exchanged their words and words developed from there. So really, words come from...they come from the playground, they come from politics, they come from any area of life because every area of life is changing from day to day.
Mark: Andrew Edwinds from Poland says his students pick up new words and phrases from DVDs, songs, computer games, and websites. Most common new ones at the moment are “like, whatever” and “doh!”
Anthony Sloan, also based in Poland, agrees, and adds that students that are into Heavy Metal, have been known to pick up words like “sinful,” “6)veins” and “7)wither.”
Well, I'm off to look those up in the dictionary.
大家好,欢迎收听“潮流英国”——这里是你的流行文化快线。在接下来的时间里,我们将会探讨一些新词汇、新短语。
每时每刻都有新的词汇加入到英语家庭中。事实上,英语总是在不断演化发展;而在最近几年,越来越多的词汇与短语成了英语的一分子——部分原因是词典编纂者越发乐于将它们纳入词典。但所有这些新词从何而来呢?我们的记者马克有所发现。
马克:如果想知道“屏幕青少年”和“社会不适者”之类的词是什么意思,你要问的人就是约翰·辛普森——他是《牛津英语大词典》的主编。约翰,你现在最喜欢的新词是什么?
约翰:说真的,我没有最喜欢的新词。但要说喜欢的新词,其中一个就是“屏幕青少年”,指的是花很多时间在电脑前的青少年。
马克:还有别的喜欢的词吗,约翰?
约翰:有一些相当糟糕的词语,例如“社会不适者”,也就是不适应社会的人:一个失败者。
马克:那么,所有这些新词汇和新短语又是从何而来的呢?
约翰:词语来自它们所代表和描述的文化现象。所以,如果在医学上有了新的现象,例如“禽流感”,你就会从中得出一个新词。如果出现了一场军事冲突,那也很可能会带来各种各样的新词。回顾过去,一战和二战都是语言大创新的时代,因为不同国家的人们彼此相遇,互相交换了词汇,语言从而得到了发展。所以实际上,词语来自游乐场,来自政治,来自生活的每一处,因为生活的方方面面都是日新月异的。
马克:波兰的安德鲁·埃德温德斯说,他的学生会从DVD、歌曲、电脑游戏和网站上获得新词汇和短语。最近的常用词有:“没所谓”和“该死”等。
同样在波兰的安东尼·斯隆也同意这一点。他又补充说,喜欢重金属音乐的学生以选用“罪孽深重的”、“静脉”和“凋谢”之类的词语而出名。
喔,我要在字典上查一查这些词汇了。