TED演讲:短信是语言杀手(7)

 1917. This is the time when we all assume  1917年，这是我们都认为的

that everything somehow in terms of writing was perfect because the people on Downton Abbey are articulate,or something like that.   写文章没的说的时代，因为唐顿庄园里的人物各个都伶牙俐齿的。

So, From every college in the country goes up the cry,  然而，整个国家里的每一所学院都应感到羞愧，

'Our freshmen¹ can't spell, can't punctuate².  我们的新生不会拼写，也不会点标点。

And so on. You can go even further back than this.  诸如此类的言论。我们还可以再往前看。

It's the President of Harvard. It's 1871.  这是1871年的哈佛大学校长。

There's no electricity. People have three names.  那个时代还没有电力。人们还都有三个名字。

Bad spelling,incorrectness as well as inelegance of expression in writing.  糟糕的拼写，不正确以及毫不优美的书面表达。

And he's talking about people who are otherwise well prepared for college studies. 他可是在说那些为了上大学作了充分准备的人。

You can go even further back.  我们再往前看。

1841, some long-lost superintendent³ of schools is upset because of what he has for a long time noted⁴ with regret the almost entire neglect of the original blah blah blah blah blah. 1841年，一个久违的督学官非常失望，因为他早已经注意到人们对文字本源的完全忽视等等等等。

Or you can go all the way back to 63 A.D.and there's this poor man who doesn't like the way people are speaking Latin. 或者大家可以直接跳转回公元63年。有个可怜人不喜欢人们说拉丁语的方式。

As it happens, he was writing about what had become French.  实际上，他正在控诉的是日后形成的法语。

And so, there are always there are always people worrying about these things and the planet somehow seems to keep spinning. 所以，总有－总会有人为这些事情担心,但是地球似乎并没有因此停止旋转。

And so, the way I'm thinking of texting these days is that what we're seeing is a whole new way of writing that young people are developing, 所以，我对当今的短信的看法是我们正在经历一种由年轻人发展出的新的书写方式，

which they're using alongside their ordinary writing skills,  同时他们也在使用他们正常的书面表达写作技巧，

and that means that they're able to do two things.  这意味着他们可以两者兼修。

Increasing evidence is that being bilingual is cognitively⁵ beneficial. 补充证据就是拥有双语能力对认知的发展是有利的。

That's also true of being bidialectal.  这在精通两种方言上同样适用。

That's certainly true of being bidialectal in terms of your writing.  如果你会用两种方言写作的话，这也是千真万确的。

And so texting actually is evidence of a balancing act that young people are using today, not consciously, of course, 所以短信实际上是一个平衡之举的佐证。当然，年轻人们是在无意识的这样使用短信的，

but it's an expansion of their linguistic⁶ repertoire⁷.  但这是他们语言能力的一种扩展。

It's very simple.  非常简单。

1 freshmen   

n.（中学或大学的）一年级学生( freshman的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We are freshmen and they are sophomores. 我们是一年级学生，他们是二年级学生。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• University freshmen get lots of razzing, but they like the initiation. 大一新生受各种嘲弄，但是他们对这种入门经验甘之如饴。 来自辞典例句

2 punctuate   

vt.加标点于；不时打断

参考例句：

• The pupils have not yet learned to punctuate correctly.小学生尚未学会正确使用标点符号。
• Be sure to punctuate your sentences with the correct marks in the right places.一定要在你文章句子中的正确地方标上正确的标点符号。

3 superintendent   

n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长

参考例句：

• He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
• He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 cognitively   

参考例句：

• Cognitively,man,the subject of cognition,must classify and categorize the objects. 从认知学角度来看 ，作为认知主体的人对于认知对象必须进行分类和范畴化。 来自互联网
• Cognitively, reference can be studied along with information processing of human mind. 从认知的角度看，要研究人类思维的信息处理过程。 来自互联网

6 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。

7 repertoire   

n.(准备好演出的)节目，保留剧目；(计算机的)指令表，指令系统， <美>(某个人的)全部技能；清单，指令表

参考例句：

• There is an extensive repertoire of music written for the flute.有很多供长笛演奏的曲目。
• He has added considerably to his piano repertoire.他的钢琴演奏曲目大大增加了。