英语单词大师：In America, Struggling ...

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster: talking about disabilities.

RS: Mark Aronoff is a linguist¹ at Stony² Brook³ University on Long Island, New York. He says over the last twenty years, it's become difficult to find a more taboo⁴ subject in American society than disability. As evidence, he cites the discomfort⁵ that many people have in finding neutral words to talk about disability without offending anyoneAA: In fact, in an essay last week in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Professor Aronoff says that when it comes to terminology⁶, "disability is now at the point that race was fifty years ago," when he was a child.

MARK ARONOFF: "So what's happened is that words that fifty years ago were perfectly⁷ acceptable words have become unacceptable words, like 'crippled.' We had 'hospitals for crippled children.' And that was perfectly normal discourse⁸. You could say 'so-and-so was crippled by polio.'"RS: "What about the word 'disabled'? Is that a word that doesn't work?"MARK ARONOFF: "I don't know. And what struck me, I guess, was I had that little anecdote⁹ in the story about 'accessible' ... "RS: "Right, why don't you tell us about that."MARK ARONOFF: "It happened to be in California but it could be anywhere else. I'm approaching a men's room and there's a sign next to it that says 'nearest accessible restrooms on the third floor.' And as I'm walking in, I said to myself, well, accessible to whom? I mean, this is restroom is accessible. And then I realized that what they meant was disabled-accessible. But they didn't want to even use the word."AA: "So euphemistically they call it 'accessible.'"MARK ARONOFF: "Right, but what's happened is that -- the greatest euphemism¹⁰ is simply not saying the word at all."RS: "You say here the disability taboo is part of a larger societal trend to taboo all perceived human defects."MARK ARONOFF: "Right, and we all have defects, right? It seems to me that on the one hand we are trying to be a much more inclusive society -- even here on campus, for example, we have students with severe, severe physical disabilities that in earlier times would have prevented them from getting a college education. On the other hand, we're bombarded with these images of physical perfection -- you know, David Beckham and Posh."RS: "I think it's interesting here, you talk about the 'family of euphemisms¹¹,' you talk about 'people living with X.' Talk about that construction."MARK ARONOFF: "Right, it's like a little formula, so that it's 'people living with AIDS,' 'people living with mental retardation,' 'people living with cancer,' whatever you want them to be living with. I call it a 'family of euphemisms' in the sense that it's kind of an open-ended formula that allows you to euphemize about any of these conditions."AA: "Well, now, I suppose activists¹² would point out the long history of discrimination against people with disabilities or certain diseases and that they might ask: What right does someone who is not disabled have writing something like this, or challenging what might be seen as an attempt to be more sensitive in describing people who are in that condition?"MARK ARONOFF: "I wasn't trying to pass judgment¹³ on people's use of these euphemisms, whether they were good or bad. All that I was trying to point out is that they are euphemisms. I do research on sign language, and deaf people want to be called deaf. They don't want to be called 'hearing-impaired.' And that was a long struggle for them, because for them, by not calling them deaf, you're trying to euphemize them away."RS: "What you're noticing, do you feel that we have gone so far to the political correctness that we're afraid to even broach¹⁴ a subject? Or do you feel that because the communities that are empowered, that want to be known as who they are, are coming back a little bit to a more central position in which we're able to talk?"MARK ARONOFF: "No, I think that in public discourse, I mean outside maybe these small communities of activists, this particular topic of disability is becoming more and more difficult to talk about."AA: Mark Aronoff is a linguistics¹⁵ professor and associate provost at Stony Brook University, part of the State University of New York. The Chronicle of Higher Education published his article in the July twenty-seventh issue of the Chronicle Review.

RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Archives are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

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 stony   

adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的

参考例句：

• The ground is too dry and stony.这块地太干，而且布满了石头。
• He listened to her story with a stony expression.他带着冷漠的表情听她讲经历。

3 brook   

n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让

参考例句：

• In our room we could hear the murmur of a distant brook.在我们房间能听到远处小溪汩汩的流水声。
• The brook trickled through the valley.小溪涓涓流过峡谷。

4 taboo   

n.禁忌，禁止接近，禁止使用；adj.禁忌的；v.禁忌，禁制，禁止

参考例句：

• The rude words are taboo in ordinary conversation.这些粗野的字眼在日常谈话中是禁忌的。
• Is there a taboo against sex before marriage in your society?在你们的社会里，婚前的性行为犯禁吗？

5 discomfort   

n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便

参考例句：

• One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
• She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。

6 terminology   

n.术语；专有名词

参考例句：

• He particularly criticized the terminology in the document.他特别批评了文件中使用的术语。
• The article uses rather specialized musical terminology.这篇文章用了相当专业的音乐术语。

7 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

8 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

9 anecdote   

n.轶事，趣闻，短故事

参考例句：

• He departed from the text to tell an anecdote.他偏离课文讲起了一则轶事。
• It had never been more than a family anecdote.那不过是个家庭趣谈罢了。

10 euphemism   

n.婉言，委婉的说法

参考例句：

• Language reflects culture and euphemism is a mirror of culture.语言反映文化,而婉语则是各种文化的一面镜子。
• Euphemism is a very common and complicated linguistic phenomenon.委婉语是一种十分常见而又非常复杂的语言现象。

11 euphemisms   

n.委婉语，委婉说法( euphemism的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• No point is in mincing words or hiding behind euphemisms. 没有必要闪烁其词或者羞羞答答。 来自辞典例句
• No point in mincing words or hiding behind euphemisms. 没必要闪烁其词或者羞羞答答。 来自辞典例句

12 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 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。

14 broach   

v.开瓶，提出(题目)

参考例句：

• It's a good chance to broach the subject.这是开始提出那个问题的好机会。
• I thought I'd better broach the matter with my boss.我想我最好还是跟老板说一下这事。

15 linguistics   

n.语言学

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。
• Linguistics is a scientific study of the property of language.语言学是指对语言的性质所作的系统研究。