美国国家公共电台 NPR Our Language Is Evolving, 'Because Internet'

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The Internet has become a place where we spark and build relationships. We're all one LOL away from friends, family or a potential love match. And yet there is plenty of potential for miscommunication. Who among us hasn't wondered whether a message in all caps meant urgent, furious, really enthusiastic? A missing comma can throw you into emotional turmoil¹. The new book "Because Internet" aims to clear things up with some rules of Internet language.

GRETCHEN MCCULLOCH: The old rules are these sort of top down, you know, here's how you use an apostrophe. Here's how you use a semicolon type of thing. The new rules are about how are other people going to interpret your tone of voice. What can you do to make sure that people are reading you the way you want to be read?

CORNISH: Author and linguist² Gretchen McCulloch says a lot of the confusion stems from the fact that people approach this vocabulary differently depending on when they first went online. For instance...

MCCULLOCH: There's a difference between how these different groups use LOL, or lol (ph) the acronym³, which initially⁴ stood for laughing out loud. And if you talk to people in some of these older generations who, you know, have been using the Internet for 20 years but came online in a less social space, they see it, OK, here's an acronym. They're told it is an acronym. It must mean laughing out loud. And so they still use it as actual laughter whereas when you talk to the youngest groups, lol became more a marker of irony⁵ or softening⁷ or I'm not angry at you, I'm not feeling hostile, you know, these additional sort of subtle social meanings. And for the youngest group of people, there's no literal meaning left to lol at all. It's just the...

CORNISH: It's almost like a filler the way people would say like.

MCCULLOCH: Well, yeah, it's a filler that specifically indicates that there's some sort of double meaning to be found. And sometimes that double meaning is - you know, if I say something that could be interpreted as rude or hostile, like, oh, I hate you, if I say I hate you lol, now I'm joking, so it's fine. I'm not laughing out loud while I hit you, like, in a malicious⁸ sort of way. I'm undermining my message and saying I hate you lol but that's - I'm not serious about it. But in the inverse⁹, if you say I love you lol, that doesn't soften⁶ the message any more. Now that means, oh, no, I fake love you. Like, I'm being quite mean about that. So it's not always a softener¹⁰. It just hints towards some sort of double meaning, which could be good or bad.

CORNISH: You talked about the idea of a hostility¹¹, and I was surprised to learn how much debate there is around the use of a period. So for the rest of us who just use a period at the end of a sentence, it made me feel, as one producer put it, old as dust to learn that it also can be seen as passive-aggressive.

MCCULLOCH: Yeah. The period is such an interesting new battleground for Internet language because there's definitely a traditional use, which is still found in formal writing. You know, the book contains many periods and they're not passive-aggressive because it's a formal context. But in an informal context, you don't need the period anymore to distinguish between one sentence or one phrase and the next because you're just going to hit send in a chat context. You can just send the message. And that makes your messages easier to read than this massive wall of text, particularly on a tiny screen. That means that the period is now open and available for taking on other sorts of meanings and other connotations. And one of those is that very sense of formality. And you read a formal sentence like, and now over to the weather, and you sort of drop your tone of voice. Making your voice deeper at the end of the sentence like you conventionally do with a period in formal writing adds a note of solemnity or finality or seriousness to what you're saying.

CORNISH: Yes. That's what I'm going for.

MCCULLOCH: (Laughter) Right. But the problem is if you say, OK, sounds good and you add that note of seriousness, now you've got positive words and serious punctuation¹² and the clash between them is what creates that sense of passive aggression¹³.

CORNISH: How do we avoid misunderstandings?

MCCULLOCH: We talk to each other. You can ask people what they mean.

CORNISH: But isn't that seen as - I don't know - sort of dorky (laughter)? Because you're saying it as though someone might actually pick up the phone and start talking. And less and less, that's happening.

MCCULLOCH: I mean, you don't have to talk to people by picking up the phone. You can talk to people by saying what did you mean by that, or are you actually mad at me in the text message. You know, sometimes I say this is associated with older people and people take that as a criticism, but I think it's just as incumbent¹⁴ on younger people to say maybe I shouldn't be overinterpreting hostility or passive aggression when someone's sending me. Maybe I should just be interpreting this with the context of I know this person is older and so they're not actually being passive aggressive at me. It doesn't mean that just because this is what the kids are doing means we all have to talk like that. But having increased understanding across different generations can help people avoid miscommunications in their text messaging, which is really what I'm trying to do with "Because Internet."

CORNISH: You talk a lot about how informal writing is mutable and changing. Is there anything you've learned or new trends that you've seen recently that you wish you were able to get into the book?

MCCULLOCH: That's a good one. One new trend that I've seen that I really wish I had been able to spend more space on in the book is the continued evolution of keysmash. So keysmash is when you mash¹⁵ your fingers against a keyboard to, you know, convey this incoherent emotion. But what I was just noticing as I was writing the book and didn't quite have enough data to include is that keysmashing has also been changing as we use mobile phones more. Because when you keysmash on a full mechanical keyboard, you do have your fingers on the home row with A-S-D-F and so on. But when you keysmash on a smartphone keyboard, you have your thumbs over, like, G-H-S-D-S-K - something like that. So instead of going A-S-D-F from left to right, you might end up with, like, S-K-S-K-S-K or G-H-G-H-G-H, something going back and forth¹⁶ between your thumbs near the center of the keyboard.

And so the way we keysmash has been changing partly in response to the social pressure, partly in response to the devices we're using. And it's such an interesting example for me because it looks like we're just being monkeys typing randomly¹⁸ on a keyboard producing something totally incoherent, and yet there are social patterns to it. There are real linguistic¹⁹ trends to keysmash even something that looks so random¹⁷.

CORNISH: There are words we type in social media so often that are just spur-of-the-moment messages and reactions. Why do you think we should take this type of writing so seriously?

MCCULLOCH: For a long time, linguists²⁰ have been arguing that the most interesting type of language is the informal speech that you produce when you're not thinking about it. Because when we do stuff fast and without seemingly thinking about it too hard, we access these levels of unconscious linguistic awareness²¹ that we all have. And I think that informal writing online has similar things that make it very interesting. If we only analyze²² the language in books, we only analyze one type of language. If we analyze the language on the Internet, we can analyze so many different types of languages, so many different ways of talking and get a bigger picture of what it means to be a person rather than just what it means to be the type of person who writes a book.

CORNISH: Gretchen McCulloch is author of the book "Because Internet: Understanding The New Rules Of Language."

Thank you so much for speaking with us.

MCCULLOCH: Thanks for having me.

1 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

2 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。

3 acronym   

n.首字母简略词，简称

参考例句：

• That's a mouthful of an acronym for a very simple technology.对于一项非常简单的技术来说，这是一个很绕口的缩写词。
• TSDF is an acronym for Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facilities.TSDF是处理，储存和处置设施的一个缩写。

4 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

5 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

6 soften   

v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和

参考例句：

• Plastics will soften when exposed to heat.塑料适当加热就可以软化。
• This special cream will help to soften up our skin.这种特殊的护肤霜有助于使皮肤变得柔软。

7 softening   

变软，软化

参考例句：

• Her eyes, softening, caressed his face. 她的眼光变得很温柔了。它们不住地爱抚他的脸。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）
• He might think my brain was softening or something of the kind. 他也许会觉得我婆婆妈妈的，已经成了个软心肠的人了。

8 malicious   

adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的

参考例句：

• You ought to kick back at such malicious slander. 你应当反击这种恶毒的污蔑。
• Their talk was slightly malicious.他们的谈话有点儿心怀不轨。

9 inverse   

adj.相反的，倒转的，反转的；n.相反之物；v.倒转

参考例句：

• Evil is the inverse of good.恶是善的反面。
• When the direct approach failed he tried the inverse.当直接方法失败时，他尝试相反的做法。

10 softener   

n.起软化作用的东西，软化剂，柔软剂

参考例句：

• This is a good fabric softener for woolens. 这是一种很好的羊毛织物柔软剂。
• Ion exchange softening Series: If Mobile-bed tower, Combined softener and Automatic softener. 离子交换软化系列：如三塔流动床、组合式软水器和全自动软水器。

11 hostility   

n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争

参考例句：

• There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
• His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。

12 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。

13 aggression   

n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害

参考例句：

• So long as we are firmly united, we need fear no aggression.只要我们紧密地团结，就不必惧怕外来侵略。
• Her view is that aggression is part of human nature.她认为攻击性是人类本性的一部份。

14 incumbent   

adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的

参考例句：

• He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
• It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。

15 mash   

n.麦芽浆，糊状物，土豆泥；v.把…捣成糊状，挑逗，调情

参考例句：

• He beat the potato into a mash before eating it.他把马铃薯捣烂后再吃。
• Whiskey,originating in Scotland,is distilled from a mash of grains.威士忌源于苏格兰，是从一种大麦芽提纯出来的。

16 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。

17 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

18 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句

19 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。

20 linguists   

n.通晓数国语言的人( linguist的名词复数 )；语言学家

参考例句：

• The linguists went to study tribal languages in the field. 语言学家们去实地研究部落语言了。 来自辞典例句
• The linguists' main interest has been to analyze and describe languages. 语言学家的主要兴趣一直在于分析并描述语言。 来自辞典例句

21 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

22 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。