词汇大师-- Meet a Labor Lawyer

　　AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: our guest is Tom Dalzell, senior editor of the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English -- and, now, the Concise¹ New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English.
RS: "How do you hope that readers use this dictionary?"

　　TOM DALZELL: "There is the traditional role of the dictionary: 'I don't know what this word that I heard or I read means, I'll look it up.' But it's a browsing² pleasure, because when you start seeing clusters of words that come out of the Caribbean, there's just such hope and joy of life there. And then you see a skepticism and irony³ in Australia. You see different cultures emerging as you browse⁴ through it."
AA: "Speaking of changes in attitude or culture, or cultural differences, I'm curious since you've looked at -- let's just focus on American slang for a moment here -- you've looked at slang from nineteen forty-five to the present. Have you seen any shifts in attitude or in the culture as expressed through the slang?"
RS: "Or trends."
TOM DALZELL: "Sure, sure. I've seen two things. One is homogenization of American slang. If you looked in nineteen forty-five, you would find very different slang in the cities and in rural areas. And there's a lot more uniformity now, and I attribute that to media. With young people, with the advent⁵ of MTV in the early eighties, that really became a national media outlet⁶ for language. So I've seen homogenization, and there's something lost in that.
"And the other thing that one sees, beginning in the late nineteen thirties but certainly continuing on almost a linear way up is the influence of African-American vernacular⁷, African-American slang on American slang in general. With the Swing movement and jitterbugs in the late thirties, there was a conscious attempt by white Americans to learn African-American slang, and it has just become more and more a part of mainstream⁸ American slang."
RS: Tom Dalzell is a labor⁹ lawyer, but when he's not doing that, his labor of love is writing about slang. We asked him if he found any terms that are especially difficult for non-native English speakers to understand.
TOM DALZELL: "Well, even among English-as-first-language speakers, there's a great deal of vagueness in slang -- intentionally¹⁰. When you say 'Well, we hooked up,' that could mean anything from 'We just happened to meet each other at a club and talked' to romantic involvement. I mean, there's a wonderful scene in [the movie] 'Pulp¹¹ Fiction' when Vincent Vega tells the Samuel Jackson character that Marcellus wants him to take out Uma Thurman. Take out, as in kill? Or as in, to take out on a date? There's a lot of vagueness and sometimes context doesn't even suggest the answer."
AA: "Do you run into any uses of slang that confuse you or other lawyers or judges?"
TOM DALZELL: "Well, actually, I'm testifying as an expert witness up in a murder trial in Spokane [Washington] in early December about a slang term, where the prosecuting¹² attorney deemed it to mean only one thing and the defense¹³ is arguing that it could mean many things."
RS: "What is that word?"
TOM DALZELL: "The term is to 'hit a lick.' The defendant¹⁴ told several friends that he had 'hit a lick,' and the prosecutor¹⁵ is urging that the only possible definition of that term is to commit an armed robbery. My research tells me otherwise, that 'hit a lick' actually more commonly means to come into a sum of money, in somewhat shady circumstances, but in one fell swoop¹⁶ and by no means necessarily armed robbery. And here somebody's life depends on how a jury is going to interpret him saying 'I hit a lick.'
RS: Tom Dalzell, senior editor of the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. The two-volume set is being republished in a concise form without the citations¹⁷ and with new entries from around the English-speaking word.
AA: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. To learn more about American English, we invite you to browse through the archives at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is [email protected]. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 concise   

adj.简洁的，简明的

参考例句：

• The explanation in this dictionary is concise and to the point.这部词典里的释义简明扼要。
• I gave a concise answer about this.我对于此事给了一个简要的答复。

2 browsing   

v.吃草( browse的现在分词 )；随意翻阅；（在商店里）随便看看；（在计算机上）浏览信息

参考例句：

• He sits browsing over[through] a book. 他坐着翻阅书籍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Cattle is browsing in the field. 牛正在田里吃草。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 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。

4 browse   

vi.随意翻阅，浏览；(牛、羊等)吃草

参考例句：

• I had a browse through the books on her shelf.我浏览了一下她书架上的书。
• It is a good idea to browse through it first.最好先通篇浏览一遍。

5 advent   

n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临

参考例句：

• Swallows come by groups at the advent of spring. 春天来临时燕子成群飞来。
• The advent of the Euro will redefine Europe.欧元的出现将重新定义欧洲。

6 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。

7 vernacular   

adj.地方的，用地方语写成的；n.白话；行话；本国语；动植物的俗名

参考例句：

• The house is built in a vernacular style.这房子按当地的风格建筑。
• The traditional Chinese vernacular architecture is an epitome of Chinese traditional culture.中国传统民居建筑可谓中国传统文化的缩影。

8 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。

9 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

10 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

11 pulp   

n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆

参考例句：

• The pulp of this watermelon is too spongy.这西瓜瓤儿太肉了。
• The company manufactures pulp and paper products.这个公司制造纸浆和纸产品。

12 prosecuting   

检举、告发某人( prosecute的现在分词 )； 对某人提起公诉； 继续从事（某事物）； 担任控方律师

参考例句：

• The witness was cross-examined by the prosecuting counsel. 证人接受控方律师的盘问。
• Every point made by the prosecuting attorney was telling. 检查官提出的每一点都是有力的。

13 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

14 defendant   

n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的

参考例句：

• The judge rejected a bribe from the defendant's family.法官拒收被告家属的贿赂。
• The defendant was borne down by the weight of evidence.有力的证据使被告认输了。

15 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

16 swoop   

n.俯冲，攫取；v.抓取，突然袭击

参考例句：

• The plane made a swoop over the city.那架飞机突然向这座城市猛降下来。
• We decided to swoop down upon the enemy there.我们决定突袭驻在那里的敌人。

17 citations   

n.引用( citation的名词复数 )；引证；引文；表扬

参考例句：

• The apt citations and poetic gems have adorned his speeches. 贴切的引语和珠玑般的诗句为他的演说词增添文采。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Some dictionary writers use citations to show what words mean. 有些辞典的编纂者用引文作例证以解释词义。 来自辞典例句