【英语语言学习】表情包会持续走红吗

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Emojis can be a whole lot of fun - you know, those little pictures on our phones that seem to express sentiments when words fall short. Sometimes we need to punctuate¹ our thoughts and phrases with a sad cat, floating hearts, maybe an alien had. Not so complicated when they appear in our personal email or text, but emojis are now popping up in an odd place - courtrooms. These odd little images have been entered as evidence in a handful of cases in just the past few months. Here to help us make sense of this is Dalia Topelson Ritvo. She is the assistant director of Harvard Law School's Cyber Law Clinic. Thanks so much for talking with us.

DALIA TOPELSON RITVO: My pleasure.

MARTIN: So, Dalia, can you walk us through one of these recent examples, when and how emojis were entered as evidence?

TOPELSON RITVO: Yes, probably the most recent and high-profile case is a federal case against the person who ran an online market for drug trafficking called Silk Road. And essentially², I think the prosecution³ started reading emoticon at the end. So it didn't say something like smiley face or frowny face. And the defense⁴ pretty much said this was not an accurate record of the evidence that was being presented. So the judge actually found that the emojis should be read into the testimony⁵ and the jurors should have the ability to read the texts or online messages themselves so that they could see the emojis in context.

MARTIN: But some of these things are just random⁶, just strange images that seem completely unrelated to the text. How do you deal with those in a courtroom situation because you don't want the lawyers to be telling a jury what a certain emoticon means because they would be then kind of swaying their opinion of that?

TOPELSON RITVO: I think that's correct. And I think potentially or the ideal situation would be that if I wrote a text, and my text was admitted as evidence in trial, then the attorneys could ask me what I meant by that. This is also the same thing that happens, you know, for instance, when slang is introduced into evidence. Not everybody uses the same words in the same way. And it's up to the attorneys in presenting their cases to be able to clarify that in a way that gets to the actual meaning intended by the speaker. And, of course, if it's a little alien head, you know, I can't out of context say what that would mean with respect to a certain portion of text.

MARTIN: But I do hear you saying that this is not trivial, that these things matter.

TOPELSON RITVO: I would say it would. I think as these types of communications become more ubiquitous and potentially a richer source of evidence in disputes, I think these types of mechanisms⁷ to indicate tone or intent couldn really come to play at trial, especially in criminal cases where the intention of a person may really be at issue.

MARTIN: Dalia Topelson Ritvo. She is the assistant director of Harvard Law School's Cyber Law Clinic. Thanks so much for talking with us, Dalia.

TOPELSON RITVO: Thank you.

1 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。

2 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

3 prosecution   

n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营

参考例句：

• The Smiths brought a prosecution against the organizers.史密斯家对组织者们提出起诉。
• He attempts to rebut the assertion made by the prosecution witness.他试图反驳原告方证人所作的断言。

4 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。

5 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

6 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。

7 mechanisms   

n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》