Some events in 2009 may be more momentous, but surely not many: on April 29th the number of words in the English language will pass 1m. This astonishing fact prompts a host of frequently asked questions or, as wordsmiths call them, FAQs.?
在2009年，某些事件可能會比下面將要提到的事件重要的多，但是，可以肯定的是，這類事件絕不會很多：到2009年4月29日那天，英語詞匯的數(shù)量將超過一百萬。這個驚人的事實激發(fā)出大量的頻繁提出的問題，文字專家們把它們稱之為FAQ，即“常見問題”。
First, who says—or, in tabloid (this meaning coined in 1902) journalese (1882), who sez? The answer is the Global Language Monitor, a company based in Austin, Texas. It keeps an eye on the use of language, especially English, and tracks changes.
首先，這是誰說的？答案是，這是總部設在得克薩斯州奧斯汀的“全球語言監(jiān)測公司”說的。該公司密切關注各種語言特別是英語的使用情況，追蹤它們的各種變化。
And by what authority does the Global Language Monitor say a new coinage is a genuine new word? None. Some countries, such as France and Spain, have academies that claim the right to regulate their national languages, and to repel invasive terms, usually from English. Neither England nor the United States attempts such an exercise in futility. English is a mongrel language that keeps its vitality by absorbing new words, uses and expressions. It promiscuously plunders other languages and delights in neologisms. It is the language of free traders and inventive entrepreneurs such as the staff of the Global Language Monitor.
如果做為權威的話，“全球語言監(jiān)測公司”說是新詞就是新詞嗎？絕不是的。某些國家，比如法國和西班牙，有學術機構宣稱有權管制他們國家的語言，并抵制那些外來術語，主要是外來的英語術語。無論是英國還是美國，都不會做這種徒勞無益的事情。英語是一種雜交語言，一直靠吸收新詞、新用法和新含義來保持其生命力。它雜亂地掠奪其它語言，并以增加新詞為樂。它是“全球語言監(jiān)測公司”的職員之類的自由貿(mào)易者和有才能的企業(yè)家的語言。
So is it really a fact that English will have 1m words on the predicted date in April? Of course not. For a start, the global monitors explain that the actual date could be five days either side of April 29th. Then they say that English already has well over 1m words, if you accept the statement in the introduction to the Merriam-Webster dictionary that the language contains “many times” the 450,000 words it lists. Yet the Oxford dictionary lists only half as many.
那么，英語的詞匯將在預測的明年4月份達到1百萬的事實是真的嗎？當然不是。首先，“全球語言監(jiān)測公司”解釋說，實際的日期可能會在2009年4月29日前后5天之內(nèi)。然后，他們說英語詞匯早已經(jīng)超過1百萬了，如果你接受韋氏詞典前言中的說法的話，韋氏詞典的前言提到，英語所包含的詞匯比其所列的45萬個單詞要多“ 很多倍”。然而，牛津字典所列的單詞只是韋氏詞典的一半那么多。
Who’s right? How many words are there? That depends on what counts as a word. Should “write”, “writes”, “wrote”, “written” count as four words or one? If one, what about “be”, “am”, “are”, “is”, “was”, “were”? What about the numberless words with different meanings? Should “set” and “stock”, for instance, each count as one, though their meanings are manifold? And what of winespeak, computer drivel and other jargon?
誰是對的呢？英語有多少個單詞呢？這取決于單詞的計算方法。比如“write”一詞，有該詞的原形的“write”、第三人稱單數(shù)的“writes”、過去式的 “wrote”以及過去分詞的“written”。是把它們算為4個單詞呢，還是算為1個單詞？如果算一個單詞的話，那么“be”、“am”、 “are”、“is”、“was”、“were”又該怎樣計算呢? 一詞多義的單詞數(shù)不勝數(shù)，它們又該如何計算呢？另外，“set” 和“stock”的意思相重，是應該各算一個單詞嗎？而winespeak、computer drivel以及其它術語又該如何計算呢？
Och aye, and whit aboot Scots? Yes, English gathers variants as it travels and, my, how it has travelled. Is the Scots “thrapple” just the same as the English “thropple” (throat)? Is the Australian “donkasaurus” (car engine) English or Australian or Greek?
Och aye, and whit aboot Scots?（譯注：英語中一些地方口音的讀寫）是的，英語在往外傳播的同時也聚合了各種變異，天啊，英語傳播的范圍可大了呢。蘇格蘭人說的“thrapple”跟英國人說的 “thropple”(喉嚨)意思完全一樣嗎？澳大利亞人說的“donkasaurus” (汽車引擎)是英語呢，還是澳大利亞語，或者是希臘語？
Come to that, what about all the words that English picks up abroad? “Hobson-Jobson”, written in 1886, lists over 2,000 Anglo-Indian expressions. “Shampoo” and “bungalow” have certainly earned their place in the English dictionary, but what of the Hindi “dam”, the Indian coin once used in English phrases like “I don’t give a dam” but now consigned to history or misspelt, and so misunderstood, as “damn”? Or what of “roué”, a “French” word common enough in English but now almost unknown in French? List them all, you may say, along with jihad, tsunami, schadenfreude and béarnaise sauce. But the line must be drawn somewhere, so where?
談到這點，英語從外國語言中撿來的那些單詞又該怎么算？1886年出版的“Hobson-Jobson詞典”列舉了2000多個英國——印度詞義?？梢钥隙ǖ卣f，“Shampoo”（洗發(fā)水）和“bungalow”（平房）已經(jīng)在英語詞典里擁有它們自己的位置了，但是印度語的“dam”又如何呢？這個印度硬幣曾經(jīng)被用于英語短語中，如：“I don’t give a dam”。但是，現(xiàn)在人們認為這是過去人們對“damn”這個單詞的錯誤拼寫，或者是誤解。roue（放蕩者）一詞在英語中是一個非常普通的“法語”單詞，但是這個單詞現(xiàn)在法語中幾乎已經(jīng)是不被人知了，那又該怎么算呢？你也許會說，把它們?nèi)苛羞M去，與jihad（圣戰(zhàn)）、tsunami（海嘯）、 schadenfreude（幸災樂禍）以及béarnaise sauce（貝亞恩醬汁）一起列進去。但是，標準線必須劃在某個地方，那么是哪個地方呢？
The global monitors would have the world believe that their lines are drawn scientifically: take the bulk of the best-known dictionaries, chuck in all the words in Shakespeare, Chaucer and the Bible, and then apply their proprietary algorithm, which trawls through the press, the internet and every other medium for new words. After that, apparently, the words must meet criteria about frequency of use in print and speech and their ability to stand the test of time. Words drop out of use as well as into it—Oxford lists 47,156 it considers obsolete—and most neologisms die almost as soon as they leave the lips of the rapper, valley girl or blogobore who utters them.
全球語言監(jiān)測公司”會讓世人相信他們的劃線是科學的：取大部分著名的詞典，挑出所有出現(xiàn)在莎士比亞、喬叟和圣經(jīng)中的單詞，然后采用它們的專有算法，從報刊、互聯(lián)網(wǎng)以及其它各種媒體搜索新詞。當然，在這之后，所有的單詞都必須符合在印刷物和演講中出現(xiàn)的使用頻率標準以及它們接受時間考驗的能力的標準。有新增加的單詞，就有不再使用的單詞——牛津詞典列出了其認為已經(jīng)不使用的 47,156個單詞——那些從說唱歌手、山谷女郎或博客作者嘴里說出的新詞，大部分一離開他們的嘴就死亡了
So, last question, is the 1m-word claim meaningless? Yes, largely. But English does indeed have lots of words, almost certainly more than any other tongue. That is the consequence of its evolution. Basically Germanic, it was expanded by the conquering Normans, who introduced French, and the medieval scholars and clergy, who used Latin. As the global language of the modern world, it now has lots of local variants—some recompense perhaps for the words it helps to obliterate as more and more languages become extinct.
最后一個問題，英語詞匯是否達到1百萬毫無意義嗎？是的，這在很大程度上是毫無意義的。但是英語的確是有大量的詞匯，幾乎可以肯定是比任何其它語言的詞匯都要多。那是其進化的結果。英語基礎是日耳曼語，后來被入侵的諾曼人引入了法語以及中世紀學者和神職人員引入拉丁語而得到擴展?，F(xiàn)在，英語作為當代世界的全球語言，已經(jīng)有了大量的地域性變體——或許，作為英語協(xié)助抹滅那些單詞的一種回報，越來越多的語言被滅絕了。
樓主對這些好有研究啊
