117：More is more?

Redundancy can be useful in writing and speech. Here’s when, why and how

冗余在寫(xiě)作和口語(yǔ)中很有用，以下是何時(shí)、為什么以及如何使用冗余

redundancy n. 冗余，累贅

redundant adj.

So rather than maintaining the now redundant leaves throughout the winter, the tree saves its precious resources and discards them.（與其在冬天保留這些顯得多余的葉子，樹(shù)木選擇節(jié)約寶貴的資源，并遺棄它們。）

“Please return your tray tables to their full upright and locked position.” “Remember to take all of your personal belongings with you when you leave the train.” Something about writing announcements for public transport seems to bring out the wordiness in people. These instructions can be shortened to “Please put your trays up” and “Please take your things.”

“請(qǐng)將您的小桌板恢復(fù)完全直立并鎖定的狀態(tài)。“下車(chē)時(shí)記得帶上您所有的私人物品?！惫煌ǜ娴臏剀疤崾舅坪蹩偸亲屓擞X(jué)得啰嗦。這些指示可以縮短為“請(qǐng)把桌板收好”和“請(qǐng)拿好您的東西”。

tray n. 托盤(pán)

tray table 小桌板

upright adj.&adv. 直立的

釋義：straight up or vertical

例句：Seats should be in the upright position during take-off and landing.（在起飛和著陸期間，座椅應(yīng)處于直立狀態(tài)。）

wordiness n. 冗長(zhǎng)

wordy adj.

Your article is too wordy.（你的論文太啰嗦了。）

Redundancy is widely seen as a stylistic sin. “Omit needless words” is perhaps the least redundant statement of this view, made famous by “The Elements of Style”, a bestselling usage manual published in 1959. In it, E.B. White, an essayist and novelist, attributed the dictum to his university English teacher, William Strunk. In the classroom, Strunk “omitted so many needless words” that he was often “l(fā)eft with nothing more to say, yet with time to fill”. So Strunk resorted to saying everything three times: “Omit needless words! Omit needless words! Omit needless words!”

冗余被廣泛認(rèn)為是一種錯(cuò)誤的語(yǔ)言風(fēng)格。一本出版于1959年的暢銷(xiāo)使用手冊(cè)《語(yǔ)言風(fēng)格要素》中，著名的那句“省略多余的廢話(huà)”，也許是這個(gè)觀(guān)點(diǎn)里最不多余的話(huà)。在文章中，散文家兼小說(shuō)家埃爾文·布魯克斯·懷特將這句名言歸功于他的大學(xué)英語(yǔ)老師威廉·斯特倫克。在課堂上，斯特倫克“省略了太多不必要的詞”，以至于他經(jīng)?！皼](méi)什么可說(shuō)的，但還有時(shí)間來(lái)打發(fā)”。因此，斯特倫克把每件事都說(shuō)三遍:“省略不必要的話(huà)！省略不必要的話(huà)！省略不必要的話(huà)！”

stylistic adj. 風(fēng)格上的

sin n. 罪；過(guò)錯(cuò)

omit v. 省去，遺漏 =leave out

釋義：to fail to include or do sth

例句：Some scientists have necessarily had to omit （leave out）the mathematics when they wrote books to explain their fields to non-scientists.（一些科學(xué)家在寫(xiě)書(shū)向非科學(xué)家解釋他們的領(lǐng)域時(shí)，不得不省略數(shù)學(xué)知識(shí)。）

essayist n. 散文家

dictum n. 格言

resort to sth/doing sth 訴諸于

釋義：to do sth that you do not want to do because you cannot find any other way of achieving sth

例句：I had to resort to violence to get my money.（我不得不訴諸暴力拿回我的錢(qián)。）

On reflection, though, did he really need to say that three times himself? If he had already said everything that was required, he could have let the class out early rather than repeating his call for concision. That he did so suggests there may be more value in redundancy than meets the eye. Language scholars, indeed, think it fulfils several functions.

然而，仔細(xì)想想，他真的需要自己說(shuō)三遍嗎？如果他已經(jīng)把要求講的都講完了，他就可以早點(diǎn)下課了，而不是重復(fù)他要求簡(jiǎn)潔的要求。他這樣做表明，冗余的價(jià)值可能比看起來(lái)更大。事實(shí)上，語(yǔ)言學(xué)者認(rèn)為它有幾個(gè)功能。

on reflection 深思熟慮

釋義：after considering it

例句：On reflection, I decided I had been wrong.

concision / k?n?s??n / n. 簡(jiǎn)潔

more… than meet the eye

釋義：more…than there appears to be at first

One, hinted at by Strunk’s repetition, is learnability. Repetition, after all, is reinforcement. Languages that include the same piece of grammatical information in more than one way are probably more easily acquired by children, or indeed adults. For example, the -ed ending on the verb gives no new information in “Yesterday, he walked”, because “yesterday” already situates the event in the past. Many languages—Mandarin, for example—do not require such endings. In those, such as English, which do, the doubling up of signals may have developed to make them easier to learn.

首先，斯特倫克的重復(fù)暗示了一點(diǎn)，那就是可學(xué)性。畢竟，重復(fù)就是強(qiáng)化。以不同方式里包含同一條語(yǔ)法信息的語(yǔ)言可能更容易被兒童或成年人習(xí)得。例如，在“Yesterday，he walked”中以-ed結(jié)尾的動(dòng)詞沒(méi)有給出新的信息，因?yàn)椤皔esterday”已經(jīng)將事件置于過(guò)去。許多語(yǔ)言——比如漢語(yǔ)——不需要這樣的結(jié)尾。在像英語(yǔ)這樣的語(yǔ)言中，信號(hào)的重疊可能是為了使它們更容易學(xué)習(xí)。

hint v.&n. 示意，暗示

例句：

He has hinted at the possibility of moving to Canada.（他暗示可能會(huì)搬去加拿大。）

He has dropped/given several hints to the boss that he’ll quit if he doesn’t get a promotion.（他好幾次暗示老板，如果自己沒(méi)升職，他便會(huì)離開(kāi)。）

learnability n. 可學(xué)性， 易學(xué)性?

Another benefit of redundancy can be seen on those trains and planes. These are noisy and distracting places where a brusque “Please take your things” may not be heard by all passengers. Redundancy makes a signal robust. For instance, spacecraft beaming digital messages to Earth include “error-correction bits”, redundancies in the signal that allow engineers back home to reconstruct the inevitably degraded transmissions. Here redundancy is a feature not a flaw.

冗余的另一個(gè)好處可以在那些火車(chē)和飛機(jī)上看到。這些地方很嘈雜，讓人分心，唐突的“請(qǐng)拿好你的東西”可能不會(huì)被所有乘客聽(tīng)到。冗余使信號(hào)更穩(wěn)定。例如，向地球發(fā)送數(shù)字信息的宇宙飛船包括“糾錯(cuò)位”，即信號(hào)中的冗余信息，這使得工程師們可以回家重建不可避免的降級(jí)傳輸。在這里，冗余是一個(gè)特征，而不是缺陷。

brusque adj. 唐突的

釋義：quick and rude in manner or speech

beam v. 發(fā)射

釋義：to send out a beam of light, an electrical or radio signal, etc.

A recent study of Dutch and English confirmed this is true of human languages, too. It looked at how both languages handle sentences like “She gave the book to him”: ie, those with both a direct object, “the book”, and an indirect one, “him”. In both Dutch and English, word order is relatively fixed for the giver, thing given and recipient. But there are also ways of emphasising this information. The pronoun “She” is in the nominative case, marking it as the subject or giver. “Him” is in the objective case, making clear that it is an object (it is not “he”). Strictly, either the form of the pronouns or the word order could distinguish giver from recipient, but most such sentences in English and Dutch offer both.

最近一項(xiàng)對(duì)荷蘭語(yǔ)和英語(yǔ)的研究證實(shí)，人類(lèi)語(yǔ)言也是如此。它研究了兩種語(yǔ)言如何處理像“She gave the book to him”這樣的句子:即既有直接賓語(yǔ)“the book”，又有間接賓語(yǔ)“him”。在荷蘭語(yǔ)和英語(yǔ)中，給予者、所送之物和接受者的詞序相對(duì)固定。但也有強(qiáng)調(diào)這一信息的方法。代詞“she”是主格，表示主語(yǔ)或給予者?！癶im”是賓格，明確它是一個(gè)客體(不是“he”)。嚴(yán)格來(lái)說(shuō)，無(wú)論是代詞的形式還是詞序都可以區(qū)分給予者和接受者，但英語(yǔ)和荷蘭語(yǔ)中大多數(shù)這樣的句子都提供了這兩種形式。

direct object 直接賓語(yǔ)

indirect object 間接賓語(yǔ)

pronoun n. 代詞

nominative / ?nɑ?m?n?t?v / adj. 主格

Languages may even adapt to maintain an optimal level of redundancy. A thousand years ago, every English noun—“king”, say, or “Alfred”—changed forms, as “he” does to “him”, to show which role every word played in a sentence (subject, direct object and so on). Over the centuries those endings disappeared, potentially making sentences ambiguous. The grammar of English responded by making word order, which had once been fluid, more rigid. And English still employs other features— such as the use of the preposition “to”, or the objective-case forms “him” and “her”—just in case.

語(yǔ)言甚至可以適應(yīng)最佳程度的冗余。一千年前，每個(gè)英語(yǔ)名詞——比如“king”或“Alfred”——都會(huì)改變形式，就像“he”變成“him”一樣，以表明每個(gè)單詞在句子中所起的作用(主語(yǔ)、直接賓語(yǔ)等等)。后面幾個(gè)世紀(jì)，這些結(jié)尾消失了，可能使句子表達(dá)變得模棱兩可。曾經(jīng)靈活的英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)法通過(guò)排列詞序回應(yīng)，隨之變得更死板的。英語(yǔ)還使用了其他一些特征，比如介詞“to”的使用，或者賓語(yǔ)形式“him”和“her”的使用，以防萬(wàn)一。

optimal adj. 最佳的 =best

例句：Several treatment sessions are required in order to obtain optimal results.（為了獲得最佳效果，需要進(jìn)行多次治療。）

say v. 比如 （前后有逗號(hào)）

They’ll look for, say, antiques that they can buy cheaply and expect to be able to sell at a profit.（他們會(huì)尋找，比如說(shuō)，古董，他們可以便宜地買(mǎi)到，并期望能夠賣(mài)出獲利。）

ambiguous adj. 模糊不清的，模棱兩可的

例句：

The government has been ambiguous on this issue.（政府在這件事的態(tài)度上模棱兩可。）

His reply to my question was somewhat ambiguous.（他對(duì)我的問(wèn)題的回復(fù)有點(diǎn)模棱兩可。）

fluid n. 液體； adj. 液體的；易變的；流暢的

例句：

The situation is still very fluid.（現(xiàn)在的情況變幻莫測(cè)。）

His piano playing was beautifully fluid.（他的鋼琴?gòu)椀脙?yōu)美流暢。）

rigid adj. 死板的，僵化的

釋義：not permitting any change

例句：I keep to a rigid schedule.（我有一個(gè)嚴(yán)格的時(shí)間表。）

Another possible use of redundancy is simply to make listening or reading less taxing. If every possible word that can be removed is removed, so that every remaining one is absolutely crucial, listening and reading become stressful. You cannot let your mind wander for even a moment. Such prose is almost too dense with information; even a short passage of this kind would be demanding to read. Sometimes a little room to breathe is no bad thing.

冗余的另一個(gè)可能用途是簡(jiǎn)單地使聽(tīng)或讀不那么費(fèi)力。如果每一個(gè)可以去掉的單詞都刪除，這樣剩下的每個(gè)單詞都是絕對(duì)關(guān)鍵的，聽(tīng)力和閱讀就會(huì)變得有壓力了。你一刻也不能走神。這樣的散文信息量太大了;即使是這樣一篇短文，讀起來(lái)也很吃力。有時(shí)候，有一點(diǎn)喘息的空間并不是件壞事。

taxing adj. 費(fèi)力的

wander v. 開(kāi)小差，走神

prose n. 散文，白話(huà)文

dense adj. 密集的，濃稠

搭配： dense fog/forest/smoke/crowd 濃霧/茂密的樹(shù)林/濃煙/密集的人群

demanding adj. 費(fèi)力的 =difficult

釋義：needing a lot of time, attention, or energy

搭配：a demanding job/task

例句：I’m trying to learn English, and I find it very demanding.

Just a little, that is. The advice to keep it trim is still good counsel. Blaise Pascal, a French author of the 17th century, once apologised for a long letter by saying: “I have not had time to make it shorter.” Keeping things tight can be hard work for the writer, but it saves time for the reader, at least up to a point. Make your prose as lean as necessary to keep your reader reading—but not more.

只是一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)就夠了。保持簡(jiǎn)潔的建議仍然是很好的忠告。17世紀(jì)的法國(guó)作家布萊士·帕斯卡曾為一封長(zhǎng)信道歉說(shuō):“我沒(méi)時(shí)間把它寫(xiě)短。”對(duì)作者來(lái)說(shuō)，保持內(nèi)容緊湊可能是一項(xiàng)艱巨的工作，但至少在某種程度上，它為讀者節(jié)省了時(shí)間。讓你的文章盡可能簡(jiǎn)潔，讓你的讀者繼續(xù)閱讀——但不是更多。

trim adj. 簡(jiǎn)潔的，整潔的

counsel n. 建議

up to a point 在某種程度上

釋義：partly, or to a limited degree

例句：Of course there is some truth in all this, but only up to a point.

lean adj. 精簡(jiǎn)的

第一段 生活中的語(yǔ)言冗余現(xiàn)象

第二段 冗余常被認(rèn)為是錯(cuò)誤的

第三段 冗余也有正向功能

第四段 冗余的第一個(gè)功能（易于學(xué)習(xí)）

第五段 冗余的第二個(gè)功能（方便接收信息）

第六段 冗余在英語(yǔ)和荷蘭語(yǔ)中的現(xiàn)象

第七段 冗余在英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)法中的演變

第八段 冗余的第三個(gè)功能（減輕聽(tīng)力和閱讀的負(fù)擔(dān)）

第九段 冗余要適度