原文標(biāo)題：
Johnson
By any other name
When stigma is the problem, using different words for things may not always help
約翰遜專欄
其他名稱
用不同的詞來代替貶義詞有時也不起作用

New terms can take on the pejorative undertones of the ones they replace
新詞取代原詞后依然帶有貶義

[Paragraph 1]
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP) style book’s Twitter feed is not often a source of hilarity.
美聯(lián)社的推特簡訊通常不走搞笑路線。

But the wire service recently tweeted: “We recommend avoiding general and often dehumanising ‘the’ labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the French, the disabled, the college-educated.”
但它最近在推特上發(fā)文：“我們建議避免給人貼上普遍性的、沒人性的標(biāo)簽，如窮人、腦殘、法國佬、殘疾人、受過大學(xué)教育的人。”

After the tweet went viral, the AP deleted it and apologised for dehumanising “the French”.
隨后這條推特被瘋傳，美聯(lián)社將其刪除，并為“法國佬”一詞道歉。

[Paragraph 2]
Despite the mockery, the AP advice has solid reasoning behind it: that of “people-centred” language.
盡管有人嘲笑，美聯(lián)社的建議言之有理：體現(xiàn)語言要“以人為本”。

English (like many other languages) allows the use of an adjective as a noun: the good, the bad, the ugly.
英語（和許多其他語言一樣）允許用形容詞作為名詞：好人、壞人、丑人。

But in contrast to some other languages, it is increasingly considered essentialising to refer to “the poor” or “the disabled”, as though they are nothing else. This especially applies to characteristics that might be considered unfortunate.
但與某些語言相比，越來越多的人認(rèn)為提到“窮人”或“殘疾人”是必不可少的，就是客觀的詞。這尤其適用于描述那些不幸人的特征。

The AP did not apologise to “the college-educated” as it did to the French, but it did not need to; nobody really minds being lumped in either group.
美聯(lián)社沒有為“受過大學(xué)教育的人”一詞道歉，但它也不必為“法國佬”一詞道歉；沒有人會真正介意。

The issue is essentialising combined with stigma.
這是一個兼具本質(zhì)屬性和污名化貶義的問題。

[Paragraph 3]
Some people are also troubled by bare group nouns such as “blacks”, “gays” and “Jews”, though these too seem to be on the decline.
盡管“黑人”、“同性戀”和“猶太人”等這些簡單群體名詞的使用頻率在下降，但一些人還是受其困擾。

Fortunately, it is not hard to add another word without clunking up your prose—either “people” or, even better, something descriptive as in “black veterans”, “gay activists” or “Jewish voters”.
幸運(yùn)的是，再加一個詞不會使你的文章生澀難懂--要么加一個詞“人”，或者加一個更好的詞，如“黑人老兵”、“同性戀活動人士”、“猶太選民”。

These make these phrases a bit more three-dimensional, like the people they point to.
這個方法使這些詞更立體，就像他們所特指的人一樣。

[Paragraph 4]
These are far from the only ideas flowing into journalists’ inboxes today.
如今記者們有更多的替代方法。

Suggestions abound: replace “slaves” with “enslaved people”; “minorities” with “minoritised people” or “racialised people”; “addicts” with “drug users” or “people with a substance-abuse problem”; “obese people” with “people with obesity”; “convicts” or “inmates” with “those who are incarcerated”. And so on.
例子數(shù)不勝數(shù)：用“被奴役的人”代替“奴隸”；用“少數(shù)民族人民”或“種族人民”代替“少數(shù)派”；用“吸毒者”或“藥物濫用者”代替“癮君子”；用“肥胖者”代替“肥子”；用“被監(jiān)禁者”代替“罪犯”或“囚犯”等等。

[Paragraph 5]
In each instance, the target is a term that is, or can be seen as, pejorative. The alternative is meant to be less so.
每個例子都帶有貶義，或者可能被視為貶義詞。找個替代詞也沒那么容易。

But those who encourage these lexical replacements face several problems.
但是鼓勵詞匯替換會面臨著幾個問題。

[Paragraph 6]
One is that though a case can be made for each individual change, adopting every one will quickly make a piece of writing lumbering, since every new option is longer than the one it is supposed to replace.
問題之一是，盡管人們可以改單個詞，但每個詞都改會使寫作變得很慢，因?yàn)橄胍粋€新詞要比使用原詞的時間長。

It will also make prose seem more unnatural, since the entire point is to replace words in common use with phrases that are not.
用不常用的詞代替常用詞，這也會讓文章不自然。

Good journalism is ideally conversational and accessible, calling for a brisk and compelling style.
好的新聞寫法是口語化的、通俗易懂的、干凈利索的、扣人心弦的。

[Paragraph 7]
Changing the world is hard; changing the language is a lot easier, which is why linguistic engineering can tempt people who may feel they have no other tools at hand apart from their keyboards.
改變世界很難；改變語言要容易得多，這就是為什么“語言工程”可以吸引“鍵盤俠”（指那些除了鍵盤之外，不用其他工具就能改變世界的人）的原因。

But it does not seem to work out as hoped. Replacing a stigmatised word often merely results in the stigma attaching to the new word.
但效果不及預(yù)期。替換一個貶義詞通常也會使新詞含有貶義。

“Retarded” was once a polite way of saying “feeble-minded”; it was in long-standing clinical use before becoming a playground insult and, ultimately, deeply offensive.
“反應(yīng)遲鈍”曾經(jīng)是“弱智”的一種禮貌說法；它曾長期用于臨床醫(yī)學(xué)，后來帶有侮辱的意味，最終變成一種深深的冒犯。

“Special needs” came next, but now “special” is a mean-spirited taunt too.
另一個例子是“特殊需求”，但現(xiàn)在的“特殊”也變成一個嘲諷“心胸狹窄”的詞。

[Paragraph 8]
In the same vein “handicapped” was a kinder replacement for “crippled”, and “homeless” for “vagrant”. Now “handicapped” is out and “disabled” is in (or, better yet, “person with a disability”). “Unhoused” is gaining ground over “homeless”.
同樣，“殘疾人”是“瘸子”的替代詞，“無家可歸者”是“乞丐”的替代詞?，F(xiàn)在，“殘疾人”也被“殘障人士”替代了（或者，更好的說法是“殘疾人士”）?！盁o家可歸者”也正在被“無房者”替代。

This “euphemism treadmill” has been observed since at least the 1970s. Nevertheless, people still hope to remake the world through language.
語言學(xué)家至少在20世紀(jì)70年代就觀察到了“委婉語輪轉(zhuǎn)”現(xiàn)象。盡管如此，人們?nèi)匀幌Ｍㄟ^用語言來重塑世界。

[Paragraph 9]
Some groups have taken another tack, and reclaimed older terms.
一些小組采取了另一種策略，重新啟用舊術(shù)語。

“African-American” had a 30-year heyday, but now “black” is back, and even given a capital B by many.
“非裔美國人”一詞用了30年，但現(xiàn)在“黑人”一詞又回來了，許多人甚至在寫“黑人Black”時，大寫了字母B。

Though “hearing-impaired” is still in medical parlance, many “Deaf” people proudly refer to themselves as such, also with a capital D.
盡管“聽障”仍然是醫(yī)學(xué)術(shù)語，但許多“聾子”都自豪地稱自己為“聾子Deaf”，并且大寫了字母D。

Other activists have decided there is nothing wrong with being “fat”, and have wholeheartedly embraced the term.
其他活動人士認(rèn)為“胖”沒有什么問題，于是全身心地接受這個詞。

As with reclaiming slurs, the idea seems to be that showing pride is likely to be more effective than swapping words.
重新啟用貶義詞與這種心理一致，即表達(dá)自豪感可能比換詞更有效。

[Paragraph 10]
As for writers, good work should humanise whatever it is about, which is why stories often begin with a named person before going into causation and abstraction.
對于作家來說，好的作品應(yīng)該是人性化的，這就是為什么在進(jìn)入因果關(guān)系和抽象概念之前，故事都是從有名有姓的人開始寫起。

If such writing is sharply as well as humanely done, it will be compelling to readers, and may even be of benefit to its subjects.
如果這樣的作品一針見血又很人性化，它將會吸引讀者，甚至可能對深化主題有幫助。

To that end, the language of everyday conversation is likely to be at least as useful as the latest terminology recommended by activists.
為達(dá)到這個目的，常用詞至少與活動人士推薦的最新詞一樣有用。

People-centred writing is indeed a good thing—but there is more than one way of putting people at its heart.
“以人為本”的寫作方式確實(shí)是一件好事，但”以人為本“的方法不止一種。

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞匯量759左右）
原文出自：2023年2月18日《The Economist》Culture版塊。

精讀筆記來源于：自由英語之路

本文翻譯整理: Irene

本文編輯校對: Irene
僅供個人英語學(xué)習(xí)交流使用。

【補(bǔ)充資料】（來自于網(wǎng)絡(luò)）
美國聯(lián)合通訊社（簡稱美聯(lián)社，英文：The Associated Press，縮寫AP）是美國最大的通訊社，1846年在芝加哥成立，1893年成為聯(lián)營公司，1990年將總部遷到紐約。合作伙伴有1700多家報紙，5000多家電視和廣播電臺；全球有243家新聞分社，在120個國家設(shè)有辦事處。合眾國際社是美國第二大通訊社，1958年由前合眾社和國際新聞社合并組成，總部設(shè)在佛羅里達(dá)州。國外有80多個分社，擁有一個世界范圍的圖片網(wǎng)。

“委婉語輪轉(zhuǎn)”（Euphemism Treadmill），是社會語言學(xué)上專門的術(shù)語，指的是人們會傾向于用一種字面上相對委婉、沒有那么直接的形式來表示一個貶義的詞義，然而字面上的修飾并不能真正代表詞義上發(fā)生改變，很多時候就是一種掩飾罷了，該貶義的還是貶義。只是很多時候這會帶來一種心理安慰，覺得既然形式上沒有那么直接，那也就但說無妨了。

例如，如果你年紀(jì)夠大，你可能會注意到某些指代被情緒化的主體（如少數(shù)族裔、殘障人士等）的詞匯曾經(jīng)只是普普通通的詞，甚至被認(rèn)為是科學(xué)或禮貌的，現(xiàn)在卻成為了侮辱中傷的用法，并不得不被新的委婉語取代。因?yàn)槿藗儗ι贁?shù)族裔和殘障人士的負(fù)面態(tài)度也會被附加在新的委婉語上，每個新詞和舊詞的命運(yùn)如出一轍，委婉語的變遷就和車輪一樣不停轉(zhuǎn)動。新詞并不能改變?nèi)藗兊膽B(tài)度，即使我們每隔一兩代人就替換一輪詞匯，態(tài)度總是不變的。

【重點(diǎn)句子】（3?個）
These make these phrases a bit more three-dimensional, like the people they point to.
這個方法使這些詞更立體，就像他們所特指的人一樣。

Good journalism is ideally conversational and accessible, calling for a brisk and compelling style.
好的新聞寫法是口語化的、通俗易懂的、干凈利索的、扣人心弦的。

This “euphemism treadmill” has been observed since at least the 1970s. Nevertheless, people still hope to remake the world through language.
語言學(xué)家至少在20世紀(jì)70年代就觀察到了“委婉語輪轉(zhuǎn)”現(xiàn)象。盡管如此，人們?nèi)匀幌Ｍㄟ^語言來重塑世界。