Internet Slang Is More Sophisticated Than It Seems　網絡用語比看起來更精妙

杰克·克萊因　賀叢芝

These are tough times for grammar snobs， those would-be avatars of flawless spelling and proper syntax who need look no further than a high-school friends Facebook posts or a family members text messages to find their treasured language being misused and neglected. Of course， split infinitives， dangling modifiers， and subject-verb disagreements have always appeared wherever words are uttered or keys are stroked.

Montreal-based linguist Gretchen McCulloch challenges the idea that the rise of informal writing signals a trend toward global idiocy. Instead， she marks it as an inevitable and necessary “disruption” in the way human beings communicate. “Were creating new rules for typographical1 tone of voice. Not the kind of rules that are imposed from on high， but the kind of rules that emerge from the collective practice of a couple billion social monkeys—rules that enliven our social interactions，” she argues in her new book， Because Internet： Understanding the New Rules of Language.

Of course， the old rules of language were broken long before people went online， and McCulloch offers that the internet concludes a process “that had begun with medieval scribes and modernist poets.” She also notes how “well-documented2 features” of regional and cultural dialects—such as southern American English and African American English—have influenced the language of the internet， most obviously on Twitter. But in contrast to the pre-internet age， she says， now we are all “writers as well as readers” of informal English.

Drawing from her research and that of other linguists， McCulloch shows how creative respellings， expressive punctuation， emoji， memes， and other hallmarks of informal communication online demonstrate a sophistication that can rival even the most elegant writing. Understanding the difference between ending a sentence with one exclamation point or two and knowing when or when not to be upset after receiving an all-caps text， McCulloch writes， “requires subtly tuned awareness of the full spectrum of the language.”

The prevalence of emoji， meanwhile， does not indicate verbal indolence or a pandemic of cuteness （though adorability is certainly part of it）. Instead， McCulloch writes， emoji represent a “demand that our writing … be capable of fully expressing what we want to say and， most crucially， how were saying it.”

對于那些追求拼寫完美、句法準確的語法控而言，現代社會常常令他們苦惱不堪。只需看看中學好友在臉書上發布的帖子，或是家人發來的短信，他們就會發現，自己無比珍視的語言已然被誤用，語言規則正遭到漠視。當然，只要人們開口說話，或敲擊鍵盤，諸如分裂不定式、懸垂修飾語、主謂不一致之類的語法錯誤便隨處可見。

有一種觀點認為，非正式用語的興起會導致人類越來越愚蠢。蒙特利爾的語言學家格雷琴·麥卡洛克對此提出了質疑。她認為，這種對人類交流方式的“破壞”是不可避免的，也是非常必要的。“我們正在為印刷文字的語氣語調建立新的規則。這些規則不是自上而下強制實行，而是數十億網民在集體實踐中形成的，讓我們的互動交流變得生動活潑。”她在自己的新書《因為互聯網：理解新的語言規則》中這樣寫道。

當然，在人們開始上網之前，舊的語言規則就早已被打破。麥卡洛克提出，互聯網終結了“始于中世紀抄寫員和現代主義詩人”的一段歷程。她還闡述了美國南部英語和非裔美國英語等地域性和文化性方言“有證可查的特征”是如何影響網絡語言的，這種影響在推特網站上尤為明顯。但是她認為，與互聯網之前的時代相比，我們現在都是非正式英語的“作者兼讀者”。

麥卡洛克通過自己和其他語言學家的研究，向我們展示了創造性的拼寫、極具表現力的標點符號、表情符號、表情包等非正式在線交流標志的精妙所在，它們甚至可以與最優美的文字相媲美。要體會用一個感嘆號還是兩個感嘆號結束一句話的差別，要知道收到一條全大寫的信息后該難過還是不難過，麥卡洛克寫道：“需要對這種語言的各個方面有敏銳細膩的感知。”

不過，表情符號的盛行并不意味著人們從此懶于開口，也不代表可愛風就此風靡（雖然表情符號確實非常可愛）。實際上，麥卡洛克寫道，表情符號代表了“一種需求，我們希望語言文字……能夠充分表達我們想說的話，最重要的是，能夠充分體現出我們說這話的方式。”

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者）

1 typographical印刷上的。

2 well-documented記錄詳盡的。