Internet Slang Is More Sophisticated Than It Seems 网络用语比看起来更精妙

杰克·克莱因　贺丛芝

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.”

对于那些追求拼写完美、句法准确的语法控而言，现代社会常常令他们苦恼不堪。只需看看中学好友在脸书上发布的帖子，或是家人发来的短信，他们就会发现，自己无比珍视的语言已然被误用，语言规则正遭到漠視。当然，只要人们开口说话，或敲击键盘，诸如分裂不定式、悬垂修饰语、主谓不一致之类的语法错误便随处可见。

有一种观点认为，非正式用语的兴起会导致人类越来越愚蠢。蒙特利尔的语言学家格雷琴·麦卡洛克对此提出了质疑。她认为，这种对人类交流方式的“破坏”是不可避免的，也是非常必要的。“我们正在为印刷文字的语气语调建立新的规则。这些规则不是自上而下强制实行，而是数十亿网民在集体实践中形成的，让我们的互动交流变得生动活泼。”她在自己的新书《因为互联网：理解新的语言规则》中这样写道。

当然，在人们开始上网之前，旧的语言规则就早已被打破。麦卡洛克提出，互联网终结了“始于中世纪抄写员和现代主义诗人”的一段历程。她还阐述了美国南部英语和非裔美国英语等地域性和文化性方言“有证可查的特征”是如何影响网络语言的，这种影响在推特网站上尤为明显。但是她认为，与互联网之前的时代相比，我们现在都是非正式英语的“作者兼读者”。

麦卡洛克通过自己和其他语言学家的研究，向我们展示了创造性的拼写、极具表现力的标点符号、表情符号、表情包等非正式在线交流标志的精妙所在，它们甚至可以与最优美的文字相媲美。要体会用一个感叹号还是两个感叹号结束一句话的差别，要知道收到一条全大写的信息后该难过还是不难过，麦卡洛克写道：“需要对这种语言的各个方面有敏锐细腻的感知。”

不过，表情符号的盛行并不意味着人们从此懒于开口，也不代表可爱风就此风靡（虽然表情符号确实非常可爱）。实际上，麦卡洛克写道，表情符号代表了“一种需求，我们希望语言文字……能够充分表达我们想说的话，最重要的是，能够充分体现出我们说这话的方式。”

（译者为“《英语世界》杯”翻译大赛获奖者）

1 typographical印刷上的。

2 well-documented记录详尽的。