學英語的紛爭: 英式英語vs美式英語

British and American letter writers to the Financial Times have spent the past few weeks scrapping over whether “one-time” is a better phrase than “one-off”, how far cricket metaphors travel and whether “backstop” comes from baseball or from the older English game of rounders.

過去幾周，英國和美國讀者致信英國《金融時報》展開激辯，辯題包括“一次性”用“one-time”還是“one-off”來表達更好、板球術語的比喻用法能流傳多廣，以及“接球手”(backstop)一詞是來源於美式棒球還是歷史更悠久的英國圓場棒球。

One UK correspondent expressed irritation over the Americans who would have said “the past several weeks” rather than the “past few” in sentences such as the one above.

一名英國讀者對美國人把“過去幾周”說成“the past several weeks”而不是“past few”表達了反感。

A sub-theme was the infiltration of American and British words into each other’s speech and how bad this was. When Brits use American words, their more fastidious compatriots take it as evidence of declining standards, while Americans see those who adopt Britishisms as pretentious and snobbish.

一個子話題是美式英語和英式英語詞彙的相互滲透，以及這是多麼糟糕。當某些英國人使用美式英語的詞彙時，他們吹毛求疵的同胞會認爲，這是英語標準降低的證據，而美國人則覺得使用英式英語的人特別裝腔作勢。

This linguistic fractiousness has been going on for a long time. In 1828, Noah Webster, champion of a US vernacular that did not look across the Atlantic for validation, published An American Dictionary of the English Language. The languages never diverged much, in spite of Webster’s efforts; UK and US English remain siblings – and, like many siblings, they squabble.

這種語言的齟齬由來已久。1828年，美國本土語言的捍衛者挪亞•韋伯斯特(Noah Webster)出版了《美國英語詞典》(An American Dictionary of the English Language)，而美式英語並不打算尋求大西洋彼岸的承認。儘管韋伯斯特編纂了這樣一部詞典，但兩國的語言其實從未產生太多差異，英式和美式英語一直親如兄弟，而就像許多兄弟姐妹一樣，它們也會“拌嘴”。

Sibling rivalry is destructive. That is the message of our earliest stories – Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau. There is extensive online advice on how parents can stop siblings from arguing and fighting.

兄弟姐妹間的爭鬥是破壞性的。人類最早的故事——該隱(Cain)與亞伯(Abel)、雅各(Jacob)與以掃(Esau)——就告訴了我們這一點。網絡中有許多建議，告訴父母如何才能阻止兄弟姐妹間的爭吵和打鬥。

But siblings learn from each other too. There is plenty of research showing the importance of parental involvement in ensuring children become competent speakers, readers and writers. But a 2001 article in the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy pointed to the role of siblings in developing each other’s language skills. As parents discover, often to their distress, children pick up much of their language from their peers.

但兄弟姐妹也會相互學習。雖然有大量研究表明，父母參與對保證孩子說話、閱讀和寫作能力養成的重要性，但2001年《兒童早教期刊》(Journal of Early Childhood Literacy)的一篇文章，指出了兄弟姐妹對發展彼此語言技能的作用。父母常常沮喪地發現，孩子的大部分語言是從同齡人身上學到的。

“Even more than peers, siblings close in age are likely to share a common ‘language’ and cultural ‘recipes’,”the study said.

這篇研究報告說：“比一般同齡人更近一步，年齡相仿的兄弟姐妹更可能擁有共同的‘語言’和文化‘食譜’。”

It looked at the sibling interactions of two groups of east London children. In one group, the children, at a Church of England school, were monolingual English speakers with at least one English-born parent.

這項研究考察了兄弟姐妹間的互動，研究對象是倫敦東區的兩組孩子。其中一組來自英國國教會(Church of England)的一所教會學校，他們只懂英語，父母中至少有一位是本土出生的英國人。

The other group, in a primary school in Spitalfields, was almost entirely of Bangladeshi origin. In both groups, the researchers found that siblings developed each other’s English, either through school role plays or by telling or reading stories.

另一組孩子來自斯皮塔佛德(Spitalfields)的一所小學，他們幾乎全是孟加拉裔。研究人員在兩組孩子中均發現，兄弟姐妹或通過學校的角色扮演，或通過閱讀或講故事，發展了彼此的英語技能。

The Spitalfields children were following a long tradition. The area has long received non-English speaking immigrants – French Huguenots, eastern European Jews – who learnt English not from their parents but from their teachers and, more importantly, from each other.

來自斯皮塔佛德的孩子沿襲着當地悠久的傳統：該地區長時間來接納了許多非英語國家的移民——比如法國胡格諾派(Huguenots)教徒和東歐猶太人，他們不是從父母那兒學習英語，而是向老師學習，以及更重要的——彼此學習。

The study found that the learning was not all one-way. The questioning younger siblings forced the older ones to clarify their language.

這項研究發現，學習並不總是單向的。年幼者的提問促使年長者弄清楚自己的語言。

The researchers seem to have found these sibling interactions largely harmonious. But we know that, even when they are not, siblings who mock each other over getting playground slang wrong are also sorting out misunderstandings and setting each other straight on what words mean.

研究人員似乎發現，這些兄弟姐妹的互動大多是和諧的。但我們知道，即便發生不愉快時，比如他們嘲笑對方搞錯了運動場上的俚語，他們也是在糾正對語言的錯誤理解，告訴對方這些詞語的確切含義。

That is what our anglophone letter writers were doing too. Speaking two English varieties that are almost entirely mutually comprehensible, they were, in effect, pointing to the few differences that occasionally impede communication, so that people can either understand the other’s metaphors, incorporate them into their own speech, or indicate to the other side when they should stop using a word or phrase if they want to be understood.

這也是那些給我們來信的講英語的讀者正在做的事。他們說着兩種幾乎完全可以相互理解的英語，因此他們實際上只是在指出二者爲數不多的差異，這些差異偶爾會阻礙溝通。如此一來，人們或者可以理解對方的比喻，將其加入自己的語言中，或者可以告訴對方，要想讓別人明白你的意思，就應該停止使用某個詞或短語。

The US and UK readers of the FT are, of course, a select, literate and (it goes without saying) highly intelligent group, but this smoothing of transatlantic differences occurs among a wider section of both populations too.

英國《金融時報》的英美讀者自然是受過良好教育的精英，具有很高的智商（這點無需贅言），但這種抹平大西洋兩岸語言差異的努力，也發生在更廣泛的兩國國民之間。

The US’s cultural reach means that people in the UK are so used to listening to American speech that they barely notice they are doing so, but the linguistic traffic travels in the other direction too.

美國文化影響之大，意味着英國人已對聽到美式英語非常習慣了，以至於都意識不到。但同樣，美國人也對英式英語習以爲常。

American children read the Harry Potter books. Saving Mr Banks, starring the English actress Emma Thompson, was one of the most seen films in the US last week.

《哈利•波特》(Harry Potter)系列小說是美國孩子喜愛的讀物。由英國女演員艾瑪•湯普森(Emma Thompson)主演的《拯救班克斯先生》(Saving Mr Banks)是上週美國最熱門的影片之一。

UK and US readers will no doubt use this column as a prompt to mention yet another phrase the other side uses that annoys them. It may look acrimonious. But what they are really doing is making sure the English language preserves its general unity – and maintains its world domination.

英美讀者無疑將繼續利用本專欄，提出對方使用的其他讓他們不爽的表達。這看上去也許有些尖刻，但他們真正的目的是確保英語保持基本的統一，並維持其在世界上的主導地位。