評論
打印
In short, all of these publications are written in the language that the Third International describes, even the very editorials which scorn it.
總而言之，所有這些報刊上的文章都是用第三版所描寫的語言寫成的，連那些攻擊侮蔑第三版的社論本身也不例外。
And this is no coincidence, because the Third International isn't setting up any new standards at all;
這不是什么偶然的巧合，因為第三版壓根兒沒有訂立什么新的語言使用標準，
it is simply describing what Life, the Washing-ton Post, and the New York Times are doing.
它所作的只不過是對《生活》、《華盛頓郵報》和《紐約時報》等報刊所使用的語言進行描寫而已。
Much of the dictionary's material comes from these very publications, the Times, in particular, furnishing more of its illustrative quotations than any other newspaper.
該詞典的許多內容恰恰取材于這些報刊，尤其是《紐約時報》，它為該詞典提供的例證比任何一家別的報紙都多。
And the papers have no choice. No journal or periodical could sell a single issue today if it restricted itself to the American language of twenty-eight years ago.
這些報刊也別無選擇余地。今天的任何報刊，如果限制自己只使用二十八年前的美國語言的話，那它可能連一期也賣不出去;
It couldn't discuss halt the things we are inter ester in, and its style would seem stiff and cumbrous.
對于我們所關心的事物，它就會連一半也討論不了;它的文風也一定會顯得刻板呆滯。
If the editorials were serious, the public-and the stockholders-have reason to be grateful that the writers on these publications are more literate than the editors.
假如那些社論對第三版的評論不是開玩笑的話，廣大讀者--還有報紙的股東們-就有理由感激這些報刊的撰稿人，他們的文化水平比編輯老爺們高一些。
And so back to our questions: what's a dictionary for, and how, in 1962, can it best do what it ought to do? The demands are simple.
讓我們再回到該討論的問題上來：詞典的用途何在?在1962年的今天，詞典怎樣才能最有效地執行自己的使命?人們的要求其實也很簡單。
The common reader turns to a dictionary for information about the spelling, pronunciation, meaning, and proper use of words.
一般讀者查詞典的目的是為了弄清詞語的拼寫、發音、詞義和正確用法。他想了解什么是通用的，什么是正確的。
He wants to know what is current and respectable.
他想了解-他也有權利知道-真實情況，絕對的真實情況。
But he wants-and has a right to-the truth, the full truth.
然而任何語占，
And the full truth about any language, and especially about American English today, is that there are many areas in which certainty is impossible and simplification is misleading.
尤其是今日的美國英語中的真實情況就是，許多語言現象要想說得確切明白是不可能的，而過分簡單化的說明又易引起誤解。
