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Books & arts
來(lái)源于《圖書(shū)和藝術(shù)》版塊
Johnson
約翰遜語(yǔ)言專(zhuān)欄
Climate-speak
關(guān)于氣候的表達(dá)
Of train-boasts, plane-shame and electric automobiles
火車(chē)、飛機(jī)和電動(dòng)汽車(chē)
Identifying shifts in the Earth’s climate requires decades of data, not just the observations of 2019 or any other single year. Climate change moves slowly, which is part of its calamitous power. Huge fires in California and Australia are probably worsened by the phenomenon—but no blaze can unequivocally be pinned on it, a fact seized on by those who would rather avoid the subject. Yet in the growing strength and coherence of climate protests, something did change discernibly in 2019.
確定地球氣候的變化需要幾十年的數(shù)據(jù)，而不僅僅是2019年或任何其他年份的觀測(cè)數(shù)據(jù)。氣候變化進(jìn)展緩慢，這是其災(zāi)難性力量的一部分。加州和澳大利亞的大火很可能因?yàn)檫@種現(xiàn)象而更加嚴(yán)重——但不是說(shuō)所有火災(zāi)都是由這個(gè)原因引起的，這是那些寧愿回避這個(gè)話(huà)題的人抓住的一個(gè)事實(shí)。然而，隨著氣候抗議活動(dòng)的強(qiáng)度和連貫性不斷增強(qiáng)，在2019年確實(shí)發(fā)生了一些明顯的變化。
Extinction Rebellion, a new movement, disrupted major cities. Greta Thunberg, a teenage activist, was Time’s Person of the Year; she travelled by boat to a climate summit in New York to avoid flying (and the associated carbon emissions). Another summit, in Madrid, ended in acrimony. Policy may not have evolved much, but wider attitudes did— and with them, the language in which the issue is discussed.
各大城市都因新運(yùn)動(dòng)“反抗滅絕”氣候活動(dòng)陷入混亂。青年活動(dòng)人士格蕾塔·桑伯格是《時(shí)代》雜志的年度人物；為了避免坐飛機(jī)(以及相關(guān)的碳排放)，她乘船前往紐約參加氣候峰會(huì)。在馬德里的另一場(chǎng)峰會(huì)以激烈的爭(zhēng)辯結(jié)束。政策可能沒(méi)有太大的變化，但更多人的態(tài)度卻在變化——以及討論這個(gè)問(wèn)題的用語(yǔ)。
Some climate-related vocabulary was already in circulation. After a boiling summer in Germany in 2018, the Society for the German Language chose Heisszeit, “Heat Age”, as its word of that year. (It rhymes nicely with Eiszeit, “ice age”.) In the Netherlands, meanwhile, the Society for Our Language plumped for laadpaalklever, or “charging-post sticker”: someone who uses the electric-car charging space for too long, treating it like a free parking place.
一些與氣候相關(guān)的詞匯已經(jīng)在使用。2018年，德國(guó)經(jīng)歷了一個(gè)炎熱的夏天后，德語(yǔ)協(xié)會(huì)選擇了“Heat Age（熱時(shí)代）”作為當(dāng)年的年度詞匯。（它和Eiszeit(冰川時(shí)代)很押韻。）與此同時(shí)，在荷蘭，我們的語(yǔ)言協(xié)會(huì)選擇了laadpaalklever這個(gè)詞，英語(yǔ)為“charging-post sticker（充電貼紙）”，意為有人使用電動(dòng)汽車(chē)充電位太長(zhǎng)時(shí)間，把它當(dāng)作一個(gè)免費(fèi)的停車(chē)位。
Van Dale, a dictionary publisher, lets the Dutch-speaking public vote on its word of the year (in separate contests in Belgium and the Netherlands). For 2019 Belgians chose winkelhieren, or “buying local”. The Dutch went with an imported word that has a good case for being the winner in English, too: “boomer”. As Chloe Swarbrick, a 25-year-old member of New Zealand’s parliament, was giving an impassioned speech on the impact of climate change on her generation, she coolly dismissed a heckling older mpwith a curt “ok, boomer”. The phrase was already an internet meme; Ms Swarbrick made it the talk of the offline world as well.
詞典出版商范德?tīng)柦M織荷蘭語(yǔ)的公眾投票選出年度詞匯（分別在比利時(shí)和荷蘭舉行）。2019年，比利時(shí)人選擇了winkelhieren這個(gè)詞，英語(yǔ)為“buying local（購(gòu)買(mǎi)本地產(chǎn)品）。荷蘭人還創(chuàng)造了一個(gè)舶來(lái)詞“boomer（嬰兒潮世代）”，這個(gè)詞很有可能成為英語(yǔ)詞匯的贏家。當(dāng)25歲的新西蘭國(guó)會(huì)議員克洛伊•斯瓦布里克就氣候變化對(duì)她這一代人的影響發(fā)表慷慨激昂的演講時(shí)，她冷淡地用一句簡(jiǎn)短的“ok, boomer（意為嬰兒潮世代已經(jīng)跟不上時(shí)代，該讓孩子們上場(chǎng)了）”打發(fā)了一位起哄的年長(zhǎng)議員。這句話(huà)已經(jīng)成為網(wǎng)絡(luò)流行語(yǔ)；斯瓦布里克也讓它成為了現(xiàn)實(shí)世界的話(huà)題。
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