我们总是听人说短信是一种灾难。 We always hear that texting is a scourge.
因为在全美国乃至全世界的年轻人中间 The idea is that texting spells the decline and fall
短信导致了传统读写能力的 of any kind of serious literacy, or at least writing ability,
衰退与瓦解 among young people in the United States
或者至少是写作能力 and now the whole world today.
事实上这不是真的 The fact of the matter is that it just isn't true,
当然信以为真很简单 and it's easy to think that it is true
但是为了从另一个角度来看这个问题 but in order to see it in another way,
为了认识到短信是一种神奇的东西 in order to see that actually texting is a miraculous thing,
不仅充满活力，而且不可思议 ot just energetic, but a miraculous thing,
并且作为一种新兴的复杂事物 a kind of emergent complexity
出现在我们面前 that we're seeing happening right now,
我们必须把镜头拉回来一些 we have to pull the camera back for a bit
来看看语言到底是什么 and look at what language really is,
这时我们就会发现 in which case, one thing that we see
短信和写作完全是两回事 is that texting is not writing at all.
我想表达什么呢？ What do I mean by that?
我们来说说语言问题，大致说来 Basically, if we think about language,
语言产生于15万年前 language has existed for perhaps 150000 years,
至少也是8万年前 at least 80000 years,
它来自人们的口语交谈 and what it arose as is speech. People talked.
这可能是由我们的基因决定的 That's what we're probably genetically specified for.
口语也是我们用的最多的语言形式 That's how we use language most.
书面语言要到很晚才出现 Writing is something that came along much later,
正如我们在上一次所说到的 and as we saw in the last talk,
人们对书面语言产生的准确时间没什么争议 there's a little bit of controversy as to exactly when that happened,
根据传统估计 but according to traditional estimates,
如果人类存在了24小时 if humanity had existed for 24 hours,
那么书面语言大概直到晚上11:07才出现 then writing only came along at about 11:07 p.m.
书面语言是如此年轻 That's how much of a latterly thing writing is.
所以，首先产生了口语 So first there's speech, and then writing comes along
然后才是奇妙的文字 as a kind of artifice.
但是别误会我的意思，书面语言也有一定优势 ow don't get me wrong, writing has certain advantages.
当你拿起笔的时候 When you write, because it's a conscious process,
因为这是一种有意识的过程，你可以回头检查 because you can look backwards,
也可以对语言进行很多处理 you can do things with language that are much less likely
但说话时就做不到了 if you're just talking.
比如想象一下爱德华 吉本的 For example, imagine a passage from Edward Gibbon's
《罗马帝国衰亡史》中的文章： "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: "
"整场战斗超过了十二个小时" "The whole engagement lasted above twelve hours,\
直到波斯人从逐渐撤退 till the graduate retreat of the Persians was changed
变为落荒而逃 into a disorderly flight, of which the shameful example
当时的主要领导人和苏雷纳斯自己一手造成了这一惨败 was given by the principal leaders and the Surenas himself."
这段文字很美，但是让我们面对现实吧，没人这么说话。 That's beautiful, but let's face it, nobody talks that way.
至少，如果他们不想让自己的女朋友感到无聊的话 Or at least, they shouldn't if they're interested
就最好不要这样 in reproducing. That -
（笑声） (Laughter)
这不是任何人类平时说话的方式 is not the way any human being speaks casually.
随意的谈话是非常不同的。 Casual speech is something quite different.
语言学家已经发现 Linguists have actually shown
当我们不刻意关注自己说话的内容时 that when we're speaking casually in an unmonitored way,
我们使用的词 we tend to speak in word packets of maybe
通常只有7到10个 seven to ten words.
如果你有机会录下自己或者其他一群人的谈话 You'll notice this if you ever have occasion to record
就会注意到这一点 yourself or a group of people talking.
这就是我们的说话方式 That's what speech is like.
口语更加随意，也更简洁 Speech is much looser. It's much more telegraphic.
不像书面语那么深邃 It's much less reflective - very different from writing.
因为总是看到语言被写在纸上 So we naturally tend to think, because we see language
我们就自然而然地认为那些工工整整写在纸上的才是语言 written so often, that that's what language is,
但事实上，语言是我们说的话。它和文字是两种不同的概念 but actually what language is, is speech. They are two things.
当然，在过去的历史中 Now of course, as history has gone by,
在口语和书面语之间 it's been natural for there to be a certain amount of bleed
很自然地会有一些冲突 between speech and writing.
比如，在遥远的时代 So, for example, in a distant era now,
经常会有人一本正经地发表演讲 it was common when one gave a speech
就像在纸上写的文章一样 to basically talk like writing.
你可以在老电影中看到这样的例子 So I mean the kind of speech that you see someone giving
他们清清喉咙，然后说道： in an old movie where they clear their throat, and they go,
"嗯哼，女士们、先生们" "Ahem, ladies and gentlemen," and then they speak
这一点也不像随意的谈话 in a certain way which has nothing to do with casual speech.
它很正式、使用吉本那样的长句 it's formal. It uses long sentences like this Gibbon one.
这些话就像你写的文章似的 It's basically talking like you write, and so, for example,
再比如，这些天由于电影的上映 we're thinking so much these days about Lincoln
林肯成了热门人物。 because of the movie.
葛底斯堡演说并不是那件事（葛底斯堡国家公墓揭幕式）的主要内容 The Gettysburg Address was not the main meal of that event.
因为在之前的两个小时里，爱德华·埃弗里特谈了一个 For two hours before that, Edward Everett spoke
坦白地说，在今天并不能引起我们的兴趣的话题 on a topic that, frankly, cannot engage us today
在当时也不能 and barely did then.
关键问题在于 The point of it was to listen to him
他的演讲一本正经 speaking like writing.
大家就站在那里听他说了两个小时 Ordinary people stood and listened to that for two hours.
在那时这很正常 It was perfectly natural.
当时的人就是这样，说话就像写文章 That's what people did then, speaking like writing.
如果你也可以这样 Well, if you can speak like writing,
那么从逻辑上来说，紧接着 then logically it follows that you might want to also
你可能就会想像像说话那样写文章 sometimes write like you speak.
问题在于材料中的机械感 The problem was just that in the material,
这种感觉在过去更加强烈 mechanical sense, that was harder back in the day
这都是因为材料的客观限制 for the simple reason that materials don't lend themselves to it.
你几乎不可能把这些谈话内容记下来，除非用速记法 It's almost impossible to do that with your hand
所以交流就受到了限制 except in shorthand, and then communication is limited.
对于一部人工打字机来说，要做到这一点很困难 On a manual typewriter it was very difficult,
即便我们使用电子打字机 and even when we had electric typewriters,
或者电脑键盘 Or then computer keyboards, the fact is
事实却是即便你打字足够快，能够赶上说话的速度 that even if you can type easily enough to keep up
或多或少地，你也需要 with the pace of speech, more or less, you have to have
一个能够快速接收这些信息的人 somebody who can receive your message quickly.
一旦你口袋有了那种可以接收信息的东西 Once your have things in your pocket that can receive that message,
你就有了足够的条件 then you have the conditions that allow
像说话那样写字 that we can write like we speak.
这时短信就出现了 And that's where texting comes in.
所以，短信在结构上十分松散 And so, texting is very loose in its structure.
没人在发短信的时候考虑过大写字母和标点符号 No one thinks about capital letters or punctuation when one texts,
但是话又说回来，你在说话的时候考虑这些问题吗？ but then again, do you think about those things when you talk?
当然没有，既然如此，为什么你在发短信的时候就应该这样？ No, and so therefore why would you when you were texting?
尽管从事实上看 What texting is , despite the fact that it involves
短信的确用到了写作的固定结构 the brute mechanics of something that we call writing,
但它其实一种是用手指打出的口语。这就是短信的本质 is fingered speech. That's what texting is.
现在我们可以像谈话那样写字了 Now we can write the way we talk.
这非常有趣，但是 And it's a very interesting thing, but nevertheless
这也很容易让人觉得它还是反映了一种退步 easy to think that still it represents some sort of decline.
我们可以看到普遍松散的语言结构 We see this general bagginess of the structure,
忽视了我们从课堂上学来的 the lack of concern with rules and the way that we're used to
规则和习惯，所以 learning on the blackboard, and so we think
我们觉得出了问题 that something has gone wrong
这种感觉很正常 It's very natural sense.
但是事实上，现在出现的这些 But the fact of the matter is that what is going on
是一种新兴的的复杂事物 is a kind of emergent complexity.
这就是我们在"指语"中所见到的 That's what we're seeing in this fingered speech.
为了理解这一点，我们可以看看 And in order to understand it, what we want to see
在这种新型语言中 is the way, in this new kind of language,
所产生的新的语言结构 there is new structure coming up.
例如，在短信中有个习惯用法 And so, for example, there is in texting a convention,
"LOL" which is LOL.
我们一般认为 Now LOL, we generally think of
"LOL"的意思是“开怀大笑” as meaning "laughing out loud."
当然，从理论上说，它就是这个意思 And of course, theoretically, it does,
如果看一下过去的短信 and if you look at older texts, then people used it
你就可以发现人们过去的确是用它来表示“开怀大笑” to actually indicate laughing out loud.
但是如果你在发短信 But if you text now or if you are someone who
或者意识到短信的形成基础 is aware of the substrate of texting the way it's become,
你就会注意到 you'll notice that LOL
"LOL"不再是这个意思 does not mean laughing out loud anymore.
它有了一种更复杂的含义 It's evolved into something that is much subtler.
这里是一串真实的短信 This an actual text that was done
是一个20岁左右的女性 by a non-male person of about 20 years old
不久之前发的 not too long ago.
"顺便说一句，我喜欢你用的字体。 N"I love the font you're using, btw."
朱莉："lol，谢谢，谷歌邮箱现在变慢了 NJulie: "lol thanks gmail is being slow right now"
如果你想想，就会发现它并不好笑 Now if you think about it, that's not funny.
因为没有人笑。（笑声） No one's laughing.
掌声 (Laughter)
但它就是这样 And yet, there it is, so you assume
你可以假想有人在打嗝 there's been some kind of hiccup.
苏珊说："lol，我知道， NThen Susan says "lol, I know,"
然后是更多大笑 Again more guffawing than we're used to
我们在谈论这些麻烦的时候并不会这样 when you're talking about these inconveniences.
朱莉说："我刚才给你发了封电子邮件。 NSo Julie says, "I just sent you an email."
苏珊：“lol，我看到了。” Susan: "lol, I see it."
非常有趣的人，如果LOL是这个意思的话 Very funny people, if that's what LOL means.
朱莉说："怎么了？" This Julie says, "So what's up?"
苏珊：“lol，我有十页的论文要写。 “Susan: "lol, I have to write a 10 page paper.”
她并不开心。我们来想一下 She's not amused. Let's think about it.
"LOL"的用法很特别 LOL is being used in a very particular way.
它是同情的标志，也是适应的标志 It's a marker of empathy. It's a marker of accommodation.
我们语言学家把这种东西叫做实用虚词 We linguists call things like that pragmatic particles.
在现实生活中，人们所使用的每一种语言都用到了它们 Any spoken language that's used by real people has them.
如果你说日语 If you have to speak Japanese, think about
那可以想到你在许多句子的末尾用到了"ne"这个词 the little word "ne" that you use at the end of a lot of sentences.
如果你听听现在年轻黑人的说话方式 If you listen to the way black youth today speak,
就会发现他们用了"yo"这个词 think about the use of the word "yo".
关于这个问题可以写一整套论文 Whole dissertations could be written about it,
也许有人正在写 and probably are being written about it.
"LOL"就是逐渐变成了一个实用虚词 A pragmatic particle, that's what LOL has gradually become.
这就是现实中人们使用语言的方式 It's a way of using the language between actual people.
另一个例子是“斜线号” Another example is "slash".
我们可以试试斜线号的习惯用法 Now, we can use slash in the way that we're used to,
比如这个句子 along the lines of, "We're going to have
“接下来是敬酒/交流时间。” a party-slash-networking session."
这就是我们的习惯用法 That's kind of like what we're at.
但现在的年轻人在发短信时 Slash is used in very different way
用斜线号表示非常不同的含义 in texting among young people today.
他们用斜线号来转换话题 It's used to change the scene.
比如，莎莉说： So for example, this Sally person says,
“我想找个人陪我” "So I need to find people to chill with"
然后杰克说："哈哈"- and Jake says, "Haha"-
你也可以写一篇关于“哈哈”的论文，但是我们没这个时间 You could write a dissertation about "Haha" too, but we don't have time for that-
"哈哈，没人跟你在一起吗？为什么？" "Haha so you're going by yourself? Why?"
莎莉：“因为我要去宫城大学的暑期项目。” Sally: "For this summer program at MYU."
杰克：“哈哈。/我在看视频， Jake: "Haha. Slash I'm watching this video with suns players
太阳队的球员想闭着一只眼投篮。” "Trying to shoot with one eye."
斜线号很有趣 The slash is interesting.
尽管我真的不知道杰克在斜线号后面到底说了什么 I don't really even know what Jake is talking about after that,
但是你可以看到他改变了话题 but you notice that he's changing the topic.
这似乎有点太平常了 Now that seems kind of mundane,
但是请想一想在现实生活中是怎样的 but think about how in real life,
如果我们在谈话中想要改变话题 if we're having a conversation and we want to change the topic,
会有很多种得体的办法 there are ways of doing it gracefully.
你不会就这样插话进去 You don't just zip right into it.
而是拍拍你的大腿，若有所思地看向远方 You'll pat your thighs and look wistfully off into the distance,
你也可以说：“嗯，发人深思-” or you'll say something like , "Hmm, makes you think --"
其实它一点也不发人深思，你真正想-- when it really didn't, but what you're really-
（笑声） (Laughter)-
你真正想要做的是改变话题 what you're really trying to do is change the topic.
但是在发短信的时候你不可能这样做 You can't do that while you're texting,
所以人们在这一媒介中想出了新方法 and so ways are developing of doing it within this medium.
所有口语都有一个被语言学家称作新信息标记的东西 All spoken languages have what a linguist calls
或者是两个、三个 a new information marker - or two, or three.
短信就是将斜线号变成了一个新信息标记 Texting has developed one from this slash.
所以我们有一连串正在发展的新句法结构 So we have a battery of new constructions
但是这很容易让人觉得 that are developing, and yet it's easy to think,
嗯，还是有什么地方不对劲 well, something is still wrong.
我们缺少了某种语言结构 There's a lack of structure of some sort.
与《华尔街日报》的语言相比 It's not as sophisticated
它不够完善 as the language of The Wall Street Journal.
但事实上 Well, the fact of the matter is,
让我们看看1956年的人 look at the person in 1956,
那时短信还不存在 and this is when texting doesn't exist,
广播中还在放着"我爱露西" "I Love Lucy" is still on the air.
"许多人不知道字母表和乘法表 "Many do not know the alphabet or multiplication table,
写作不符合语法” cannot write grammatically - "
我们从前就听到过这类事 we've heard that sort of thing before,
不仅是在1956年。还有1917年的康涅狄格州教师。 not just in 1956. 1917, Connecticut schoolteacher.
1917年，那时一切写作方面的事 1917, this is the time when we all assume
我们都觉得是完美的 that everything somehow in terms of writing was perfect
因为"唐顿庄园"的人发音都很清晰 because the people on "Downton Abbey" are articulate,
或者因为其他类似的原因 or something like that.
“来自全国各个学校的意见越来越激烈 So, "From every college in the the country goes up the cry,
‘我们的新生不会拼写、不能正确使用标点符号’” 'Our freshmen can't spell, can't punctuate.'"
诸如此类。你还可以往前追溯更远 and so on.. You can go even further back than this.
比如1871年的哈佛校长 It's the President of Harvard. It's 1871.
那时还没有电。人们都有三个名字 There's no electricity. People have three names.
"糟糕的拼写 "Bad spelling,
错误以及写作中的粗俗表达 Nincorrectness as well as inelegance of expression in writng."
他是在说那些 and he's talking about people who are otherwise
本可以为大学学习做好准备的人 well prepared for college studies.
你还可以再进一步 You can go even further back.
1841年，一个长期离职的督学感到十分失望 1841,some long-lost superintendent of schools is upset
因为他长久以来非常遗憾地发现 because of what he has for a long time "noted with regret
“人们几乎完全忽视了创作的……”等等等等 the almost entire neglect of the original…??"blah blah blah blah blah.
或许你可以一直追溯到公元63年 Or you can go all the way back to 63 A.D. - (laughter) -
这个可怜的人 and there's this poor man who doesn't like the way
不喜欢别人说拉丁语的方式 people are speaking Latin.
碰巧，他正在写法语的起源 As it happens, he was writing about what had become French.
所以，我们总是- And so, there are always
（笑声）（掌声） - (Laughter) (Applause) -
总是可以看到人们在担心这些事 there are always people worrying about these things
但是地球还在转 and the planet somehow seems to keep spinning.
所以我对这个问题的看法是 And so, the way I'm thinking of texting these days is
我们所看到的是年轻人所创造的 that what we're seeing is a whole new way of writing
新的书写形式 that young people are developing,
他们将这种新的写作形式与普通写作技巧一起使用 which they're using alongside their ordinary writing skills,
这意味着他们可以做两件事 and that means that they're able to do two things.
越来越多的证据表明 Increasing evidence is that being bilingual
使用双语有利于认知 is cognitively beneficial.
使用两种方言也有这样的好处 That's also true of being bidialectal.
如果你会用两种方言写作，当然也会达到同样的效果 That's certainly true of being bidialectal in terms of your writing.
所以短信的确证明了现在年轻人所使用的平衡手段 And so texting actually is evidence of a balancing act
当然，他们并没有意识到这些作用 that young people are using today, not consciously, of course
同时短信也扩展了他们的语言库 But it's an expansion of their linguistic repertoire.
这很容易理解 It's very simple.
如果一个1973年的人 If somebody from 1973 looked at
看到1993年宿舍留言板的内容 what was on a dormitory message board in 1993,
他会发现自从"爱情故事"时代以来 the slang would have changed a little bit
俗语有了少许变化 since the era of "Love Story",
但他能够明白留言板上说了什么 but they would understand what was on that message board.
再拿1993的人来说-距现在不是很久 Take that person from 1993 - not that long ago,
就像"比尔和泰德历险记"那样 this is "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" - those people.
让他们读一条 take those people and they read
现在年轻人写的普通短信 a very typical text written by a 20-year-old today.
他们一般会有一半的内容看不懂 Often they would have no idea what half of it meant
因为这是一种由年轻人创造全新语言 because a whole new language has developed
他们所做的这些 among our young people doing something as mundane
都是十分很平常的事 as what it looks like to us when they're batting around
就像在那些小装置上敲来敲去一样 on their little devices.
最后，如果我能去未来 So in closing, if I could go into the future,
如果我能去2033年 if I could go into 2033,
我要问的第一件事就是 the first thing I would ask is whether David Simon
大卫西蒙有没有写《火线》的续集 had done a sequel to "The Wire". I would want to know.
然后-我真的想问问这件事- And - I really would ask that -
然后我想知道"唐顿庄园"到底发生了什么 and then I'd want to know actually what was going on on "Downton Abbey".
这是第二个 That'd be the second thing.
第三个问题就是 And then the third thing would be,
请拿一些16岁女生写的 please show me a sheaf of texts
短信给我看看 written by 16-year-old girls,
因为我想知道从我们那时以来 because I would want to know where this language
这种语言已经发展到了什么程度 had developed since our times,
按照理想的做法，我会把这些短信发回现在 and ideally I would then send them back to you and me now
这样我们就可以仔细观察这个 so we could examine this linguistic miracle
发生在我们眼皮底下的语言奇迹 happening right under our noses.
非常感谢 Thank you very much.
（掌声） (Applause)