语言与文风2015bostonglobe.com
在“ISIS”战争中措辞很重要,因此应使用“Daesh”
Words matter in ‘ISIS’ war, so use ‘Daesh’
导读
这篇《波士顿环球报》观点文章主张用“Daesh”而非“ISIS”称呼该组织,理由是词语会影响人们对战争与武装组织的认知。HN 评论从传播成本、发音与检索、术语准确性、改名能否改变态度等角度展开辩论,对写作者理解命名策略和用词立场很有参考价值。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
给事物命名时先问目标读者能否一眼看懂、读出声、搜得到;可传播性有时比“准确”更影响写作效果。
- 02
称谓本身带立场,写作中每次选择“ISIS/IS/Daesh”都是在表态,最好在上下文中说明选择依据。
- 03
新造词或改称有推广成本,可能被自动纠正、误读,或与旧文献检索割裂,别低估读者的语言习惯。
- 04
换词未必换认知;若想改变读者态度,不能只靠术语,还要靠事实、语境和论证。
HN 评论精选
词语塑造观念;“殉道”话语可能被极端组织利用,因此描述战斗与死亡时用词要格外谨慎。
在穆斯林世界很多地方,战争中死去的人常被称为“烈士”。阿拉伯语词是“shahid”,和“martyr”一样字面意思是“见证者”。这些人被认为基本会进天堂,跳过队列,不必担心过去的罪过,因为他们是为主道而死。这个信念被广泛接受,尽管谁算烈士有差异。但我怀疑,只要“直通天堂的殉道”观念在绝大多数穆斯林中存在,较小的分支死亡邪教几乎不可避免,这是一种相当线性的发展。语言确实重要,用来描述战斗和暴力死亡者的词非常重要。
afshin查看英文原文
In much of the Muslim world, it is common practice to call people who die in war "martyrs". The Arabic word is "shahid" and just like the word "martyr", it literally means "witness". These are people who are considered basically heaven-bound. They skip the queue, they don't need to worry about their past sins, because they died in the service of their faith. This belief is widely accepted, although it varies exactly whom is a martyr. But I suspect that as long as the very idea of straight-to-heaven martyrdom exists among the vast majority of Muslims, smaller offshoot death cults are almost inevitable. It's a pretty linear progression. Language does matter and the words used to describe people who fight and die violently matters a lot.
新名称有发音、检索和自动纠正等传播成本;术语切换还可能让旧称使用者被误读为有政治同情。
我不喜欢这个主张,有几个原因:1. 你说“ISIS”,人人都知道指什么;“Daesh”则不然。2. 任何人看到“ISIS”都知道怎么读;“Daesh”怎么发音?是 daysh、dash 还是 dah-esh?我不知道。3. 我们仍然需要知道并使用旧名。已有成千上万篇历史新闻用 ISIS、ISIL、IS、Islamic State 等说法,搜索它们已经够难了。这让我想到 xkcd 的“标准”漫画。4. “Daesh”在 iOS、Android 和 Windows 10 上会自动纠正成别的东西。写这条评论时很烦,我一直在把“dash”改回来。作者有些好观点,但我认为这些缺点超过了优点。不幸的是,猫已经出袋,我们现在又给 ISIS 多了一个名字。补充:如果“Daesh”流行起来,使用“ISIS”或“Islamic State”的人可能被认为同情该组织。我肯定会在谈话中说漏嘴,然后得拼命解释。
ggreer查看英文原文
I'm not a fan of this for several reasons: 1. If you say, "ISIS", everyone knows what you're talking about. Not so for "Daesh." 2. Anyone can read "ISIS" and know how to pronounce it. How does one pronounce "Daesh"? Is it daysh? Dash? Dah-esh? I don't know. 3. We'll still need to know and use the old names. There are thousands of historical news articles using the terms ISIS, ISIL, IS, The Islamic State, etc. Googling for them is already hard enough. It reminds me of xkcd's Standards (http://xkcd.com/927/). 4. "Daesh" autocorrects to other things on iOS, Android, and Windows 10. It was very annoying to write this comment, as I was constantly un-correcting "dash". The author makes some good points, but I think they're outweighed by the disadvantages I mentioned. Unfortunately, the cat is out of the bag. We now have yet another name for ISIS. Edit: I just thought of another one. If "Daesh" takes off, people may think those who use "ISIS" or "The Islamic State" are sympathetic toward the group. I'm certain I'll slip up in conversation and have to dig myself out of a hole.
改名通常不改变事物本质和公众态度;词义会被使用者重新染色,不能指望换词解决认知问题。
词语确实重要,但我认为改变一个事物的称呼并不改变其本质,也不大会改变人们对它的看法。举例说明(我举这些例子是为了说明术语变化通常不会带来态度变化,不是为了在这些具体话题上吵架):西德的“红军派/巴德-迈因霍夫集团”是上世纪六十年代末延续约二十年的暴力马克思主义恐怖分子。德国政府拒绝用该组织自选的名字,而用“巴德-迈因霍夫集团”,暗示这是与两个头目有关的犯罪集团,并推开意识形态动机。但“红军派”至今仍主要以自选名称闻名。“Homosexual/Gay”:“Gay”最初是六十年代男性用来指称性身份的词,比当时被定义为精神疾病的“homosexual”更少医学化,也比“queer”更少负面和疏离感;但它后来变成侮辱词,被那些认为同性恋本质不好的人使用。所以任何指称它的词,在这样的人口中都会变成侮辱。“Liberal/Progressive”是美国政治的例子:在世界其他大部分地方,这两个词含义不同、不被混用;罗斯福的想法以前会被称作“progressive”……(后文略)
sfRattan查看英文原文
Words do matter, but I'm of the opinion that changing the term for a thing doesn't change the essence of the thing, or what people think of that thing... At least very much. Some examples: [Note: I'm citing these examples to point out that a shift in terminology does not usually result in a shift in attitudes. Which means... I'm not citing these examples to start an argument on the particular topics of the examples.] The Rote Armee Fraktion / Baader-Meinhof-Gruppe. They were violent Marxist terrorists in West Germany from the late sixties and continuing about two decades. The German government refused to refer to the group by its chosen name. Baader-Meinhof Group implies a criminal syndicate tied to two lead personalities, and shoves away implications of ideological motives. The RAF, however, remains to this day mostly known by its own chosen name. Homosexual / Gay. "Gay" was originally taken up by men in the sixties to refer to their sexual identity as something less medical than "homosexual" (then defined as a mental illness) and less negative/alienating than "queer." But it came to be an insult, used by the sort of people who assume the essence of homosexuality to be bad... So any word for it becomes an insult among such people. Liberal / Progressive. This example is specific to American politics: in most of the rest of the world, these words have separate meanings and are not conflated. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose ideas would have previously been called "progressive", identified himself as a "liberal" loudly and often, cementing a shift in the word's common-use meaning. At the time, it made him more palatable to voters who would have balked at a the more radical implications of "progressive." But now, the same people who disliked progressivism dislike liberalism (American) on the same basis. Moron / Idiot / Imbecile / Retarded. Each of these words was originally a clinical term with a specific meaning. Now each is an insult, and new clinical terms have been decided upon by the medical community in aggregate.
“Daesh”作为缩略语并不准确;选择称谓本身不是中立行为,写作者应意识到命名即立场。
“伊斯兰国”特别说过他们不局限于叙利亚和伊拉克(他们试图建立哈里发国),所以文章推的“Daesh”这个首字母缩略并不准确。如果你想叫他们一个他们不喜欢的名字,那可以,但你并不中立。
waffle_ss查看英文原文
The Islamic State has specifically said they don't limit themselves to Syria and Iraq (they're trying to establish a caliphate), so the Daesh acronym the article is pushing is incorrect. If you want to call them something they don't want to be called that's fine, but you're not being neutral.
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