语言与文风2009economist.com编辑精选
常见语病：你几乎肯定用错的词
Common Solecisms - Words you are almost certainly using incorrectly
导读
这是《经济学人》风格指南中一份「常被用错的词」清单，逐条给出该刊推荐的用法。它值得写作者读，不是因为要照单全收，而是因为它逼你思考一个问题：用词规则到底为谁服务——是维护某种「正确」，还是让读者更快更准地理解你。评论区围绕规定性语法（prescriptivism）展开了有价值的争论。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
判断一条用词规则该不该遵守，标准是它是否让表达更清晰；如果「正确」的说法读者根本不懂，沟通效果反而更差。
- 02
区分语言和文体：语言是描述性的、随使用而变，而个人或刊物的文体风格可以有自己的规定，但要清楚自己守的是风格而非语法法则。
- 03
为每条规则找到它提升清晰度的理由，找不到理由的规则可以大胆放弃——奥威尔式的问题意识比背清单更有用。
- 04
警惕长词和套话：它们像墨汁一样糊住事实轮廓，含混往往不是因为词汇不够，而是因为写的人不够真诚。
HN 评论精选
所谓「正确用法」常站不住脚，清晰沟通比规则正确更重要。
我很反感规定性语言学，而且爱规定的人常常自己就规定错了。文章第一条说 acronym 指 radar、NATO 这类能读成词的东西，不算 BBC、IMF 这类字母串；但 Wikipedia 指出 acronym 一词本是贝尔实验室造出来的，而 initialism 这类「正确」说法既不常用也少有人懂。既然「正确」说法会让沟通更不清楚，那它恰恰违背了研究语法的初衷。
subwindow查看英文原文
I freaking hate prescriptive linguistics. The people who love to prescribe are so often prescribing incorrectly. I couldn't get past the first one in this article: > Acronym: this is a word, like radar or NATO, not a set of initials, like the BBC or the IMF. Wikipedia: > In 1943, Bell Laboratories coined the term acronym as the name for a word (such as SONAR) created from the first letters of each word in a series of words (such as SOund Navigation And Ranging). The terms initialism and alphabetism are neither widely used nor widely known. The term acronym is widely used to describe any abbreviation formed from initial letters. First off, the word was created by a corporation; secondly, the term is widely used and understood to apply to words like "BBC" ("Three Letter Acronym"); thirdly, the "correct" alternative is not widely used or understood. So if you use the correct terms your communication would actually be less clear, which is, as I understand, the point of studying grammar/linguistics in the first place. For more on this exciting subject, see David Foster Wallace's excellent "Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage": http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html
语言是描述性的，文体规范则可以也应该有立场。
这是一份有明确立场的风格指南，你不认同完全没关系。但要把语言和文体分开：语言不必规定，而文体你想多规定都行。我喜欢它，一部分原因正是它和我的语言习惯相合；《经济学人》最出色之处之一就是它的文风。
adw查看英文原文
This is swimming upstream given the progress of the thread, but I loved this. It's an opinionated style guide. If you disagree, that's of course fine - and part of the reason I liked it, I suspect, was that it fits well with my own idiolect - but there's a distinction to be drawn between language (non-prescriptive) and style (which you can be as prescriptive about as you like). One of the best aspects of the Economist is its style; both of its prose and its design. Its politics I can take or leave, but at least it's honest about where it stands.
规则必须以「提升清晰度」为理由，含混的根源常是不真诚。
「英语就是英语母语者实际说的那样。」所谓「正确」英语是另一回事，它没什么更高目的，不过是让人各安其位。我更想看到一份能说明每条规则如何提升清晰度的指南，这让人想起奥威尔的文章：大量拉丁词像软雪落在事实上，模糊轮廓、掩盖细节；清晰语言的大敌是不真诚——当真实目的和宣称目的之间有落差，人就会本能地用长词和套话，像乌贼喷墨。
10ren查看英文原文
"English is what English-speaking people speak." "Correct" English is a different matter - it serves no higher purpose than to keep you in your place. I would like to see a guide that gives compelling reasons for how each rule increases clarity. George Orwell's guide comes to mind: http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. Wikipedia summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_and_the_English_Language#Causes_and_characteristics_of_unclear_writing
很多「用错词」的指控，其实源于把词义窄化成了某一个联想。
「anarchy 指完全没有法律或政府的状态，它可以是和谐的，也可以是混乱的。」读到这句我很高兴——我实在厌倦了那些以为无政府必然等于混乱的人。
magoghm查看英文原文
"Anarchy means the complete absence of law or government. It may be harmonious or chaotic." I was glad to read that. I'm so tired of people who believe that anarchy implies chaos.
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