Internet Slang Is More Sophisticated Than It Seems
網絡俚語比看起來更精妙
Jake Cline 傑克·克萊因
These are tough times for grammar snobs， those would-be avatars of flawless spelling and proper syntax who need look no further than a high-school friend's Facebook posts or a family member's text messages to find their treasured language being misused and neglected. Of course， split infinitives， dangling modifiers， and subject-verb disagreements have always appeared wherever words are uttered or keys are stroked. But on the internet， and particularly on social media， defenders of formal writing and the rules of language may feel as if they've become stuck in some linguistic hellscape littered with discarded stylebooks， the ashes of dictionaries， and a new species of abbreviations that's tougher to crack than Linear B.
To these 「grumbling」 grammarians， the Montreal-based linguist Gretchen McCulloch says:Lighten up lol. In her new book， Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language， McCulloch challenges the idea that the rise of informal writing signals a trend toward global idiocy. Instead， she marks it as an inevitable and necessary 「disruption」 in the way human beings communicate. 「We no longer accept that writing must be lifeless， that it can only convey our tone of voice roughly and imprecisely， or that nuanced writing is the exclusive domain of professionals，」 McCulloch argues. 「We're creating new rules for typographical tone of voice. Not the kind of rules that are imposed from on high， but the kind of rules that emerge from the collective practice of a couple billion social monkeys — rules that enliven our social interactions.」
Of course， the old rules of language were broken long before people went online， and McCulloch offers that the internet concludes a process 「that had begun with medieval scribes and modernist poets.」 She also notes how 「well-documented features」 of regional and cultural dialects—such as southern American English and African American English—have influenced the language of the internet， most obviously on Twitter. But in contrast to the pre-internet age， she argues， now we are all 「writers as well as readers」 of informal English.
Drawing from her research and that of other linguists， McCulloch shows how creative respellings， expressive punctuation， emoji， memes， and other hallmarks of informal communication online demonstrate a sophistication that can rival even the most elegant writing. Understanding the difference between ending a sentence with one exclamation point or two and knowing when or when not to be upset after receiving an all-caps text， McCulloch writes， 「requires subtly tuned awareness of the full spectrum of the language.」
The prevalence of emoji， meanwhile， does not indicate verbal indolence or a pandemic of cuteness （though adorability is certainly part of it）. Instead， McCulloch writes， emoji represent a 「demand that our writing … be capable of fully expressing what we want to say and， most crucially， how we're saying it.」 She even implies that William Shakespeare， whose work in part depends on the gesticulating of actors， would have been fine with the 「digital embodiment」 of mental states and intentions in emoji.
Given her profession， McCulloch is much more interested in the positives that have come from the popularization of informal writing. 「As a linguist，」she writes， 「what compels me are the parts of language that we don't even know we're so good at，the patterns that emerge spontaneously， when we aren't really thinking about them.」
After all， as McCulloch points out， 「the only languages that stay unchanging are the dead ones.」
自認在語法上高人一等的人遇到了艱難時期。這些人自稱是完美無瑕的拼寫和無懈可擊的句法的化身，他們只需要看看高中好友的臉書帖子或家人的簡訊，就會發現他們所珍愛的語言被濫用或疏忽。當然，只要開口說話或敲打鍵盤，總是會出現分裂不定式、懸垂修飾語和主謂不一致的情況。但是在網際網路上，尤其是在社交媒體上，規範文字和語言規則的捍衛者可能會覺得，他們仿佛陷入了某種語言學地獄，其中充斥著被拋棄的體例手冊，化為灰燼的字典，以及一種比線形文字B（古希臘邁錫尼文明時期邁錫尼人所使用的文字，上世紀50年代已被西方學者破譯——本網注）更難破解的新縮略語形式。
對於這些「滿腹牢騷」的語法學家，蒙特婁的語言學家格蕾琴·麥卡洛克說：放鬆點lol。在她的新書《因為網際網路：理解新的語言規則》中，麥卡洛克對這樣一種觀點提出質疑，即不規範文字的興起標誌著一種全球性愚蠢的趨勢。她認為這是對人類交流方式的不可避免的必然「顛覆」。麥卡洛克說：「我們不再認可文字一定是沒有生命的，只能大致和不準確地傳達我們的語氣，或者細緻入微的文字是專業人士的專屬領域。我們正在為可以排印出來的語氣制定新規則。不是那種自上而下強制實行的規則，而是從數十億社交媒體用戶的集體實踐中產生的那種規則——讓我們在社交媒體上的互動生動有趣的規則。」
當然，舊的語言規則早在人們上網之前就被打破了。麥卡洛克認為，網際網路為「始於中世紀抄寫員和現代派詩人」的一個過程畫上了句號。她還指出地區和文化方言——例如南美洲英語和非洲裔美國人英語——「有據可查的特徵」是如何影響網絡語言的，這在推特上最為明顯。但她認為，與網際網路之前的時代不同的是，現在我們都「既閱讀也書寫」非正式英語。
麥卡洛克從她和其他語言學家的研究中得出的結論顯示，創造性再拼寫、富有表現力的標點符號、表情符號、表情包以及非正式網上交流的其他特點證明了一種可以與哪怕是最優美的文字媲美的精妙。麥卡洛克寫道，理解以一個感嘆號或兩個感嘆號結束句子的區別，知道在收到一個全部大寫的簡訊後什麼情況下要感到心煩、什麼情況下不要感到心煩，這些都「需要對語言涉及的全部範圍有細緻入微的意識」。
與此同時，表情符號的流行並不意味著在文字表達上偷懶或到處賣萌（儘管可愛肯定是其中的一部分）。相反，麥卡洛克寫道，表情符號代表「一種要求，即我們的文字……應該能夠充分表達我們想說的內容，最重要的是充分表達我們說話的方式」。她甚至暗示，威廉·莎士比亞——他的作品在一定程度上有賴於演員用動作來表現——可能會接受心理狀態的「數位化體現」和表情符號所包含的意圖。
鑑於她的專業，麥卡洛克對不規範文字的普及所帶來的好處更感興趣。她寫道：「作為語言學家，讓我欲罷不能的是我們甚至都不知道自己如此擅長的語言成分，以及在我們還沒有真正想到的時候自發形成的模式。」
畢竟，正如麥卡洛克所指出的，「唯一保持不變的語言是那些已經消亡的語言」。（馬丹譯自美國《大西洋》月刊網站8月10日文章）