委婉语课文翻译

1、A euphemism is commonly defined as an auspicious or exalted term (likeSanitationengineer ” that is used in place of a more down-to-earthterm (like garbage mar”.People who are partial to euphemisms stand accused of beingphony ” or trying tobide what it is they are really talk ing about.And there is n

2、o doubt that in some situatio ns the accusati on is en tirely proper.For example, one of the more detestable euphemisms I have come across in rece nt years is the termOperation Sunshine, ” which is the name the U. S. Governmentgave to some experime nts it con ducted with thehydroge n bomb in the Sou

3、th Pacific.It is obvious that the gover nmen t, i n choos ing this n ame, was trying to exp unge the hideous imagery that the bomb evokes and in so doing committed, as I see it, an immoral act. This sort of process givi ng pretty n ames to esse ntially uglyrealities is what has give n euphemiz ing s

4、uch a bad n ame. And people like George Orwell have done valuable work for all of us in callingattentionto how the processworks. But there is ano ther side to euphemiz ing that is worth men ti oning, and a few words here in its defe nse will not be amiss.To begin with, we must keep in mind that thin

5、gs do not havereal ” names, althoughmany people believe that they do. A garbage man is notreally ” a garbage man, ”more than he is aanitation engineer.” And a pig is not called apig ” becauseit is so dirty, nor a shrimp ashrimp ” because it is so small. There are things,and the n there are the n ame

6、s of thin gs, and it is con sidered a fun dame ntal error in all bran ches of sema ntics to assume that a n ame and a thing are one and the same. It is true, of course, that a n ame is usually so firmly associated with the thi ng it deno tes that it is extremely difficult to separate one from the ot

7、her.That is why, for example, advertisingis so effective. Perfumes are not given nameslike Bronx Odor, ” and an automobile will never be called The Lumbering Elephant. ” Shakespeare was only half right in saying that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. What we call things affects how we w

8、ill perceive them. It is not only harder to sell some one ahorse mackerel sa ndwich tha n a fbna fish sa ndwich,but even though they are thesame thing, we are likely to enjoy the taste oftuna more than that of the horse mackerel. It would appear that human beings almost naturally come to ide ntify n

9、 ames with thin gs,which is one ofour more fasci nat ingillusi ons. But there is some substa nee to this illusi on. If you cha nge the n ames of thi ngs, you cha nge how people will regard them, and that is as good as cha nging the n ature of the thing itself.Now, all sorts of sco un drels know this

10、 perfectly well and can make us love almost anything by gett ing us the charm of a n ame to whatever worthless thi ng they are promot ing. But at the same time and in the same vein, euphemiz ing is a perfectly in tellige nt method of gen erati ng new and useful ways of perceivi ng thin gs.The man wh

11、o wants us to call him aan itati on engin eerin stead of agar -bagemaS is hoping we will treat him with more respect than we presently do. He wants us to see that he is of some importa nee to our society. His euphemism is laughable only if we think that he is not deservi ng of such no tiee or respec

12、t. The teacher who prefers us to use the termculturally different children instead ofslumchildren is euphemizing, all right, but is doing it to encourage us to see aspects of a situati on that might otherwise not be atte nded to. The point I am making is that there is no thi ng in the process of eup

13、hemiz ing itself that is con temptible.Euphemiz ing is con temptible whe n a n ame makes us see someth ing that is not true or diverts our atte nti on from someth ing that is. The hydroge n bomb kills. There is nothing else that it does. And whe n you experime nt with it, you are trying to find out

14、how widely and well it kills. Therefore, to call such an experime ntOperati on Sunshine ”s to suggest a purpose for the bomb that simply does not exist. But to callslum childre n ” culturally differe nt is someth ing else. Itcalls atte ntio n, for example, to legitimate reas ons why such childre n m

15、ight feel alie nated from what goes on in school.I grant that sometimes such euphemiz ing does not have the inten ded effect. It is possible for a teacher to use the term culturally differe nt but still be con trolled by the term slum children (which the teacher may believe is theirreal name).Old pe

16、ople may be called senior citizens, and nothing might change. And lbnatic asylums may still be filthy, primitive prisons though they are calledmentalinstitutions. Nonetheless,euphemizing may be regarded as one of our more importantin tellectual resources for creati ng new perspectives on a subject.T

17、he attempt to renameold people senior citizens was obviously motivated bya desire to give them a political ide ntity; which they not only warra nt but whichmay yet have important consequences。In fact, the fate of euphemisms is very hard to predict. A new and seem in gly silly n ame may replace an ol

18、d one (let us say,chairperson ” for chairman ” and for years no one will think or act any differently because of it. And the n, gradually, as people begi n to assume thatchairpers on ”is the real and proper name (or senior citizen ” or fbna fish or sanitation engineer ” their attitudes begin to shif

19、t, and they will approach things in a slightly differe nt frame of mind. There is a dan ger, of course, in suppos ing that a new n ame can cha nge attitudes quickly or always.But to suppose that such cha nges n ever amount to anything is to un derestimate the power of names. I have been astounded no

20、t only by how rapidly the nameblacks has replaced Negroes (a kind of euphemizing in reverse)but also by howsig ni fica ntly percepti ons and attitudes have shifted as an accompa niment to the cha nge. The key idea here is that euphemisms are a means through which a culture may alter its imagery and

21、by so doing subtly cha nge its style, its priorities,and its values. I reject categorically the idea that people who use earthy 1anguage are speaking more directly or with more authenticity than people who employ euphemisms. Saying that some one is dead is not to speak more pla inly or hon estlythan

22、 say ing he haspassed away.It is, rather, to suggest a differe nt con cepti on of what the event means. To ask where the shithouse is, is no more to the point than to ask where therestroom ”is. But in the differeneebetween the two words, there is expressed a vast differeneein ones attitude toward pr

23、ivacy and propriety. What I amsaying is that the process of euphemiz ing has no moral content. The moral dime nsions are supplied by what the words in questi on express, what they want us to value and to see. A n ati onthat calls experime nts with bombsOperati on Sunshine is very frighte ning. Onthe

24、 other hand, a people who callgarbage men ” anitation engineers can tbe all bad.翻译:委婉语通常被定义为一个用一个吉祥或颂扬的词汇，像卫生工程师”来替代一个更加就事论事的词，像清洁工”喜欢用委婉语的人通常受人指责虚伪或者企图掩饰他们真正想要说的 事情。毫无疑问，有些情况下这种指责是完全合理的。比如，今年来我所见过的最让人恶心的是 阳光行动”这一术语，它指的是美国政府在南太平洋进行氢弹的实验。很明显，在选择这一术语时，政府企图消除炸弹在人们心中引发的恐怖形象，这在我看来是相当不道德的行为。这种将一些很漂亮的名称加在很

25、丑陋的事情头上的行为让委婉语臭名远扬。有像乔治.奥维尔的人为我们所有人做了很珍贵的工作，他们唤起人们对这类委婉语的使用过程的注 意。但委婉语的使用有另外一面值得一提，在这里为委婉语辩护几句不会有错。首先，我们必须意识到事物本身并没有真正”的名字，尽管有许多人认为有。一个清洁工不论其名字是清洁工”还是一个卫生工程师”其本质是一样的。一头猪被人们叫成 猪”并不是因为它脏，一只虾被称为虾”并不是因为它小。先有事事物存在然后才有事物的名字， 如果认为事物和它们的名字是等同和一一对应的关系的话就犯了 语义学中最基本的一个错误。当然，一个名字往往与它指称的事物紧密联系以至于很难将两 者区分开来。这就是为什

26、么一种香水在打广告的时候不取名叫布朗克斯区臭气”，一台汽车绝不会被称之为 木象”的原因。莎翁说 一朵玫瑰不论叫什么名字都一样香 ”这一说法不完 全准确。事物的名称影响我们对它们的感知。虽然 马鲛鱼”三明治和 金枪鱼”三明治指的是一个东西，但前者不仅难卖的多， 而且我们可能觉得它的口味要差一些。也许看起来人类几乎自然而然将事物和它们的名字联系起来，这是我们的奇妙的幻觉。 但这种幻觉存在一定得道理，因为如果你改变事物的名字，你就改变了人们对它们的看法，这就好改变了这事物本身的本质特性。现在所有的无赖都非常清楚他们能通过将他们推销的百无一用的产品取一个 好听的名字来使我们爱上他们的产品。 但是同时以同样的方式， 委婉表达是一种非常智慧的 方法是人产生感知事物新颖且有用的方法。希望人们称其为 卫生工程师”而非清洁工”的人希望人们给以他比现在更多的尊重。他希望我们看到他对社会的重要性。如果我们认为他们不值得这样的关注或尊重，那他这样的委婉才显得可笑。老师倾向于我们使用文化不同的孩子”这一表达而不是 贫民区小孩”，这种委婉表达是可行的，这样做是鼓励我们看到现实 生活中我们没有关注的一些方面。我想说的是委婉表达本身是没有值得鄙视的。只有当一个名字的目的是为了让我们看到不真实的东西或转移我们对某事的注意力是才可鄙。因此，称