考研英语阅读命题思路透析和真题揭秘(59)

American no longer expect public figures, whether in speech or in writing, to command the English language with skill and gift. Nor do they aspire to such command themselves. In his latest book, Doing Our Own Thing. The Degradation of language and Music and why we should like, care, John McWhorter, a linguist and controversialist of mixed liberal and conservative views, sees the triumph of 1960s counter-culture as responsible for the decline of formal English.

Blaming the permissive 1960s is nothing new, but this is not yet another criticism against the decline in education. Mr. McWhorter's academic specialty is language history and change, and he sees the gradual disappearance of "whom", for example, to be natural and no more regrettable than the loss of the case-ending of Old English.

But the cult of the authentic and the personal, "doing our own thing", has spelt the death of formal speech, writing, poetry and music. While even the modestly educated sought an elevated tone when they put pen to paper before the 1960s, even the most well regarded writing since then has sought to capture spoken English on the page. Equally, in poetry, the highly personal, performative genre is the only form that could claim real liveliness. In both oral and written English, talking is triumphing over speaking, spontaneity over craft.

Illustrated with an entertaining array of examples from both high and low culture, the trend that Mr. McWhorter documents is unmistakable. But it is less clear, to take the question of his subtitle, why we should, like care. As a linguist, he acknowledges that all varieties of human language, including non-standard ones like Black English, can be powerfully expressive-there exists no language or dialect in the world that cannot convey complex ideas He is not arguing, as many do, that we can no longer think straight because we do not talk proper.

Russians have a deep love for their own language and carry large chunks of memorized poetry in their heads, while Italian politicians tend to elaborate speech that would seem old-fashioned to most English-speakers. Mr. McWhorter acknowledges that formal language is not strictly necessary, and proposes no radical education reforms-he is really grieving over the loss of something beautiful more than useful. We now take our English "on paper plates instead of china". A shame, perhaps, but probably an inevitable one.

美国人不再指望公众人物，无论是在演说中还是在写文章时，对于英语的使用表现出熟练的技能和天赋。他们也不指望自己达到这种掌握程度。John McWhorter是一名语言学家，因其观点中掺杂着自由主义和保守主义的观点而成为有争议的人物。在其最近出版的题名为《做我们自己的事情：语言和音乐的退化以及我们为什么应该喜欢、在意》中，认为发生在20世纪60年代的反文化运动的胜利看成是规范英语退化的原因。

指责悲观的20世纪60年代并不是什么新鲜事，但是这还算不上是对教育质量下降的又一种批评。McWhorter先生的学术专长是语言史和语言变迁，他认为像"whom"这个词的逐渐消失是自然的，就像古英语中格的消失一样，不必为此感到惋惜。

但是，对真实和个性的崇拜--"做我们自己的事情"--已经宣布了正式演讲、写作、诗歌和经典音乐的灭亡。在20世纪60年代前，哪怕是受教育不多的人在写作时也追求一种庄严的风格，然而从那以后，即使是备受推崇的文章也追求语言上的口语化。同样，在诗歌中，高度个性化和富有表现力的文体是惟一被当作真正有活力的文学形式。无论是在口头英语和书面语中，说话胜过了谈话，自然发挥胜过了精雕细琢。

McWhorter先生从上层文化和大众文化中举出大量有趣的例子来说明这种趋势，他所揭示的这种趋势毫无疑问是存在的，但是，正像他的副标题所说的那样，"我们为什么要喜欢和在意[这种变化趋势]呢？"对于这一点他却说得并不太清楚。作为一个语言学家，他承认人类语言的各种文化都有极强的表现力，即使是像黑人英语这样的的非标准语言--世界上任何语言或方言都能表达复杂的思想。他并没有像许多人那样认为因为我们的思维因为说话不严格就不再有条理。

俄国人深爱着自己的语言，他们会把大段大段的诗歌背下来，而意大利政治家们则喜欢对自己的演讲进行精雕细琢，这在大部分英语演讲者看来可能是有些老土了。McWhorter先生承认我们并不是一定要有正式英语，他并没有提出激进的教育改革方案--令他真正伤心的不是失去某种有用的东西，而是某种美丽的东西。我们现在把英语放在了"纸盘上而不瓷盘上"。这也许令人感到遗憾，但是却是一种不可避免的遗憾。