John Koenig: Beautiful new words to describe obscure emotions
约翰·凯尼格: 用优美的新词来描述复杂朦胧的情感
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
about the meaning of words,
is a magnificent sponge.
I'm glad that I speak it.
a thunderstorm on the horizon
rooting for the storm.
to feel intensely again
hypothetical conversation
play out in your head.
of course in German,
of getting what you want.
so I know exactly what that feels like.
所以很了解那是什么感觉。
if I would use any of these words
is because I made them up.
of Obscure Sorrows,"
(The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows)
for the last seven years.
in the language of emotion
about all those human peccadilloes
去讨论人类情感里的
but may not think to talk about
却无法去形容的概念,
as the main character
把自己想象成世间的主角,
we're all the main character,
你认为自己是主角,
却只是个配角罢了。
in someone else's story.
to something I had felt all my life
却一直没能找到
网络交谈中使用了,
in conversations online,
在我身边人与人直接的交谈中了。
in an actual conversation in person.
than making up a word
自己造了一个单词,
take on a mind of its own.
所接受更奇怪了。
for that yet, but I will.
但我会造一个出来的。
about what makes words real,
让一个单词具象化,
I got from people is,
I don't really understand."
我真的不明白。”
哪些单词是真实的,哪些不是?
are real and what aren't.
who described his epiphany
as we go through the day,
bouncing against the walls too much
by people no smarter than you,
你聪明多少的人所建立的,
and touch those walls
改变世界的力量。
the power to change it.
"Are these words real?"
that I tried out.
Some of them didn't.
它才会变成真的。”
if you want it to be real."
because people wanted it to be there.
是因为人们都想要它存在。
campuses all the time.
这个单词是否是真的,
what people are really asking
they're really asking,
又能读懂几个人的内心呢?”
will this give me access to?"
a lot of how we look at language.
嗯,这要看另一个是谁。
这就是我们现在对话的意义。
access to as many brains as you can.
能帮助你了解很多人。
获得的最真实的一个词是:
by this measure is this.
to a master key.
understood word in the world,
被最多人所熟知的词,
what those two letters stand for.
“All Correct”(都对)的错误拼写,
of "all correct," I guess,
但是这都无所谓了,
but the fact that it doesn't matter
给词语赋予含义的。
how we add meaning to words.
in the words themselves.
that pour ourselves into it.
for meaning in our lives,
寻找我们生命中的意义,
something to do with that.
for the meaning of something,
with patterns and shorthands
一些规律或者速记的方法,
a way to interpret it
to define ourselves.
来定义我们自己。
所有的词都是编造出来的,
All words are made up,
trapped in our own lexicons
被困在自己的字典里,
with people who aren't already like us,
其他人的字典并不全都一样,
a little more every year,
是我们赋予了它们含义。
"Calvin and Hobbes."
your values and satisfies your soul
并充实你的灵魂的生活,
happier for the trouble."
因自找麻烦变得更快乐。“
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
John Koenig - WriterJohn Koenig is writing an original dictionary of made-up words.
Why you should listen
John Koenig has spent the last seven years writing an original dictionary of made-up words, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which fills gaps in the language with hundreds of new terms for emotions. This project seeks to restore sadness to its original meaning (from Latin satis, "fullness") by defining moments of melancholy that we may all feel, but never think to mention -- deepening our understanding of each other by broadening the emotional palette, from avenoir, "the desire to see memories in advance," to zenosyne, "the sense that time keeps going faster."
Each entry is a collage of word roots borrowed from languages all around the world. Some entries are even beginning to enter the language outright:
sonder n. The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own -- populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness -- an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you'll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.
His original YouTube series, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which he writes, edits and narrates himself, has drawn acclaim from John Green and Beyoncé to Michael from Vsauce. "Each episode is a soothing meditation on its subject, fortified by a hypnotic soundtrack and Koenig’s twistingly intelligent narration," writes The Daily Dot.
He currently works as a freelance video editor, voice actor, graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, director and writer. His writing has been published in countless tattoos, stories, song titles and band names, but never on paper -- though he is currently working on publishing a book adaptation. Originally from Minnesota and Geneva, Switzerland, John lives in Budapest with his wife.
John Koenig | Speaker | TED.com