TED2007
Erin McKean: The joy of lexicography
爱琳 麦奇重新定义字典
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被受爱戴的纸质字典是不是注定要绝迹了？在这个充满感染力和活力的演讲里，首席字典编纂家，爱琳 麦奇，从多方面看印刷字典的转型。
Erin McKean - Dictionary editor
As the co-founder of Reverb Technologies, the maker of the online dictionary Wordnik, Erin McKean is reshaping how we interact with language itself. Full bio
As the co-founder of Reverb Technologies, the maker of the online dictionary Wordnik, Erin McKean is reshaping how we interact with language itself. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:25
Now, have any of y'all ever looked up this word?
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好，你们中有谁查过这个单词？
00:29
You know, in a dictionary? (Laughter) Yeah, that's what I thought.
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用字典？（大笑）是的，我想也就这个样子。
00:33
How about this word?
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这个单词呢？
00:35
Here, I'll show it to you.
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看看解释：
00:36
Lexicography: the practice of compiling dictionaries.
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Lexicography(字典学):编纂字典的活动。
00:39
Notice -- we're very specific -- that word "compile."
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注意，这是专用的说法，定义里用“编纂”这个词。
00:42
The dictionary is not carved out of a piece of granite,
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字典并不是从一大块岩石里凿出的花岗岩，
00:45
out of a lump of rock. It's made up of lots of little bits.
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而是由很多的小块小块合起来的。
00:48
It's little discrete --
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分离的，
00:49
that's spelled D-I-S-C-R-E-T-E -- bits.
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英语里边的串法是 D-I-S-C-R-E-T-E——小块
00:53
And those bits are words.
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我们这里说的小块就是指单词了。
00:55
Now one of the perks of being a lexicographer --
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作为字典编纂者的好处——
00:59
besides getting to come to TED -- is that you get to say really fun words,
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除了有机会来 TED演讲以外，就是可以说很有趣的单词，
01:02
like lexicographical.
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例如，lexicographical,字典编纂学。
01:05
Lexicographical has this great pattern:
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这个词有一种很棒的押韵，
01:07
it's called a double dactyl. And just by saying double dactyl,
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“扬抑抑格”。只要说到“扬抑抑格”，
01:09
I've sent the geek needle all the way into the red. (Laughter) (Applause)
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古怪指数就可以飙升到红色警戒。
01:12
But "lexicographical" is the same pattern as "higgledy-piggledy."
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其实， lexicographical与 "higgledy-piggledy"(“杂乱无章”的意思)有一样的押韵。
01:16
Right? It's a fun word to say,
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对吧？这个词单发音就很好玩，
01:18
and I get to say it a lot.
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我常常说它。
01:21
Now, one of the non-perks of being a lexicographer
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同时，作为字典编纂者，一个让人郁闷的地方
01:24
is that people don't usually have a kind of warm, fuzzy, snuggly image of the dictionary.
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是字典从来没有给人留下一个温暖，舒适的印象。
01:29
Right? Nobody hugs their dictionaries.
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对吧？没有人会拥抱他们的字典。
01:32
But what people really often think about the dictionary is, they think more like this.
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但是，其实人们通常对字典的看法是这样的。
01:39
Just to let you know, I do not have a lexicographical whistle.
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告诉你一件事情，我没有什么纂字哨子，
01:42
But people think that my job is to let the good words
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尽管大家认为我的工作是让所谓的好词
01:44
make that difficult left-hand turn into the dictionary,
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做一个有难度的左转拐入字典，
01:47
and keep the bad words out.
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而把所谓的坏词挡于门外。
01:49
But the thing is, I don't want to be a traffic cop.
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问题是，我不想当交通警察。
01:52
For one thing, I just do not do uniforms.
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首先，我不喜欢制服。
01:56
And for another, deciding what words are good
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而且，决定谁是好词
02:00
and what words are bad is actually not very easy.
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谁是坏词其实一点也不容易，
02:02
And it's not very fun. And when parts of your job are not easy or fun,
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还不好玩。如果你的工作中有这么一部分既不容易又不好玩，
02:06
you kind of look for an excuse not to do them.
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你就会千方百计去回避它。
02:09
So if I had to think of some kind of occupation
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由此，如果要找一种工作
02:14
as a metaphor for my work, I would much rather be a fisherman.
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来比喻我在干的活，我宁可当一个渔夫。
02:20
I want to throw my big net into the deep, blue ocean of English
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我要在英语这个深蓝的海洋里撒上我的大网，
02:23
and see what marvelous creatures I can drag up from the bottom.
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看可以从海里捕到什么珍异的海产。
02:27
But why do people want me to direct traffic, when I would much rather go fishing?
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可是现实中，为什么人们期望我去当交警而不是渔夫呢？
02:32
Well, I blame the Queen.
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这，是英女王的错。
02:34
Why do I blame the Queen?
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为什么我要责怪她？
02:36
Well, first of all, I blame the Queen because it's funny.
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首先，责怪女王比较有趣，
02:38
But secondly, I blame the Queen because
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另外的原因是，
02:41
dictionaries have really not changed.
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自维多利亚女王以来，字典并没有什么变化。
02:43
Our idea of what a dictionary is has not changed since her reign.
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我们对字典的理解自维多利亚女王统治时期以来没有改变过。
02:45
The only thing that Queen Victoria would not be amused by in modern dictionaries
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在现代字典里，唯一不会让女王欢喜的是
02:51
is our inclusion of the F-word, which has happened
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对脏话的引入，
02:54
in American dictionaries since 1965.
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自1965年起出现在美国字典里。
02:56
So, there's this guy, right? Victorian era.
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看看这位先生，维多利亚时期的，
02:59
James Murray, first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.
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詹姆斯 穆雷，牛津英语字典的第一位编辑。
03:01
I do not have that hat. I wish I had that hat.
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我没有像他那样的帽子，我多希望有这样的一顶帽子。
03:04
So he's really responsible for a lot of
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就是他
03:08
what we consider modern in dictionaries today.
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把我们至今还认为是现代的元素放在字典里。
03:10
When a guy who looks like that, in that hat,
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如果把一个如此打扮的人，看那帽子，
03:13
is the face of modernity, you have a problem.
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作为现代的代表，那你们就有麻烦了。
03:20
And so, James Murray could get a job on any dictionary today.
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詹姆斯•穆雷即使活在今天也还是能为任何一本字典担任编纂工作，
03:22
There'd be virtually no learning curve.
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而无需学习曲线。
03:25
And of course, a few of us are saying: okay, computers!
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当然，你们中的有些人会说，计算机！
03:27
Computers! What about computers?
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计算机！计算机是新东西吧？
03:29
The thing about computers is, I love computers.
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不要误会，我喜欢计算机，
03:31
I mean, I'm a huge geek, I love computers.
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我超级喜欢计算机，
03:33
I would go on a hunger strike before I let them take away Google Book Search from me.
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如果有人不让我用谷歌的图书搜索，我一定会绝食抗议。
03:37
But computers don't do much else other than
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但是，在字典编纂工作中，计算机能起到的作用，
03:39
speed up the process of compiling dictionaries.
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就是加快了编纂的工作进程，仅此而已。
03:43
They don't change the end result.
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计算机没有改变最终结果。
03:47
Because what a dictionary is,
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因为字典就是
03:50
is it's Victorian design merged with a little bit of modern propulsion.
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维多利亚时代的设计和现代推动力的整合。
03:53
It's steampunk. What we have is an electric velocipede.
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没什么，就是一台电动的脚踏车。
03:59
You know, we have Victorian design with an engine on it. That's all!
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给维多利亚时代的设计加上一个引擎，仅此而已！
04:02
The design has not changed.
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设计上没有任何变化。
04:05
And OK, what about online dictionaries, right?
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好，那线上字典呢？
04:07
Online dictionaries must be different.
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线上字典不一样了吧。
04:10
This is the Oxford English Dictionary Online, one of the best online dictionaries.
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这是牛津线上英语字典，目前最好的线上字典之一。
04:12
This is my favorite word, by the way.
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看一下一个我喜欢的词，
04:13
Erinaceous: pertaining to the hedgehog family; of the nature of a hedgehog.
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Erinaceous:属于刺猬的；刺猬的本性。
04:18
Very useful word. So, look at that.
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非常有用的词。看看这里，
04:24
Online dictionaries right now are paper thrown up on a screen.
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线上字典目前就是把纸质版本放到屏幕前。
04:26
This is flat. Look how many links there are in the actual entry: two!
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还是很平面。看看这个单词有几个链接？两个！
04:31
Right? Those little buttons,
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对吧？那些小按键 ，
04:33
I had them all expanded except for the date chart.
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除了日期纪录，我把他们都展开了。
04:36
So there's not very much going on here.
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没什么东西，
04:38
There's not a lot of clickiness.
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没什么可以点击。
04:40
And in fact, online dictionaries replicate
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事实上， 线上字典继承了
04:43
almost all the problems of print, except for searchability.
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印刷品几乎所有的毛病，除了搜索功能。
04:46
And when you improve searchability,
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而当搜索功能改善了，
04:48
you actually take away the one advantage of print, which is serendipity.
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你同时也把印刷品的优势拿走，那就是能不经意间有新的发现的能力。
04:51
Serendipity is when you find things you weren't looking for,
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你能发现一些并不是你要找的东西，
04:54
because finding what you are looking for is so damned difficult.
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其实是因为找到你想找的东西是如此困难。
04:57
So -- (Laughter) (Applause) -- now, when you think about this,
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所以，（大笑），现在，当你想到这些，
05:06
what we have here is a ham butt problem.
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我们面对的问题其实是火腿屁股的问题。
05:09
Does everyone know the ham butt problem?
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有人知道火腿屁股的问题吗？
05:11
Woman's making a ham for a big, family dinner.
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有个女人正在弄火腿，给一个大家庭做晚餐。
05:13
She goes to cut the butt off the ham and throw it away,
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她正要把火腿根部切去扔掉，
05:15
and she looks at this piece of ham and she's like,
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看着那片火腿，她想，
05:16
"This is a perfectly good piece of ham. Why am I throwing this away?"
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“这其实是块好肉，为什么我要把它扔掉呢？”
05:18
She thought, "Well, my mom always did this."
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她继续想，“可是我妈都是这么做的”，
05:20
So she calls up mom, and she says,
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于是她打电话给她妈妈，问，
05:21
"Mom, why'd you cut the butt off the ham, when you're making a ham?"
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“妈妈，为什么你做火腿的时候要把火腿屁股切掉？”
05:23
She says, "I don't know, my mom always did it!"
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她妈妈说，“我不知道，我妈一直都这么做的！”
05:26
So they call grandma, and grandma says,
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于是她们又打电话给外婆，外婆说，
05:28
"My pan was too small!" (Laughter)
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“我的锅太小了！”（大笑）
05:32
So, it's not that we have good words and bad words.
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所以，这不是因为有好词和坏词的存在，
05:36
We have a pan that's too small!
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只是我们的锅太小了！
05:39
You know, that ham butt is delicious! There's no reason to throw it away.
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要知道，其实火腿屁股味道可好了！没理由把它扔掉。
05:41
The bad words -- see, when people think about a place
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所谓的坏词——当人们想去一个地方，
05:44
and they don't find a place on the map,
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却不能在地图上找到这个地方，
05:46
they think, "This map sucks!"
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他们就认为，”这地图一点用也没有！“
05:48
When they find a nightspot or a bar, and it's not in the guidebook,
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当人们发现一个旅游指南上没有的夜店或酒吧，
05:50
they're like, "Ooh, this place must be cool! It's not in the guidebook."
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他们又认为，” 旅游指南上没有的，这地方一定很酷！“
05:53
When they find a word that's not in the dictionary, they think,
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而当人们发现一个字典上没有的单词，他们就觉得
05:56
"This must be a bad word." Why? It's more likely to be a bad dictionary.
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”这个一定是坏词“。为什么呢？这其实更像是一本坏字典的问题。
06:01
Why are you blaming the ham for being too big for the pan?
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为什么要责怪火腿比锅大呢？
06:06
So, you can't get a smaller ham.
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你不能找到小一点的火腿，
06:09
The English language is as big as it is.
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因为英语本身就很大。
06:12
So, if you have a ham butt problem,
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所以如果你知道火腿屁股这事儿，
06:14
and you're thinking about the ham butt problem,
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而你又正在考虑这个问题，
06:16
the conclusion that it leads you to is inexorable and counterintuitive:
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它引向的结论是决绝又有违直觉的：
06:21
paper is the enemy of words.
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纸张是文字的敌人。
06:24
How can this be? I mean, I love books. I really love books.
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怎么可能？我爱书，非常的爱书。
06:28
Some of my best friends are books.
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我的一些最好的朋友就是书。
06:30
But the book is not the best shape for the dictionary.
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但是书本并不是字典最好的载体。
06:35
Now they're going to think "Oh, boy.
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有人会疑惑”不要吧，
06:37
People are going to take away my beautiful, paper dictionaries?"
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人们不是要把优美的纸质字典拿走吧？“
06:40
No. There will still be paper dictionaries.
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不是。纸质的字典还是会存在的。
06:42
When we had cars -- when cars became the dominant mode of transportation,
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当我们有了车，当车成了主要的交通工具，
06:46
we didn't round up all the horses and shoot them.
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就不见得要把所有的马匹都毙了。
06:49
You know, there're still going to be paper dictionaries,
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纸质的字典还是会存在的，
06:51
but it's not going to be the dominant dictionary.
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只是不会再是主要的载体了。
06:54
The book-shaped dictionary is not going to be the only shape
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书本形式的字典不将是唯一形式的字典，
06:57
dictionaries come in. And it's not going to be
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而且不会是
06:59
the prototype for the shapes dictionaries come in.
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将来字典的原型。
07:03
So, think about it this way: if you've got an artificial constraint,
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设想一下，如果你有人为的制约，
07:07
artificial constraints lead to
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这种制约就会引致
07:11
arbitrary distinctions and a skewed worldview.
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一个武断的区分和一个倾斜的世界观。
07:15
What if biologists could only study animals
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如果生物学家只研究
07:18
that made people go, "Aww." Right?
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人们喜欢的动物，对吧，
07:20
What if we made aesthetic judgments about animals,
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如果我们以审美角度来判断动物，
07:22
and only the ones we thought were cute were the ones that we could study?
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只研究我们觉得可爱的动物，这会怎样？
07:27
We'd know a whole lot about charismatic megafauna,
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我们就只能了解那些有魅力的大群落，
07:31
and not very much about much else.
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对其它的物种就不太了解了。
07:33
And I think this is a problem.
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我认为这是一个问题。
07:35
I think we should study all the words,
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我们应该研究所有的词，
07:37
because when you think about words, you can make beautiful expressions
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因为使用词可以创造出美丽的表达，
07:42
from very humble parts.
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即使是从非常卑下的部分。
07:46
Lexicography is really more about material science.
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字典编纂学是研究物质的科学。
07:50
We are studying the tolerances of the materials
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我们在研究不同物料的偏差，
07:53
that you use to build the structure of your expression:
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当你去架构你的表达的时候：
07:56
your speeches and your writing. And then, often people say to me,
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你的演说和写作。于是人们常常对我说，
08:03
"Well, OK, how do I know that this word is real?"
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”那好，我怎么知道这词是真实存在的？”
08:08
They think, "OK, if we think words are the tools
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他们认为，“好，如果词语是
08:15
that we use to build the expressions of our thoughts,
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我们用于表达思想的工具，
08:17
how can you say that screwdrivers are better than hammers?
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那你怎么可以说起子比锤子要好？
08:20
How can you say that a sledgehammer is better than a ball-peen hammer?"
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你怎么可以说这种锤子比那种锤子好？
08:23
They're just the right tools for the job.
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它们只是合适的工具而已。”
08:26
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?"
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由此，人们对我说，“我怎么知道一个词是真正的词？”
08:29
You know, anybody who's read a children's book
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任何读过儿童读物的人
08:32
knows that love makes things real.
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都知道，爱让事物变真实。
08:36
If you love a word, use it. That makes it real.
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如果你爱一个词，用它。这样子，它就成真了。
08:41
Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction.
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词放在字典里只是人工的区分，
08:44
It doesn't make a word any more real than any other way.
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这并没有让一个词变得比其它词更真实。
08:47
If you love a word, it becomes real.
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如果你爱一个词，它才会变真实。
08:51
So if we're not worrying about directing traffic,
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如果我们不需要花心思在指挥交通上，
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if we've transcended paper, if we are worrying less
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如果我们超越了纸张，如果我们少担心
08:59
about control and more about description,
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控制而更关注表述，
09:03
then we can think of the English language
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那英语就成为
09:05
as being this beautiful mobile.
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一个美丽的活物了。
09:08
And any time one of those little parts of the mobile changes,
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当其中的一个小组件变化了，
09:10
is touched, any time you touch a word,
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被触动了 ——任何时候你接触到一个单词，
09:13
you use it in a new context, you give it a new connotation,
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你把它用到新的内容中，你赋予它新的涵义，
09:15
you verb it, you make the mobile move.
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你就让它活起来了——让它移动了。
09:18
You didn't break it. It's just in a new position,
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你没有破坏它，只是让它移到一个新的地方，
09:22
and that new position can be just as beautiful.
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这新的地方也可以是一样美丽。
09:25
Now, if you're no longer a traffic cop --
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现在，你不再是交警——
09:29
the problem with being a traffic cop is
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交警管理交通的问题是
09:31
there can only be so many traffic cops in any one intersection,
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要么你得在每个十字路口都安排交警，
09:34
or the cars get confused. Right?
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要么就让车辆犯糊涂。对吧？
09:37
But if your goal is no longer to direct the traffic,
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然而，如果你的目标不再是指挥交通，
09:40
but maybe to count the cars that go by, then more eyeballs are better.
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而是去数来往的车辆，那越多双眼睛越好。
09:44
You can ask for help!
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你可以找人帮忙！
09:46
If you ask for help, you get more done. And we really need help.
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越多人帮忙，你可以完成更多的活。我们真的很需要帮忙。
09:50
Library of Congress: 17 million books,
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国会图书馆有一千七百万本藏书，
09:53
of which half are in English.
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一半是英语，
09:56
If only one out of every 10 of those books
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假设其中每十本书
10:00
had a word that's not in the dictionary in it,
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有一个词不在字典里，
10:02
that would be equivalent to more than two unabridged dictionaries.
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那就相当于超过两本非缩略版字典的词汇量。
10:05
And I find an un-dictionaried word --
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我发现没收录到字典里边的词(un-dictionaried)——
10:08
a word like "un-dictionaried," for example --
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以一个像 “un-dictionaried” 那样的未收录词为例——
10:10
in almost every book I read. What about newspapers?
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在我读过的几乎每一本书里都有。还有报纸呢？
10:15
Newspaper archive goes back to 1759,
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报纸藏品从1759年开始，
10:20
58.1 million newspaper pages. If only one in 100
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共有五千八百一十万个报纸页面。只要每100页
10:25
of those pages had an un-dictionaried word on it,
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报纸有一个没有收录的单词，
10:28
it would be an entire other OED.
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那就相当于一整本 OED(牛津英语字典)了，
10:31
That's 500,000 more words. So that's a lot.
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超过五十万词，那是很大的词汇量。
10:36
And I'm not even talking about magazines. I'm not talking about blogs --
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我还没有说到杂志，博客——
10:39
and I find more new words on BoingBoing in a given week
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一周内，我在 BoingBoing发现的新词
10:41
than I do Newsweek or Time.
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比新闻周刊或时代杂志还多。
10:43
There's a lot going on there.
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那里正在创造出很多的新词。
10:45
And I'm not even talking about polysemy,
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这还没说到一词多义，
10:47
which is the greedy habit some words have of taking
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有些词有贪心的习惯，
10:50
more than one meaning for themselves.
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自己有好几个意思。
10:55
So if you think of the word "set," a set can be a badger's burrow,
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当你想到一个词“set”—“set”可以指獾的穴，
10:59
a set can be one of the pleats in an Elizabethan ruff,
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也可以指伊利沙白时代衣领上的褶——
11:02
and there's one numbered definition in the OED.
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在 OED 里就有好几个定义，
11:04
The OED has 33 different numbered definitions for set.
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在 OED 里“set”共33种定义。
11:07
Tiny, little word, 33 numbered definitions.
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小小的一个单词，33种定义。
11:10
One of them is just labeled "miscellaneous technical senses."
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其中一个只是说“不同的技术时态。”
11:15
Do you know what that says to me?
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你知道这对我来说意味着什么？
11:16
That says to me, it was Friday afternoon and somebody wanted to go down the pub. (Laughter)
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那就是说周五下午某人想去酒吧。
11:21
That's a lexicographical cop out,
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用字典编纂学的术语来说，
11:23
to say, "miscellaneous technical senses."
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就是 “不同的技术时态。”
11:25
So, we have all these words, and we really need help!
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有那么多词，我们真的很需要帮助！
11:29
And the thing is, we could ask for help --
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事实上，我们可以寻求帮助——
11:32
asking for help's not that hard.
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要求帮助并不困难。
11:33
I mean, lexicography is not rocket science.
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字典编纂不是开发火箭。
11:36
See, I just gave you a lot of words and a lot of numbers,
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看，我刚给了你很多词和很多数字，
11:39
and this is more of a visual explanation.
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这里是个更形象的解释。
11:41
If we think of the dictionary as being the map of the English language,
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我们可以把字典当作代表英语的地图，
11:44
these bright spots are what we know about,
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这些亮点是我们已知的，
11:46
and the dark spots are where we are in the dark.
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黑点是未知的。
11:49
If that was the map of all the words in American English, we don't know very much.
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如果这个地图指美国英语的所有单词，我们还有很多不知道。
11:54
And we don't even know the shape of the language.
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我们连整个语言的轮廓也不知道。
11:57
If this was the dictionary -- if this was the map of American English --
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如果这个是字典，美国英语地图——
12:00
look, we have a kind of lumpy idea of Florida,
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看，我们有个大致的佛罗里达州了，
12:03
but there's no California!
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可是还没有加州！
12:06
We're missing California from American English.
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连加州都还没有，
12:09
We just don't know enough, and we don't even know that we're missing California.
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我们知道的确实很不够，我们甚至连缺了加州这个事情也不知道。
12:14
We don't even see that there's a gap on the map.
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我们连地图里有个空白也不知道。
12:16
So again, lexicography is not rocket science.
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再强调，字典编纂不是开发火箭。
12:19
But even if it were, rocket science is being done
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即使是火箭开发科学，
12:22
by dedicated amateurs these days. You know?
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当今也有热诚的业余爱好者参与其中了。是吧？
12:26
It can't be that hard to find some words!
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发现词语不可能有那么难！
12:30
So, enough scientists in other disciplines
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足够多的科学家在其它领域
12:33
are really asking people to help, and they're doing a good job of it.
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正寻求大家帮忙，而且大伙也干的不错。
12:36
For instance, there's eBird, where amateur birdwatchers
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例如，有一种电子鸟，业余观鸟爱好者
12:38
can upload information about their bird sightings.
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可以把自己的观察结果上传，
12:40
And then, ornithologists can go
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之后鸟类学家可以从中
12:42
and help track populations, migrations, etc.
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追踪数量，迁徙情况等。
12:45
And there's this guy, Mike Oates. Mike Oates lives in the U.K.
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有个叫 迈克 奥特斯的人，他住在英国，
12:48
He's a director of an electroplating company.
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他是一家电镀公司的总监。
12:52
He's found more than 140 comets.
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他发现了超过140个彗星。
12:55
He's found so many comets, they named a comet after him.
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他发现了如此之多的彗星，有一颗彗星就以他命名。
12:58
It's kind of out past Mars. It's a hike.
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那些彗星比火星还远，是一个长途旅行。
12:59
I don't think he's getting his picture taken there anytime soon.
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我不认为他拍过什么照片。
13:01
But he found 140 comets without a telescope.
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他发现的140颗彗星，并没有用望远镜，
13:05
He downloaded data from the NASA SOHO satellite,
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而是从 NASA SOHO卫星下载数据
13:08
and that's how he found them.
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分析出来的。
13:10
If we can find comets without a telescope,
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如果我们可以不用望远镜就能发现彗星，
13:14
shouldn't we be able to find words?
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为什么我们就不能发现单词呢？
13:16
Now, y'all know where I'm going with this.
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现在你明白我的立场了。
13:18
Because I'm going to the Internet, which is where everybody goes.
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我要去互联网，就像大伙那样。
13:21
And the Internet is great for collecting words,
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互联网非常合适搜集单词，
13:23
because the Internet's full of collectors.
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因为互联网上有很多搜集者。
13:24
And this is a little-known technological fact about the Internet,
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这是一个关于互联网的不为人知的技术事实，
13:27
but the Internet is actually made up of words and enthusiasm.
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互联网实际上是由单词和热情组成的。
13:30
And words and enthusiasm actually happen to be
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而单词和热情正好是
13:35
the recipe for lexicography. Isn't that great?
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字典编纂的膳料。那不是很好吗？
13:38
So there are a lot of really good word-collecting sites out there right now,
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现在已经有很多单词搜集网站了，
13:42
but the problem with some of them is that they're not scientific enough.
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只是它们中有些还不够科学，
13:44
They show the word, but they don't show any context.
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有些显示了词，没有显示上下文，
13:47
Where did it come from? Who said it?
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词从哪里来？谁说的？
13:49
What newspaper was it in? What book?
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源自哪张报纸？哪本书？
13:51
Because a word is like an archaeological artifact.
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因为一个词就像一个考古学产物，
13:55
If you don't know the provenance or the source of the artifact,
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如果你不知道起源或源头，
13:58
it's not science, it's a pretty thing to look at.
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这就不够科学——这是应该去考究的。
14:01
So a word without its source is like a cut flower.
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一个没有来源的词就像一朵被剪下来的花。
14:04
You know, it's pretty to look at for a while, but then it dies.
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看一会还可以，不久就蔫了。
14:08
It dies too fast.
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蔫得太快了。
14:09
So, this whole time I've been saying,
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我一直在说，
14:13
"The dictionary, the dictionary, the dictionary, the dictionary."
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“字典，字典， 字典，字典。”
14:15
Not "a dictionary," or "dictionaries." And that's because,
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而不是“一本字典”，或“很多字典”，这是因为，
14:18
well, people use the dictionary to stand for the whole language.
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人们用字典去代表整个语言。
14:21
They use it synecdochically.
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这是一种借代（以点代面）的说法(synecdochically)——
14:24
And one of the problems of knowing a word like "synecdochically"
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知道“synecdochically”会引起的问题是
14:27
is that you really want an excuse to say "synecdochically."
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你真的很想找个理由去说synecdochically
14:30
This whole talk has just been an excuse to get me to the point
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这整个演讲也就是个借口，为了能让我可以有机会
14:32
where I could say "synecdochically" to all of you.
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跟你们说 synecdochically这个词。
14:34
So I'm really sorry. But when you use a part of something --
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真对不起。但如果你用一样事物的一部分，
14:37
like the dictionary is a part of the language,
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例如字典是语言的一部分，
14:39
or a flag stands for the United States, it's a symbol of the country --
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或者用国旗代表美国作为一个国家的象征——
14:44
then you're using it synecdochically.
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那样你在用借代。
14:48
But the thing is, we could make the dictionary the whole language.
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不过，我们可以让字典成为语言的全部，
14:52
If we get a bigger pan, then we can put all the words in.
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如果我们有个大一点的锅，那我们就可以把所有的单词都放里边了，
14:56
We can put in all the meanings.
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还可以把所有的单词解释都放里边。
15:00
Doesn't everyone want more meaning in their lives?
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每个人不都想人生更有意义吗（英语里，意义和单词解释是同一个单词）？
15:04
And we can make the dictionary not just be a symbol of the language --
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那样，我们就可以让字典不仅仅是语言的象征，
15:08
we can make it be the whole language.
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我们就可以让字典涵盖整个语言。
15:11
You see, what I'm really hoping for is that my son,
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你看，我真希望到我儿子的时候——
15:13
who turns seven this month -- I want him to barely remember
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这个月他就满7岁了——我想他只记得
15:16
that this is the form factor that dictionaries used to come in.
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这是过去的字典的形式，
15:21
This is what dictionaries used to look like.
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这是过去的字典的样子。
15:23
I want him to think of this kind of dictionary as an eight-track tape.
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我想他把这种字典当成8轨录音带类似的东西，
15:25
It's a format that died because it wasn't useful enough.
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是种已经过时的形式，
15:29
It wasn't really what people needed.
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不再适合人们的需求。
15:32
And the thing is, if we can put in all the words,
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如果我们可以涵盖所有单词，
15:35
no longer have that artificial distinction between good and bad,
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不再人为的区分好词坏词，
15:39
we can really describe the language like scientists.
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我们就可以像科学家那样的描述语言，
15:42
We can leave the aesthetic judgments to the writers and the speakers.
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我们可以把审美判断留给作家和演讲者。
15:44
If we can do that, then I can spend all my time fishing,
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如果我们可以做到这点，那我就可以把我所有的时间花在捕鱼上，
15:48
and I don't have to be a traffic cop anymore.
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用不着再当交警。
15:53
Thank you very much for your kind attention.
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谢谢，感谢您的关注。
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Erin McKean - Dictionary editorAs the co-founder of Reverb Technologies, the maker of the online dictionary Wordnik, Erin McKean is reshaping how we interact with language itself.
Why you should listen
Erin McKean's job as a lexicographer involves living in a constant state of research. She searches high and low -- from books to blogs, newspapers to cocktail parties -- for new words, new meanings for old words, or signs that old words have fallen out of use. In June of this year, she involved us all in the search by launching Wordnik, an online dictionary that houses all the traditionally accepted words and definitions, but also asks users to contribute new words and new uses for old words. Wordnik pulls real-time examples of word usage from Twitter, image representations from Flickr along with many more non-traditional, and highly useful, features.
Before Wordnik, McKean was one of the youngest editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary. She continues to serve as the editor of the language quarterly Verbatim ("language and linguistics for the layperson since 1974") and is the author of multiple books, including That's Amore and the entire Weird and Wonderful Words series. All that, and she maintains multiple blogs, too: McKean is the keen observationalist behind A Dress a Day and Dictionary Evangelist. Is there anything she can't do? Surprisingly, she is notoriously bad at Scrabble.
Erin McKean | Speaker | TED.com