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A US-based language monitoring group crowned Web 2.0 as the one-millionth word or phrase in the English language yesterday, although other linguists slammed it as a stunt.
The Global Language Monitor, which uses a math formula to track the frequency of words and phrases in print and electronic media, said Web 2.0 appeared over 25,000 times in searches and was widely accepted, making it the legitimate, one-millionth word.
It said Web 2.0 started out as a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services but had crossed into far wider circulation in the last six months.
Other linguists, however, denounced the list as pure publicity and unscientific, saying it was impossible to count English words in use or to agree on how many times a word must be used before it is officially accepted.
"I think it's pure fraud ... It's not bad science. It's nonsense," Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told reporters.
Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, brushed off the criticism, saying his method was technically sound. "If you want to count the stars in the sky, you have to define what a star is first and then count. Our criteria is quite plain and if you follow those criteria you can count words. Most academics say what we are doing is very valuable," said Payack.
He has calculated that about 14.7 new English words or phrases are generated daily and said the five words leading up to the millionth highlighted how English was changing along with current social trends.
"Some 400 years after the death of the Bard, the words and phrases were coined far from Stratford-Upon-Avon, emerging instead from Silicon Valley, India, China, and Poland, as well as Australia, Canada, the US and the UK," said Payack.
Here are five other contenders:
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(Agencies)
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美國(guó)一家語(yǔ)言監(jiān)測(cè)機(jī)構(gòu)昨日認(rèn)定Web2.0為英語(yǔ)中第100萬(wàn)個(gè)詞匯，而一些語(yǔ)言學(xué)家認(rèn)為這是在玩噱頭。
全球語(yǔ)言監(jiān)測(cè)機(jī)構(gòu)使用數(shù)學(xué)模式來監(jiān)控印刷和電子媒體中詞匯的使用頻率。該機(jī)構(gòu)稱， Web 2.0在搜索中出現(xiàn)超過兩萬(wàn)五千次，并受到廣泛認(rèn)可，這使它名副其實(shí)地成為英語(yǔ)中第100萬(wàn)個(gè)詞匯。
該機(jī)構(gòu)稱，Web 2.0最初是一個(gè)技術(shù)術(shù)語(yǔ)，意指下一代互聯(lián)網(wǎng)產(chǎn)品及服務(wù)，該詞匯在過去半年間迅速普及。
但有些語(yǔ)言學(xué)家抨擊這個(gè)詞匯表純屬炒作，也不符合科學(xué)。他們說，對(duì)使用中的英語(yǔ)單詞進(jìn)行計(jì)數(shù)是不可能的，另外單詞在被使用多少次之后才被正式收錄也沒有統(tǒng)一的規(guī)則。
加州大學(xué)伯克利分校的語(yǔ)言學(xué)教授杰弗里?納恩博格在接受記者采訪時(shí)說：“這完全是無稽之談，并不是偽科學(xué)，而是毫無意義。”
全球語(yǔ)言監(jiān)測(cè)機(jī)構(gòu)主席鮑爾?JJ?佩雅克回應(yīng)了這一批評(píng)，稱其統(tǒng)計(jì)方法在技術(shù)上是可行的。他說：“如果你想數(shù)清天上有多少顆星星，你先要搞清楚什么是星星，然后再開始數(shù)。我們的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)非常簡(jiǎn)單，只要使用這些標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，你就能計(jì)算出詞匯量。大多數(shù)研究人員認(rèn)為我們的方法非常有價(jià)值。”
據(jù)佩雅克計(jì)算，英語(yǔ)每天新增14.7個(gè)詞匯。他還表示，即將成為第100萬(wàn)個(gè)單詞的五個(gè)新詞彰顯出英語(yǔ)如何“與時(shí)俱進(jìn)”。
佩雅克說：“莎士比亞已經(jīng)去世大約四百年了，如今的新詞不再只來自斯特拉福德鎮(zhèn)（譯者注：莎士比亞的故鄉(xiāng)），而是從硅谷、印度、中國(guó)、波蘭、澳大利亞、加拿大、美國(guó)以及英國(guó)各地涌現(xiàn)出來。
以下是另外五個(gè)新詞“競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者”：
Jai Ho!：印度語(yǔ)中表示勝利和成功的驚嘆詞
slumdog：指生活在印度貧民窟的孩子
cloud computing：云計(jì)算，通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)發(fā)布服務(wù)信息。（采用云計(jì)算，企業(yè)可以通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)訪問在第三方服務(wù)器上托管的服務(wù)。）
carbon neutral：碳中立，氣候變化談判時(shí)經(jīng)常使用的詞匯
N00b：意指游戲界新手，帶有貶義
相關(guān)閱讀
Slumdog、Jai Ho!獲選好萊塢年度詞匯
“毒債”獲選澳大利亞2008年度詞匯
“援助”、“改變”當(dāng)選08年度熱詞
Subprime當(dāng)選美國(guó)07年度詞匯
（英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 實(shí)習(xí)生許雅寧編輯）
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