- 注释版
- 纯净版
来源:
[1] This is all to say that when we talk about an accent-less newscaster way of speaking, we have to acknowledge that we are extremely bad at actually hearing accents. This is motivated by all kinds of things; Preston’s theory is that we instinctively associate the way some groups speak with the way we feel about those groups. So a New York City accent sounds aggressive and impatient; a Southern Californian accent is slow and ditzy; a Southern accent is dumb and uneducated. (Let us not even discuss what white Americans think about African-American Vernacular English.) These associations have, of course, no basis in reality, but they’re the reason why Colbert wanted to sound less like a Southerner. An actor or a newscaster does not want to be associated with any of those groups or those preconceptions about those groups, so they don’t want to speak like them, either. But what they think those groups sound like is not usually all that accurate.
词汇词组：
1） Acknowledge /əkˈnɑːlɪdʒ/：承认，认可
例：Are you prepared to acknowledge your responsibility?
2） Associate /əˈsoʊʃieɪt/ A with B：把A和B联系/连接起来
例：I always associate the smell of baking with my childhood.
3） Ditzy /ˈdɪtsi/：神经兮兮的；没头脑的，蠢的（多指女性）
例：Tried to have a serious conversation with her, but she kept saying ditzy things like “Ooh, you’re so cute!”
4） Vernacular /vərˈnækjələr/：方言，土话；本地语
例：It takes a very specific vocabulary and vernacular and it takes decades to understand.
重难点句：
So a New York City accent sounds aggressive and impatient; a Southern Californian accent is slow and ditzy; a Southern accent is dumb and uneducated. (Let us not even discuss what white Americans think about African-American Vernacular English.)
所以纽约市的口音听起来就显得激进不耐烦；南加州的口音就会很慢很古怪；南方口音就给人一种傻/没受过教育的感觉。（更别提美国的白人是怎么看美国黑人说的英语了。）
分析：口音会给人带来不同的印象，类比这国内这种口音你就会觉得，东北人讲话确实挺幽默的，自黑一下的讲，河南口音，在社会历史原因的影响下确实会给人一种不太好的印象。
[2] All accents are semi-consistent groups of sounds. (Syntax is a bit more strict; all dialects have their own rules which are not usually broken, but the way words sound is more fluid.) And Americans have a very weak understanding of which distinctive sounds actually make up a regional accent. Based on what we’re taught and what we see in the media, we come up with a too-short list of identifying features that can tell us where a speaker is from.
词汇词组：
1） Semi-consistent /ˈsemi kənˈsɪstənt/：半统一的
2） Syntax /ˈsɪntæks/：句子结构，句法
3） Fluid /ˈfluːɪd/：不固定的，易变的；流畅的
重难点句：
And Americans have a very weak understanding of which distinctive sounds actually make up a regional accent. Based on what we’re taught and what we see in the media, we come up with a too-short list of identifying features that can tell us where a speaker is from.
而且美国人通常不太能够明白/感知到，是哪些典型的声音造成了一个地区的口音。根据我们所学和我们在媒体上看到的内容，我们只能列出来一个非常短的，能确认说话者是从哪儿来的特征的单子。
分析：a weak understanding of对什么不够了解/对什么认识不够，which就是一个形容词，哪一个的意思。Based on根据什么，identifying features that后面是一个定语从句，来修饰identifying features，tell sb sth，sth就是疑问词提前的一个陈述句。
[3] A Bostonian drops his or her final R’s. A New Yorker exaggerates the first vowel in “coffee,” turning it into “cwaauughfee.” A Southerner changes some diphthongs into monophthongs, as in the word “guide”: In the North, that’s a diphthong, moving from “ah” to “ee,” but in the South, the vowel doesn’t shift, instead sounding more like “gad.” A Southern Californian pronounces “think” as “theenk” and “milk” as “melk.”
词汇词组：
1） Exaggerate /ɪɡˈzædʒəreɪt/：夸张，夸大
例：These figures have been greatly exaggerated.
[4] Each of those regional accents includes dozens of other signifiers, and then there are many accents that are unique but simply not well-known in the rest of the country: think of the Philadelphia accent, or the New Orleans accent.
词汇词组：
1） Signifier /ˈsɪɡnɪfaɪər/：信号物，记号，指示者
2） Philadelphia /ˌfɪləˈdɛlfi.ə/：费城，宾夕法尼亚州最大的城市
3） New Orleans /nuː ˈɔːrlᵻnz/：新奥尔良，美国东南部的一个港市
[5] Any attempt to sound accent-less would therefore vary wildly based on where the speaker is from, whom the speaker is addressing, and what those people recognize as an accent signifier. A Midwesterner trying to sound accent-less will speak differently than a Southerner trying to sound accent-less. And that fact, that the newscaster accent isn’t consistent, makes it less a single accent than a broad spectrum of related accents.
词汇词组：
1） Spectrum /ˈspektrəm/：范围，幅度
例：We shall hear views from across the political spectrum.
重难点句：
Any attempt to sound accent-less would therefore vary wildly based on where the speaker is from, whom the speaker is addressing, and what those people recognize as an accent signifier.
基于说话人来自的地方/受众群是谁以及这些人把哪些音当作成了标记特征这些因素，任何想去让自己听起来没有口音的尝试的结果都是有很大的不同的。
And that fact, that the newscaster accent isn’t consistent, makes it less a single accent than a broad spectrum of related accents.
而且，连广播人员的口音都不是统一的，这一事实使得想要说话不带口音这种努力不是变成一个单一特定的口音，而是一个具有相关性的范围较广的口音群。
分析：只有相对的正确，没有绝对的标准。Less A than B又出现了，表示的是不是A，而是B。
[6] As an experiment, try listening to some news broadcasts around the country. These newscasters all supposedly speak in the accent-less General American way, so they should all sound pretty much the same, right? “I can take any handful of broadcasters you want, and unless you cheat and get them all from the same area, I can show you acoustically and probably by ear pretty convincingly that they still have for the most part the same acoustic system they had growing up,” says Preston. I wasn’t sure I believed it, but, well, look. Or rather, listen.
词汇词组：
1） Acoustically /əˈkuːstɪkli/：听觉上地，声学上地，形容词是acoustic
例：an acoustically perfect concert hall
2） Convincingly /kənˈvɪnsɪŋli/：使人信服地，形容词convincing
例：Her case was convincingly argued.
重难点句：
I can take any handful of broadcasters you want, and unless you cheat and get them all from the same area, I can show you acoustically and probably by ear pretty convincingly that they still have for the most part the same acoustic system they had growing up.
我可以随便找过来多少你想要的播音员主持人，除非你作弊，找的人全是来自同一个地方，我能够从听觉上给你展示出来，就让你用耳朵听，更有信服力吧，这些找过来的播音员主持人（他们中的大部分人）还是有自己长大的那个地方的声音习惯的。
分析：for most part，一个插入语，是来形容they的。
[7] These are minor things, but the point is that they are audible differences, noticeable quirks that can identify even a supposedly accent-less broadcaster as a native of somewhere specific. Newscasters and anyone else trying to sound accent-less will change the most obvious things, but not everything, and the way they speak is not consistent across the country.
词汇词组：
1） Audible/ˈɔːdəbl/：听得见的
例：Her voice was barely audible above the noise.
2） Quirk/kwɜːrk/：怪异
例：Everyone has their own little quirks and mannerisms.
重难点句：
Newscasters and anyone else trying to sound accent-less will change the most obvious things, but not everything, and the way they speak is not consistent across the country.
广播人员或其他任何人想着去讲没有口音的美国普通话的时候，都会去改变那些最明显的地方，但不是改变所有。而且他们说话的方式，就全国来说，都不统一。
分析：你即使汉语普通话讲的在标准，那你也只是改变了你的家乡话里具有明显特征的那个部分，总是会有一点小的部分是跟你一辈子的，因为各地的家乡话有不一样，每个人在学普通话的过程中想努力去改的部分也是不一样的。
[8] One thing that is consistent, and is not exactly an accent but is related, is in their enunciation. “They don’t really change their language, as such; they change their articulatory precision,” says Preston. This is probably a remnant from the way performance worked live; to reach the entire crowd and make sure you’re speaking comprehensibly to everyone, it was important to enunciate very precisely. Very precise enunciation can actually change the way someone sounds; it may be an effort to be more proper, but it can also shift you to that theoretical General American zone.
词汇词组：
1） Enunciation /ɪˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃn/：阐明；清晰的发音。动词是enunciate
例：With his precise enunciation you don't miss a syllable.
2） Articulatory /ɑːrˈtɪkjulətɔːri/：发音的
3） Remnant /ˈremnənt/：剩余下来的东西
例：The woods are remnants of a huge forest which once covered the whole area.
4） Comprehensible /ˌkɑːmprɪˈhensəbl/：可理解的
例：His French was barely comprehensible.
重难点句：
This is probably a remnant from the way performance worked live; to reach the entire crowd and make sure you’re speaking comprehensibly to everyone, it was important to enunciate very precisely.
这（发清楚每一个声音）可能是舞台现场表演留下来的东西吧，为了能够传递到整个人群，使每一个人都能听懂你说什么，把一个声音发地清晰准确就非常重要了。
分析：我个人一直认为，舞台剧演员出身的台词功底是非常厉害的。
[9] One example: the letter “w”. When Americans pronounce the name of this letter, it’s almost always shortened in some way. Most stereotypically, those from the South will shorten it to “dubya.” But nobody says “double-you.” Even in the North and West, the name is typically shortened to something more like “dubba-you.” Go ahead, ask someone to spell the word “white.” They’ll compress it, somehow. Newscasters, in the interest of proper enunciation, will say “double-you.” Another example: most Americans will do something called palatization in a phrase like “did you,” turning it into “did joo.” Newscasters will not, for precision’s sake.
词汇词组：
1） Stereotypically /ˌsteriəˈtɪpɪkli/：带有成见地
[10] This kind of stuff can add to the feeling of nowhereness, because English really isn’t spoken that way anywhere.
[11] So now that we know that there is really no accent-less, standard, broadcaster-type accent, we’re left with a grab-bag of different accents in which everything is enunciated excessively precisely and which does not include a varying selection of accent quirks that a particular audience will identify. And given Preston’s theory that we associate accents with specific groups about which we have opinions, that means that if we want to find the most accent-less place, we have to look for the place about which we know the least.
词汇词组：
1） Grab bag：一群不一样的东西的集合
2） Excessively /ɪkˈsesɪvli/：过度地
例：The country relies excessively on borrowing from abroad.
重难点句：
So now that we know that there is really no accent-less, standard, broadcaster-type accent, we’re left with a grab-bag of different accents in which everything is enunciated excessively precisely and which does not include a varying selection of accent quirks that a particular audience will identify.
所以，既然我们知道了根本就不存在这样一种没有口音/标准的或是播音员式美国普通话口音，那我们就只能去面对“各种各样”的口音，这些口音中，啥都会过分的精确发音，而且并不会包含一个能让观众听出来口音怪癖的集合。
分析：逻辑上我们要理解作者的意图，确实没有标准美国普通话这种口音，所以我们每天听到的所谓的标准美国普通话都是各种各样的口音集合体，当然，这样一个集合体里的各种声音会极其的相似且被人们过分的去强调，发音精确清晰之类的说辞，所以这样一种口音集合体里就不会有一般人们能够听得出来的口音怪癖了。
[12] Let’s take, for example, Colorado, or Wyoming, or Nebraska. These places do, of course, have accents, both inasmuch as everyone has an accent and inasmuch as these accents have traceable, studied elements: the caught/cot merger, the pin/pen merger, use of the “positive anymore” (a use of the word “anymore” which means something like “these days,” as in “I really love eating anchovies anymore.”), various flattening or fronting or gliding of vowels.
词汇词组：
1） Inasmuch as /ˌɪnəzˈmʌtʃ əz/：用法相当于because
例：He was a very unusual musician inasmuch as he was totally deaf.
重难点句：
These places do, of course, have accents, both inasmuch as everyone has an accent and inasmuch as these accents have traceable, studied elements: the caught/cot merger, the pin/pen merger, use of the “positive anymore” (a use of the word “anymore” which means something like “these days,” as in “I really love eating anchovies anymore.”), various flattening or fronting or gliding of vowels.
这些地方当然也有口音，那是因为每一个人都会有口音，而且这些口音可寻迹可研究：caught和cot听起来一样啊，pin和pen听起来一样啊，肯定句里anymore的用法啊（比如说I really love eating anchovies anymore），各种元音变扁/前移和滑动啊之类的。
分析：对于语言学家来说，他们基本是会去研究大部分地区的口音的，而且就目前美国本土语言的研究是比较尖端的，他们会去寻找规律（如文中提到的），来去研究语言的变化。所以相对的，会有一个大家越来越倾向于语音学上的共识：什么样的口音更为大众所接受。
[13] But these are relatively unpopulated states, without major cities. Nationally, most Americans don’t really know that much about the people who live in those states, which means we also haven’t constructed elaborate and unreliable legends about the ways people in those states speak. And because the way we see people is the primary factor in the way we hear them speak, if we don’t know much about a population? We don’t hear much of an accent, either.
[14] As it turns out, the search for an accent-less accent is more about our own perception and lack of understanding of linguistics than any objective, observable pattern. In other words, we are hearing what we want to hear, not what people are actually saying.
重难点句：
As it turns out, the search for an accent-less accent is more about our own perception and lack of understanding of linguistics than any objective, observable pattern. In other words, we are hearing what we want to hear, not what people are actually saying.
正如它所显示的那样，对于标准美国普通话（没有口音的一种口音）的寻找，更像是我们自己的一种臆断和对语言学认知的缺乏，而不是客观的观察性的的认识。换句话说，我们只是听到了我们想听到的东西而已，并不是真正说话人说的东西。
来源:
[1] This is all to say that when we talk about an accent-less newscaster way of speaking, we have to acknowledge that we are extremely bad at actually hearing accents. This is motivated by all kinds of things; Preston’s theory is that we instinctively associate the way some groups speak with the way we feel about those groups. So a New York City accent sounds aggressive and impatient; a Southern Californian accent is slow and ditzy; a Southern accent is dumb and uneducated. (Let us not even discuss what white Americans think about African-American Vernacular English.) These associations have, of course, no basis in reality, but they’re the reason why Colbert wanted to sound less like a Southerner. An actor or a newscaster does not want to be associated with any of those groups or those preconceptions about those groups, so they don’t want to speak like them, either. But what they think those groups sound like is not usually all that accurate.
[2] All accents are semi-consistent groups of sounds. (Syntax is a bit more strict; all dialects have their own rules which are not usually broken, but the way words sound is more fluid.) And Americans have a very weak understanding of which distinctive sounds actually make up a regional accent. Based on what we’re taught and what we see in the media, we come up with a too-short list of identifying features that can tell us where a speaker is from.
[3] A Bostonian drops his or her final R’s. A New Yorker exaggerates the first vowel in “coffee,” turning it into “cwaauughfee.” A Southerner changes some diphthongs into monophthongs, as in the word “guide”: In the North, that’s a diphthong, moving from “ah” to “ee,” but in the South, the vowel doesn’t shift, instead sounding more like “gad.” A Southern Californian pronounces “think” as “theenk” and “milk” as “melk.”
[4] Each of those regional accents includes dozens of other signifiers, and then there are many accents that are unique but simply not well-known in the rest of the country: think of the Philadelphia accent, or the New Orleans accent.
[5] Any attempt to sound accent-less would therefore vary wildly based on where the speaker is from, whom the speaker is addressing, and what those people recognize as an accent signifier. A Midwesterner trying to sound accent-less will speak differently than a Southerner trying to sound accent-less. And that fact, that the newscaster accent isn’t consistent, makes it less a single accent than a broad spectrum of related accents.
[6] As an experiment, try listening to some news broadcasts around the country. These newscasters all supposedly speak in the accent-less General American way, so they should all sound pretty much the same, right? “I can take any handful of broadcasters you want, and unless you cheat and get them all from the same area, I can show you acoustically and probably by ear pretty convincingly that they still have for the most part the same acoustic system they had growing up,” says Preston. I wasn’t sure I believed it, but, well, look. Or rather, listen.
[7] These are minor things, but the point is that they are audible differences, noticeable quirks that can identify even a supposedly accent-less broadcaster as a native of somewhere specific. Newscasters and anyone else trying to sound accent-less will change the most obvious things, but not everything, and the way they speak is not consistent across the country.
[8] One thing that is consistent, and is not exactly an accent but is related, is in their enunciation. “They don’t really change their language, as such; they change their articulatory precision,” says Preston. This is probably a remnant from the way performance worked live; to reach the entire crowd and make sure you’re speaking comprehensibly to everyone, it was important to enunciate very precisely. Very precise enunciation can actually change the way someone sounds; it may be an effort to be more proper, but it can also shift you to that theoretical General American zone.
[9] One example: the letter “w”. When Americans pronounce the name of this letter, it’s almost always shortened in some way. Most stereotypically, those from the South will shorten it to “dubya.” But nobody says “double-you.” Even in the North and West, the name is typically shortened to something more like “dubba-you.” Go ahead, ask someone to spell the word “white.” They’ll compress it, somehow. Newscasters, in the interest of proper enunciation, will say “double-you.” Another example: most Americans will do something called palatization in a phrase like “did you,” turning it into “did joo.” Newscasters will not, for precision’s sake.
[10] This kind of stuff can add to the feeling of nowhereness, because English really isn’t spoken that way anywhere.
[11] So now that we know that there is really no accent-less, standard, broadcaster-type accent, we’re left with a grab-bag of different accents in which everything is enunciated excessively precisely and which does not include a varying selection of accent quirks that a particular audience will identify. And given Preston’s theory that we associate accents with specific groups about which we have opinions, that means that if we want to find the most accent-less place, we have to look for the place about which we know the least.
[12] Let’s take, for example, Colorado, or Wyoming, or Nebraska. These places do, of course, have accents, both inasmuch as everyone has an accent and inasmuch as these accents have traceable, studied elements: the caught/cot merger, the pin/pen merger, use of the “positive anymore” (a use of the word “anymore” which means something like “these days,” as in “I really love eating anchovies anymore.”), various flattening or fronting or gliding of vowels.
[13] But these are relatively unpopulated states, without major cities. Nationally, most Americans don’t really know that much about the people who live in those states, which means we also haven’t constructed elaborate and unreliable legends about the ways people in those states speak. And because the way we see people is the primary factor in the way we hear them speak, if we don’t know much about a population? We don’t hear much of an accent, either.
[14] As it turns out, the search for an accent-less accent is more about our own perception and lack of understanding of linguistics than any objective, observable pattern. In other words, we are hearing what we want to hear, not what people are actually saying.