不可容忍的連詞濫用(雙語)

When Caroline Kennedy managed to say “you know” more than 200 times in an interview with the New York Daily News, and on 130 occasions while talking to The New York Times during her uninspired attempt to become a hereditary senator, she proved, among other things, that she was (a) middle-aged and (b) middle class. If she had been a generation younger and a bit more déclassé, she would have been saying “like.” When asked if the Bush tax cuts should be repealed, she responded: “Well, you know, that’s something, obviously, that, you know, in principle and in the campaign, you know, I think that, um, the tax cuts, you know, were expiring and needed to be repealed.”

當卡羅琳·肯尼迪毫無創見地試圖延續肯尼迪家族的傳統當選參議員時，她在紐約日報的採訪中說了超過200遍的“你知道”，在與紐約時報記者談話中也使用了130次這句“你知道”。通過其他事情，她證明自己是一箇中產階級的中年婦女。如果她是年輕一代中家世不那麼高貴一個人，她會使用“like”這個詞。當被問道是否該取消布什總統的減稅方案，她回答道：“嗯，你知道，顯然，這是一件，你知道，有關原則和競選的事件，你知道，我覺得，嗯，減稅麼，你知道，期限到了，必須終止。”

This is an example of “filler” words being used as props, to try to shore up a lame sentence. People who can’t get along without “um” or “er” or “basically” (or, in England, “actually”) or “et cetera et cetera” are of two types: the chronically modest and inarticulate, and the mildly authoritarian who want to make themselves uninterruptible.

這個例子展示了“填充語”是怎麼被用來支撐軟弱無力的句子。那些不加上“嗯”“呃”或“基本上”（在英國，“事實上”）“等等等等”就沒辦法講話的人可以分成兩種：不善言辭並口齒不清；不希望被人打斷的輕度自我主義者。

Many parents and teachers have become irritated to the point of distraction at the way the weed-style growth of “like” has spread through the idiom of the young. And it’s true that in some cases the term has become simultaneously a crutch and a tic, driving out the rest of the vocabulary.

許多父母和老師已經對年輕人口中如荒草蔓延般的“like”煩不勝煩，根本聽不下去了。有的時候這個詞已經同時成爲言語支柱和口頭禪，讓其他詞彙毫無立足之地。

It was then a part of the Californianization of American youth-speak. In an analysis Penelope Eckert and Norma Mendoza-Denton phrase matters this way: “One of the innovative developments in the white English of Californians is the use of the discourse-marker ‘I’m like’ or ‘she’s like’ to introduce quoted speech, as in ‘I’m like, where have you been?’ This quotative is particularly useful because it does not require the quote to be of actual speech (as ‘she said’ would, for instance). A shrug, a sigh, or any of a number of expressive sounds as well as speech can follow it.”

這個詞曾是加州化的美國年輕人用語之一。Penelope Eckert和Norma Mendoza-Denton分析說：“加州白人的英語有一個創新性的發展，就是使用話語標記'I'm like'或者'She's like'來帶出引語，就像‘我就問，你去哪了？’這個引語標記很有用，因爲它不要求其後的引語是直接引語（“她說”後面就要接直接引語）。聳肩、嘆氣或者其他任何具有表達意味的聲音都可以作爲引語跟隨其後。

It can be used as a pause or a colon: very handy for spinning out a mere anecdote into a playlet that’s full of parody and speculation. And also of hyperbole, as in “She’s been out with, like, a million guys.”

這個詞可以作爲停頓或冒號：將一件小事渲染成充斥着滑稽模仿和揣測的短劇時，這個詞用起來很方便。也可用於誇張語氣，比如說“她差不多跟一百萬個男生約會過。”

The little cringe and hesitation and approximation of “like” are a help to young people who are struggling to negotiate the shoals and rapids of ethnic identity, the street, and general correctness. To report that “he was like, Yeah, whatever” is to struggle to say “He said” while minimizing the risk of commitment.

like這個詞所代表的保留態度、猶豫和模棱兩可能幫助年輕人處理棘手的種族身份意識、社交生活和言語得體問題。說“他啊，怎麼說呢，呃……”就等於是在想盡方法闡釋“他說過……”，同時減低話說出去就收不回的風險。

The actual grammatical battle was probably lost as far back as 1954, when Winston announced that its latest smoke “tasted good, like a cigarette should.” Complaints from sticklers that this should have been “as a cigarette should”were met by a second ad in which a gray-bunned schoolmarm type was taunted by cheery consumers asking, “What do you want, good grammar or good taste?” Usage of “like” has now almost completely replaced “as” .

1954年的時候這場語法之爭就差不多塵埃落定了，那時溫斯頓香菸發佈了最新的廣告“好煙當如是”，看重細節的觀衆們抱怨說其中的“like”應該改成“as”，然而溫斯頓的第二支廣告很快對此作出迴應，其中一個歡呼的人羣嘲笑梳着灰白髮髻的女教師，並問“你是要完美的語法還是完美的味道？”現在，like已經差不多完全取代了as。

How could one preserve what’s useful about “like” without allowing it to reduce everyday vocabulary? The restoration of the word “as,” which isn’t that hard a word to master, along with “such as,” would also be a help in varying the national lingo. A speech idiosyncrasy, in the same way as an air quote, is really justifiable only if it’s employed very sparingly and if the user consciously intends to be using it. Just to try to set an example，I have managed to write all the above without using the word once, except in inverted commas. Why not try it? You might, like, like it.

我們怎麼才能在保持like真正有用之處的情況下防止它侵略其他詞彙的領地呢？恢復使用as這個不難學的詞，以及such as，也許能使我們的用語更多樣化。言語怪癖和航空報價一樣，只有在偶爾使用並且使用者有意識去使用的時候才說得過去。爲給大家樹立榜樣，我在寫這篇文章的時候沒有一處用到like，除了引號內的內容。爲什麼不試試呢？你也許，怎麼說呢，喜歡這樣。