Name: 【TED】艾琳．麥坎: 儘管放手去創造新單字吧！ (Erin McKean: Go ahead, make up new words!)
Uploaded: 2015-01-17T07:09:15.000Z
Duration: 6 min 57 s

is to try to put all the words possible  into the dictionary.

盡可能試著把所有可行的字彙收進字典裡，

My job is not to decide what a word is; that is your job.

我的工作不是決定什麼才是一個字，那是你的工作；

Everybody who speaks English  decides together

Every language is just a group of people who agree to understand each other.

每一種語言不過就是一群同意彼此理解的人，

Now, sometimes when people are trying  to decide whether a word is good or bad,

有時候大家想要斷定一個字到底是好還是不好，

So they say something like, "Because grammar!"

所以他們就會說像「因為文法」的這種道理，

I don't actually really care about grammar too much -- don't tell anybody.

實際上我真的不是太在乎文法，請不要跟其他人講喔。

But the word "grammar," actually, there are two kinds of grammar.

不過實際上「文法」這個字還分兩種，

There's the kind of grammar that lives inside your brain,

有一種文法存在於你的大腦中，

and if you're a native  speaker of a language

假如你是一種語言的天生使用者，

it's the unconscious rules that you follow when you speak that language.

當你使用那個語言時你所遵從的是潛意識的規則，

And this is what you learn when you learn a language as a child.

而這是當你小時後在學習語言時學到的。

這是一個"wug"對吧？(虛擬的單字)

Erin McKean: Exactly! You know  how to make the plural of wug.

艾琳‧麥坎：完全正確！你知道該如何把"wug"變成複數。

You never had to be taught this rule,  you just understand it.

你永遠不需要被教過這個規則，你就是理解這條規則的，

This is an experiment that was invented by a professor at [Boston College]

珍‧伯寇‧葛里森教授所研發的實驗，

So we've been talking about this  for a long time.

所以像我們這樣子說話已經很長久了。

Now, these kinds of natural rules  that exist in your brain,

如今存在你腦還裡的這些自然規則，

they're not like traffic laws, they're more like laws of nature.

它們不像是交通法規，而比較像是自然的法則，

And nobody has to remind you to obey  a law of nature, right?

根本沒有人提醒你遵守自然法則不是嗎？

When you leave the house in the morning,  your mom doesn't say,

當你早上出門時你的母親不會說：

"Hey, honey, I think it's going to be cold, take a hoodie,

「嘿，親愛的，我想天氣將要變冷了，帶上你的帶帽運動衫喔！

don't forget to obey the law of gravity."

別忘了要遵守地心引力的法則喔！」

Now, there are other rules that are more about manners than they are about nature.

還有另一種規則與其說是自然法則反而是比較像禮儀規矩，

So you can think of a word as like a hat.

你可以想個單字像是「帽子」呀，

nobody has to tell you,  "Don't wear hats on your feet."

根本不必有人告訴你：「別把帽子戴在腳底！」

What they have to tell you is,  "Can you wear hats inside?

他們得要跟你說的是你是不是可以在裡面戴帽子、

What are the kinds of hats you get to wear?"

Those are more of the second kind  of grammar,

which linguists often call usage,  as opposed to grammar.

字典編撰師們相對於文法常叫它用法。

Now, sometimes people use this kind of  rules-based grammar

有時候人們用第二種規則基礎的文法，

to discourage people from making up words.

So, for example,  people are always telling you,

"Be creative, make new music, do art,  invent things, science and technology."

「要有創意的、製作新的音樂、玩藝術、發明東西、科學、技術的。」

But when it comes to  words, they're like,

但是講到文字的時候，這些話會像是：「不要！不可以的！

"Don't! No. Creativity stops right here, whippersnappers. Give it a rest."

狂妄的小子！創新就到此為止啦，讓一切平靜下來吧！」

Words are great. We should have more of them.

文字是最棒的，我們應該有更多文字，

I want you to make as many new words as possible.

我希望你們儘其所能創造更多新字，

And I'm going to tell you six ways that you can use to make new words in English.

我將要告訴你們六種你們可以運用來創造英文新單字的方法：

Basically, steal them from other  languages.

基本上就從其他語言裡盜用過來，

but we never give the words back , so I'm just going to be honest

但是我們絕不會再把這些字還回去，所以我就是打算要誠實而叫它盜用，

通常我們會從拿我們喜歡的東西來取字比如說美味的食物，

We usually take words for things  that we like, like delicious food.

我們從中文拿來了「金桔」、從法文拿來了「焦糖」，

We took "kumquat" from Chinese, we took "caramel" from French.

我們也為很酷的「忍者」借字過來對吧?

We also take words  for cool things like "ninja," right?

這是非常好玩的惡作劇，因為你偷不到忍者！

which is kind of a cool trick because  ninjas are hard to steal from.

那麼另一個你可以造出英文字的方法，

So another way that you  can make words in English

是把兩個不同的英文字給湊在一塊，

is by squishing two  other English words together.

如果你使用足夠的力氣，你可以把任何的兩個字湊在一塊兒，

If you use enough force,  you can put any two of them together.

單字像是「心碎」、「書蟲」、「沙堡」都是合併式單字，

Words like "heartbroken," "bookworm,"  "sandcastle" all are compounds.

所以去吧！造出像鴨臉的單字來，只是不要裝鴨臉就好 (嘟嘴搞笑)。

So go ahead and make words like "duckface," just don't make duckface.

另一個方式你可以造出有點像是合併式的單字，

Another way that you can make words  in English is kind of like compounding,

代替你用很大的力氣把兩個字擠在一起，

but instead you use so much force when you squish the words together

像是「brunch」是混合了breakfast以及lunch、

like "brunch" is a blend  of "breakfast" and "lunch."

「Motel」是混合了motor以及hotel，

"Motel" is a blend of "motor" and "hotel."

在場有誰知道「汽車旅館」是一個混合字呢?

Who here knew that "motel"  was a blend word?

沒錯，這個字在英文裡很久了，

很多人都不知道有些地方缺少了，

that lots of people don't know that  there are parts missing.

「Edutainment」就是混合了education和 entertainment的，

"Edutainment" is a blend  of "education" and "entertainment."

當然了，「electrocute」就是混合了electric還有execute。

And of course, "electrocute" is a blend of "electric" and "execute."

你也可以改變字的功用來造字，

You can also make words by changing how they operate.

你挑了作為某種詞類的一個字，

You take a word that acts  as one part of speech,

and you change it into another  part of speech.

好的，這裡有誰知道「朋友」並非一直以來就是當作動詞的，

Okay, who here knew that "friend" hasn't always been a verb?

「朋友」以前是當名詞後來我們把它動詞化了，

"Friend" used to be a noun and then we verbed it.

幾乎任何英文裡的字都能被當成動詞，