演讲文本

You can't do that while you're texting, and so ways are developing of doing it within this medium.
你没有办法在短信里这么做，所以在这个交流媒介里产生了各种转换话题的方法。
All spoken languages have what a linguist calls a new information marker -- or two, or three.
任何口语都有语言学家称作的一个或者两到三个的新信息标记词（话题转换词）。
Texting has developed one from this slash.
短信用这个slash（斜线）作为一个新信息产生的标记。
So we have a whole battery of new constructions
于是我们有了这些充满活力的新语言结构，
that are developing, and yet it's easy to think, well, something is still wrong.
然而人们还是很容易的认为，还是有问题。
There's a lack of structure of some sort.
它（短信）缺乏某种结构。
It's not as sophisticated as the language of The Wall Street Journal.
它不像华尔街日报上使用的语言那么有深度。

Well, the fact of the matter is, look at this person in 1956,
实际上，看看这个人在1956年写的，
and this is when texting doesn't exist, "I Love Lucy" is still on the air.
那时短信还没有出现，“我爱露西”（美国50年代当红肥皂剧）还在热播。
"Many do not know the alphabet or multiplication table, cannot write grammatically..."
“很多人都不会拼写字母或者背乘法口诀表，也不会按照语法写作...”
We've heard that sort of thing before, not just in 1956. 1917, Connecticut schoolteacher.
我们以前就听到这种抱怨，并不仅仅在1956年。1917年，康涅狄格州的教师也这样。
1917. This is the time when we all assume that everything somehow in terms of writing was perfect
1917年，这是我们都认为的写文章没的说的时代，
because the people on "Downton Abbey" are articulate, or something like that.
因为“唐顿庄园”（当时英国的热播剧）里的人物各个都伶牙俐齿的。
So, "From every college in the country goes up the cry, 'Our freshmen can't spell, can't punctuate.'"
然而，“整个国家里的每一所学院都应感到羞愧，我们的新生不会拼写，也不会点标点。”
And so on. You can go even further back than this. It's the President of Harvard. It's 1871.
诸如此类的言论。我们还可以再往前看。这是1871年的哈佛大学校长。
There's no electricity. People have three names.
那个时代还没有电力。人们还都有三个名字。
"Bad spelling, incorrectness as well as inelegance of expression in writing."
”糟糕的拼写，不正确以及毫不优美的书面表达。“
And he's talking about people who are otherwise well prepared for college studies.
他可是在说那些为了上大学作了充分准备的人。
You can go even further back.
我们再往前看。
1841, some long-lost superintendent of schools is upset
1841年，一个久违的督学官非常失望，
because of what he has for a long time "noted with regret the almost entire neglect of the original" blah blah blah blah blah.
因为他早已经注意到人们“对文字本源的完全忽视”等等等等。

视频及简介

演讲简介：

短信的出现意味着良好书写技能的丧失吗？约翰·麦克沃特提出短信在语言学上和文化上的影响都比表面看上去的更大，而且可喜的是这些都是好消息。