A specter is haunting our communications: the specter of emoji. Right now, it’s likely that someone you know is texting a thumbs-up image to confirm a meeting, or maybe sending off a friendly ghost emoji to say “boo” to a friend.
人们在日常的沟通中飘荡着名为“emoji表情”的幽灵。很可能就在此刻某个你认识的人就正在发送竖起拇指的表情确认一个会议，或向朋友发送一个友好的鬼怪表情来表达不屑之意。
Yet the little guys (and gals, and farm animals, and foodstuffs) aren’t without controversy. Word-centric fuddy-duddies see the decline of literacy reflected in their heart-shaped eyes, while guardians of decorum lament the spread of greasy kid stuff dripping from the characters’ snail trails.
然而这些小男孩（还有女孩、农场动物和食物）图标并非毫无争议。那些崇尚文字的老古董们用自己的心灵之窗目睹了文字的衰退，那些礼仪的卫道士们则感慨从这些表情的蜗牛路迹上淋漓滴下的黏腻幼稚的东西在扩散。

Given their resemblance to the stickers that adorn the notebooks of schoolgirls, not to mention their widespread adoption as the lingua franca of tweens and teens everywhere, some people wonder whether grown men should be using them at all.
考虑到它们与还在念书的女生们用来装饰笔记本的心形图案十分相似，更不用提它们被全世界的青少年拿来广泛使用，导致一些人开始对成年男性究竟能否使用它们产生了怀疑。
John McWhorter, a linguist who teaches at Columbia University, said that some men shy away from emoji because, as he put it, “Women use them more.” That may not continue to be the case, he added.
在哥伦比亚大学教学的语言学家约翰·麦克沃特(John McWhorter)表示一些男性对使用emoji表情心怀顾忌的原因在于，用他的话说就是“女人才爱用咧”。他又补充说道，现在已经不是这种状况了。
“Women tend to be more overtly expressive in language,” he said. “But something women start in language has a way of making it to men. Men would benefit from using emoji more.”
“女性在语言表达方面往往有着压倒性的优势，”他说。“但女人把语言方面的发明可以推广到男人中去。男人也将从使用emoji中受益。”
Emoji, he said, allow for an expressive, human way of translating the spoken word into text, with the goofy symbols providing a texter or tweeter with the means to convey tone. “There should be male ways to use emoji,” he added.
他表示，emoji表情符是一种能有效将口语转化为文字的人性化方式，发短信或推特的人用这些蠢萌的表情符号来表达语气。“emoji也该有男子汉式的用法。”他补充道。
While Mr. McWhorter, 49, does not use emoji himself, citing his age, he is an admirer . “I’m not known as the most progressive person in the world, but in some ways I like them,” he said. “I’m a big fan.”
而49岁的麦克沃特表示，虽然囿于年龄，他并非emoji表情的用户，但却是emoji的青睐者之一。“我倒不是全球最与时俱进的人，但我就是喜欢它们的某些地方，”他说，“我是铁杆粉丝。”
Other experts (that is, emoji users themselves) are less definitive. “It’s a fine line,” said Melissa Karlin, 35, a Chicago-based accounts manager for Kenshoo, a software company. “Emoji-ing is a dance.”
其他专家（也就是，那些会使用emoji表情的人）倒没这么坚定。“很不错的产品，”35岁的梅丽莎·卡琳(Melissa Karlin)说，她担任Kenshoo公司在芝加哥的客户经理。“用emoji表情就像一支舞蹈。”
She noted that some men use emoji in ways she finds inscrutable, particularly in the context of romance, when they are given to texting the symbol of the winky face with the tongue sticking out. “I don’t know what it means,” Ms. Karlin said.
她表示一些男士使用emoji表情的方式让她无法理解，尤其是在浪漫的氛围下，他们热衷于发那个眨眼吐舌的符号。“我不知道这是要说什么，”卡琳说。
She offered a piece of advice for potential suitors: “Use your words. I’m a big fan of using your words.”
她向所有可能的追求者提了个建议：“用文字，我其实超喜欢你们直接用文字表达。”
In a discussion that appeared last year on Yahoo Answers, one anonymous poster said of emoji: “They’re fun but I just find them emasculating!” In a spirited thread on the same topic over on Reddit, another emoji user counseled, “Like anything else, moderation is key.”
去年在雅虎知道(Yahoo Answers)上出现的一场讨论里，一位匿名用户这么评价emoji表情：“它们很好玩，但我觉得它们太娘炮了！”这一话题在Reddit论坛上也有一篇引发热议的帖子，其中一位emoji使用者建议，“和其他事情一样，关键是要适度。”
And yet many men find themselves grasping for emoji where words either fail them or come up short (prawn, perhaps).
而许多男性发现自己想不起词（比如说，忘了虾怎么写）或语塞的时候，就会求助emoji表情。
The tennis star Roger Federer sprinkles his tweets with them, and Mike Scott, a 6-foot-8 forward with the Atlanta Hawks, has several emoji tattoos, including the pair of dancing girls with bunny ears. The rapper Drake blew up the Internet last fall when a photograph of a praying-hands emoji tattoo, inked onto his right forearm, surfaced on Instagram.
网球巨星罗杰·费德勒(Roger Federer)在推特上偶尔使用emoji表情，6英尺8英寸（约合2.03米）高的亚特兰大老鹰队(Atlanta Hawks)前锋迈克·斯科特(Mike Scott)在身上纹了几个emoji表情，其中一个是跳舞的兔耳女郎。去年秋天，说唱歌手德雷克(Drake)在instagram上发布了纹有双手合十祈祷的emoji表情的右前臂照片，在网上掀起轩然大波。
Jordan Peele, of the sketch comedy duo Key & Peele, proved his fluency when he retold the story of “The Shining” through 96 carefully selected emoji packed into a single tweet, an effort that has won him more than 13,000 retweets.
双人喜剧秀“基和皮尔(Key & Peele)”中的乔丹·皮尔(Jordan Peele)对使用emoji表情简直得心应手，他发了一条推特，用96个精选emoji表情叙述了《闪灵》(The Shining)的故事，转发量达1万3千多次。
Certain men embrace emoji while holding them at a remove. Gil Schwartz, a CBS executive who writes under the name Stanley Bing, called himself a “rare user of ironic emojis.” He said he is partial to the pig and the horse. “I use them because I think they’re stupid,” he said. “At some point, texting is kind of stupid.”
有些人虽然接受emoji表情，但却用得很克制。笔名斯坦利·宾(Stanley Bing)的哥伦比亚广播公司主管吉尔·舒瓦兹(Gil Schwartz)，称自己是一个“很少使用讽刺性emoji表情的人”。他说自己更偏爱猪和马。“我用它们是因为觉得它们看起来很蠢，”他说。“有的时候，发短信本身也有点蠢。”
He has no fear that using them may somehow put a dent in his masculinity. “For a moment you’re Taylor Swift,” said Mr. Schwartz, who is 63. “If you’re confident in your manhood, you can certainly lapse into Taylor Swift-hood momentarily.”
他一点也不担心使用emoji表情会折损自己的男子汉气概。“有的时候你就是泰勒·斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)，”现年63岁的舒瓦兹说。“如果你自信够男人，那变成泰勒·斯威夫特一会儿当然没什么问题。”
Amina Akhtar, the editorial director of TheFashionSpot, a website, isn’t buying it. “If I’m seeing a guy, and he emojis, I feel uncomfortable,” said Ms. Akhtar, 37. “We’re too old to be doing this. To have a man in his 40s and 50s using emojis is uncomfortable to me.”
TheFashionSpot网站的主编阿米娜·阿赫塔尔(Amina Akhtar)显然不接受这套说辞。“看到一个男人用emoji表情符，我一定会觉得不舒服，”37岁的阿赫塔尔说。“这些对我们来说太幼稚了。一个男人在四五十岁的时候还用emoji表情符，实在让我觉得不自在。”
Katey Nilan, a 29-year-old writer and tech consultant in San Francisco, said: “If Drake can emoji, anyone can emoji. He’s pretty hard.” She added that, while she is pro emoji , there are limits . Like Ms. Karlin, she finds the winky face tongue-wagging emoji troublesome, especially when it is sent by men trying to flirt. “It seems like that’s the go-to if a guy can’t come up with something else to say,” Ms. Nilan said.
29岁的卡蒂·尼兰(Katey Nilan)现居旧金山，是作家兼技术顾问，她表示：“如果德雷克都能用emoji表情符的话，那谁都可以用。他挺有男子汉气概的。”她补充说，尽管自己支持emoji表情符，但仍觉得它有不足之处。她和卡琳一样，觉得眨眼吐舌的emoji表情有点烦，尤其当一些男人在调情的时候使用它们。“感觉男人想不出说什么的时候 ，准会打出这样的表情，”尼兰说。
What does she do after she receives that one?
她收到这个表情后一般怎么办？
“Ghost,” she said.
“鬼啊，”她答道。
Meaning, she replies with the ghost emoji?
意思是，回一个鬼魂的emoji表情符？
“No, no, no,” she said. “Ghosting is when you stop texting.”
“不不不，”她说。“意思是不聊了，你去见鬼。”
Stephen Lynch, a 33-year-old public relations professional in San Francisco, holds that emoji are neither good nor bad in themselves. “People can be as creepy using emoji as anything else,” he said. “Some people have troubled communication no matter what.”
现居旧金山的33岁公关专家史蒂芬·林奇(Stephen Lynch)认为emoji表情符本身没什么好也没什么不好。“像其他任何东西一样，人们有本事把emoji表情符用得很变态，”他说。“有些人就是有沟通障碍，跟用什么没关系。”
To him, furthermore, the question of whether grown men should use emoji is loaded. “The whole ‘should’ reeks of an old-fashioned and hetero-normative view of the world,” he said. “Second thing is, why wouldn’t they reciprocate?”
对他来说，成人男性是否应该使用emoji表情符的问题本身就具有导向性。“‘应该’这个词指向的是异性恋主导、老套的世界观，”他说。“另外一点是，他们为什么就不能用相同方式回复别人呢？”
In other words, if someone sends you an emoji, why not reply in kind? “Why wouldn’t you engage in the same way someone is engaging you?” Mr. Lynch said.
换句话说，如果有人给你发了个emoji表情符，为什么不回他一个？“为什么不能融入别人为你营造的言语环境？”林奇说。
Bruce Feirstein, a screenwriter and journalist living in Los Angeles, seems to agree: “When my 14-year-old son sends me the face palm emoji, I laugh. I immediately respond. But that’s a conversation with my 14-year-old son.”
住在洛杉矶的编剧、记者布鲁斯·费尔斯坦(Bruce Feirstein)对此表示同意：“我14岁的儿子给我发了用手捂脸的emoji表情符后，我笑了，然后很快就回复了他。但这是和我14岁儿子的对话。”
His business correspondence, on the other hand, has a tone that doesn’t allow for a smiley face, or even the mustache man. “It’s all about context,” he said. “I’ve never gotten a serious piece of communication or a message from an adult with an emoji.”
反观另一面，他商业上的一切通信往来都透着一种连笑脸都加不进去的腔调，甚至连个小胡子男人的表情也加不进去。“都是由内容决定的，”他说。“我从没收到过成年人发来带有emoji表情符的正式通信或消息。”
Mr. Feirstein, 61, is something of an authority on the subject of what men should or should not do, having written the 1982 best seller “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche,” a satirical “Guidebook to All That Is Truly Masculine,” as the subtitle put it.
61岁的费尔斯坦堪称男人该做什么不该做什么这方面的权威，他著有《真男人不吃蛋饼》(Real Men Don’t eat Quiche)一书，1982年成了畅销书。如副标题所说，它是讽刺风格的“真正男子汉的行为指南(Guidebook to All That Is Truly Masculine)”。
“When I wrote the book, things were simpler than they are now,” he said. “I don’t know if, in the year 2015, defining what a ‘real man’ would do or not do is relevant, because the culture has changed. I don’t know if you can make these grand pronouncements anymore.”
“我写书的时候，事情比现在简单不少，”他说。“我不知道在2015年，讨论‘真男人’的定义还有没有意义，因为文化改变了。我不知道现在还能不能做这么宏大的声明了。”
Besides, grand pronouncements are likely to have no effect on how language is changing in the digital sphere. “I say it’s like a new form of communication,” said Adrian Rodriguez, a 26-year-old office manager in San Francisco. “It’s just the way things are evolving. It’s just there. You don’t want to overthink it.”
此外，这类宏大的声明似乎也无法撼动电子领域的语言变化。“我觉得这像是一种新的传播方式，”旧金山26岁的办公室经理艾德里安·罗德里格斯(Adrian Rodriguez)说。“只是事物演进的方式罢了。它就存在于这个世界上。真的不用想太多。”