A Kind of Blue1此藍(lán)非彼藍(lán)

李小華/譯

Environments can affect language—just not in the way you may think.

環(huán)境影響語(yǔ)言，但如何影響卻非你所想。

Everyone knows the Eskimos have dozens， if not hundreds， of words for snow because of their intimate knowledge of their environment. Except that everyone cannot “know” this， because knowledge requires a statement to be true. In fact， the Eskimo snow story is a factoid2， a word coined by Norman Mailer3 for a fun， roughly fact-shaped object that is not， in fact， a fact—in the same way a “spheroid” is not quite a sphere.

盡人皆知，愛斯基摩人對(duì)其生活的環(huán)境非常了解，于是他們就有幾十甚至幾百個(gè)表示“雪”的詞。只是并非人人都“了解”其中的緣由，因?yàn)榱私獾那疤崾顷愂霰仨氄鎸?shí)。事實(shí)上，愛斯基摩人雪的故事是factoid（仿真陳述）。這個(gè)詞是諾曼·梅勒創(chuàng)造的，指的是一個(gè)有趣的對(duì)象，貌似事實(shí)，實(shí)非事實(shí)——就像“球狀體”不完全是球體一樣。

The Eskimos （or Inuit4， as most prefer to be called） dont really have hundreds of words for snow because of their fine sense of its variety. Rather， they have a virtually infinite supply of words for everything， because of the nature of their languages. Inuit languages allow lexical roots to be strung together to make long， highly specific words， including some that might make an entire sentence in English. “Snow that has turned grey from being walked on repeatedly”， a noun phrase in English， might be a single word in Inuit. But the number of basic snow-related roots is not much larger than the number of snow words in English.

愛斯基摩人（又稱因紐特人，他們大多更喜歡這個(gè)稱呼）有數(shù)百種表示“雪”的說(shuō)法，這其實(shí)并不是因?yàn)樗麄兡芫?xì)感知各種各樣的雪。確切地講，無(wú)論說(shuō)到什么東西，他們幾乎都有數(shù)不清的詞來(lái)指代，這是其語(yǔ)言特性使然。因紐特語(yǔ)能把詞根串連成表意極為精確的長(zhǎng)單詞，其中有些用英語(yǔ)說(shuō)可能得說(shuō)完整的一句話。比如，在英語(yǔ)中“因反復(fù)踩踏而變成灰色的雪”是個(gè)名詞短語(yǔ)，而在因紐特語(yǔ)中可能只是一個(gè)單詞。但是，有關(guān)“雪”的基本詞根個(gè)數(shù)并不比英語(yǔ)中表示“雪”的單詞數(shù)多太多。

For many linguists， the Eskimo snow story has become an example of an embarrassing， exoticising fairy tale about an unfamiliar culture， passed round by those who know nothing of it. It is also the paradigmatic5 example of assuming a kind of mystical connection between language， land and culture—which falls apart6 under serious scrutiny.

許多語(yǔ)言學(xué)家認(rèn)為，愛斯基摩人雪的故事儼然就是那種令人尷尬的異域童話，講的是陌生文化，由一些并不了解這種文化的人散播開來(lái)。這還是某種觀點(diǎn)的典型表現(xiàn)，即認(rèn)為語(yǔ)言、地域和文化之間有某種神秘聯(lián)系——其實(shí)這種關(guān)聯(lián)經(jīng)不起仔細(xì)推敲。

Today， efforts to draw links between language and the environment are more respectful. One linguist has observed that languages with certain rare consonants （called ejectives7） are more prevalent at high altitudes， perhaps because those are easier to pronounce in lower air pressure. Another team found that languages which use tones （ie， changes in pitch） in their vowels， to distinguish one word from another， are linked with humid climates. This is purportedly because humidity helps the vocal folds produce the tones. These causal relationships are not always accepted by other scholars.

如今，找出語(yǔ)言與環(huán)境之間關(guān)聯(lián)的努力更尊重現(xiàn)實(shí)。一位語(yǔ)言學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)，帶有某些罕見輔音（稱為擠喉音）的語(yǔ)言在高海拔地區(qū)更為普遍，也許是因?yàn)闅鈮狠^低時(shí)這些輔音更容易發(fā)出來(lái)。另一研究團(tuán)隊(duì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，以元音聲調(diào)（即音高變化）區(qū)分單詞的語(yǔ)言與潮濕的氣候有聯(lián)系。據(jù)說(shuō)，這是因?yàn)闅夂虺睗窭诼晭Оl(fā)出各種聲調(diào)。上述因果關(guān)系并非總是得到其他學(xué)者的認(rèn)同。

Recently， though， a large study of colour words around the world has found a clear link between geography and vocabulary. Colour is a classic case of a spectrum. There is no sharp break8 between， say， blue and teal9， and cultures divide the continuum10 in different ways. Some languages have just two colour-related words， for light and dark. A pair of linguists， Brent Berlin and Paul Kay11， wrote in the 1960s that if they have a third， it is almost always for red; a fourth and fifth are usually for green and yellow.

然而，最近有一項(xiàng)針對(duì)世界各地顏色詞的大型研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，地理環(huán)境和詞匯有著明確關(guān)聯(lián)。顏色是譜系的一個(gè)經(jīng)典案例。比如，藍(lán)色和綠藍(lán)色無(wú)明顯差別，不同文化對(duì)這種漸變色彩的區(qū)分方式各異。有些語(yǔ)言只有兩個(gè)詞與顏色有關(guān)，分別代表淺色和深色。布倫特·伯林和保羅·凱這兩位語(yǔ)言學(xué)家在1960年代著書指出，語(yǔ)言中若有第三個(gè)顏色詞，那往往是紅色；若有第四個(gè)和第五個(gè)詞，那一般是綠色和黃色。

Blue comes only sixth in the Berlin-Kay schema12， elementary as it may seem. Besides the sky and sea， though， there are few blue things in nature， which may make the word less necessary; rarely does anyone say “l(fā)ook for a blue plant”， because these are uncommon. Many languages lump together blue and green， a chunk of the spectrum linguists call “grue”13.

根據(jù)柏林-凱的綱要，藍(lán)色僅位列第六，盡管它似乎是基礎(chǔ)色。然而，除了天空和海洋，自然界中幾乎沒(méi)有藍(lán)色的東西，這使得藍(lán)色這個(gè)詞也就不怎么有用。很少有人說(shuō)“尋找一種藍(lán)色的植物”，因?yàn)樗{(lán)色植物很少見。許多語(yǔ)言把藍(lán)色和綠色混為一談，語(yǔ)言學(xué)家稱色譜中的這一區(qū)域?yàn)椤熬G藍(lán)色”。

The new study breaks ground by finding that there is indeed a link between the use of grue words and the environment， specifically sunshine. Populations exposed to lots of sunlight are more likely to talk about “grue”， note Mathilde Josserand， Emma Meeussen， Asifa Majid and Dan Dediu14. One possible reason is that long-term exposure to ultraviolet light can cause changes in the retina that make it more difficult to distinguish blue from green.

此項(xiàng)新研究取得了突破，它發(fā)現(xiàn)表示綠藍(lán)色的詞，其使用與環(huán)境（具體指陽(yáng)光）確有聯(lián)系?，?shù)贍柕隆と羲估?、?，敗っ窞跎⑽鞣āゑR吉德和丹·德迪烏指出，生活環(huán)境陽(yáng)光充足的族群更有可能談及“綠藍(lán)色”。其中一個(gè)可能的原因是，長(zhǎng)期接受紫外線照射，視網(wǎng)膜會(huì)發(fā)生種種變化，分辨綠色和藍(lán)色愈加困難。

The researchers tested a host of other theories to account for the presence of a “grue” term， and found a weaker but still interesting link to culture， rather than physiology. They discovered that larger populations were more likely to have a distinct “blue”. Population size， they speculate， is a reasonable proxy15 for cultural complexity—the kind， for instance， that would lead cultures to develop dyeing techniques， and thus create artificially blue objects.

研究人員對(duì)其他許多理論做了檢驗(yàn)，以解釋表示“綠藍(lán)色”的詞存在的原因，他們找到了這些詞的產(chǎn)生和文化之間的聯(lián)系，盡管弱于同生理機(jī)能之間的聯(lián)系，但依然值得關(guān)注。研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，人口規(guī)模越大，出現(xiàn)單獨(dú)表示“藍(lán)色”的詞的可能性就越大。他們推測(cè)，人口規(guī)模是文化復(fù)雜性的可靠指標(biāo)，比如說(shuō)，這種復(fù)雜性會(huì)導(dǎo)致文化群體改進(jìn)染色技術(shù)，進(jìn)而造出人造藍(lán)色的物品。

This is the first study to test so many of these hypotheses to see which hold up16 best. That is an admirable approach， which reduces the chances of a coincidental finding， the type that pops up all the time when researchers scour databases looking for linked variables. （One such effort found a link between acacia trees and tonal languages， a connection rather difficult to explain.）

這是首次有研究檢驗(yàn)如此多假設(shè)以確認(rèn)哪個(gè)假設(shè)最能站得住腳。這種方法值得贊賞，可以降低偶然結(jié)果的概率——研究人員搜索數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)尋找關(guān)聯(lián)變量時(shí)，總會(huì)出現(xiàn)這種偶然結(jié)果。（有這樣一次搜索就發(fā)現(xiàn)刺槐和聲調(diào)語(yǔ)言有聯(lián)系，但這種關(guān)聯(lián)難以解釋。）

The limitation is that the thing being tested （such as whether there is a distinct word for “blue”） must be quite simple， in order to compare widely varying languages. But the strength of this method is that it produces conclusions which， if you drop them into cocktail-party conversation， are more likely to be legitimate. Fun facts are only really so when they are， indeed， facts.

這種研究方式的局限在于，為了能比較相差懸殊的不同語(yǔ)言，檢驗(yàn)的項(xiàng)目（如是否有確切表示“藍(lán)色”的詞）必須非常簡(jiǎn)單。但這種方法的優(yōu)勢(shì)是，如果在雞尾酒會(huì)與人交談時(shí)提及，所得結(jié)論合理的可能性更高。趣事為真，方為有趣。

（譯者為“《英語(yǔ)世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎(jiǎng)?wù)?，單位：青島科技大學(xué)外國(guó)語(yǔ)學(xué)院）

1即指正文中的grue（綠藍(lán)色）。? 2梅勒于1973年在《瑪麗蓮》（Marilyn）一書中用fact加后綴-oid（像，類似于）構(gòu)成的派生詞，指“在雜志或報(bào)紙上出現(xiàn)之前不存在的事實(shí)，所造事實(shí)與其說(shuō)是謊言，不如說(shuō)是操縱沉默的大多數(shù)人情感的產(chǎn)物”（facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper， creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority）。? 3（1923—2007），美國(guó)小說(shuō)家，代表作有《劊子手之歌》（The Executioners Song）、《裸者與死者》（The Naked and the Dead）等。? 4北極地區(qū)土著人，Inuit是他們的自稱，義為“人類”。Eskimo為舊稱，義為“生食者”，現(xiàn)趨棄用。

5 paradigmatic典范的。? 6 fall apart破碎，瓦解。? 7 ejective（語(yǔ)音學(xué)）擠喉音。

8 break突變，中斷。? 9 teal = teal blue（鳧藍(lán)，綠光暗藍(lán)色）。? 10 continuum（相鄰兩者相似但起首與末尾截然不同的）連續(xù)體。? 11這兩位學(xué)者在《基本顏色詞語(yǔ)：普遍性與進(jìn)化論研究》（Basic Color Terms： Their Universality and Evolution， 1969）一書中，比較研究了近100種語(yǔ)言，概括出11種顏色詞語(yǔ)，按其包容關(guān)系依次為：黑（black）、白（white）、紅（red）、綠（green）、黃（yellow）、藍(lán)（blue）、棕（brown）、紫（purple）、橙（orange）、粉（pink）、灰（gray）。作者認(rèn)為，這11種基本顏色詞（basic color terms）普遍存在于各種語(yǔ)言中，這是由于人類的視覺(jué)生理系統(tǒng)對(duì)某些顏色特別敏感，促使感性范疇在語(yǔ)言中反映出來(lái)。這一基本顏色詞普遍性原則表明，不同語(yǔ)言交流中顏色詞的語(yǔ)義存在著對(duì)應(yīng)關(guān)系。? 12 schema （計(jì)劃或理論的）提要，綱要。

13由green和blue構(gòu)成的縮合詞。? 14諸位學(xué)者于2021年9月在英國(guó)《科學(xué)報(bào)告》（Scientific Reports， Volume 11）上刊文“環(huán)境和文化塑造顏色詞匯和色覺(jué)遺傳”（Environment and culture shape both the colour lexicon and the genetics of colour perception），對(duì)藍(lán)色詞的產(chǎn)生因素進(jìn)行了定量研究，認(rèn)為理解語(yǔ)言間的差異必須依靠各語(yǔ)言的文化、生物和物理環(huán)境體系（variation in languages can only be understood in the context of their cultural， biological， and physical environments）。? 15 proxy（測(cè)算用的）替代物，指標(biāo)。

16 hold up（論點(diǎn)、理論等）站得住腳，經(jīng)受得住檢驗(yàn)。