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A US-based language monitoring group crowned Web 2.0 as the one-millionth word or phrase in the English language yesterday, although other linguists slammed it as a stunt.
The Global Language Monitor, which uses a math formula to track the frequency of words and phrases in print and electronic media, said Web 2.0 appeared over 25,000 times in searches and was widely accepted, making it the legitimate, one-millionth word.
It said Web 2.0 started out as a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services but had crossed into far wider circulation in the last six months.
Other linguists, however, denounced the list as pure publicity and unscientific, saying it was impossible to count English words in use or to agree on how many times a word must be used before it is officially accepted.
"I think it's pure fraud ... It's not bad science. It's nonsense," Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told reporters.
Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, brushed off the criticism, saying his method was technically sound. "If you want to count the stars in the sky, you have to define what a star is first and then count. Our criteria is quite plain and if you follow those criteria you can count words. Most academics say what we are doing is very valuable," said Payack.
He has calculated that about 14.7 new English words or phrases are generated daily and said the five words leading up to the millionth highlighted how English was changing along with current social trends.
"Some 400 years after the death of the Bard, the words and phrases were coined far from Stratford-Upon-Avon, emerging instead from Silicon Valley, India, China, and Poland, as well as Australia, Canada, the US and the UK," said Payack.
Here are five other contenders:
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(Agencies)
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美國一家語言監測機構昨日認定Web2.0為英語中第100萬個詞匯，而一些語言學家認為這是在玩噱頭。
全球語言監測機構使用數學模式來監控印刷和電子媒體中詞匯的使用頻率。該機構稱， Web 2.0在搜索中出現超過兩萬五千次，并受到廣泛認可，這使它名副其實地成為英語中第100萬個詞匯。
該機構稱，Web 2.0最初是一個技術術語，意指下一代互聯網產品及服務，該詞匯在過去半年間迅速普及。
但有些語言學家抨擊這個詞匯表純屬炒作，也不符合科學。他們說，對使用中的英語單詞進行計數是不可能的，另外單詞在被使用多少次之后才被正式收錄也沒有統一的規則。
加州大學伯克利分校的語言學教授杰弗里?納恩博格在接受記者采訪時說：“這完全是無稽之談，并不是偽科學，而是毫無意義。”
全球語言監測機構主席鮑爾?JJ?佩雅克回應了這一批評，稱其統計方法在技術上是可行的。他說：“如果你想數清天上有多少顆星星，你先要搞清楚什么是星星，然后再開始數。我們的標準非常簡單，只要使用這些標準，你就能計算出詞匯量。大多數研究人員認為我們的方法非常有價值。”
據佩雅克計算，英語每天新增14.7個詞匯。他還表示，即將成為第100萬個單詞的五個新詞彰顯出英語如何“與時俱進”。
佩雅克說：“莎士比亞已經去世大約四百年了，如今的新詞不再只來自斯特拉福德鎮（譯者注：莎士比亞的故鄉），而是從硅谷、印度、中國、波蘭、澳大利亞、加拿大、美國以及英國各地涌現出來。
以下是另外五個新詞“競爭者”：
Jai Ho!：印度語中表示勝利和成功的驚嘆詞
slumdog：指生活在印度貧民窟的孩子
cloud computing：云計算，通過網絡發布服務信息。（采用云計算，企業可以通過網絡訪問在第三方服務器上托管的服務。）
carbon neutral：碳中立，氣候變化談判時經常使用的詞匯
N00b：意指游戲界新手，帶有貶義
相關閱讀
Slumdog、Jai Ho!獲選好萊塢年度詞匯
“毒債”獲選澳大利亞2008年度詞匯
“援助”、“改變”當選08年度熱詞
Subprime當選美國07年度詞匯
（英語點津 實習生許雅寧編輯）
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